Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 11

Happy New Year!

Chapter 11

It wasn’t the first, and likely wouldn’t be the last, time that he’d spent the night in a tree to keep him safe from the denizens of the jungle.  The biggest difference between his experiences before and his most recent night was the size of the trees he had to climb, as the ones in the jungle were a bit smaller than he was used to and so therefore he had to pull three of them together to create a stable place where he wouldn’t crash back to the ground.  It was far from the most comfortable sleep he’d had, especially considering his most recent stay with the Coalition’s provided room, but it was at least safe.

The reason it was so safe was that Thaden hadn’t seen a single monster – or mundane animal – since he entered the trees.  The events in Felith had evidently scared everything away to the point where nothing living wanted to stick around within a dozen miles of the now-destroyed town. 

Waking up to the morning’s light, he looked around his perch and was able to finally see clearly past where he’d had to stop the night before as it became too dark to navigate safely.  Looks like I’m near the edge.  The trees started to thin not more than 100 feet away from the direction he’d been traveling, but he had no idea what he’d find after that; he had glanced at a bunch of maps consisting of the nearby lands while in the Coalition, but he honestly couldn’t remember exactly what was up this way because it hadn’t been important at the time.  What he vaguely remembered was that there was another town somewhere this direction, but he didn’t know precisely where it was located.

As Thaden unstrapped himself from the trees, having used some vines as a makeshift rope the night before, and then began to climb down, he couldn’t help but think about the decisions he had made the day before.  Of course, his decisions were entirely dependent upon a number of factors, but he felt a bit more confident about his path forward now that he’d had some time to really think about it.

But before he did anything or made any final decisions, there was something very important that he had to do.  As he reached the jungle floor, Thaden reached into his Inventory and pulled out his Condensed Adaptable Mimicry Plate, holding the shiny metal square in his hand as he looked at it for a few seconds.

He had wanted to do this the previous day, but he was more concerned about putting as much distance as he could in between himself and Felith, so he had instead pushed himself to travel as far as he possibly could without stopping.  Now, though, he felt relatively safe enough to take the time to play around with his CAMP – which was the only physical object he had leftover from his experience on Tarth.

Extensive practice with a number of Adaptable Mimicry Plates allowed him to attach the Condensed version to his Explosive Healing Ring, and in less than a second, the CAMP had disappeared from his hands as it seemed to melt into the accessory still on his hand.  Thaden immediately felt the effects of the Plate as it went to work, and he looked at the Ring once again to see that it was working. 

Explosive Healing Ring (+CAMP)

Rarity: Uncommon

Class Restrictions: Support

Level Restriction: 1

+2 (+10) Mentality

+9% (+45%) increase in Support spell casting speed

As advertised, the CAMP quintupled the effects of the Ring, granting him not only an extra +10 to his Mentality, but an extra +45% increase in Support spell casting speed.  The latter didn’t mean as much to him as the Mentality did, but he also wasn’t going to complain about being able to cast his Support spells at a much faster rate.

More important than the extra stats, however, was the secondary effect that the CAMP – hopefully – provided.  Back on Tarth, when he received a bunch of the normal Adaptable Mimicry Plates as a reward, he hadn’t known that they also came with a “special” friend that was imprinted just for him.  Initially, it had manifested as a sexy succubus that immediately wanted to call him “master” and made him extremely uncomfortable; after learning that he could change the shape of his new friend, he instead turned her into a giant squirrel approximately the same size as he was.  Sadia, at least at first, had been somewhat the same as the succubus had been, but as he allowed her to completely mesh with his memories, she quickly morphed into a vital companion that immediately understood the hardships he’d been going through. 

Sadia wasn’t just a companion, though; she was a friend that had helped him immensely, both in the way she was able to cast his spells alongside him, and the way she was able to provide context and information that he otherwise should’ve known from his Training.  She kept him sane when he was on his own, which was unfortunately most of the time, and ever since he’d arrived on Plangea, not a day went by when he didn’t miss her presence by his side.

Thaden waited for something to happen, for Sadia to show up now that he had attached the Plate to something, but nothing happened.  He even removed and then reattached the CAMP multiple times to see if that would make any difference, but nothing seemed to work.  With a sigh and a hope that she would eventually manifest after a little more time, he took a single step toward the edge of the jungle—

—and a giant squirrel suddenly appeared in his path, staring at him.

“Well?  What are you waiting for?  You don’t have much time before you’re transported from Tarth.”  The familiar sound of Sadia’s voice rang out in the jungle, flowing into his ears like a pain-relieving salve.  He had been so worried that she was gone for good, and yet she had appeared just as she had been when he last saw her.  “Hurry up and process that PICK, or else you’re not going to have enough time—”

He was confused at what she was talking about at first, but then he remembered the last time he’d seen her.  At that time, just before the System found him and transported him into the equivalent of a dimensional holding cell, he had been about to process the massive amount of PICK he’d acquired from killing a whole bunch of World Bosses on Tarth – which was dangerous, as it had been so much that his body had felt like it was going to burst from the energy that infused it.

“Wait.  Where are we?  What happened?  Did it work?  I can’t remember anything past when you were about to use your accumulated PICK…,” she continued in a distracted voice as she glanced around him at the jungle.  “And why are you wearing that?  Did—why are you Level 3?!”

“It’s so good to see you Sadia,” Thaden said in response, not answering her questions.  “You have no idea how much I missed you?”

“Thaden?  What is going on?  None of this makes any sense.”

He sighed, before leaning up against the nearest tree.  “Well… a lot happened, actually.  Too much to explain verbally, in fact.  I’d advise you to read my memories.”

She stared at him in confusion for a few seconds, before she suddenly dematerialized, and he felt a surge of something uncomfortable in his mind, as she started rifling through his memories.  Thankfully, she was quick, so the feeling didn’t last more than a few seconds, and then she was back, standing across from him with her arms crossed. 

“It seems like I missed a lot.  What I don’t understand is what happened, though.  There’s a gap between you being on Tarth and then being resurrected by those Netherines here on Plangea.”

“What?  Really?  You can’t access any of those memories?”

She shook her head.  “Nope.  I would assume that you went through the Faction Auction and ended up here on Plangea, where you were then killed – but that doesn’t explain much of anything.”

Thaden was afraid of that happening.  Numerous times on Tarth, Sadia had been denied seeing certain things that were outside the scope of the System, and was even forcibly prevented from telling him things that would’ve explained some things.  She was technically a product of the System, after all, and while she had proven time and time again that she was on his side and not some secret agent inserted into his life to keep tabs on him, it seemed as though there were still some things that were kept from her.

“I see.  Let me tell you what happened, then.”  Thaden then quickly recounted his experience about being taken by the System, where he was then given his evaluation for how he’d done while in the developmental world of Tarth, and then told some of what would happen next – for the rest of the Humans, at least.  For himself, he was to be eliminated now that he had been in the System’s hands, but he had ended up somewhat tricking the Assimilator assigned to get rid of him.  By applying his massive amount of PICK he had saved up from killing so many World Bosses, he had caused something to rupture, and while he thought that might have been the end of him, Thaden had actually ended up on Plangea as a corpse.  The rest of it after he was resurrected was already known to her.

“That’s… crazy, Thaden.  There are some parts of what you just told me that I can’t seem to recall, but I think I understand the gist of what happened.  Essentially, the System took you away and tried to kill you, but then you exploded from an overload of PICK energy – and somehow ended up Plangea, where you ended up surviving somehow.  Is that about right?”

“Pretty much.”

She shook her head in mirthful exasperation.  “You did it again, Thaden.  You survived against odds that should’ve permanently killed you – but I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.  You did the impossible countless times while on Tarth, after all.”  She smiled a squirrely grin at him.  “And now you did it again with the bestowal of a second Combat Class.  That is so impossible that there isn’t even an Achievement for it, as it’s literally not possible for the System to intentionally do that.  How you managed to get it and have everything operate smoothly, so far, is a miracle.”

“Thanks.  I think.  Anyway, do you think you’re all caught up on my situation?”

Nodding, Sadia said, “I believe so.  And while I don’t want to add to any blame that you might be placing upon yourself, I have to agree that what happened to Felith was most likely related to what happened with your aforementioned second Combat Class.  The impossibility of it, along with the Codexical Access Point needing to borrow some of the System’s resources – which are already stretched thin throughout Plangea – led to the System’s response.  Even if it’s part of my original design to be completely loyal to the System, even I can’t deny that it looks like the System somehow pointed some very powerful monsters toward the town in order to eliminate any trace of the problem it experienced.

“On the other hand, I don’t believe it knows who you are.  As you’ve heard, the System only has a very light personal touch upon the world of Plangea, as it is mainly focused on holding everything together and developing the next influx of races throughout the universe.  From what I can tell, now that I’m out of the closed-off world of Tarth and have connected at least partially to the overall System, the System doesn’t have enough awareness here to actually investigate who you are.  It was probably given a warning about what happened, and instead of letting the problem become worse, it decided to eliminate anything related to it rather than have further issues down the road.

“Of course, this didn’t work out for it in the end, because you are extremely hard to kill.  Still, I doubt it knows you’ve survived, and you should keep it that way.  I don’t believe simply having your Rank identified is enough to get its attention, as it won’t cause any errors or pull away some of its resources.  That being said, I can’t guarantee that your presence in the Coalition won’t cause enough of a stir to attract attention, so you need to be very careful.

“And no matter what you do, you should stay away from using any other Codexical Access Points.  That means that your plan to use it to find Corinna isn’t likely to happen – even if you don’t use it yourself.  I wouldn’t put it past the System to put a trigger on anyone related to you from Tarth, because you evidently set it back immensely by what you did at the end, and it likely wants to ensure that none of your activities had carried over to Plangea.”

Thaden slowly nodded, having somewhat figured this was the case after thinking about it the day before.  “So, what do you suggest I do?”

“There’s only really one choice.  You need to get stronger, so you need to use the Coalition to Level-up.”

“Even if it means…?”

“Yes.  Even if it means you inadvertently call attention to yourself and put those around you in danger.  I’ve looked at your spells and what you’ve done with them so far, and the combination of your bonus traits and everything else is amazing, but you can’t do it on your own – at least not yet.  Once you’re strong enough to somewhat handle yourself, you should abandon the Coalition altogether.”

“And then what?” he asked, but he was fairly certain he knew what she was going to say – because it was what he was thinking, as well.

She smiled again.  “You already know.  You’re going to the Front Line.”

It was inevitable that he would be going there, especially when he learned a little bit about the Front Line from Arthrax.  The older Netherine hadn’t known all the much about it, but what he knew was enough to comprehend the basics. 

From what he understood, the world of Plangea was divided into 2 major sections that were based on the danger they presented.  The first was what was considered “peaceful,” at least as far as that term applied to a world that frequently saw dungeons and monsters pop up randomly to threaten the population.  These “peaceful” sections comprised approximately 70% of the entire world, and they also supported more than 98% of the population.  The Adventurer’s Coalition branches throughout the world were largely able to handle any dungeons and monsters that showed up, acting somewhat like a localized militia that went on Quests to keep the peace.  Felith, as well as the surrounding area, was located in what was considered a “peaceful” section, which was why they were entirely unprepared for the System’s attack that obliterated them.  They didn’t typically face anything that was a real threat – because anything capable of that level of destruction was found in the “Front Line” section of the world.

The “Front Line,” at least according to Arthrax, was where all the major fighting against the Persistent Adversary took place.  Every Faction, including the local Densartis Faction, had armies of powerful individuals that held the line against the threats found outside the borders of the “Peaceful” sections.  What exactly they fought against, Thaden didn’t know, but he suspected it was similar to the last few Developmental Phases he’d experienced on Tarth, with increasingly more powerful monsters, dungeons that required Raid Parties, and NESTs that continuously produced evolving monsters. 

What he did know about the Front Line was that they had their own organization separate from the Coalition, and they had frequent contact with other Factions in order to coordinate their defenses.  So, if Thaden was to ever discover where Corinna had ended up in the massive world of Plangea, it would likely be through the Factions’ organization – or so Sadia seemed to think.  He wasn’t entirely convinced, however.

“How do you know Corinna is part of the forces on the Front Line?” he asked.  “What if she was sent to help bolster the Adventurer’s Coalition?”

Sadia paused for a second before responding, and he could tell that she was searching for something related to the world and the System.  “Because that’s where all of those from the Auctions end up.”

“Really?  Why?”  He was fairly certain that all of them would’ve had their Level reduced by 90%, so anyone coming from a developmental world like Tarth likely wouldn’t be strong enough to handle themselves where the most dangerous monsters were located.  They would have to spend some time getting stronger as part of the Adventurer’s Coalition – or so he thought.

“Do you know why the Developmental Worlds and the Auctions are so important?  No you don’t, because you weren’t told any of that.  Fortunately for you, I now have access to some of that information.

“The Developmental World isn’t just to help prepare new races for their introduction to the Assimilation System.  Instead, it’s about developing individuals to help join the fight against the Adversary; more specifically, it’s designed to take advantage of evolved Classes once they arrive on Plangea.

“Your Novice Enthraller Class, for instance, is a relatively powerful Class – but it is still an unevolved Class.  Once you reach Level 21 in it, you can evolve it to a First Tier Evolved Class, similar to your old Lifewarden Class.  For most people, though, reaching Level 21 is difficult because it takes a long time; it is essentially the equivalent to Level 210 back on Tarth, as PICK accumulation is around a tenth of what you experienced in the developmental world.  To acquire a Second Tier Evolved Class, individuals would have to reach Level 63, or Level 630 on Tarth – and while possible, it would still take most people decades, if not longer to reach that point.

“You, as well as those who are acquired through the Auction, have even higher Tier Evolved Classes, with yours being Fourth Tier and I believe most of the other Humans being Third Tier.  Think back at your experience in Tarth.  Do you remember how much more powerful each Evolved Class was compared to the previous Tier?  That is what the Factions fight over when it comes to the Auctions after a developmental world completes its process.  A Fourth Tier Evolved individual at Level 70 is probably three times as strong as a Second Tier individual at Level 140; it absolutely makes a huge difference.  That’s why all incoming people from a developmental world are sent straight to the Front Lines, even if they are a lower Level than many of those who have been there for decades.  They are needed to ensure the Adversary is held back from advancing into the Factions’ territory, and they cultivate these individuals as a valuable asset.  So, to answer your question, there is no doubt in my mind that Corinna was sent to the Front Lines – and therefore you must go there to find her.”

Thaden had to admit that it made sense with the Evolved Classes, as his own was basically a cheat at his current Level.  Of course, he was a bit hampered by the fact that he couldn’t cast many of his spells, but that would change over time as he acquired a larger Mana pool.

“The Front Line, then.  Are you sure they’ll take me in, though?”

Sadia giggled.  “Of course.  You just need to get to the point where you can show them what you can do, and you’ll have them begging for you to join them.”

“Will I have to join a Faction, though?”

She nodded.  “Yes.  But unlike everyone else that is part of a Faction who are restrained by System oaths and conditions, I have a feeling that they won’t really be much of a hindrance to you.”

“I think you’re probably right,” he said with a smile.  “Well, that’s for the future; I need to get stronger first, and standing around all day won’t accomplish that.  Let’s get moving and find another town – because I’m starving.”  As if to punctuate that statement, Thaden stomach growled as he led Sadia out of the jungle.