Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Thaden seemed to have gotten away from the town of Purbooth without the members of the Local Legion stopping him, but he wasn’t going to let his temporary success get to his head.

“When they find that you’ve left, it’s more than likely that they’re going to come after you.  I would suggest putting as much distance between you as possible.”

Obviously, he agreed, as he didn’t want to risk them finding him and questioning him again about his origins.  He was lucky to have escaped their attention once, but he wasn’t going to rely on that happening again.  At least, not until he could actually defend himself; once he had regained the ability to cast most, if not all, of his existing Celestial-strength spells, there wasn’t much that anyone could do to him – as far as he knew.  Based on his experience thus far, it was going to be a while until that happened, however.

Once Thaden was about a mile away from the town, jogging to cover some ground but also conserving his strength instead of running flat-out, Sadia emerged from the CAMP and bounded along by his side. 

“Until we get some distance, I would advise staying away from any populated areas,” she told him.  “Which means abandoning the road and cutting across the countryside.  In addition, if they are going to try and follow you, you’re going to need to find a way to cover your tracks.” 

Logically, that made sense, but despite spending the majority of his time on Tarth – and even in Felith – out-of-doors, he was no expert in tracking or camouflaging his movements.  His overwhelming power had normally been enough to protect him, so he hadn’t really spent any time learning such things.  He glanced back at the dirt road that they were currently traveling down, and while he’d already professed no expertise in his tracking ability, he could clearly see the footprints he was leaving behind. 

The area around the road was filled with long grasses and bare dirt, with a few scattered hills dotting the landscape.  He was fairly sure that if he took a detour away from the road, his tracks would be even more obvious to those who were looking for such things.  In the far distance, where the road appeared to lead, there was the beginnings of a forested area, which he thought he might have a better chance to provide a way to leave the road without shouting to anyone looking that he had passed through the area.

It only took about half an hour before they began to pass through the first few trees marking the edge of the forest, and it was only a few more minutes before he came to a stop.  “Does this look like a good place to leave the road?” he asked, looking around.  While there were some forest debris on the ground, it appeared as if he might be able to navigate his way through it without leaving too many tracks. 

Sadia had a different opinion.

“Probably, but I remember how you moved through forest on Tarth; you were like a dog with the zoomies, rushing through everything without a care about what you ran into.  You’re going to have to learn how to navigate your way through the brush without breaking every other bush, overturning rocks, or scuffing the bark off of exposed roots—”

“I have a better idea,” he said, interrupting her as he looked intently at his companion, as well as at the tracks that she left behind her – or more specifically, the very faint traces of her passage.  “I don’t have the time nor the inclination to learn any of that stuff – but it looks like you already instinctively know what you’re doing.  So, how about I hitch a ride on your back and—”

“Absolutely not – you’re too heavy!” she immediately said as she cut him off. 

Thaden smirked at that.  “Are you calling me fat?”

“Yes.  More accurately, this form isn’t exactly made for transporting anyone on my back.”

It seemed like there was a simple solution for that.  “Well then, what do you suggest for a form?”

A few minutes later, Thaden was uncomfortably holding onto the neck fur under his fingers as he did his best to stay on the back of a large silver wolf.  It was hard to get used to, as Sadia tended to move in unexpected ways as she sped through the forest, and it was all he could do to squeeze his legs together and hope not to fall off.

“For the record, you’re still entirely too heavy, but at least you’re not breaking my back like you would if I was still a squirrel,” she grumbled, and Thaden smiled.  He was actually somewhat surprised she had agreed to carry him, as it wasn’t something that she would’ve done on Tarth; for one, he hadn’t really needed the assistance, and two, he wasn’t even sure if she was capable of it back then.  Something about her new existence in the Condensed Adaptable Mimicry Plate had given her a physical permanence that she hadn’t had before.

“I appreciate you helping to carry my fat a—”

“Shh.  We have company.”

Sadia abruptly came to a stop in between two trees, and it was only luck that he was able to hold on instead of being flung over her head.  Rather than complain, once he recovered from the abrupt stop, Thaden hunched down along the length of her back and looked around for whatever she thought she had noticed.  He didn’t have too long to wait before what she had apparently sensed crashed through the bushes ahead of them.

A dozen overly large beavers surged toward him in a wave, each of them a deep brown color with streaks of dark-green markings along their backs.  He estimated that they were each the size of a labrador retriever, and their incisors were at least 6 inches long and pointed with sharp-looking tips; the claws on their pancake-sized paws were tearing up the forest floor as they crossed the distance.

Forest Beaver – Minimal

Level 6

Thaden didn’t panic, fortunately, and immediately instant-cast Weak Enthrall with it focused on a wide-area effect.  Even though they were 3 Levels higher than his own highest Class Level, all 12 of the Beavers immediately froze as they fell under his spell and, therefore, his control.   

“Wow, that’s… cheating.  You know that, right?” Sadia said as soon a she saw that the immediate danger had passed.

Thaden shrugged.  “Yep, I know.  Unfortunately, I can’t really do much with them other than use them as meat shields or as targets to siphon Health from to heal.  I’d have to use something like Celestial Dominate Spirit in order to have them deal damage.  Or even Celestial Befriend Spirit, which I haven’t tried yet because I was worried that if it didn’t work, I would be unable to harm them later.”

“And you can’t cast those without a lengthy casting time, right?  If I remember correctly, you originally used your Spiritual Guardians to protect yourself while you cast it, didn’t you?”

“That’s right.  I could do that again, I suppose….”

“Why?”

Thaden was confused about what she was asking.  “Why what?”

“Why are you making things harder than they should be?” she asked, and while he couldn’t see her face, her tone revealed her exasperation.

“What do you mean?”  He generally had no idea what she was talking about.

She huffed, which sounded funny coming from a large silver wolf.  “You do know that any target that you Enthrall is under your control, right?”

“Uh, yes?”

She continued after his response.  “And therefore their spiritual will is suppressed, meaning that they can’t participate in another battle of spiritual wills?”

“I guess?”  He still wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

“You do know that a target can have more than one Spiritual spell on them simultaneously, don’t you?”

Suddenly, he understood what she was trying to tell him.  “Holy crap.  Can I be that stupid?”

 “You said it, not I,” she responded smugly, but Thaden ignored her as he began casting something that he hadn’t tried before: Celestial Befriend Spirit.  The spell was designed to control a target that was essentially like a private defender, but the difference between that spell and his others was that the target could actually attack hostile enemies in defense of Thaden.  The major caveat was that it couldn’t attack its own kind, though it could still act as a meat shield; that meant that if he was able to “befriend” one of the Beavers, they wouldn’t be able to attack another Beaver, but anything else was fair game.  As he’d mentioned to Sadia, the reason he hadn’t used it before was because if he failed the battle of spiritual will with a target, then that target would have all future spells and damage done to it by him or his allies completely negated, making it nearly impossible to kill. 

But with the Beavers currently under his control via his Weak Enthrall spell, at least from what Sadia was implying, they couldn’t fight his Befriend Spirit spell at all.

A relatively short time later, his spell had completed its cast, and he felt its effects fall over every Beaver that he’d targeted with the wide-area effect.  He had been slightly worried that it wouldn’t work for all of them, as one of the notes on the spell’s description had been that he could only have one friendly bond at a time, but apparently he had gotten around that restriction once again because of his cheat-like Fortunate Catastrophe bonus trait allowing him to envelop multiple targets with his spells.

When he had first been able to cast Celestial Befriend Spirit after he received his new Class, it had required 95% of his Mana pool to keep it going; after reaching 420 Mana, the cost had reduced by 40%, meaning that it only required 55%.  That meant he could cast another reserved spell, such as Celestial Dominate Spirit, which had been reduced from 80% of his Mana pool to only 40%.

As Sadia had mentioned, the process worked exactly as she had suggested.  He now had both Befriend Spirit and Dominate Spirit on all dozen of the Beavers, meaning that they would attack hostile targets in defense of Thaden (as long as they weren’t also Beavers), and leach Health from those targets to heal themselves.  If he fought other Beavers, he thought that the Health leach would still work, if not a full on attack, which could be a problem, but the situation with them was a much better outcome than he expected.

“Thank you, Sadia.  I can’t believe I didn’t even think of that before.  I’m glad you’re back.”

“I don’t know how you survived without me,” she replied, the smugness heavy in her tone.  “And I’m glad to be back, too, Thaden.”

With a minor army of Forest Beavers now at his disposal, he ordered them to fan out ahead of them as they continued through the trees.  They weren’t quite as fast as Sadia by herself in her wolf form, but the extra protection was worth it as they began encountering more monsters the further they progressed through the forest. 

At first, they only faced a few Level 4 and Level 5 Razorfoot Boars.  These were easy to kill, as Thaden had a total of 21 Mana available to him after his Mana pool was reduced by 95%, meaning that he could cast Weak Enthrall on them to freeze them in place, before his Beaver army annihilated them within seconds because they couldn’t fight back.

“That’s quite unfair, but I suppose fairness doesn’t really matter when it comes to monsters, does it?” Sadia commented after she witnessed the slaughter.

He agreed, especially after he acquired PICK for the first time as a solo Adventurer. 

You have slain a Razorfoot Boar – Minimal – Level 5!

You have received 1.5 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s) as well as Level disparity!

You have received 4.5 PICK!

Fortunate Catastrophe bonus trait activated!

You have received 5.9 PICK!

That’s more like it.  While 5.9 PICK wasn’t a massive amount, especially when he needed 400 PICK to reach Level 3 in Novice Enthraller and 700 PICK to reach Level 4 in Fortunate Catastrophe, it was a whole lot better than the 0.1 PICK he’d been commonly receiving from the monsters in the last dungeon. 

The influx of PICK was a heady feeling, and he knew he needed more. 

Thankfully, the forest provided plenty of targets.  More Boars were accompanied by Trap Spiders, Strangling Bushfiends, and even some additional Beavers – all of which were below Level 10.  Only a few times when he encountered some of the Strangling Bushfiends, which were stationary monsters that looked like oversized bushes and had branches as strong as iron that they would whip out to strangle their victims, did his Weak Enthrall fail because they were Level 9.  Fortunately, Beavers were uniquely qualified to tear apart the Bushfiends with their razor sharp teeth, and with their ability to leach Health, there was very little risk of them dying.  Even better, once he was able to land a Weak Enthrall on them after multiple casts, he was able to use Weak Siphon Health from the Bushfiend to both reduce its Health and heal any of his Beaver army that had taken some damage.

His acquisition of PICK was helped by gaining another Achievement, one that was similar to one he’d acquired on Tarth.

Congratulations for solo slaying a monster 3 or more Levels above your own!

Achievement received: Lone Wolf I

Bonus reward: 10.0 PICK

Fortunate Catastrophe bonus trait activated!

You have received 13.0 PICK!

He debated adding to his Beaver army with what he encountered in the forest, but after he saw how effective his little minions were despite there only being a dozen of them, he decided to take advantage of the feast of PICK instead, as that was more important to him at the moment.  Unfortunately, after a short time, he was forced to abandon most of the materials he acquired from extracting it from the corpses, as his Inventory was still relatively small even after it had grown bigger with his Level-ups, though his coin total steadily increased. 

In what felt like no time at all, he had acquired enough PICK to raise his Novice Enthraller Class up to Level 3, which he did immediately once it was available.

Level up!  You are now a Level 3 Novice Enthraller!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Mentality +2

Personality +3

(1) Spell selection choice

Yes!  “Let me know if anything needs my attention; I’ve got a new spell to look at,” he told Sadia, who quickly agreed as they continued through the trees in a northeastern direction.

Please select (127) spells from the following selections:

Weak Sacrificial Backlash Aura (Reserved)

Lesser Sacrificial Backlash Aura (Reserved)

Minor Sacrificial Backlash Aura (Reserved)

Weak Minion Regeneration (Single Cast)

Weak Minion Regeneration (Single Cast)

Weak Minion Regeneration (Single Cast)

Lesser Enthrall (Channeled)

Minor Enthrall (Channeled)

Lesser Subjugation Aura (Reserved)

Minor Subjugation Aura (Reserved)

Lesser Health Siphon (Single Cast)

Minor Health Siphon (Single Cast)

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

The first thing that he noticed about the spell list was that the higher-strength versions of his current Enthraller spells were available in Lesser and Minor strength.  While it was tempting to upgrade them at this time, as he had more than enough spell selections at his disposal, he decided against it at the moment because his Mana pool was still a bit tight.  Perhaps when I reach the next Level that lets me choose some more spells I’ll be in a better position.

As for his new spells, there were only a pair of them that showed up for him to choose from, so he took the time to look at them.

Weak Sacrificial Backlash Aura (Reserved): Whenever a target dies while still under your control and is within range of your Weak Sacrificial Backlash Aura, all other non-controlled hostile targets within range will receive a spiritual backlash stack that will reduce their stats while they remain in range of your Aura.  Stat reduction cannot surpass stack quantity limit (50%).

Stat Reduction (per stack): 5%

Stack Quantity Limit: 10

Range: 120 feet

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 20%

As he looked over the spell’s description, Thaden didn’t hesitate to pick up the Weak version, as while the Lesser and Minor strengths allowed for a higher stat reduction limit of 55% and 60%, respectively, it wasn’t worth the extra Mana cost reserved to maintain them.  He figured that it might be a good method to soften up stronger monsters if he had some of his army to spare, but he didn’t necessarily need the spell at the moment.

Moving on to the second spell, he smiled as he saw that it was exactly what he was hoping to acquire at some point.

Weak Minion Regeneration (Single Cast): Grants a single controlled target continuous healing energy that replenishes Health for a limited time.

Healing Rate: 2 Health every 5 seconds

Duration: 60 seconds

Range: 30 feet

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 10

The Lesser- and Minor-strength versions healed even more Health every 5 seconds, but they also cost more – and he was all about conserving his Mana at the moment.  With his spell effectiveness bonuses, he didn’t really need better spells at the moment, as Weak Minion Regeneration was more than enough to handle the monsters he could control, anyway.  He remembered his original Regeneration spell had been a staple of his original Class, and while this one was only able to target his controlled minions instead of himself, it was well worth obtaining for the continuous healing alone.  It would make using Weak Health Siphon so much easier, as it wouldn’t matter if he used up his controlled monsters’ Health, because it would be replenished shortly thereafter.

Once he selected the spell, he closed out the screen while he considered how the combination of spells the Novice Enthraller had access to worked so well together.  It was truly a powerful Class, with spells that made it easier to Enthrall targets, make others weaker, and then use whatever they actually controlled as constantly replenishing healing sources.  The mixture of crowd control mixed with healing was incredible – and his own bonuses helped to make it even more of a cheat-like Class.  It wouldn’t be nearly as effective if he couldn’t convert his single-target spells into ones that could affect wider areas, and his high Competencies and their Advancements made them even stronger.

As his awareness came back to the area around him, he realized his army was killing another Razorfoot Boar, this one being Level 8, and Sadia was taking care of it without a problem.  It was as he saw the Beavers moving around as if under direction that he realized that his companion could control them just as easily as he could, which made sense because she could also cast his spells; she was essentially an extension of him, though she was also her own individual, as well.  It was a strange combination, but it certainly worked to both their advantages.

Since she seemed to have everything covered and he felt safe in her hands, or paws as it was, Thaden decided to go through the rest of his Advancements that he’d been putting off.  He hadn’t thought that they really applied all that much, given that he wasn’t using his Defensive spells, was the leader of a Party, or encountered anything that really required his psychic protections, but now there seemed to be ample time to go through them.

Please select (8) Advancements for your Defensive Spellcasting Competency:

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

Longer Protection – All Defensive spells now have a 66% permanent duration increase

Thicker Protection – All Defensive spells now prevent 66% more damage

Harder Protection – All Defensive spells now protect from sources 7 Levels higher than before

Extended Protection – All single-target Defensive spells now extend to protect an additional target

Disease Protection – All Defensive spells now temporarily protect against Burning, Charmed, Poisoned, and Sleep afflictions

Rejection Protection – All Defensive spells now give the recipient a 100% bonus to hit accuracy on their next strike

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

Abstinence Protection – Upon preventing damage, all Defensive spells now grant the protected 10 seconds of immunity to all damage, followed by 60 seconds where they cannot be protected by any spells or effects that reduce or negate damage

Self-service Protection – All spells the caster casts upon themselves now require 66% less Mana to activate or maintain, at the cost of all spells cast upon allies requiring 66% more Mana to activate or maintain

Bigger Is Better – Every member of your Party must have at least 3 Defensive spells that you cast active upon them at all times; if this is true, those Party members will receive an additional 50% increase in effectiveness to their active defensive spells and an additional 30% to their maximum Health; if this is not true, they will suffer a 50% decrease in effectiveness to their active defensive spells and will have their maximum Health reduced by 30%

The Morning After Protection – Exactly 9 hours after any Defensive spell cast on any target is fully used or the duration expires naturally, it will be reapplied for free with a 300% increase in effectiveness, regardless of the target’s distance from the caster; can only apply one instance of a particular Defensive spell at a time; multiple reapplications will override the existing spell in place

Fortunately, it was fairly easy to eliminate some of the choices for his Defensive Spellcasting Competency Advancements.  The first was Extended Protection, as he could already cheat by selecting multiple targets from his Fortunate Catastrophe Class bonus traits.  Rejection Protection was also not very useful, as while a 100% bonus to hit accuracy was nice, he didn’t necessarily rely on such things to kill his enemies; he would rather use overwhelming force, or as happened to be the case lately, overwhelming numbers.

Abstinence Protection was crazy powerful, as it granted 10 seconds of damage immunity, but the 60 seconds where they were completely vulnerable was a no-go – so he skipped that, as well.  While he had picked up Bigger Is Better when he was on Tarth, he also decided to skip it for now because he was thinking about utilizing his controlling spells more often than he did before, and trying to balance all of the defensive spells on an army of minions was too much work.  Perhaps when he had another opportunity to pick an Advancement, he would pick it up if it turned out to be a beneficial effect, but for now he passed on it.

Disease Protection hadn’t turned out to be necessary on Tarth, mainly because he had enough Psychic Resiliency to handle half of the afflictions listed on the Advancements, while he also had Support spells that would clear the others away without any trouble.  He figured that, by the time he could actually cast some of those defensive spells, he wouldn’t have to worry about it—

—until he saw the Self-service Protection Advancement.  He had forgotten this particular one, mainly because his Mana pool had rarely been an issue before, but now when he saw it, he knew he had to have it.  A 66% decrease in Mana cost to activate or maintain his spells was huge.  How did I not look at this before?  What made him hesitate before picking it, however, was the fact that it said, “All spells,” and that his spells targeting allies would increase in cost by 66%.  He immediately realized that it would affect his Spiritual spells that allowed him to control his minions, as that would mean they would then be his “allies”.  While that wouldn’t necessarily break what he was doing, it would certainly complicate things.  For one, it would immediately make it impossible – with his current Mana pool, at least – to maintain both Dominate Spirit and Befriend Spirit simultaneously, as both of their reserved Mana costs would increase by 66%. 

Still, it seemed like it would be worth it, especially since it meant he would be able to access many of his spells sooner rather than later.  Most, if not all of them, were still a ways off even with the Advancement, but it meant the difference between accessing them at Level 25 and Level 50 or above. 

But then he looked at the Double Team Advancement, which allowed him to cast 2 channeled spells simultaneously, at the cost of double the Mana cost per second.  Being able to cast Enthrall twice, or using Enthrall with another channeled spell – of which he had plenty of once he had access to them – was also a massive advantage he had trouble passing up – but doubling the Mana cost could prove to be a problem if they were already being increased by 66% by the Self-service Protection Advancement. 

He wanted both, along with Thicker Protection and Harder Protection (and their subsequent tiers), as they would allow him to prevent even more damage, but he decided to hold off on choosing anything for the moment.  He found that he could minimize the window that popped up as long as he didn’t begin spending his selections, and he was glad that he did, because a second after he decided to put off the decision until he thought about it a little longer, Sadia spoke to get his attention.

“Thaden?  I think I’m going to need your help for this.”