Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 13

Chapter 13

As he walked into her office, Corinna appeared surprised to see him.

“Thaden?  What are you doing all the way back here?” she asked, looking up from the paperwork she was working through on her desk.

Traveling without his flying cloak was annoying, as he had to concern himself with terrain again, but thankfully his stats were still high enough that he could tear through the environment at hundreds of miles per hour without harming himself or anyone else.  He was thankful that his Mentality was so high, otherwise he might not comprehend obstacles in his way, but with his greater Physicality and Celerity, he was able to adjust his direction on the fly, avoiding what could otherwise be an ugly collision with a tree, a boulder, or even a person.  Such a collision wouldn’t necessarily harm him, but the same couldn’t be the same for whatever or whoever he ran into. 

When he’d arrived at Darkwood Vale, he changed into his Party-based Growth set of equipment, which gave him a much higher Personality – so he didn’t have a problem getting into the city.  In fact, his reception by the Charee City Guards had been so pleased to see him that they practically fell all over themselves to invite him into the city, nearly fawning over him until it became uncomfortable.  It also didn’t help that one of the sharp-eyed Guards had seen him waiting in line to enter and called out for an escort to bring him straight inside without having to spend the few minutes it would take waiting in line for his turn.  The other Contenders visibly and audibly wondered what was going on, calling even more attention to him, and to see the deference the Charee showed him was unusual enough that it caused a stir.

The only good thing about the escort into the city was the fact that he entered quickly, removing himself from the crowds that had quickly gathered at the sudden occurrence.  It could also be because the other Contenders recognized him or noticed his Level, but for the most part, the attention was because of the Charee reacting to him.

Of course, he quickly realized after being singled out by the Guards—in a positive way, at least—that his new title, Hero of Tarth, was having an effect on the locals.  Apparently, “All citizens of Tarth will now instinctively recognize your authority and act accordingly, regardless of your current Level or stats,” meant that they treated him with deference, no matter what his stats were; he had been tempted to test that assumption by quickly swapping out his Growth equipment to his solo set, where his Personality stat would take a dive, but he decided not to take the chance that they would turn hostile.

Once inside the gates, he wasted no time traveling to the Guilded Glory headquarters, and after being immediately recognized by dozens of people in the busy lobby, he was sent up to the Guild Leader’s office.  He felt relief at getting away from the crowds despite only being inundated by so many people for a short time, as the attention – both by the overly deferent Charee and Contenders who tended to look at him with awe – was already too much for him, especially with his recent self-imposed solitude in the Wildlands.  He found that, even after all this time in Tarth, he still didn’t really like being around too many people, and while he thought he'd become better at working with many different people in Raid Parties, he was still uncomfortable being around large crowds – especially when he was the center of attention.

“I thought I would deliver a bunch of stuff to you myself,” he responded with a smile, as he practically collapsed in the chair in front of her desk.  He’d been running at full speed for hours to arrive at the city, after all, and it felt good to sit down.  “I know that it’s only been a few days since we saw each other, but how is everything going?”

When passing through the hole in the mountain range where The Citadel had been, he had seen a few teams of Charee working with a few random Contenders beginning to fill the large crater there, but there wasn’t a lot of other progress on the wall they were going to be creating.  Whether it was the fact that he’d gotten used to purchasing upgrades to a Defensive Fortification or his awareness of time lapsing was all screwed up, but he figured more work would’ve been done in the few days he’d spent in the Wildlands.

Corinna smiled back, leaning away with relief from the paperwork she’d been working on.  “Construction is going well, though we’re still organizing teams to work on it.  Our funds are depleting quickly, however, as we’ve started a number of crafters on rapidly boosting their abilities, so I hope you’ve brought some with you,” she pleaded, and he nodded.  “One strange thing happened, however, which my intuition tells me you might know something about.”

“And what is that?”

Corinna leaned forward, putting her arms on her desk as looked him straight in the eyes.  “At first, when we started the process of recruiting the Charee to work on construction at the gap, they were highly reluctant to work on such a project, even with more than sufficient monetary incentives.  At one point, though, when were getting desperate to find anyone that could start immediately, one of our Guild’s representatives off-handedly mentioned you and the part you were playing in this project, and the Charee changed their tune instantly.  It was as if someone had flipped a switch in their heads, and we started to be flooded with volunteers.  Not just paid workers, but honest-to-goodness volunteers, who were willing to work for no pay at all.  Sensing something was off, we didn’t accept workers on a voluntary basis, but instead agreed to pay all that we hired; it would’ve saved us some Gold, of course, but the feeling of unnatural wrongness that came from the fanatical volunteers was something we couldn’t take advantage of.

“Do you have any idea what that was all about?” she finally asked.

Thaden sighed as he rubbed his fingers against his temples with his eyes closed, feeling a headache coming on that was instantly healed by his passive Natural Regeneration.  “Wow, really?” he whispered to himself, before he opened his eyes and looked back at the curious expression on Corinna’s face.  “For good or bad, I think I know what that’s all about.”

He then proceeded to tell the Guild Leader about his confrontation with the Wardens and how they had essentially forced the title of “Hero of Tarth” on him.  “…and I honestly think that they believed what they were doing was what the System wanted, but the consequences of their forceful action nearly killed me.”  Corinna passively listened to him describe the way the title was supposed to control him and how it backfired, and then described the benefits that he did receive from the title, which included the bit about the citizens of Tarth recognizing his authority and acting accordingly.

Every once in a while, especially when he was speaking about the System itself, her eyes glossed over as if she wasn’t paying attention, only for her full focus to come back to him a moment later when he finished that part of his telling.  He began to see the tell-tale sign that the System was actively manipulating the thoughts and memories of the Contenders in real-time; he usually just saw the end-result, such as when the people involved in the destruction of the Coalition Meeting Hall hadn’t seemed to be aware of what exactly happened with the Adversarial entity, but now it seemed as though the System was actively monitoring and “fixing” any references to Thaden’s title trying to manipulate him through the System’s direct influence.

“That’s great!” she eventually exclaimed when he was done, having heard—or retained—nothing he’d mentioned about the System trying to control him.  “I still don’t think we should take advantage of the Charee through the use of this title, but it certainly makes a lot more sense, now.  What I’m most interested in, however, is what the title said about Perceived Level affecting Quests and Achievements, as well as your supposed ability to create Quests for other Adventurer Coalition members.  Have you tested that yet?”

Internally sighing at the active manipulation of her memories and thoughts, he pushed past that as he considered her question.  “No, not yet.  Do you think it could help?”

“I have no idea, but it couldn’t hurt to try.  It depends on just how much customization you can put into those Quests; it could give us another way to Level-up quickly, which will be important to survival, as you know.”

“Speaking of that,” Thaden said, sitting up straight again, “With the title benefits also came an increased in my Emboldened Leadership Competency.  With the Advancements I got from it Leveling-up so much, I think I have a way to allow those that join a Raid Party with me to earn PICK.  I need to test it, of course, but if it works, I can help to power-Level a whole bunch of people again.”

“Really?  How so?”

The Omenic Drifter described his new Advancements and how he thought they could manipulate the Contenders’ Perceived Level enough that they’d be within the 50-Level threshold.

She was silent for a moment after he finished his explanation.  “Hmm.  I’m not exactly sure how the Perceived Levels work, but have you thought about the 150-Level gap for Intermediate Dungeons?”

“What 150-Level gap?”

She looked at him in confusion for a moment, before she seemed to remember that he hadn’t gone through Training.  “Intermediate Dungeons won’t allow those with a 150-plus Level gap between them into the same dungeon.  I could be wrong, of course, as Perceived Level might bypass this, but I just thought you should know.”

“I didn’t mention this rule before, because I’m confident that proper Perceived Levels should allow you in with them.”

Thaden thought about what Sadia told him, and as she seemed fairly sure that it wouldn’t matter, he figured he should trust her; she had been right enough about things that he would give her the benefit of the doubt.

“We’ll just have to see, but Perceived Levels should help get us all in,” he stated, and she smiled in relief. 

Looking excited, she said, “If that’s the case, then I can look into getting you some volunteers to try.  When you prove that it works, we’ll set up a rotation with the Guild members—”

Thaden held up his hand to stop her.  “Not just Guilded Glory,” he interrupted.  “We’ll need everyone’s help to survive this Phase, so I need to party with as many as possible from all the Guilds.  We’re in this together, so we can’t just build up a single Guild and hope to succeed.”

“But—” she began to protest, before her jaw clenched shut.  With a sigh, she seemed to deflate in her seat.  “You’re right.  It would be selfish to hog your abilities for just Guilded Glory, when a crisis like this is endangering everyone.  I’ll speak to the other Leaders and see what we can arrange—that is, of course, that things work out with the Perceived Level.”

“Of course.”

She smirked at him, arching an eyebrow.  “Now, enough talk; show what you’ve got for me.”

Chuckling he started handing her Gold, materials, and even thousands of different equipment items that he couldn’t use and that he’d picked up while in the Wildlands.  Her eyes grew wider as he kept going, until she had to put up a hand to stop him with a laugh.  “I’m actually full; I can’t fit any more.  Let me unload some of this downstairs and then we can finish up.”

The entire process took about a half-hour, but eventually he’d given her everything extra that he’d had in his Inventory.  Over a million Gold accompanied piles of other items, and she was very thankful for his contribution toward their survival efforts.  “I should have a Raid Party ready to go with you in a few hours, if you’ll be around town for that long?” she asked as they finished up.

“Yes.  I’ll be at the Coalition looking into these Quests.”

She nodded before wrapping her arms around his neck and gave him a long kiss.  “Then I better see about getting this done,” she said once they separated.  “The quicker we figure this out, the sooner we can have people out in the Wildlands helping you with Phase 4.”

On Cloud 9 as he left the Guild headquarters, Thaden made his way over to the Coalition building and the moment he walked inside, the uncomfortable feeling that he’d had with the Guards at the gate was repeated – and then multiplied by 10.  “Thaden!  I’m so honored that you deigned to visit our branch,” the Darkwood Vale Coalition Vice-Leader said as he approached, after the Omenic Drifter had only taken a single step inside the building.  “May I show you to the room that we’ve prepared for you?” the Charee further asked, practically radiating excitement and nervousness in equal amounts.  “How about a refreshment?  Or would you like to inspect—”

“No, wait, hold up,” Thaden interrupted as he held up his hands for the Vice-Leader to stop talking.  “I don’t need a room or, uh, anything else like that for now.  I came to learn about, uh,” he began to say, before he realized that the entire lobby was silent and was watching him and the Vice-Leader.  “How about we go to your office, instead?”

Less than 30 seconds later, he was sitting down in the Vice-Leader’s comfortable chair inside of his office, despite his protestations that it wasn’t necessary.  “No, you are the premier authority in the Coalition, so you deserve all the comfort that we can provide to you,” the Charee insisted, taking his own seat across from where he would normally do business. 

Highly uncomfortable, he did his best to shrug off the feeling as he turned to business.  “Right, uh, well, I’m here because I was informed that I could create Quests?  How do I go about doing that, and what exactly does that mean?”

“Yes, absolutely, you can certainly create Quests for other Adventurer Coalition members.  All you need to do is access the Full Access Quest Supervisor, or FAQS as we call it for short, and you can create any Quest that you can think of.”  The Vice-Leader pointed to a button on his desk that glowed with a vivid green color, indicating that it was what he was talking about.

“FAQS?”

With a nod, the Charee continued.  “Before you start, there are a few restrictions that are in place that you need to be aware of,” he said as he began ticking things off on his fingers.  “First, Quest Rewards are entirely set by the System and cannot be altered, though they can be influenced.  For instance, if you would prefer that the rewards after completing the quest are only PICK, or only additional stats, you can dictate that when you are creating the Quest; it is the amount of the reward that is determined by the System, itself.

“Second, the Minimum Recommended Level, Minimum Recommended Party Size, and Quest Difficulty for any Quest are also determined by the System based on the parameters of the Quest Description, Completion Requirements, and any potential Quest Failure Penalties.  In other words, the only way to alter something like the Minimum Recommended Level is to change something like the Completion Requirements, as that is the only way to influence those aspects of the Quest.

“Third, while you can dictate Quest Time Limits, they cannot be set for more than 900 days or for less than 48 hours.  Only certain SPECIAL Quests issued directly by the System can violate those rules, though it happens rarely.

“Fourth, there are a few things in the Description and Completion Requirements that are restricted.  Directing Contenders to harm or kill each other or any citizens of Tarth, for instance, is something that isn’t allowed; the same goes for imprisoning or deliberately taking action to limit the development of a Contender through nefarious means is also forbidden, as that would go against the main purpose of this world and the Coalition in general.  Destruction of private property owned by any Contender or native to Tarth is also not allowed, and any description that names a certain person or group of people, like one of your Guilds, in the Description or Completion Requirements is automatically cancelled upon creation.

“Fifth, Contenders that accept one of these Quests you create can only complete 1 of them per 24 hours.  This prevents any potential abuse of them—not that you would create something that would be abused, of course,” the Vice-Leader quickly rushed to assure Thaden, before he continued.

“Lastly, and I apologize profusely for this one – as it isn’t my rule but the System’s – is that you cannot accept or complete any Quest that you create.  They can only be accepted by other Contenders in the Coalition, as they are meant to help develop the Contenders and not… you, unfortunately.”

Thaden waved off the apology, as it wasn’t necessary.  While it was slightly disappointing that he wouldn’t be able to constantly create and accept hundreds of Quests that he could complete quickly, that wasn’t really the point to creating these Quests in the first place.  They were meant to help the other Contenders, after all, especially at this critical moment when they had some time before Phase 4 started to kick their butts.

The Omenic Drifter had a question for the Vice-Leader before he got started seeing what he could create.  “You didn’t mention any restrictions on the Rank Requirement.  Does that mean there isn’t any?”

“Correct.  At least for what you create.”

“What do you mean by that?”

The Charee across from him spread his hands in helplessness.  “The System restricts the Quests that the Coalition can actively create even more than the restrictions I told you about.  For the most part, the Quests that we create are based upon the average Level of Contenders in the Region, the average Coalition Rank of Contenders, and the Developmental Phase that the Contenders are currently in.  For instance, even though we have access to Developmental Phase 4 NEST SUBJUGATION Quests now, the average Level and Coalition Rank of the Contenders in this Region aren’t yet high enough to begin issuing those types of Quests.  You, on the other hand, can certainly create a NEST SUBJUGATION Quest or something else that involves the Wildlands and Developmental Phase 4.”

Thaden had been wondering about the exact mechanism that prevented the Coalition from creating the Quests that would’ve benefited him the most while he had been delving through higher-difficulty Intermediate Dungeons, and now he got at least a little clarification.

“Does that also mean that I can create Maximal Difficulty Intermediate Dungeon Quests, then?”

The Vice-Leader nodded.

“Great!  Alright, let me play around with this, and I’ll let you know if I have any questions.”

Without waiting for confirmation, Thaden touched the button that initiated the FAQS, and a new window popped up in his vision. 

Full Access Quest Supervisor

Choose Quest Type: (options)

Choose Quest Time Limit: 48 hours – 900 days

Quest Difficulty: (varies)

Minimum Recommended Level: (varies)

Minimum Recommended Party Size: (varies)

Quest Description: (add description)

Completion Requirements: (add requirements for completion)

Quest Failure Penalties: (optional)

Quest Rewards: (standard reward or PICK, gold, stats, Rank Progress, spell/ability selections)

As the Vice-Leader had told him, there were only a few things that he could actually dictate in a Quest.  The first thing he did was create a Quest that involved the NESTs out in the Wildlands.  He kept it fairly simple, as he didn’t need it too complicated.  As he finished the Time Limit, Description, and Completion Requirements, he selected Wood Rank from the Rank Requirement options, and then selected PICK as the reward.  It took a second for it to complete once it was done, and he was able to see the results once the System added in the other details.

[Quest Type: NEST SUBJUGATION

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: 180 days

Quest Difficulty: High-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 375

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 50

Quest Description: Venture into the Wildlands and participate in Subjugating a NEST

Completion Requirements: Subjugate (1) NEST in the Wildlands

Quest Rewards: 500,000 PICK]

Thaden looked at the result and was shocked at the Quest Reward.  “500,000 PICK?  That’s nearly as much as a single Level for someone at Level 375!”

“Actually, the PICK requirements at Level 375 to reach Level 376 was 587,500.”

“Close enough,” he mumbled in response to Sadia in his head.  The Vice-Leader couldn’t hear her, and he spoke over her words.

“Did you prioritize only a PICK reward for a NEST SUBJUGATION Quest?  That seems about right, then.”

He nodded, knowing that this was exactly the thing he needed in order to Level-up a bunch of Contenders.  Now that his title allowed Perceived Level to affect Quests and Achievements, as it previously only affected dungeon access and loot rewards from monster deaths, he could take advantage of these Quests to boost the Levels of the Contenders up like crazy.  It was a shame that they could only complete one of these Quests he created per 24 hours, but he could rotate between quite a few parties to maximize the amount of PICK they could obtain.

With one successfully created, he quickly designed another one focused on the Wildlands – but this time, it dealt with the Defensive Fortifications.

[Quest Type: FORTIFICATION DEFENSE

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: 180 days

Quest Difficulty: High-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 385

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 80

Quest Description: Defend a Defensive Fortification in the Wildlands for a full 24 hours

Completion Requirements: You must stay within the bounds of a Defensive Fortification for (24) hours while preventing any monsters from killing the Fortification Guardian

Quest Rewards: 150,000 PICK]

The reward for this Quest, which was based on defending a Defensive Fortification for 24 hours, was much less than subjugating a NEST.  He guessed that made sense, as it wasn’t quite as hard to defend a location that had defenses to help with the process, but he changed it up a little.  Instead of 24 hours, he made it 72 hours—or 3 days—and was pleased at the change of reward.

[Quest Type: FORTIFICATION DEFENSE

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: 180 days

Quest Difficulty: High-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 400

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 100

Quest Description: Defend a Defensive Fortification in the Wildlands for a full 72 hours

Completion Requirements: You must stay within the bounds of a Defensive Fortification for (72) hours while preventing any monsters from killing the Fortification Guardian

Quest Rewards: 600,000 PICK]

The minimum recommended Levels and Party Size had gone up as a result of the lengthier time, but instead of the reward simply tripling because of it being 3 days instead of just 1, it quadrupled.  An extra 150,000 PICK didn’t sound like a lot, but it made a difference in the long run.

Lastly, he simply made a Maximal Difficulty Intermediate Dungeon Quest that worked for any Maximal Difficulty Intermediate Dungeon; there were a limited number of them that he could still gain PICK from, but he didn’t want to restrict himself in trying to select one ahead of time for each party he helped to power-Level.

[Quest Type: DUNGEON MAINTENANCE

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: 180 days

Quest Difficulty: Low-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 250

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 200

Quest Description: Investigate and complete any Intermediate Dungeon on Maximal difficulty with a Raid Party

Completion Requirements: Completely clear any Intermediate dungeon on Maximal difficulty

Quest Rewards: 350,000 PICK]

It wasn’t quite as much PICK as a reward as the ones he’d created before for the Wildlands, but it was a good start.  He had some ideas for some more in the future, but for now, he had created all of the Quests he needed to help the Contenders Level-up. 

“Thank you,” he told the Vice-Leader as he got up to leave.

“I’m very happy to have been of service,” the Charee said.  “If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”

He left the Coalition building shortly thereafter, and he began to wander around the city while he waited for Corinna to organize a Raid Party for him.  With the Quests he’d created, he was ready to start the process of power-Leveling as many people as possible; the last test to see if would actually work out was ahead of him, though.

It was time to see if he could boost Perceived Levels high enough to gain PICK when they were in a party with him.

(Note: I ended up adding this to the benefits of his title to the earlier chapter, so that Quests could actually be functional for other Contenders when in a party with him: Perceived Level of your party members on Tarth now influences Quests and Achievements)