Overpowered Wizard B3 Ch26: Comparison 2

Zarian invited Bianca over with a simple swivel of his hips, a graceful flutter of his cloak, and a flick of his lion’s tail. Then the statuesque, amber-haired, amber-eyed woman appeared through a darkened wrinkle in the air.

With a flashy smile, she wiped away the non-rankers’ fears and had them eating out of the palm of her hands.

“She’s going to be insufferable when she becomes a Master Ranker,” Zarian said.

“Any more insufferable than you?” Hannah quipped.

Zarian had to think about that. Para chuckled as she took over, splitting and shapeshifting into giant, leathery serpents with eyeless heads. A dozen of them slithered in all directions from Zarian’s back.

The non-rankers became afraid again. Who could blame them? Para’s giant serpentine bodies could swallow up half a dozen men in one bite.

She’d gotten better at that lately, becoming big and imposing. But she spoke gently enough to the non-rankers to instill that she had some sense of humanity.

Still, that was a hard pill to swallow.

Thankfully, Bianca helped soothe tensions and fears while Para interviewed non-rankers for their profile information. The parasite wiped the memories of everyone who overheard anything private and paid glittery gold coins and a few valuable trinkets to the ‘volunteers.’

As Para collected a consensus, Hannah studied the way Para used aura.

By this point, Zarian and Hannah had contacted the others enough via the spider network to figure out what sort of Level 0 skills they would like to combine with others in their profiles.

Hannah wanted to copy some skills directly. Zarian did his best to guide her to ensure she didn’t hurt people needlessly.

Zarian could copy stuff without breaking a sweat now.

Ironically, there weren’t any skills he wanted from the camp. He already had four Level 0s he could merge using one of his two skill combiners.

As for the last skill combiner, Zarian wanted to take a bigger risk.

“I think I might combine High Rune Mindframe +3 with Summon Wizard Hat +3,” Zarian said as he observed Hannah accomplish her first skill copy for herself.

She was a little … rough. Zarian made it rain gold coins on the guy she’d taken Level 0 Enhanced Focus from. The poor man had only shedded a few tears while convulsing on the floor during the process.

“Sorry,” Hannah muttered to the hardy-looking man.

He had more weight and size on Hannah, who was still five-foot flat. But that didn’t matter against her masterful power. If only she came with a softer touch.

Turning to Zarian, she tapped her finger on her bottom lip. “Wizard hat with your mindframe, huh? That’s going to come out interesting.”

“What are you building?” he asked.

“I’m thinking Enchantment +3, Rune Alteration +3, and Rune Scan +3 for one skill combiner. Then Level 0 Tranquil Mind, Level 0 Summon Wizard Hat, Level 0 Enhanced Focus, and Level 0 High Rune Mind Frame … before you merge it.”

“Damn, I thought I was bold,” Zarian said. “You sure you want to do away with all of those?”

Hannah nodded. “For the first skill combiner, I took the idea from one of the mythical classes I passed over. For the second skill combiner, I reason I’ll get something amazing if I put together the sort of skill combination that’ll lend me more power to my mind and aura.”

“We’re practically doing the same thing, you and I,” Zarian said. “But for different specialities.”

“Speaking of specialities, have you checked your rank?”

“Yeah, I have.”

Zarian sent his rank via spider network. He didn’t mind talking about skills in front of the non-rankers. Para could wipe their memories of private conversations lickety split.

But the rank stuff felt more particular and dangerous.

It came with a new section in his profile that read like this:

Rank: Master (4,925nd Mage)

Hannah had the same section in her profile. But hers came out a little different:

Rank: Master (4,108th Crafter)

That was it. There was no more information to be found. Zarian and Hannah communicated their theories via the spider network and came to a reasonable conclusion.

They were being ranked for broad specialities against other masters. 

Zarian checked with Naomi for her rank via the spider network. He and Hannah traded theirs in return as Naomi told them hers.

Rank: Master (13,892th Fighter)

Furrowing his brow, Zarian flicked his tail quickly in intense thought. There was no way there were that many Master Rankers on Corma.

Who are we being ranked against? And how do the rankings work? What do the rankings do?

Zarian assumed they would find out eventually.

Once they finished getting what they wanted, Zarian went back to camp with Hannah and Bianca. Para built them a decent adventurer model to go by.

By Level 50, most adventurers from the Windy Strider Kingdom would be anywhere between thirty to fifty years old, depending on how fast or slow they gained experience. Most were older in age at that level and would either retire by this point or die off.

Adventurers like the Level 70 Storm Blaster Dawson or Level 75 Blessed Cleric were indeed very rare.

Also, by Level 50, most adventurers had uncommon classes, but a solid chunk of them would have a rare quality class. The rare classes would have three uncommon traits with one rare trait, around three to four alpha skills, and four to five achievements, mostly uncommon. A majority within the rare quality demographic were warrior-types or fighters, so their stats averaged to something like this:

Willpower: 65

Strength: 125

Agility: 100

Wonder: 65

Mysticism: 45

Total Stats: 400

Para had accounted for personal growth with this model, too. This was the reality of most grizzled and veteran adventurers in Corma, especially humans of this Lesser World.

They were small in the grand scale of things.

Zarian found the cold, hard numbers sobering even though he knew this was the case from experience alone. But seeing the plain stats demystified how much the Floridians had grown in one year.

Gilbert and Bianca were still non-rankers, yet they were giants compared to other adventurers, which was accurate in more ways than height.

With those curiosities fulfilled, Zarian went about doing something thoughtful before the Floridians locked into intense theorizing and meta-gaming.

He asked Foodie if she would be okay with sharing some food with the adventurers.

His daughter didn’t want to share her mythical cooking. She didn’t like how weak the adventurers were. To her, they weren’t deserving.

Zarian felt the ghost of a migraine. He could understand why Gilbert felt concerned about their egos becoming too big.

Then Zarian had to remind himself that Foodie had slain and eaten adventurers before. That came with the attitude to match.

Zarian did his best to be a father, making it up as he went. “I know you don’t have to. You really don’t have to. But it would be nice to see these men and women fed.”

With a deep breath, he dug deep, touching on something he would like to leave behind in his past. “I know what it’s like to be weak and hungry. Hell, if it wasn’t for my ultra bloodline, I would’ve been chopped up and eaten by you, most likely. Or … I wouldn’t be here. I would’ve died in a ditch somewhere. Still, going hungry sucks.”

Foodie’s ears lowered. She pouted at the courtyard floor. “Yes … I would’ve eaten you if you were that weak.”

“Well, you’re not back in Grimrock anymore. You’re out here in the wider world. You can go exploring, too. And if you do, you’ll realize that not all of your problems should be solved by killing people and making them into stew.”

“Yes, you are right.”

“And if you take it a step further, you might find it nice to act kindly to people. How about we do a practice run with these guys, huh?”

Somehow, that worked. He convinced Foodie to share.

By the time night rolled around, all the adventurers had something small but filling to eat. It was Foodie’s cooking at its lowest quality, but she’d given it enough magic for it to push aside hunger for multiple days.

“That was good of you,” Gilbert said while sitting next to a campfire. “The real good. Not the fake good.”

Zarian was standing while looking up at the night sky. “I was being a jerk earlier, so I owe it to them.”

“How so?”

“I kept looking at them as lesser people, as if they were things.”

Gilbert took a deep breath before letting out a huff. “Yeah, well, that’s how it is with power, right? It’ll get to all of us from time to time. But no matter how powerful you think you are, you aren’t really the one who sits at the top. And you aren’t some perfect thing without faults. We’re all lesser in some way. Just gotta keep that in mind as we meet people who aren’t as fortunate as us.”

Zarian nodded. “You got a point.”

“I hope I do. I don’t want to lead you astray, Young Simba.”

“Shut up.”

Three days later, the Floridians said their farewells to their precious goblin princess.

Foodie was taking her father’s advice. She was going out to explore the world while making her way to Ride-or-Die Village. Of course, she wouldn’t head out alone.

Loner the skeleton expert, Slip the Sleipnir, four thousand advanced and sufficient skeletons, ten thousand spectral spiders, and seven dozen various golems went with her.

Of those golems, eighteen were Hannah’s personal death-shooting orbital golems. Another twelve golems were experimental projects she recently crafted.

Mobile mid-range artillery crawlers.

Basically … smart spider tanks.

Each one had little compartments for spectral spiders to work in and add their own brand of magic. So they were rideable smart spider tanks.

Unfortunately, their main gun had limited ammunition once those ran out. Hannah hadn’t found a way for the smart spider tanks to construct their own ammunition while away from her.

So each smart spider tank had a rechargeable beam shooter as a side weapon.

Foodie also had new gear, which included a legendary cleaver that was nearly as high in quality as the lowest mythical item.

She also had their spare Spatial Satchel for storage. She had the Scroll of Godly Banishment (Legendary), the Scroll of Mountainous Castle Fusion (Legendary), the Scroll of Death Blight (Legendary), the Scroll of the Hell Orc Pack Summon (Legendary), the Scroll of Horrific Battlefield Mayhem (Legendary), the Scroll of Friendship Revival (Epic), the Scroll of Evil Disruption (Legendary), the Scroll of Intense Gravity Field (legendary), a Good Suppression Orb (Divine), and the Lesser Star Shard Flask (Legendary).

Naomi even handed over her Divine Revival Charm. Added to the goblin’s soul, the divine item would grant Foodie one revive a week and weaken death magic.

Naomi didn’t need the charm anymore, and Zarian kept his charm in his soul just in case.

After the bestest hug ever between father and daughter, Zarian patted his daughter on the head before he watched her head off as the leader of her own adventurer army.

Just like any female of his messed up ultra god family, Princess Cook Foodie Darkrun had to learn to wield her power at an early age. She seemed both thrilled and afraid to head off on her own, but Zarian trusted she would be alright.

She was a Darkrun now.

At the very least, her first stop was at Crossdeath City. There, she could find Lord Hoodah the Hulk Meister for her first foray into politics.

Maybe she could convince the troll and his legion to join her march to the Mythical Wolf Dragon Regional Event.

Watch over her, okay? Zarian thought as he rubbed his fingers over his marriage ring.

Flickering into his vision, a pair of dark and full lips curled into a smirk. Then they disappeared from his mind’s eye like smoke.

Zarian nodded before looking up and calling out to another godly figure. “If you’re listening to this, Ruvaria, my daughter is on her way. I know you’re busy right now, but please keep an extra eye out for her.”

He didn’t expect a response. But Ruvaria remained the best teacher he ever had for a reason.

“I gladly will,” Ruvaria said from the air above.

She made no appearance, but Zarian felt some trace of subtle magic coming from her. One of these days, he was going to learn how she observed things from across massive continental distances.

“Ready to go?” Naomi asked.

He turned to look at her. She was dressed pretty spiffy in the new adventure gear Hannah had designed to hug the cultivator’s dynamic body like a bodysuit while colored black and dark red. As per her style, Naomi’s hands and feet remained bare.

Zarian had on a pair of shadowy leggings and boots. His torso and arms remained bare.

Their new gear was more powerful. More impervious to damage and mundane inconveniences. Still legendary quality, but very close to base mythical.

Zarian inhaled deeply before letting out a long breath.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Zarian and Naomi went north-north east toward a specific area called Harrowing Mist Isles. Hannah, Gilbert, and Bianca took the Vulture Adventurer Guild east to cross the Stone Sea River.

The Floridians were splitting up with the promise to meet back up at the Windy Strider Kingdom. It was near there that the entrance to the Forgotten Dungeon Kingdom awaited.

For now, Zarian and Naomi went on a side excursion for themselves.

Other than the Cold Booth Castle Mountains, the Harrowing Mist Isles was the only place on the Walled Continent with a massive population of monsters above Level 100. It was an unexplored region because it was both dangerous and uncivilized, making the Harrowing Mist Isles the nightmare of ninety-nine percent of human adventurers across Corma.

It was a place to be avoided. Yet, Zarian and Naomi flew straight toward it. The two Marines, a wizard and a cultivator, were both lusting for some high-level action and to test their mettle.