Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Thaden stood along the railing around the rear of the ship, looking down at the water that passed underneath the vessel as the river gradually curved in a northeasterly direction.  Unlike what he’d experienced when he first encountered the waterway, the only living things inside the water were normal-looking fish that wouldn’t have looked out of place in any river on Earth.  Any sign of the monsters that had inhabited the forested area was completely gone, and the riverbed was only a couple of dozen feet deep, instead of the deep crevice that the Tentacled Stranglers of the Depths inhabited. 

In other words, it was relatively peaceful.

“I still can’t believe that worked.”

He smiled at the comment in his mind as he nodded lightly in acknowledgment.  He had to admit to himself that he’d had some doubts going into the whole act with the Strangler under his control tossing him around like a pool toy, as he wasn’t sure if it was “real” enough with the fact that his Physicality was high enough not to be hurt by the slaps against the water’s surface, but all of those doubts fell away as soon as he was picked up and dumped onto the deck of the ship. 

Whether it was his recent increase in Mentality, or perhaps some instinct that stemmed from his higher Personality stat, but when he’d seen – at a distance – the ship heading upriver, he intuitively knew that running wasn’t an option.  Theoretically, he could’ve avoided any type of confrontation by having his tentacled minions deposit him on the side of the river, where he could disappear into the forest, but he almost immediately discarded that idea.  He could keep fleeing, heedless of any specific objective other than to put some more space in between him and any potential pursuers, but that wasn’t what he wanted nor needed at the moment.  Instead, his current limitations and his original objective with the Adventurer’s Coalition came back to him at that point, which allowed him to recognize an opportunity when he saw it.

The heady feeling of taking control of so many monsters and going on a killing spree down the river had temporarily blinded him somewhat to the restrictions he was working under.  While his spells had thankfully worked against the Stranglers, he knew that he couldn’t always rely on that kind of situation to turn in his favor if he was to visit another dungeon – by himself this time.  He still remembered how helpless he had felt against the Gremklin Detonator in that dungeon he’d cleared with his Netherine Party; while he might be able to take control of a dungeon’s Boss now, that didn’t necessarily mean that he could actually clear a dungeon.  From his experience, the dungeon’s exit was typically inaccessible until the Boss was killed, and taking control of it didn’t count – because it was still alive and could be released from control at any time.  And he couldn’t think of any way for it to “off” itself, as that wasn’t something that was possible with his current spells, so he would essentially be stuck with controlling a Boss that couldn’t die – unless he got lucky and had some other controlled monsters that could actually do damage to it.  Based on the Gremklin dungeon, though, he wasn’t willing to risk himself if that didn’t turn out to be the case. 

So, instead of running around and trying to do everything by himself, Thaden needed a Party to kill the monsters that he couldn’t.  It was a significant change from how he’d operated on Tarth, where it was more of a hindrance than a help to be in a Party, as he could pretty much kill anything he came across by himself.  New world, new rules, and a new method of attack.

That, of course, didn’t mean that he couldn’t go back to his old style of killing monsters once he was powerful enough, but as far as he was concerned, that was a long way off.  That meant, as much as it wasn’t the ideal situation, he was going to have to rely on others to get what he wanted – which was why he didn’t run away when he saw the ship.

Instead, he decided to use them as a stepping stone that would bring him in contact with those that could help him.  Fortunately, he was confident enough in his Personality to get him through the introductions, as he’d had personal experience with how a high Personality stat tended to naturally—and positively—influence those around him.  It didn’t necessarily change their mind about him, but it made believing his words a little easier, making him seem a bit more trustworthy than he otherwise would be.  Originally, he was going to pretend that he’d just been unlucky and had been snatched up by one of the Stranglers, but once he was “saved” from the river and brought aboard, he changed his mind extremely quickly. 

Why?

Because one of the Adventurers on the ship, whom he assumed was a member of a Party that helped to protect the vessel from the monsters in the water, cast a spell on him that immediately put his hackles up.  His Psychic Resiliency Competency, which was relatively high, had flared-up and put him on his guard as he felt something trying to affect his mind.  It was at that point, as he psychically fought what was being done to him, that he quickly accessed his Competency Advancements and made some selections that would help him.  He hadn’t been sure what exactly the spell the one named Geordynn was doing to him, but he really didn’t like anyone trying to affect his thoughts or attempting to mind-control him.

That was his domain, after all.

Please select (5) Advancements for your Psychic Resiliency Competency:

Hardened Heart – All psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you are reduced in effectiveness by a further 50%

Tethered Tease – All psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you are reflected toward the psychic user at 50% strength

Psychic Edging – The longer that all psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you are active, the less effective they will be at a rate of 1% every second

Emotional Baggage – All psychic abilities and effects successfully influencing you will also increase your Mentality by 1% of base Mentality every 30 seconds to a limit of 100%, lasting for up to 3 minutes after said psychic abilities and effects are deactivated

Polyamory – All psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you are also shared with all targets within 30 feet of your location

Forced Abstinence – All psychic abilities and effects upon you are completely nullified, including those that originate from you

Size Matters – Psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you from sources 50 Levels or above your own are completely nullified; psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you from sources 50 Levels or below your own are tripled in effectiveness

Missed Connection – All psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you have a chance based on Fortuity/2,000 to make you permanently immune to identical psychic abilities and effects used upon you in the future; this chance is evaluated every 10 seconds while the psychic ability or effect is active

Euphoric Auras – All auras you activate have an additional component of euphoric bliss, blunting the effectiveness of psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence every target within that aura’s range, immediately reducing the impact of psychic abilities and effects by 30%, while also gradually reducing its severity by 69%

Even as he mentally cursed himself for not doing it earlier, he quickly selected Hardened Heart, which reduced the effectiveness of anything trying to influence him by 50%, which had an immediate effect on what was being done to him.  It didn’t get rid of it entirely, especially as he felt the spell worming its way into his mind as it attempted to put him at ease, as well as inserting some stray thoughts that he was surrounded by good friends that wanted only the best for him.  Underlying it all was a sense that he should be completely honest with these friends, as they needed all of the information he could provide in order to help him – which he pulled away from instinctively, as he knew it was all false.  Still he couldn’t help but think that it would try to continue influencing him, so he slightly panicked and picked the Size Matters Advancement, as he figured these Adventurers were at least 50 Levels higher than him, which would entirely nullify what was being done to him.  He couldn’t see their Levels, as they came up as only “???”s, but they certainly felt strong.

It turned out that he was incorrect, because taking that didn’t do anything to stop the spell; instead, he now had an Advancement that was great against high-Level targets trying to influence him, but could be an issue once he was a higher Level.  Still, he couldn’t take it back, so he would have to live with it. 

Next, he took Psychic Edging, as it was the only other one that would further reduce the effectiveness of any psychic effects influencing him, though it would take a little bit to ramp up in potency at a 1% reduction every second.  Thankfully, he wasn’t too concerned with what was being done to him at the moment, as it didn’t seem like they were trying to mind-control him, otherwise he might have taken Forced Abstinence; he was glad he didn’t, though, because while his Spiritual spells focused on the spirits of his targets, they had a psychic component to them that would’ve been nullified entirely if he had selected that Advancement.  He wasn’t sure they would even work at that point.

He also didn’t take Euphoric Auras for that same reason, as it would reduce all psychic abilities and effects within range of any of his aura spells, and he intuitively knew that it would reduce the effectiveness of his own spiritual spells that would try and control his minions – and he couldn’t have that. 

That didn’t leave a lot to choose from for his last 2 selections, but he quickly dismissed Polyamory because he didn’t want to give away that he was sharing what was being done to him with everyone within 30 feet of him.  He also got ride of Tethered Tease for a similar reason, as he didn’t want to antagonize the Adventurers by reflecting the spell upon them.

That basically only left Emotional Baggage, which would gradually increase his Mentality the longer the psychic effects were on him, and Missed Connection, which had a very small chance to make him permanently immune to identical psychic spells or effects in the future.

By the time he was starting to answer questions, he felt the majority of the effects of the spell used on him disappear – but he knew that he couldn’t simply lie his butt off to these Adventurers.  For all he knew, they had some way to detect lies as well as making him tell the truth, so he kept his explanations relatively truthful, though he didn’t reveal much in the end.  As he had hoped, his high Personality stat had been enough to convince them to trust him, which he was fairly certain was aided by the fact that he hadn’t told any lies – he had just left a lot out and hadn’t explained a few things with further context.  If he was going to be joining more Adventurer Parties in the future, it would’ve been stupid to hide that he could control monsters, so he didn’t think lying about that ability would be beneficial; he simply made it not see quite as powerful as it really was.

Thankfully, they didn’t drill any deeper into his answers, as they seemed to accept what he’d told him with a minimum of suspicion.  In fact, it had worked out so well for him that he began to become suspicious, as it felt almost too easy to convince these Adventurers that he was telling the complete and utter truth.  Still, he wasn’t going to complain if it happened that he was brought somewhere without having to walk all that way, and he thought that going to a big city was the perfect place for him to blend in a little and find a Party in which to grow.  He glanced at the Party of Adventurers at the front of the ship, staring down into the water for any threats, and briefly considered wondered what it would be like to join a group like theirs, but he shook his head. 

From what little he’d overheard, it seemed like they were pretty much stuck doing this protection run because they were used to it and didn’t have any ambition to do anything else – which was quite contrary to what Thaden wanted.  He wanted to get stronger so that he could venture out from the area he was in, find Corinna, and—

The thought of Corinna made him pause in his thinking, as he brought something to the surface that he’d been trying to ignore up to this point. 

“Sadia?  Is Corinna even still alive?” he asked in a soft murmur, just barely audible to his own ears.  “If those from the Local Legion were telling the truth, then the people from Earth came here over 200 years ago.”

“Yes, and?  Oh, do you mean, ‘Did she die from old age?’  Then no, it’s not likely.  While people don’t exactly stop aging once they reach a certain Level and Physicality stat, bodily deterioration due to age slows down considerably, letting most people who have passed those thresholds to live for potentially thousands of years.  Of course, this threshold is different between races, and while I don’t have any specific information on a Human’s threshold, it’s most likely that most—if not all—of the Contenders from Tarth had already passed it.

“So, if you’re wondering if she died as an old woman, that’s a very, very small possibility.  Now, if you’re asking if she managed to survive all of the violence and danger that fighting on the Front Line presents, that’s an entirely different question.”

He nodded, thankful that she didn’t sugarcoat her answer.  He was happy to hear that she didn’t die over a century before because of old age, but having to fight monsters on the daily for centuries was a different matter.  It was entirely possible that she had been killed in a dungeon somewhere, or by an attack by some extremely high-Level monster, and he wouldn’t even know.  Then again, he felt it within his chest that she was still alive, even if he didn’t really have any proof of that being correct.

To take his mind off Corinna, Thaden turned back to the rest of his Advancements, as he didn’t want to run into another situation where he wished he’d pick them beforehand.  First, he revisited his Defensive Spellcasting Competency, and with his new understanding of what he needed to do to get stronger, he wavered back-and-forth between selecting Self-service Protection.  Now that he had the understanding that he’d be working more with Parties to become stronger instead of going it alone, the 66% increase in Mana cost for spells targeting his allies was a real concern.  At the same time, with his recent Level and stat increases, he could afford the higher Mana cost, as a 66% increase of 15% of his Mana pool would only bump that up to about 25% -- so it was possible that he could still maintain his controlling spells even with the changes.

The ultimate consideration he had to think about was if this would benefit him in the short term – because that was what he was concerned about the most.  Even with his increased Mentality and Mana pool, there would only be a handful of his older spells that he could cast with the 66% decrease in Mana cost, with the rest needing to wait until he had thousands more Mana that he had currently had access to.  At that point, once he actually had that much Mana, he figured he’d probably have access to some equipment that would help decrease his Mana costs, as well, so it might as well be a moot point having the Advancement in the first place. 

With all of these considerations going through his head, he reluctantly crossed Self-service Protection off the list.  Currently, it wouldn’t really benefit him, while it would make some of his other spells harder to use, so it wasn’t worth it – despite how incredible it was. 

In the end, with that off the table, his 8 selections were much easier decide upon.

Hardest Protection – All Defensive spells now protect from sources 30 Levels higher than before

Thickest Protection – All Defensive spells now prevent 300% more damage

Faster Protection – All Defensive spells now have a 50% permanent casting time decrease

Double Team – At the cost of double the per-second Mana cost for each spell, (2) channeled spells can be cast simultaneously

The Hardest Protection and Thickest Protection Advancements were each 3 Advancement selections, leaving him with 2 more to use on Faster Protection – as some of the defensive spells had lengthy cast times – and Double Team.  The latter Advancement was the most important of the ones he selected, because he could use it now; at double the per-second Mana cost (which was practically nothing to him), he could now use 2 Lesser Enthrall spells simultaneously – or even Lesser Enthrall and his newest channeled spell, Lesser Willful Concealment.

Lesser Willful Concealment (Channeled): Match your spiritual will against all hostile targets within range to conceal the physical, mental, and spiritual presence of caster and caster’s nearby controlled targets; concealment success is evaluated on an individual target basis instead of as a whole; any physical contact will break concealment.

Spiritual Will Concealment Success Rate: (20% per 2 Personality and 2 Mentality)/target Level

Range: 180 feet

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 5 Mana per second (while channeled)

Once his Defensive Spellcasting Competency Advancements were selected, there was only one more Competency to look through: Emboldened Leadership. 

Please select (5) Advancements for your Emboldened Leadership Competency:

Rubbing Off – In addition to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses, each member of your party also receives an equal amount of additional Personality

Lucky in Love – In addition to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses, each member of your party also receives an equal amount of additional Fortuity

Visible Charisma – All allies and targets within 90 feet of you are aware of your prowess, which is visible as an aural glow; as a result, they are emboldened by your greatness, increasing their Perceived Level by 30% of their base Level

Groupies – The more allies in your party, the higher their Perceived Level, up to a total of 60% of their base Level, while their temporary bonuses in Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality are reduced by an equal amount

Indecent Proposal – All allies within your party can choose to have their temporary Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses converted into Perceived Level, and vice versa, every 3 hours

Compatible Chemistry – The longer you stay in a party, the more they begin to mirror your greatness, increasing their Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses by 5% per hour up to a limit of 100%

Perfectly Paired Posse – If the number of living party members in your party, including yourself, total an even number, their Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses are increased by 66%; if the total number of living party members in your party is odd, their Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses are reduced by 66%

Aural Authority – Whenever a single-target spell is used on a party member, excluding yourself, there is a chance based on Fortuity/800 that the target will be have their highest stat doubled for 60 seconds, while the rest of their stats are reduced by 30%

Silent Voyeur – You may choose not to bestow a Perceived Level upon your Party members; if you choose to do this, they will not receive any bonuses to their stats

Exhibitionist – The higher the number of hostile targets within 270 feet, the higher the Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses, as well as additional Perceived Level, your party members will receive; while these bonuses and the additional Perceived Level start at 20% for the first hostile target and scale up by 30% with each additional target, these bonuses only affect those who are wearing or holding any equipment that do not provide bonuses to stats or grants any effects or abilities; in addition, all of these bonuses are negated if you are wearing or holding any equipment that provides bonuses to stats or grants any effects or abilities

The Emboldened Leadership Competency was originally granted to him as a reward for an Achievement, and what it did was grant his Party members a temporary increase in their Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality stats depending on his Competency Level.  What it also did was increase the “Perceived Level” of his allies, which affected dungeon access and rewards when killing monsters.  From previous experience in various Parties and Raid Parties on Tarth, these things only took effect if Thaden was the leader of the Party; the exception to that was the Visible Charisma Advancement, which automatically bestowed the Perceived Level on everything within 90 feet – including monsters.  He’d chosen Visible Charisma before on Tarth because he wanted the monsters he fought to be considered a much higher Level than they were, as he’d wanted to maximize his rewards…

…but that wasn’t his plan this time.  Instead, he would rather avoid any attention that a Perceived Level might engender among his Party members – which made the Silent Voyeur Advancement very attractive.  With it, he could choose not to have a Perceived Level granted to his Party members, but it would also take away any stat bonuses that they would normally be granted; in effect, he’d essentially turn off the Competency altogether.  Once he was stronger and could afford the attention, he could then turn it back on, so it was a no-brainer to choose it as one of his selections.

With 4 more selections, he went with Rubbing Off and Lucky in Love (so that his Party members could have bonuses to Personality and Fortuity as well as Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality), Indecent Proposal (so that his Party members could convert their bonuses and Perceived Level into each other), and Compatible Chemistry (so that his Party members would be even stronger the longer they were with him).  All of the other choices were dependent upon certain situations, and Thaden thought it was a better idea to have clear bonuses without having to worry about the number of people in his Party or the number of monsters they were fighting.  Over time, he expected to Level the Emboldened Leadership Competency up a bit, unlocking more Advancement selections, so if there was anything he couldn’t live without, he would pick it up later; that went for all of his Competencies, as he was sure to increase their Levels enough to be granted plenty of Advancement selections.

A hand landing on his shoulder startled him, and he turned slightly once he was sure his heart wasn’t going to burst out of his chest, seeing one of the Adventurers.

Garney – {Densartis Faction}

Porcerean

Level ???

The pig-like features of the Support Adventurer filled his vision, and he saw the filed tusks sticking out of the Porcerean’s mouth.  When he’d first seen them, as Demarco – their Fighter Class – picked him up out of the river and brought him onto the ship, he had immediately thought, “Orcs!” based on their appearance.  However, unlike the staple fantasy-style Orcs he knew from movies, games, and books, the Porcereans had more in common with Humans; take away their boar-like faces and three fingers and they were almost impossible to distinguish from a Human, especially from behind.  They had full heads of hair in various brown and black shades, and while it was more coarse than his own, from a distance it didn’t appear too much different.

“Sorry; you were so lost in thought that I didn’t think you heard me the first time,” Garney said after a few seconds. 

Thaden waved off the apology.  “No worries.  What did you need?”

“Nothing much,” the Adventurer replied with a smile.  “Only that we’ve arrived.”  The Porcerean gestured behind him.

“What?  Already?  But it’s only been a few hours—”

Thaden turned around, and for the first time since he’d arrived on Plangea, his breath was taken away at the sheer scale of the city spread out ahead of them.