He now had 22 GP. And it looked like the two soul space time achievements had a geometric progression. If his guess was correct, the next set of achievements would show up in 90 seconds when he had been in his soul space for 100 seconds. He thought about unlocking the template catalog, given he had enough GP now, but decided to keep looking at the store catalog. He didn't want to spend the points, then find he was only 10 away from being able to unlock something even better.
Unlock Snapshots
-Cost: 1000 GP
-Description: Take a point in time snapshot of the world around you. The snapshot contains all the information needed to reconstruct the portion of the world included in the snapshot. Snapshots may be examined, or used as the starting point for simulations.
This opened up a world of possibilities! He wondered what level of detail was included in a snapshot and at what resolution he could examine the resulting snapshot. Just imagine if he could take a snapshot of a Petri dish then zoom in and look inside a single bacterial cell. If this feature allowed him to examine a snapshot at the atomic level he could make breathtaking advances in biological science in a staggeringly short amount of time! His mind filled with endless possibilities, including the possibility of creating a universal vaccine or, an issue close to his heart, a universal cure for cancer.
[Achievement: Longest single Soul Space visit exceeded 100 seconds]
[Reward: 100 Genesis Points]
[Achievement: Total time spent in Soul Space exceeds 100 seconds]
[Reward: 100 Genesis Points]
His increasingly fantastical thoughts about potential scientific advancements, were interrupted by two new messages. The trend had continued with him receiving achievements for staying in his soul space for 100 seconds. The next achievements would almost certainly arrive in a 889 seconds when he had been in his soul space for nearly fifteen minutes. The next achievement after that would take about two and a half hours. He checked his status.
Energy Points (EP): 1/1000 :-: (0/sec [1/sec])
Genesis Points (GP): 222
Soul Space Cost: 1/sec
He had had enough GP to unlock Template Catalog and Time Acceleration. Once he unlocked those two features, he'd explore them while waiting for his 1000 second achievements to arrive, then he'd head home. He didn't like the idea of his body being unattended for two and a half hours in an unheated car at the end of a long dirt road.
[Template Catalog Unlocked]
[Time Acceleration Unlocked]
He checked his GP balance.
Genesis Points (GP): 112
With each unlock, he felt an addition to his interface. The first thing he looked at was the new Time Acceleration section.
Time Ratio: 1:1 (max 10:1)
Elapsed Time (Soul Space): 102 seconds
Elapsed Time (Outside): 102 seconds
He was please to see that the maximum ration was 10 to one. It wasn't mind blowing, but it was till useful. Gaining ten times more seconds per question on a test was huge. And even ten seconds to pause and think before responding to someone could be very helpful. It could just give more time to do whatever he wanted. He was also pleased to see the elapsed times. It would make it much easier for him to keep track of how much time had passed in the outside world.
When he tried to increase the time ratio, he found he could not. He only had one EP available, and no spare generation rate. His EP generation rate was rated in outside seconds, but his Soul Space Cost was in soul space seconds. So, if he increased his time ratio to 2:1, then his soul space would consume 2 EP per outside second. If he wanted to increase his time ratio, he would either need to leave his soul space and wait for EP to accumulate, or he would need to increase his EP/sec rate.
He figured he only needed to wait about fifteen minutes for his 1000 second achievements to land, and that would give him more than enough GP to unlock Snapshots. So, he figured he could spare a few GP to increase his EP rate and capacity and play with Time Acceleration.
[Energy Point Rate Increased: 1/sec -> 2/sec]
After spending one GP to increase his EP rate, he was pleased to see in his store catalog that the item updated.
Increase Energy Points Generation Rate: 3/sec
-Cost: 2 GP
-Description: Increase your Energy Points generation rate to 3/sec.
However, he noticed that the cost had increased from 1 GP to 2 GP. Wondering if the cost to increase his EP rate was the same number of GP as his current rate; he increased his rate again.
[Energy Point Rate Increased: 2/sec -> 3/sec]
Increase Energy Points Generation Rate: 4/sec
-Cost: 3 GP
-Description: Increase your Energy Points generation rate to 4/sec.
So, each EP rate increase would cost 1 GP more than the previous increase. That meant he would have to spend an additional 51 GP to get his EP rate up to 10/sec. He found it mildly annoying that he could not maintain nice round numbers in both EP and GP. Still, of the two he preferred round numbers in EP, so he spent the 51 GP to increase his EP rate to 10/sec.
[Energy Point Rate Increased: 3/sec -> 4/sec]
+++
[Energy Point Rate Increased: 9/sec -> 10/sec]
When he looked at the item again, it showed that the next increase would cost 10 GP. He checked his GP total.
Genesis Points (GP): 58
He had enough to also increase his EP capacity, so he did that once.
[Energy Point Capacity Increased: 1000 -> 2000]
When he checked the item however, he was pleasantly surprised.
Increase Energy Points storage capacity: 3000
-Cost: 1 GP
-Description: Increase your Energy Points storage capacity to 3000.
The cost to increase his EP capacity had remained one point. So, unlike EP rate, the GP cost to increase his EP capacity remained constant. Pleased, he increased his EP capacity to 10,000.
[Energy Point Capacity Increased: 2000 -> 3000]
+++
[Energy Point Capacity Increased: 9000 -> 10000]
He checked his status.
Energy Points (EP): 18/10000 :-: (9/sec [1/sec])
Genesis Points (GP): 49
Soul Space Cost: 1/sec
With 9/sec EP gen to spare, he checked the Time Acceleration section of his interface and found he could increase the acceleration rate, so he pushed all the way to 10:1. It didn't feel any different.
Energy Points (EP): 18/10000 :-: (0/sec [10/sec])
Genesis Points (GP): 49
Soul Space Cost: 10/sec
His status showed that his EP/sec soul space cost had increased to 10/sec, but there was no other indicator.
Time Ratio: 10:1 (max 10:1)
Elapsed Time (Soul Space): 104 seconds
Elapsed Time (Outside): 103 seconds
However, when he checked the Time Acceleration section of his interface, he could see that his Soul Space elapsed time was ticking faster than his outside elapsed time.
He wasn't certain if the soul space time achievements counted outside world time, or soul space time. But, he figured it would be ok to wait fifteen soul time minutes first. If nothing happened, he'd drop the acceleration back to 1:1 and wait another fifteen minutes.