Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 27

(Another reward/stat chapter! This one took me a while again, but what you've been waiting for is finally done! Note: I noticed some errors in my equipment bonus calculations for earlier in this book, so it might appear higher or lower in this chapter than what it was before.)

Chapter 27

While he was tired, Thaden didn’t want to sleep just yet, especially since it was only late afternoon.  After ensuring that the Aelveen were properly taken care of, something he had worried about being able to do until he saw their Platinum Badges, he figured he might as well get some errands done before he got some sleep, himself.  As such, after confirming where his room was thanks to the Coalition receptionist that showed him its location, he left the building and made his way toward Guilded Glory headquarters.

It didn’t take long after arriving at the building that acted as the Guild’s hub for him to realize something was wrong.  While it had never been exactly empty of people, as most of its members were out in Raid Parties or working some sort of business angle he didn’t care to understand, what he walked into now was a comparative madhouse.

“What’s going on?” he yelled his question at the Guild receptionist, Evan, once he managed to wiggle his way through the crowd.  The general feel of the room was one of nervous worry, if he was able to judge the furtive glances all around and the too-loud conversations that he had trouble following.

Evan waved around at the crowd, clearly exasperated – but trying to hide his worry, as well.  His odd tone said it all.  “Entire Raid Parties have been lost in dungeons that they shouldn’t have had any problem clearing, and there are reports of other dungeons acting strange.  It’s not just our Guild, either; as far as we can tell, it’s Region-wide.  People are scared, and only the dungeons nearby that have a proven track record are being delved right now, leading to horrendous wait times.”

Well, crap.  The Adversary’s presence is already starting to affect the Contenders.  I know they needed the rest, but perhaps I should’ve pushed them to do at least one more before we came here.  Judging by how tired they were when they shuffled into their room, however, he knew that wasn’t likely to end well if he had changed his mind. 

“Well, that’s not good.  Does anyone have any idea what’s causing this?” he asked, wondering if it would be a good idea to mention the Adversary or not.  On the one hand, he thought they should know what they were up against, and it didn’t feel right keeping this kind of information from his fellow Contenders – especially with the danger the Adversary presented to them.  On the other hand, he wasn’t sure what the System would do if the word got out to the general public; would it simply erase all of their memories again to stop the panic that would ensue, or would it do something more drastic.

In the end, he decided not to blurt anything out right now, especially with so many people listening; he’d rather wait and speak with Corinna before he made any decision regarding revealing that kind of information.

“Not really.  Some think it is the System ramping up the difficulty of some dungeons unexpectedly, potentially as some sort of hidden challenge to teach us the dangers of complacency or some such nonsense, but no one really knows for sure.”

“Well, hopefully it’s all fixed soon,” he responded a bit nonchalantly, before switching gears.  “Hey, I have a bunch of junk I need to sell; you think you could help me with that?”

“Absolutely!  It might look busy, but with dungeon-delving down across the board, work has been a little light.”

Evan’s eyes were permanently opened at their widest amount for the next hour as Thaden unloaded item after item, the majority of them a higher Level than anyone could use right now, but that would change as the Contenders continued to progress.  “Most of this probably won’t sell for a while,” the Guild’s receptionist said as he placed it all into the Contender Market or kept for the Guild’s own use, “but some of it might sell early as people snatch it up in anticipation of raising their Level over the next few months.  Until then, we’re a bit tight on funds to pay up front—”

“Not a problem.  For now, if anything sells, invest it right back into the Guild.  In fact, here,” he said, before handing Evan a sack filled with 10 million gold coins.  It wasn’t nearly everything he had on him, but he figured he might as well keep some with him in case he needed it – especially if he wasn’t going to get much from extractions while hunting for Adversarial monsters.

He didn’t think Evan’s eyes could open any wider, but he was wrong.

“T-Thanks, Thaden.  This will go a long way toward stabilizing not only the Guild, but the Contender economy.”

“Not a problem; I’m just glad I was in a position to help.”  With a nod and a smile, he glanced at the steps leading upstairs to the office.  “Corinna in?”

“When is she not?” Evan scoffed, before waving him toward the staircase.  “Go on up; I’m sure she’d love to see you.”

With his Inventory now much lighter, Thaden didn’t hesitate to make his way above, knocking on the door to the Guild Leader’s office.  It didn’t take more than a second after his knock before he was called in.

While he would never tell her to her face, Corinna looked even more overworked and stressed than the last time Thaden had met with her not even a week before.  Stray hairs seemed to stick out from her head as she bent over her desk, while what he could see of her eyes appeared to be surrounded by dark circles, indicating she wasn’t getting nearly enough sleep.  A disheveled-looking cot in the corner, clashing with the rest of the office’s fancy décor, told him that she was probably sleeping in the office.  Even as he walked in, he was nearly bowled over by what was likely an assistant to the Guild Leader, as the man brought in another stack of papers that he plopped down on the corner of the already full desk, before leaving with a smaller stack of what looked like completed forms.

“Thanks, David,” she murmured at her assistant without even looking up.  As David left, closing the door behind him, she finally looked up at Thaden.  A smile cracked her permanent frown as she saw who it was, though it didn’t last long.  “What?!  Level 450 already?  Were you just holding back when you were running Raid Parties with us, or what?” she joked, but it fell flat at the tiredness in her voice. 

Chuckling, Thaden said, “Something like that.  It’s good to be back, even if it’s only temporary.  You, uh, look good.”

Sighing, Corinna put down her pen and ran her fingers through her hair, wincing as it caught in a few knots.  “No, I don’t.  I’m more than aware that I probably look like crap, but I can’t help it.  I’ve been doing everything I can to keep this Guild running, but it never seems like enough.  I really don’t know how Rachel did it…”  Her words trailed off as she stared off into space for a few seconds, before shaking herself and yawning.  “Anyway, now it’s worse because of all the issues we’ve been having with dungeons, which is just another added stress on my plate I didn’t need.”

“You know, you should really try and delegate some of this stuff—”

Now it was her turn to chuckle as she waved to the papers on her desk.  “This is all after delegating everything I could, but it’s never-ending.”  Sighing, she got up out of her chair, stretching her back in the process – which Thaden had to admit was very distracting – before coming around to see him.  Giving him a hug, she rested her head on his chest with another sigh.  “But enough about all this; what’s going on in Thaden land lately?”

“You know, a little of this and a little of that,” he said at first, before coming to a decision.  “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you – but I would advise against spreading it too much, as it could cause a panic.”

“Oh?  Does it have anything to do with the tall, gorgeous Elves you brought with you into the city?”

Momentarily speechless, he couldn’t think of a response before Corinna giggled as she leaned away from him.  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.  The look on your face was worth the entire intelligence network we’ve painstakingly set up in the city.”

“Ah, so that’s how you knew,” he said after a few seconds.  “And they’re Aelveen, not Elves – but basically the same, for all intents and purposes.  But yes, it does have something to do with them.  I don’t believe I can share everything with you, as some of it seems a bit prohibited by the System; in fact, it may be that most of what I tell you won’t stick for long, as the System has a habit of wiping memories, but I’ll at least try.”

With that warning, Corinna was much more interested in what he had to say, and she sat back down at her desk as he sat across from her.  He told her about how the Adversary was attempting to – and succeeding in – infiltrate the dungeons of Tarth, and that most of them were centered around the Region (at least from what he’d been told by the Wardens).  He described what he’d been doing to help eliminate them, as he was able to somewhat sense if they were in a dungeon – and that he now had some assistance.

“The Aelveen, as well as a team of Charee, are powerful agents of the System that are investigating these Adversarial infiltrations.  I’m helping them eliminate the toughest ones out there, as they are strong enough to be a threat even to them, so hopefully soon we will be able to bring things back to normal.  I can’t guarantee how quickly it will be, however, because the infiltrations seem to be progressing pretty fast, but now that we have a plan in place, I’m fairly confident about our chances of stopping this before it gets any worse.”

 Corinna was silent for a minute or so as she leaned back and stared up at the ceiling.  “I… see.  This is some heavy shit you’re unloading on me here, you know that?” she finally said, shaking her head.  “I don’t even know what to say, other than that I hope you’re getting something from all of this.”

Of course she would look at his like some sort of transaction, he thought wryly.  But once he considered what she said, he wondered the same thing.  Am I getting anything from this?  Well, other than being proud that I’ve “saved the world”.  He figured that he would likely get some PICK and perhaps some more minor Achievements, and if he was lucky he might even acquire more loot, but as far as any other material or System rewards, he didn’t think he’d be getting much of anything.  He didn’t have a Quest to kill all of these Adversarial monsters, after all, and with everything kind of screwed up in each of the compromised dungeons he’d visited, Challenge rewards and whatnot also seemed unlikely.

“I’m… not sure, actually.  It’s something I’ll have to evaluate and get back to you.  Perhaps I can get those I’m assisting to share their Quest with me?  I don’t know, but you definitely make a good point.”

“I know I do; we can’t have you saving the world without some form of financial or material compensation, after all,” she said with a wink.

After that, they talked about inconsequential things for a few minutes, before Thaden could see her distastefully eyeing the paperwork waiting for her.  Rather than keep her from it, which might delay whatever sleep she did end up getting later, he took his leave.

He had some important messages of his own to look at before he went to bed for the night.

No more than 20 minutes later, he had picked something up to eat on his way back to his room which he ate on the trip there, and it didn’t take long before he was ready to begin going over his message feed.  With Sadia keeping watch, he laid down on his bed… and braced himself.

He woke up an hour or so later with his body slowly recovering after he felt like it had been dipped in acid; he could only assume that something major had happened.  After spending a few minutes taking stock of his current bodily situation, he finally got a chance to look at his message feed.  Thankfully, he didn’t have to manually scroll to the top of the list, as a mental command brought him to the beginning of the “new” messages, and he started reading from there.

Beginning with The Badlands dungeon where he encountered both the Aelveen and the Legion Commander, he was pleased to see that he ended up getting PICK for all of the Dramolga he killed, and it added up to a hefty amount all by itself.  He also noticed some messages displaying that he had killed the Aelveen multiple times, giving him no PICK as a result, but there didn’t seem to be any penalty, either – which he had halfway been worried about considering how connected to the system the Wardens were.

He also got PICK from killing the Legion Commander, but there were no Achievements, loot, or any other rewards from eliminating the Adversarial monster – just like what happened when he killed the Nexus Corrupter.  It was exactly as he thought earlier when he had been talking to Corinna about being compensated for his efforts; he was getting PICK from his deeds, but that was pretty much it. 

Now, he wasn’t the greediest person around, far from it, but he thought that he should at least try and figure out a way to get something for his efforts.  It was an aspect of his hunting for the Adversary’s entities that he hadn’t considered before, but now that it had been brought to his attention, he would have to see what he might be able to wrangle from the Aelveen, if the System wasn’t going to give him a Quest or something similar. 

The larger portion of his new messages was entirely different from the first portion, however.  Not only did he quickly scroll through what had to be more than a hundred thousand “monster slain” messages, all with PICK associated with them, but there were some honest-to-goodness Achievements at the end, which was very nice to see after getting diddly squat in that department from the previous pair of dungeons. 

Congratulations for completing an Intermediate Dungeon on Maximal difficulty!

Achievement received: Raid Master III

Bonus reward: 500,000 PICK

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: 750,000 PICK

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 1,500,000 PICK

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 4,500,000 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: +50 to all stats

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +75 to all stats

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: +225 to all stats

Congratulations for completing The Mines of Khanordun Intermediate Dungeon on Maximal difficulty!

Achievement received: Mistakes Were Made

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

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)

Congratulations for completing an Endless Onslaught Challenge on Maximal difficulty with an F Tier Rating or higher!

Achievement received: Hold The Line I

Bonus reward: 5,000 PICK

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: 7,500 PICK

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 15,000 PICK

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 45,000 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: Free Stat Points (10)

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Free Stat Points (15)

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: Free Stat Points (45)

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Congratulations for completing an Endless Onslaught Challenge on Maximal difficulty with an SSS Tier Rating or higher!

Achievement received: Hold The Line IX

Bonus reward: 500,000 PICK, +100 to all stats

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: 750,000 PICK, +150 to all stats

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 1,500,000 PICK, +150 to all stats

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 4,500,000 PICK, +450 to all stats

Contender World First Achievement: Free Stat Points (500)

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Free Stat Points (750)

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: Free Stat Points (2,250)

Congratulations on reaching 3,000 in Personality!

Achievement received: Very Demure III

Bonus reward: 100,000 PICK

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: 150,000 PICK

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: 300,000 PICK

Congratulations for solo completing an Intermediate Dungeon on Maximal difficulty!

Achievement received: Army Of One III

Bonus reward: +500 to all stats, 8 additional Access Slots, (15) Spell/Ability selection choices 

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +750 to all stats, 12 additional Access Slots, (22) Spell/Ability selection choices

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: +2250 to all stats, 36 additional Access Slots, (66) Spell/Ability selection choices

Contender World First Achievement: Due to your overwhelming and absolute mastery of Intermediate Dungeons, all Competency increases as well as all effectiveness, all durations, and all ranges for all spells and effects are increased by 100% while inside of an Intermediate Dungeon solo; in addition, all Mana Costs, Casting Times, and Cooldowns for all spells and effects are reduced by 50% while inside of an Intermediate Dungeon solo   

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Due to your overwhelming and absolute mastery of Intermediate Dungeons, all Competency increases as well as all effectiveness, all durations, and all ranges for all spells and effects are increased by 150% while inside of an Intermediate Dungeon solo; in addition, all Mana Costs, Casting Times, and Cooldowns for all spells and effects are reduced by 75% while inside of an Intermediate Dungeon solo  

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

Bonus reward: Due to your overwhelming and absolute mastery of Intermediate Dungeons, all Competency increases as well as all effectiveness, all durations, and all ranges for all spells and effects are increased by 450% while inside of an Intermediate Dungeon solo; in addition, all Mana Costs, Casting Times, and Cooldowns for all spells and effects are reduced by 225% while inside of an Intermediate Dungeon solo  

Reading through the Achievements he received, he was able to easily identify why he had been knocked out and his body felt like it had been dipped in acid – because he ended up earning an additional 3,330 increase to all of his stats!  Unfortunately, only Personality had hit the next threshold at 3,000 for another Achievement, but his other stats under 10,000 were close.

Physicality – 8,730

Celerity – 8,841

Mentality – 22,461

Personality – 5,503

Fortuity – 9,951

Free Stat Points (Includes Consumable Free Stat Stones) – 10,400

In addition to the blanket increase to all his stats, he also received another 5,400 Free Stat Points, which – when added to the Consumable Free Stat Stones he received as a reward from the dungeon itself – put him at 10,400 stat points to essentially place anywhere. 

Other than the stat updates, he also earned the Army Of One III Achievement, which – at first – he didn’t think was as impressive as the previous versions of it.  For instance, the World First bonus gave him a reduction in Mana Costs, Casting Times, and Cooldowns, all of which he pretty much had covered by his equipment.  The 450% increase in Competency progression and spell effectiveness was nice, of course, but it wasn’t until he saw that this effectiveness increase also affected durations and ranges for all spells and effects that the power of this Achievement bonus finally came out. 

The most important word in that bonus was “effects”.  If he was right, then it wouldn’t just influence effects that his equipment produced, such as some of the set bonuses that were situational, but it also affect his Class traits, such as the 300% increase in damage to anything within 300 feet.  Adding a 450% increase in effectiveness and range to that trait could be interesting, as it would allow him to do more damage at range – which a 450% increase to his Leach spell, for instance – could take advantage of.

Besides the Achievements, there were more increases in his Competencies, but nothing hit a threshold quite yet.  All told, he also obtained a little over 497 million PICK, with most of it coming from the endless hordes of monsters he’d killed in The Mines.  With Sadia’s help, a quick calculation told him that he only needed around 465 million PICK to reach Level 567, which was where he would be stuck until he completed his Evolution Assignment.   

But he didn’t Level-up quite yet.  While the storage of the PICK inside of his body started to feel slightly full, his capacity to hold even more than before seemed to have increased significantly since he was Level 294.  He estimated that he could probably handle another 100 million PICK or so before he’d be forced to Level-up, so he held off.

Why?  Well, with the thought of his new Growth Artifact items in his Inventory, he wanted to be able to earn a lot more PICK for them in the near future, and out-Leveling the dungeons he could access right now would severely cut down on how much he could accumulate.  Plus, if what Sadia told him was correct, he had a feeling he could throttle the PICK feed from future kills to 100% of what he earned into his new items – as long as he was wearing them at the time, of course.  If he did that, then he wouldn’t have to worry about hitting his limit anytime soon.    

But what he did do instead of Leveling-up, before he finally went to bed, was spend some of his Free Stat Points.  Throwing approximately a quarter of his Free Stat Points, which totaled 2,478, he gradually brought Physicality, Celerity, and Fortuity up to the threshold of 10,000, taking his time so that the sudden increase didn’t hurt, which earned him another trio of Achievements. 

Congratulations on reaching 10,000 in Physicality!

Achievement received: The Incredible Bulk IV

Bonus reward: +50 to Celerity and Personality

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +75 to Celerity and Personality

Contender World First Achievement: +300 to Physicality; All Physicality bonuses on equipment are increased by 90%

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +450 to Physicality; All Physicality bonuses on equipment are increased by 135%

Congratulations on reaching 10,000 in Celerity!

Achievement received: Speed Demon IV

Bonus reward: +50 to Physicality and Mentality

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +75 to Physicality and Mentality

Contender World First Achievement: +300 to Celerity; All Celerity bonuses on equipment are increased by 90%

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +450 to Celerity; All Celerity bonuses on equipment are increased by 135%

Congratulations on reaching 10,000 in Fortuity!

Achievement received: Luck Of The Draw IV

Bonus reward: +50 to Celerity and Personality

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +75 to Celerity and Personality

Contender World First Achievement: +300 to Fortuity; When Fortuity influences the outcome of chance-related spells, abilities, and traits, increase the likelihood of a positive outcome by 30%

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +450 to Fortuity; With each attack, all hostile targets have a 1+(Fortuity/5,000)% chance to deal no damage to you and your party; With each attack, all hostile targets have a 1+(Fortuity/5,000)% chance to take double damage from you and your party

While he had been somewhat expecting the World First bonuses related to his equipment from the new Physicality and Celerity Achievements, the Fortuity World First bonus reward was incredible.  At the moment, with his Fortuity at a little over 10,000, he had about a 3% chance for a hostile target to do no damage to him with each attack, and the same chance to take double damage from his – or his party’s – attacks.

As he finished that up, he realized that he still had nearly 8,000 Free Stat Points to spend.  He nearly thought about saving them for the future, but Sadia discouraged him from that idea.

“It would be better to allocate them now rather than wait for some unknown time in the future.  You might as well take advantage of the boost they will give you now rather than sit on them.”

He could see the logic in that.  Thinking about what he needed, he seemed to be doing more than well enough with his Mentality, as at a base he had over 22,500 without even considering his equipment bonuses.  While he could potentially bring Personality up to the 10,000-point threshold, he thought it would be a waste of the nearly 4,500 points he would have to spend on that; having a higher Personality right now wouldn’t necessarily help him, even if it might assist in negotiations with the Wardens, but he figured the additional 3,400 or so he’d just received from his Achievements would already help in that regard.

Celerity, while definitely worthwhile, was also high enough that he didn’t think it needed another boost right now; he was already as fast or even faster than the assassin-like Aelveen, and there hadn’t been many monsters other than ones much, much higher-Level than him that could surpass him now that he had over 10,000.

That left Physicality, which was important for his healing spell output and consequently the amount of damage he could do, or Fortuity, which influenced many of his specialized spells and even his newest Achievement bonus.  In the end, he couldn’t really decide between the two, so over the next few hours he split the 7,922 Free Stat Points he had and added 3,975 to Physicality and 3,947 to Fortuity, bringing the former to 14,500 and the latter to 14,397.  He wished he had 3 more Free Stat Points to add to Fortuity to bring it to an even 14,400, but at least the 14,500 in Physicality made him feel good about the nice, round base number.

He looked at his final stats, including the newly updated equipment bonuses for Physicality and Celerity, and he couldn’t help but be pleased by what he saw.

Physicality – 14,500 (17,438)

Celerity – 10,525 (36,857)

Mentality – 22,536 (150,282)

Personality – 5,578

Fortuity – 14,397 (19,797)

Now, finally, he was able to get some much-needed sleep.  

Chapter 28: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120719701