Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 14

Chapter 14

As he exited behind the other members of his Raid Party, he couldn’t help but see a mixed bag of emotions upon the faces of the Contenders he’d run through the Maximal Difficulty Intermediate Dungeon.  Thankfully, for the most part they were ecstatic, and even the ones that were visibly disappointed were still relatively happy.  The only disappointment came from the negation of the Quest or Achievement rewards that they’d completed; fortunately, it was only a few of them that had run afoul of his Omenic Drifter’s chance to eliminate rewards entirely.  The rest of the PICK and loot that they’d received throughout the dungeon had largely made up for these unfortunate individuals who had the larger reward taken away. 

“How many Levels did you earn?” he asked Steven as he caught sight of him, the familiar face from Guilded Glory having come along on the exploratory delve.

“Thaden!  That was amazing!  I got… hold on, let me check.”  Thaden watched as Steven’s nametag quickly changed from Level 203 – which was already quite high compared to many other people in the Region – to Level 225, a 22-Level increase in just an hour’s worth of work.  “What?!  22 Levels?!  That’s insane!” he shouted, and he wasn’t the only one that was checking to see how many Levels they had earned from the singular dungeon delve. 

He saw smiles all around as he watched as some Contenders rose 15, 20, or even – in one instance – 31 Levels; he could only assume that they had been quite lucky and had many of their PICK rewards doubled, especially if it had been an Achievement or the Quest that he had created specifically for this instance.  It also helped that the one that had gone up so many Levels had only been Level 191 to start with, as it didn’t require nearly as much PICK below Level 200 to raise it up.  If they doubled their Quest reward, that was 700,000 PICK all by itself (plus any bonuses), and considering that someone around Level 191 only needed around 57,000 PICK to get to the next Level, it made a lot of sense.

Obviously, the experiment to see if the Contenders he ran through dungeons in order to power-Level them would be able to raise their Perceived Level up high enough was a success.  As he looked at Steven again, he saw that his fellow Guilded Glory member had an even higher Perceived Level than before – thanks to his recent Level-up.

Steven {Guilded Glory}

Human

Level 225 (Perceived Level: 473)

In fact, it was almost too high to earn PICK from many of the monsters that he’d just killed inside the Cloven Hills Dungeon.  The lowest-Level monsters inside the Cloven Hills Dungeon had been Level 375 with a Perceived Level of 488; if Steven or the others were a much higher Level, then they would be over the Level where they would end up getting PICK from Thaden killing the monsters.  They would have to play with the Indecent Proposal Advancement ability he gave them to convert their temporary bonuses to Perceived Level; thankfully, the Advancement allowed them to choose how much of their bonus stats they converted. 

Apparently, Thaden provided enough bonus stats that when they threw all of them into Perceived Level, it equaled an 80% increase in Perceived Level; the Level 191 Contender who had gained 31 Levels from the delve had just barely been a high enough Level to count, as a 110% Perceived Level was at Level 401.  Technically, the way it worked was that the 50-Level cutoff was based on the average Level of everyone in the Raid Party, but just in case, they had determined that the cutoff should be Level 191; it also ensured that the Contender had already achieved their Class Evolution at Level 189, so that they could take full advantage of the PICK that they would be receiving.

“That was amazing, Thaden – can we go again?” Steven asked, the eagerness in his voice quite clear.

The Omenic Drifter shook his head.  “Sorry, Steven; I’ll be doing rotations through as many Raid Parties as possible, even with other Guilds.  We need a lot more people than just those in our Guild to Level-up, otherwise we’re going to lose before we can even get started.”

“Ah.  Makes sense, I suppose.  Well, thanks anyway – I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around!” he shouted as he took off along with the other 98 members of the Raid Party as Thaden disbanded from the Party.

The Omenic Drifter took off, as well, though he was headed straight back to Darkwood Vale and Corinna to report on what happened.  As he did, he checked his own messages, seeing that the PICK that he’d earned went straight into his Growth equipment.  It was actually a brand-new set that he was wearing rather than his solo or his other Party-based set, as he hadn’t been using it to heal.  Instead, after learning that his new title allowed him to use his Wild Health Leach combination of damage-dealing spells without having to worry about inadvertently hurting his party members, he was now developing a new set specifically for the purpose of power-Leveling others.  He pulled up a piece of his equipment to see that it was already being influenced by his fighting style.

Leaching Robe of the Shepherd

Rarity: Artifact

Imprinted User Restriction: #32599999-E

Level Restriction: 91

Physical Damage Resistance: 45

Magical Damage Resistance: 115

Durability: Indestructible

Special Properties: Growth

+45 Physicality

+27 Celerity

+25 Mentality

+15 Personality

+14 Fortuity

+4% increase in all spell effectiveness while in a party

+0.05% decrease in all spell Mana cost, cooldowns, and casting times for each current party member

+0.01% increase in all PICK earned by all party members

The stat increases were a bit lackluster compared to his other set and there weren’t a lot of effects on the equipment yet, but he was surprised to see that it actually gave an increase in earned PICK for all party members.  At the moment, it was only a 0.01% increase, but when his AMPs were applied, that rose all the way up to 0.66%; even that didn’t sound like a lot, especially when someone only received 100 PICK or so from a monster, as that might round up to 1 extra PICK.  But when it was applied to something like a Quest reward, especially if it was doubled to something like 700,000 PICK, then that 0.66% would be an extra 4,620 PICK.

And he was sure that the current 0.01% increase would only go up as the equipment gained Levels. 

Apart from a very promising start to his new Growth set, Thaden also got his own Achievement, as the dungeon they’d just completed had been a new one for him.

Congratulations for completing the Cloven Hills Intermediate Dungeon on Maximal difficulty!

Achievement received: Cross The Divide

Bonus reward: 100,000 PICK

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: 150,000 PICK

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 300,000 PICK

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 900,000 PICK

Overachiever II Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 4,950,000 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 200,000 PICK, Free Stat Points (20)

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: 300,000 PICK, Free Stat Points (30)

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 600,000 PICK, Free Stat Points (30)

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 1,800,000 PICK, Free Stat Points (90)

Overachiever II Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 9,900,000 PICK, Free Stat Points (90)

The Overachiever II effect of a 450% increase in PICK accumulation really made a difference to the amount of PICK he received from something like an Achievement; he’d seen it from the normal PICK he received from killing monsters, of course, but this was the first Achievement he’d received since the start of Developmental Phase 4 that had PICK as a reward component.  It also explained how the others had obtained so many Levels from the dungeon, as everything that they obtained from kills – even if it was split in between 100 party members – was increased by 300%. 

This could really work.  I better let Corinna know how this went.

A half-hour later, he was being escorted through the gates of Darkwood Vale again, and soon enough after that he was walking through the Guild Leader’s office.

“Success, huh?” Corinna asked as she saw his happy face.

With a nod, he sat down in the chair across from her.  “Yep.  And even better, I have some equipment that will add even more PICK to how much they’ll be receiving while in a party with me,” he told her, before he began to explain about the effect of his Growth set.  She then asked about the Level gains of those who’d come with him, his discovery that he could essentially go all-out in the dungeon without having to worry about killing anyone, and how that allowed him to speed through the dungeon so quickly.

“Well, that changes things a little, but I somewhat expected as much,” she told him with smirk as she made some notations on a piece of paper in front of her.  “All that means is that we’ll be able to add some locations each day…” she continued, murmuring to herself.  After a few more notes, she addressed him again.  “Now, let me tell you what I’ve done and you can determine whether it would work for you.”

He nodded again and gestured for her to go on.

“Alright.  As you know, I’ve been in communication with the Leaders of many of the other Guilds all throughout the Region, and I’ve already begun setting up a rotation for different Raid Parties—numbering 200, including you—to accompany you into Maximal Difficulty Intermediate Dungeons.  Now, take a look at this map,” she told him, and he leaned forward to look at the map of Region #1 that she turned toward him, “and you can see that we’ve mapped out 9 dungeons that are likely to be in your Level range to maximize PICK generation.  Some of them we know are acceptable based on what you’ve told us of them, while the rest are estimates based on the Medial difficulty; if they don’t work, we’ll eliminate them from the rotation and search for more to add.  In fact, while we’ll keep looking for more, there is a good possibility that, because of your high Level, there might only be a dozen dungeons in the entire Region that are in the acceptable range even at Maximal difficulty.

“Now, as to this rotation I mentioned, you’ll notice that you’ll start with the Destitute Cliffs here,” she said, pointing toward a location to the southeast of Darkwood Vale, which he estimated would take about 30 minutes for him to run there.  “Via communication with the other Guilds, a Raid Party of 199 Guild members – which will likely be different each time – will meet you there at just after dawn, ensuring that you don’t have to wait on them to arrive or have to travel with them.  Once you’ve run them through the dungeon, you’ll head slightly northeast here,” she continued, pointing to a second location, “where you’ll meet yet another Raid Party of 199 Contenders and then run through the Sweltering Sands Dungeon.  After that, you’ll head north to the…”

He listened to her recount the itinerary she’d put together for him, starting around dawn and lasting until the evening, hitting 9 dungeons in a row, one right after another.  Essentially, he would run to the first dungeon, complete it and then disband from that Raid Party, run to the next and join another Raid Party, complete the dungeon, and then run to the third dungeon.  If he was able to complete each dungeon as quickly or faster than he did the Cloven Hills, which was also on the itinerary, then he could finish up with the ninth dungeon in time to run back to Darkwood Vale, where he could get some sleep and unload the Gold and loot that he’d acquired. 

Then, he would do the same thing the next day.  It was a brutal schedule, and one that he wasn’t sure he could keep up for too long, but he was willing to give it a try.

“I’m not sure if I can complete all 9 dungeons in one day – at least not yet.  Since I haven’t been in most of these,” he said, pointing to the map, “I don’t know how complicated they are or if they will take longer simply because of scale or other unknown reasons.  Once I complete them once, though, I’ll have a better gauge on how long they’ll take in the future.”

He couldn’t help but feel, at least in the back of his head, that he was being taken advantage of with all of this power-Leveling, but he snuffed out that feeling.  After all, he had volunteered to do this, as it was necessary to their overall survival in the future.  More importantly, it wasn’t like he wasn’t getting anything from this, as he would be acquiring a whole lot of PICK from the process, which could only benefit him as it contributed to his equipment’s Growth. 

In the end, though, he was more than aware that this was being done so that he could take advantage of them once they moved on to the Wildlands.  He needed competent and higher-Level people to defend the Defensive Fortifications that he would be obtaining from subjugating NESTs; as they were now, even with some improvements to the Fortifications that he could add to them via spending Subjugation Points, they wouldn’t be able to hold off a single horde of monsters.  Sure, he could upgrade the hell out of hundreds of Fortifications as he accumulated more SP, to the point where even Level 200 Contenders could defend the place, but that could take years to accomplish if he concentrated on only ones that they had acquired.  All that time, however, the monsters would apparently be getting stronger and stronger, so it was overall a losing battle; he would have to upgrade each Fortification more and more so that they could keep up with the stronger monsters, which meant that he couldn’t really push forward.  He would spend so much time trying to maintain what was already subjugated that pushing forward would be difficult, as a new Fortification would be difficult for any Contenders to defend.

Unless they were also a higher Level, of course.  That was what it came down to, in the end; Thaden needed tens of thousands of Contenders that could defend Fortifications as he made a push across the Wildlands, as not all of them would be like his Stage 9 or Stage 10 Fortification he’d recently abandoned.  If they were lucky, they might just be basic Stage 3 or perhaps Stage 4 to begin with, and the Contenders that stepped up to defend it had to be able to use those weaker defenses and survive.  Once they were established, they could use the SP they earned from Defensive Kills to start upgrading it further, but they needed to be able to get to that point. 

“Alright, then I guess that’s settled,” Corinna said, wrapping up their meeting.  “I’ve got to finish coordinating all of this so that we’re ready to go tomorrow.  Get some sleep, and be ready to go shortly before dawn, if possible.”

Thaden left shortly after that, heading toward the Coalition building again to see about the room that the Vice-Leader had mentioned earlier.  It didn’t take more than 15 minutes for him to walk into a room that was smaller than the Diamond-Ranked room he’d gotten used to; while it was smaller, it was also more richly decorated, as everything seemed to have accents of gold and gems, and the craftmanship was off the charts.  He ignored the ostentatious appearance as he took a long shower and then collapsed into the large—but not obscenely so—bed, as the thought of the days to come exhausted him just by considering the work he’d be putting in.  He just hoped that it would all be worth it in the end.

“I have faith that you’ll be successful, Thaden.  You have a lot of people counting on you, but you also have the world’s support behind you.  All you have to do now is be your natural impossibly strong self for all of the Contenders of the Region, and you can’t lose.”

As his eyes closed and just before he passed out, he murmured, “Thanks, Sadia.  See you tomorrow.”  It didn’t take long for him to fully fall asleep after that.