Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 30

(This is the final chapter for my $5 Patrons, at least for now; once the book is complete, I will be releasing them until you have the whole thing available to read before it comes out on eBook)

Chapter 30

In front of everyone in Region #1, as well as the Aelveen with Thaden, was a Quest notification that sent a spike of fear through his entire body.

[Quest Type: SPECIAL

Rank Requirement: Any

Quest Time Limit: 12 hours

Quest Difficulty: High-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 390

Minimum Recommended Party Size: Any

Quest Description: A sudden breaking of the Warpath Dungeon (Maximal) has caused an expulsion of high-Level monsters that are even now flooding through Region #1!  Stop them immediately before they can cause further damage to nearby dungeon stability!

Completion Requirements: Eliminate all 3,125 Ogre Warriors, 2,808 Ogre Berserkers, 1,293 Ogre Magi, and 42 Ogre Chieftains

Bonus Quest Rewards: 3,000,000 gold, 9,000,000 PICK, 300 Rank Progress up to Platinum, and (300) Consumable Free Stat Stones

Quest Failure Penalties: Death of all Contenders and Charee in Region #1, along with the destruction of all existing infrastructure

Current available Region #1 Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: 821,124/821,124]

“Oh, crap.  Sadia, where’s the Warpath Dungeon again?” he asked his squirrel companion quickly.

She answered immediately, faster than he could remember himself in his slightly panicked state.  “Approximately 412 miles to the south-southeast of Darkwood Vale, located along the southern rim of the Region.”  Thaden quickly pictured the map in his head, based on what she told him, and he was able to finally pinpoint its location.

“We have to hurry, then,” Tac said as he overheard.  The others were nearby, finishing off one of the monsters they had been fighting.

Unfortunately for the people nearby the dungeon break, which was likely caused by a Legion Commander, he and the Aelveen had just barely started a Maximal dungeon that held an Adversarial entity in it, and there was no easy way out through the entrance – which didn’t exist anymore.  They would have to fight their way out as quickly and safely as possible, and then have to travel all the way down south, which was even further than the distance quoted by Sadia; the Charee Wardens had been responsible for the southern half of the Region, and right now Thaden and his Aelveen Party were almost the furthest away they could be right now being in the northwest corner of the Region.

“If you go all-out, can you finish off everything in here quickly?” Tac added before Thaden could say anything.

“Are you sure—?” he asked, doubtful that he had heard correctly.  Despite helping to clear dozens of dungeons of any condensed Adversarial energy over the last week, the Wardens had preferred to do all the fighting instead of letting Thaden go wild with his Leach combo and slaughter everything.  While it was definitely slower than if he was able to do it all on his own, over the last few days, the Aelveen had adapted to the fact that they essentially couldn’t be hurt and would be able to be healed quickly even if they were; as a result, their clearance speed had dramatically improved to the point where they were able to finish a dungeon at about triple the time he thought it would take him to do it himself.

That was definitely an improvement over taking 7 or 8 times longer than if he did it by himself.

“Yes.  We need to get out of here quickly and do what we can to salvage the situation.  Now, go!”

Thaden didn’t need to be told twice.  Thankfully, since this was a Maximal-difficulty dungeon, he hadn’t changed into his Growth Party set of equipment, though the items were quickly improving enough to make them viable even at Maximal difficulty.  He thought that another 6 or 7 Minimal or Medial dungeons might get them to that point, but he’d have to see how far along they really were after they were complete to evaluate their readiness.

Taking off at a ground-eating sprint, Thaden and Sadia launched themselves over or through the herds of elephant-sized gorillas who hit pretty hard, but they were too slow to catch either of them.  When they had all the gorillas’ attention, and were far enough away from the Party of Aelveen, the two of them unleashed their Leach spells on the Level 425 monsters, immediately tearing through those ahead and behind them.  They didn’t stop to mop up any stragglers, as his Party could do that well enough, so they kept running and didn’t let anything slow them down.  Even when a solid wall was shunted into place when a Mini Boss appeared, they ran around in circles to kill the adds in seconds, before taking down the 40-foot-tall gorilla monster that showed itself in another second once its invulnerability shield went away.

The Nexus Corrupter at the end of the dungeon fell just a quickly, despite being Level 515; fortunately, the Aelveen had been kept up with him fairly well through his sprint, staying back far enough that they weren’t hurt by his spells, meaning that they were easily able to escape the dungeon before it collapsed around them.

Catching their breath after their sprint through the dungeon, Tac placed his hand on Thaden’s shoulder, which the Omenic Drifter fought the urge to throw off.  “Well done.  That was… much faster than we could have done it as a Party.  I can now see why you prefer to go solo through those dungeons,” he said, before shaking his head.  “But enough of that; we need to go.  But knowing how fast you can travel with that cloak, I need you to go alone ahead of us.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea—” Che protested, but was cut off with a quick chop of Tac’s hand in the air. 

“Stop.  You can argue with me on the way, but you have all seen how capable he is, and I trust him to do his part to stop these monsters before they can cause any more damage.”  Turning to Thaden, he added, “Go now, as fast as you can.  We’ll be a few hours behind you, so don’t wait to get started.  We’re counting on you.”

Thaden nodded.  “I’m going to leave the Party now—” he said, holding up his hand to stop Che and Fer’s protests, “—because some of my abilities are better if I’m solo.  I’ll do my best to find you after these things are taken care of.”

Instead of arguing, Tac actually removed Thaden from the party before he could leave himself, and a second later, Sadia dematerialized and entered the AMPs on his equipment.  A second after that saw his Wyvern’s Flight cloak around his neck and back, and he shot into the air, heading southeast toward Darkwood Vale, where he would be better able to orient himself to his eventual destination.

“Looks like they are really starting to trust you.  Or at least most of them.”

Thaden chuckled at that.  Despite the way they had all worked together to kill more than a few Adversarial monsters which were trying to take over dungeons, Che had never really warmed up to the Omenic Drifter helping them.  He couldn’t say he blamed her too much, given how many times he had killed her to get her to see reason, but at least the others weren’t openly hostile.

Thaden pushed his flight speed to the limit, passing over the landscape below as fast as he’d ever been able to, his arm extended above his head to help deflect the air around him.  This kind of flying had become so much easier as his base Physicality went up, as it was no strain at all to push against the air density trying to keep him from moving through it at what he thought might be nearly 400 miles per hour, gauging by the blur of the trees and other things below him that were whipping by.  Thankfully, Sadia was able to “see” ahead of him and gave him warnings of when hills or mountains suddenly appeared that he had to go over, as it was difficult to see ahead because of the speed he was at.  With some minor adjustments to his course as he started getting closer to his Darkwood Vale, he passed over the city and the surrounding area in seconds, using it to better guide his journey through the air.

Thaden’s skin was cold from the constant flying by the time they arrived in the vicinity of the Warpath dungeon shortly before the 3-hour mark, with Thaden having crossed nearly 1,000 miles in that time.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have to travel all the way to the dungeon’s location to find evidence of the Ogres that had been released, as he stopped over a town that was at the end of the process of being overrun.

Ogre Warrior – Intermediate Maximal

Level 392 (Perceived Level: 510)

Ogre Berserker – Intermediate Maximal

Level 392 (Perceived Level: 510)

Ogre Magi – Intermediate Maximal

Level 395 (Perceived Level: 514)

Ogre Chieftain – Intermediate Maximal

Level 415 (Perceived Level: 540)

The Ogre Warriors below were 15-foot tall humanoids with oversized bald heads, broad shoulders that were almost as wide as they were tall, and so many muscles showing underneath their leather and steel armor that they almost looked corpulent rather than strong.  That was further belied by the fact that the Warriors were wielding enormous clubs made from a tree trunk and then wrapped in crisscrossing iron bands, making it both more resilient and destructive.

The Ogre Berserkers appeared a little bit smaller than the Warriors, but that was only because they weren’t wearing any armor – only a bloody loincloth that was in serious need of some help to cover everything up.  They also had necklaces of what appeared to be Human skulls around their necks, some of them still with flesh attached to them, and old and new scars were carved into their torso and their limbs to the point where there was very little of their dark greenish-red skin that wasn’t marked up.  They held no weapon in their hands, but a band of shiny metal was wrapped around their hands, like some sort of oversized steel-made brass knuckles. 

When he spotted the Ogre Magi in the back, he was momentarily confused because they were only about half the size as the Warriors and the Berserkers, and were wearing blood-stained dark-grey robes, to boot.  Each of them held what appeared to be a black staff in their hands, which they held over their head as they cast elemental spell after elemental spell toward their distant targets. 

And finally, there was a single Ogre Chieftain that was in the middle of the hundreds of monsters, standing twice the height and width of even the tallest Warrior, looking like a parent directing its children to go play.  It was almost entirely covered in a glowing metal suit of armor, with only the front part of its face exposed to the air, and it held a double-headed battleaxe that was nearly as tall as it was, with axe blades that added up to be nearly 15 feet in width. 

If Thaden had arrived a few minutes earlier, he might have been able to stop the Ogres from entering the town, but as it was, he had barely arrived as they were finishing up the slaughter of everyone inside.  It clearly became obvious that the walls, which were likely strong enough to handle most land-bound monsters up to Level 100 or so, had been demolished by the Berserkers with a few punches, as he saw them collapsing buildings with ease and what he could only guess was a fanatical enjoyment of causing such wanton destruction.

As for the Town Guards and any remaining defenders, such as Contenders, he didn’t see anyone still alive and kicking; in fact, he didn’t see any bodies at all.  Before he descended and started wiping them out, he looked to see if his Leach spell would inadvertently kill any civilians, but as the Ogres were nearly all the way through the town, he didn’t think there were any still alive.

A glance toward the north along the road leading toward what he expected was another town revealed some retreating figures passing through a small copse of trees, and while he couldn’t see their nametags, he was 100% sure they weren’t Ogres, as they were too small for that.  They were either Charee who had fled or Contenders who retreated in the face of what was coming for them; either way, it somewhat explained why he didn’t see anyone alive or any bodies.

Of course, when he flew downwards in anticipation of wiping these Ogres out, he discovered another reason there were no bodies.

The Ogre Berserkers and Warriors, as well as the Chieftain, were eating the dead.

Their oversized heads apparently came with an oversized mouth and throat, because one of the monsters lifted up what appeared to be the torso, head, and arms of a Charee woman and tossed the whole thing in its mouth like it was a piece of popcorn, and even over the crashing of buildings collapsing and the bellows of the Warriors as they smashed the other side of the wall in their way, he could hear the crunching and sizzling of the Ogre’s—unexpectedly—extremely acidic saliva eating through the body as it was consumed.

Well, if I didn’t have a reason to kill them before this, I’d say this counts.

Even as he came within range of the closest Ogres, he was already being targeted by the Magi, who had spotted his approach; dozens of powerful globs of green acid shot up at him, followed by dark bolts of lightning, but he dodged them all as he started strafing through the town, letting his Leach range catch the monsters as he passed.  With dozens of heals going off on him every second, the attacking Ogres started collapsing where they stood, many of them not even knowing he was there.  As more of them died, the Chieftain saw him and roared so loudly it shook the already heavily damaged walls of the town, which got the attention of every Ogre within a mile or two. 

Warriors and Berserkers started jumping toward him, as if to knock him out of the sky with their clubs or their fists, but all that did was bring them closer to him and his spells.  Soon enough, they were being flung every which way as they died in mid-air, and eventually he got close enough to the Chieftain to start taking him out.  Surprisingly, despite all the damage from his Leach spell hitting the oversized Ogre, it took a whole 2 seconds for it the Boss-type monster to finally fall, and as it collapsed, it took out yet another building behind it.  Another few seconds of flying around was all it took to wrap up the rest of the monsters, and the stopped in the middle of the air above the town as he looked at the sheer devastation. 

“Check your messages to make sure you didn’t accidentally kill any survivors that might have been hiding.”

Thaden immediately followed her advice, because the last thing he wanted to do was kill any innocents; not only would he feel horrible if he ended up doing that, but if he didn’t resurrect them in a timely manner, he would get a black aura.

As he opened up his message feed, he was hit by a chunk of PICK that he’d earned from the slaughter of the Ogres, and his body was beginning to feel a little strained from all of the excess he was holding onto.  He already had quite a bit before he started clearing dungeons of their Adversarial infiltrators, and when he wasn’t able to wear his Growth items, it was starting to add up.  He did some quick mental math, and based on what he had just earned from killing the Ogres solo, he was afraid he might max himself out before he was done.  Even if it wasn’t as much as he’d receive if he was solo in a dungeon, it was still enough to concern him.

I guess there’s nothing holding me back now.

He hadn’t changed into a second set of Growth equipment on his way to the area for a couple of reasons.  The first was that he wasn’t sure how strong the Ogres would be and didn’t want to go into the fight handicapped.  Second, and most importantly, trying to change out into another outfit while flying 400 miles per hour was nearly impossible.

But now he needed to be able to kill these monsters without suffering from PICK overload, and his Growth items were the perfect thing to sink his accumulating PICK into.  He set down in the middle of town after verifying on his message feed that he hadn’t killed anyone but Ogres when he strafed above the town, and he set about switching up his gear.

“A little risky, but I guess the only other alternative is to Level-up.”

He nodded even as he quickly finished the changeover.  Leveling-up was certainly a possibility, but he was still holding out hope that he could run through a bunch of Maximal difficulty Intermediate dungeons once this whole Adversary crisis was over.  With his new Growth gear to Level-up, it was even more important to be able to earn as much bonus PICK as possible with monsters that would still be beneficial with their Perceived Level.

Still, if it came down to suffering from another PICK overload and Leveling up, he would choose to Level-up at least a little bit to relieve some of the pressure.  But it would only be done as a last resort, if there were no other choices available to him.

With that done, he again felt much weaker, as this set was currently only Level 1, but he had a feeling that would soon change.  He would have to land among the next set of monsters so that he could change out his Wyvern’s Flight cloak for his Growth cape, but that didn’t worry him too much; now that he’d seen them, he knew that he was still strong enough to handle these monsters without too many worries, even with lower stats and few bonuses.  It might just take longer initially to kill them, but it still wouldn’t be too bad.

At least he hoped so.

With that thought in mind, he glanced around where he’d landed in the town to see if there were any bodies he could Resurrect before he left; with not even a stray body part in sight, he took off moments later.  If he had more time, he would search through the wreckage looking for more innocent victims, but he had to get moving before even more people died where the rest of the Ogres were attacking.

He already knew it was going to be a long day, so he might as well get started.