Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Hey, what are you rushing for?”

The words stopped Thaden’s headlong rush for the Coalition building as he slowed down.  Sitting on the uncovered porch of the large house where the rushing Human cheaply rented a room, the one Netherine in the entire town that was actually decent to Thaden was stretched out as if to catch the few faint rays of sun before they disappeared over the horizon.  In some ways, the demonic-tigers were strong, fierce warriors that were capable of completely tearing someone like Thaden apart with a thought; in others, they were like big cats that enjoyed lounging in the sun.  Arthrax, who wasn’t exactly a friend but was someone who wasn’t at all bothered by the Human renting a room from him, was probably even more sun-loving than most, as he was by far the oldest-looking Netherine he’d seen.

As Thaden came to a complete stop, he caught his breath before he answered.  “I finally have enough to register with the Adventurer’s Coalition.”

“You’re still on that?” Arthrax asked, shaking his head as he sat up with a fluid-looking stretch that didn’t do anything to dispel the perception of the Netherine being a big cat to Thaden’s eyes.

“Of course.  I told you before, I’m hoping that it will prove that I have a Platinum+ Rank in the Coalition.”

Still shaking his head, the old Netherine said, “I know what you said, but I’ll tell you again that it doesn’t work like that.  You said you’re recently arrived from a developmental world as a Contender, right?”  At Thaden’s nod, Arthrax continued.  “Well then, you should’ve been informed that your Coalition Rank is reset back to Wood when you were sent here.  More than that, any Levels and stats that you might have achieved in that other world are reduced upon coming here.  Remember when I told you that only 10% of those Levels and stats are maintained when transferred to the ‘real’ world?  That’s because Plangea is much different than the relatively ‘safe’ playground of a developmental world.”

Thaden didn’t know if what the old Netherine told him was true or not, even if he claimed his great-great-grandfather was apparently a Contender for his race back in his day.  From what he’d been told, in those times when he ate dinner with the seemingly lonely giant tiger in the evenings, developmental worlds were simply ways to evaluate incoming races that were being included in the Assimilation System, and to provide a small portion of them the opportunity to become slightly stronger before they were sent out to help the forces fighting against the Persistent Adversary and its monsters.  That ongoing conflict, between the System and the Adversary, was apparently even more intense in Plangea, with dungeons appearing at random pretty much everywhere, spilling out monsters as soon as they appeared.  Arthrax didn’t seem to know if there were any NESTs nearby, which were essentially open-air dungeons that he’d had to fight against on Tarth, but he knew that they existed – and that there were things even worse out there… or so he’d heard. 

Fortunately, the part of the world Thaden had ended up in was relatively quiet, with no major threats in the vicinity; from what he could tell, it was very similar to one of the starting zones of the developmental world, where there were low-Level monsters nearby, as well as only weak dungeons popping up every once in a while.  Further out, of course, it became dangerous, such as in the jungle where he’d arrived and was found by the two hunters, and he was lucky that the pair of Netherine who had found him had decided to take him back to town rather than leave him in the middle of the dangerous jungle.

As for the whole “10% of Levels and stats” being maintained between the developmental world of Tarth and Plangea, he had to admit that it made a lot of sense.  Tarth had been set up to teach the Contenders what to expect when they arrived on Plangea, while it also developed their skills when it came to organization, teamwork, and getting used to magical spells of both high and low strength; but the way things were set up, especially the way it was supposed to go without someone like Thaden or agents of the Adversary throwing a wrench in the System’s plans, was almost like an extended training or tutorial program.  There was a clear progression system in place, as well as distinctly defined objectives, each of which were theoretically easy enough to accomplish if enough time and hard work was put into the process.

Even more than that, as he thought back at how long the entire developmental process was supposed to take, he had to admit that the rate of progression for the Contenders from Earth was quick.  While his own progression was highly abnormal, from what he could gather from his ending evaluation, it was expected that most of the Contenders who completed the developmental world’s challenges would be extremely high-Level, perhaps all the way up to Level 700…

…all in something like 5 or 6 years, perhaps a few more than that.  If that same rate of progress was translated to the Plangea, then it wouldn’t surprise him to see millions of people at Level 4,000 or 5,000 by the time they grew too old.  Yet, that apparently wasn’t the case.  According to Arthrax, the highest Level person he knew about around the area was only Level 45, and that was one of the Netherine Elders that essentially ran the local government. 

When Thaden asked why everyone was so low of a Level, he was told, “It requires a lot more to increase your Level, at least in comparison to a developmental world.”

That didn’t make much sense to Thaden, as when he looked at the PICK he required to get to Level 2, it was only 100 – the same as it had been when he was Level 1 in Tarth.  The difference, he learned, was that earning PICK was at a much slower rate than he was used to – as he’d earn something like 90% less than what he would get in a developmental world.  After hearing that, Thaden realized that Tarth was like an accelerated Leveling event, where the Contenders were able to experience what it meant to become stronger, so that they would know what to expect once they got to Plangea.  Yet, that accelerated Leveling was an illusion, as it wasn’t something that could be directly translated to their new lives on Plangea – but it gave them a headstart so that they could be useful to the forces fighting against the Adversary.

Back on Tarth, Thaden had been nearly god-like in his ability to heal and dish out damage – before it was all taken away.  But was I really that strong?  Or was I only “strong” for a developmental world?  Based on his final Level of 575, he was the strongest Human on Tarth, but if he had transferred normally to Plangea, he would only be around Level 57 or perhaps Level 58 if it was rounded up.  That was certainly stronger than the local Netherine Elder in charge of the local government, but how would that compare to the people on the front lines against the Adversary who had been on Plangea for longer than Thaden had been alive?

He didn’t know, nor did Arthrax seem to know.  What Thaden did know, however, was that he couldn’t actually see the Level of anyone or anything over Level 10, as if they were too strong for him to accurately evaluate.  Most of what he’d learned about the Levels of the Netherines in town had come from overhearing conversations and bluntly asking about it, and he discovered that the hunters that had rescued him from the jungle were only Level 18, and most of the Adventurers he’d seen around the Coalition had been between Level 8 and Level 25. 

But what was even more interesting was that he hadn’t seen anyone in town with a Level lower than 4.  When asked about that, Arthrax looked at Thaden as if he was stupid.  “You know that there are other Classes that can be chosen other than ones that go out and fight monsters, right?  With those Classes, we can Level-up through actions that don’t require killing things.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.  PICK stands for Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge – so how do you earn that other than through combat and killing things?” Thaden asked.

The old Netherine seemed flabbergasted by Thaden’s confusion.  “Why, because of your secondary Profession Class, of course.  It’s where you can earn PECK, otherwise known as Professionally Experienced Crafting Knowledge, which contributes toward earning another Level just as PICK does for those who go out and kill monsters.”

Hearing about a secondary Profession Class had been just the answer he was looking for to get him past the rut he was in at Level 1.  Unfortunately, it seemed as though everyone born into the world had access to this secondary Profession Class once they turned 10, and could change it at any time at the Adventurer’s Coalition.  While it was possible that it was permanently locked away from Thaden, given that he wasn’t born on Plangea, he was hoping that reestablishing his credentials with the Coalition might just give him the ability to pick up one of these secondary Profession Classes there.   

I just hope that the lack of anything referring to a secondary Class and this “PECK” stuff on my Character Report doesn’t mean I can’t get it.

Regardless of whether or not it would work for him, he had to try something.  As it was, he was basically helpless against any monster he came across right now, as he couldn’t even wield a weapon to defend himself because of his Support Class, so if he had to spend a couple of years Leveling up through some sort of Profession Class before he could regain his previous abilities, then that was what he would do.

He had a few goals, after all, and being Level 1 with horrible stats wasn’t going to help get them done.  First, he needed to find a way to travel around while discovering where Corinna, his somewhat girlfriend from Tarth, had ended up and reunite with her; while the System’s shenanigans made it so that the last time they met, she hadn’t even known who he was, he was positive that there was still something that could be rekindled between them. 

Second, he desired some revenge against the Assimilation System.  It was bad enough that it had stolen away millions of Humans before throwing them into the developmental world, where many of them were killed against the powerful monsters that inhabited the place, but that was before he learned about what happened when a new world – such as Earth – was incorporated into the System.  Billions of people were sacrificed to provide the life energy to merge the newly integrated planets into Plangea, all without their consent or knowledge, all in an effort to deny these worlds to the direct influence of the Adversary.  With a massive chunk of the Humans on Earth being recently killed to fuel this introduction into the System, Thaden wanted to put a stop to it all, hopefully preventing it from happening to some other unsuspecting world. 

That was his long-term goal, of course, as that wasn’t something that he could simply accomplish on a whim.  But it was still something that he thought needed to be done, because he honestly wasn’t sure if either the Assimilation System or the Persistent Adversary was more of a villain to the universe than the other. 

But before he could accomplish any of those goals, he needed to find a way to Level-up and return to his previous strength.

“Regardless of whether it helps or not, I’m still determined to go,” Thaden told the old Netherine, who was starting to get up. 

As Arthrax headed toward the door to his home, likely to start cooking dinner, he waved toward Thaden.  “If you want to waste your coin, who am I to tell you not to?  I’ll have a meal ready for you when you get back.”

At that, he left the sole Human within thousands of miles on the street as he passed through the oversized door.  Thaden got back to what he was doing, noticing that the sun was even further down toward the horizon, and he didn’t want to have to navigate his way through the town when it got dark.  Unlike most other towns and cities he’d visited in Tarth, there were no magical lights outside to illuminate the streets after dark; all of the Netherine had some sort of night vision that made it unnecessary, so it was unnaturally dark within the confines of the town after the sun went down.

Fortunately, it was only a matter of a few minutes before he arrived at the front of the Adventurer’s Coalition.  The construction of the building was different from the rest of the town, as it appeared more like a ski lodge up in the Alps than the more modern façades of the nearby buildings, but with its oversized appearance – because all of the Adventurers were giant tiger-demons – it was still impressive.

Pushing through the wooden doors was a bit of a struggle, as with his poor Physicality they were abnormally heavy, plus he was tired from the day working out in the fields.  With a few grunts, he was able to push them open far enough to slip inside, and he walked swiftly into the dimly lit Coalition lobby, which had a number of oversized cushions on platforms spread around the place, a few of which held Netherines lounging around like housecats, a few of them drowsily glancing around.  When he walked inside, however, he caught the attention of every single person, including the Coalition workers leaning on the counters along the far wall. 

He paused in his walk as at least a dozen heads swiveled in his direction, before they turned away, continuing the conversations that he’d interrupted – though he heard more than a few breathy chuckles that he couldn’t help suspect were at his expense.  Ignoring it all, as he’d experienced worse both in town and back on Tarth, he walked up to one of the counters, which was positioned just above his eye level.

Standing slightly back from the edge, he did his best to look over top of it, before clearing his throat.  The Coalition worker behind it was looking out over his head, pretending as if he didn’t see Thaden, and he sighed as he took a closer look at the tall Netherine.

Benalio – Felith Adventurer Coalition Representative {Densartis Faction}

Netherine

Level ???

The one thing that was the same about every single person he saw in town was that everyone was part of the {Desartis Faction}; based on what he’d learned before he ended up in Plangea, he knew that these Factions ran portions of the world and organized the fight against the Adversary, and were the primary source of those bidding in the Auction that “bought” the Human Contenders once they were finished with Tarth.  Thaden didn’t go through the Auction, nor did he have any other contact with a Faction, so that was all he really knew about them; even Arthrax didn’t have much more information about it, as they were apparently just an overarching military entity that didn’t really involve themselves in “normal life,” or so he said.

He cleared his throat again.  “Uh, excuse me?”

“Huh?  Did one of you hear something?” Benalio asked, turning to one of the other Coalition Reps nearby, the smirk showing more than a few deadly teeth clear to Thaden’s eyes. 

“No, I didn’t hear anything,” one of the others responded with a chuckle, playing along.

I really wish I had my old stats back, because I’d really like to cast more than a few spells on these height-ist idiots.

“That was me!” Thaden said, waving his hands over his heads, feeling like an idiot, himself.

“Oh!  There is someone here!  I apologize, I didn’t see you there,” Benalio said, quite insincerely, before dramatically leaning over the counter to look at him.  “What can I do for you down there? 

Rather than call the Netherine out for being a jerk, Thaden cut to the chase.  “I want to register.  I have the 3 silver required.”

“Are you sure you want to waste your money?  I can almost guarantee that no one will want to Party with you.”

Thaden nodded, gritting his teeth at the disrespect.  Stupid tall tigers and stupid Personality stat at 1!  “Yes, I want to register.”

“Fine.  Come with me.” 

Turning abruptly away, Thaden had to practically run as he followed the large Netherine toward a set of stairs in the corner of the lobby.  Unfortunately, he had to practically climb the enormous stairs, as each step was as tall as his waist, but he managed it well enough.  By the time he was at the top, he was winded yet again, but he didn’t mind – because he was finally going to start getting his power back, one way or another.