Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Thaden led the way with Sadia bounding along at his side, the 5 Aelveen following behind them.  He was no longer worried that they would betray him by attacking him randomly as they traveled, especially after what they had just went through.  That didn’t mean that they wouldn’t try something in the future, but for now they were acceptably cowed. 

It was far from the situation he wanted, as he’d rather they all get along without such intimidation, but apparently it took dying 4 times in a row, only to be Resurrected shortly thereafter, for the Aelveen to get it through their heads that he wasn’t going to put up with what they were trying to do.  By the end, after their most recent failure to kill him when they were all brought back to life, that even Che’ga’lera realized the futility of such an action.

They all learned something during the whole process, however.  The Aelveen, especially the Wardens, discovered that even if Thaden was working for the Adversary, they couldn’t kill him.  It was this, along with something else, that led them to eventually give up attempting to eliminate him from the world.  As for that “something else,” it was the fact that he had brought them back to life time after time after defending himself from their attacks; he figuratively held their lives in the palm of his hand, as there was nothing they could do to prevent their deaths if he really wanted it.  The fact that he didn’t leave them permanently dead was, he supposed, a point in his favor – though they were still incredibly suspicious and were predisposed to thinking the worst of him, if only because the fear they had of him had increased with each death.

As much as he didn’t like taking advantage of that fear, it was the only thing that the Wardens seemed to listen to, as their common sense had apparently fled them for a time.  Though it should be said that, despite constantly dying, the pair of Aelveen that he had met before continued to be reluctant to attack him, and that reluctance only increased with each death.  If anything, they seemed even more on “his side” than before, which was a strange thing to see, but it was obvious in the way the two looked at him as if he was some sort of great personage. 

Frankly, it was creepy – but he also didn’t believe he’d have any troubles from them in the future.  Whether it was intimidation or adoration, whatever kept them in line was what he would lean on.

As for what Thaden learned from the whole situation was that Resurrection Rage was apparently a real thing, and it affected everyone differently.  According to Sadia, it occurred at some point after an individual had been Resurrected a certain amount of times over their lifetime, hitting some unknown threshold that was different for each person.  The way she described it, the spiritual imprint of a person – which he mentally translated as their soul – suffered as a result of being separated from their body, and this suffering gradually built up over subsequent Resurrections.  At some point, after being Resurrected, they would basically snap, losing control of their actions immediately after being brought back to life and lashing out at nearby enemies, nearby allies, or even themselves – it all differed between people.

What was odd about it was that as soon as this Resurrection Rage was expended, it was as if their soul hit a reset button – because when Che was brought back again, there was no sign of that same Rage.  She was still angry and wanted to kill him, but it wasn’t the unbridled fury he’d seen the first time.  Thankfully, none of the other Aelveen were inflicted by the Rage, so he wasn’t able to see any other examples in someone else; needless to say, that was absolutely fine with him.

Thaden slowed down as he approached the base of the tower that they’d been running towards, still slightly annoyed by the whole situation, but also trying to get past it.  It didn’t help that he was filled with more than a little rage himself, but it was directed toward this broken dungeon being influenced by the Adversary.

Why was he angry?  Because he couldn’t extract any loot from the thousands of corpses trailing from the entrance to the tower. 

The same thing that prevented him from opening his Inventory or any notification windows also apparently prevented the action of extraction, much to his great disappointment.  With so many bodies to extract things from, he had been almost positive that he might find some great replacements for at least some of his low-Level equipment, but that hope had been shut down when he attempted to extract loot from one of the corpses in between Resurrecting the Aelveen.

And, unfortunately, it wasn’t any different for his new, unwanted Party.  They seemed genuinely baffled at their lack of Inventory access, and Lyn even volunteered the information that they hadn’t suffered such restrictions as they were eliminating any Adversarial monster in the few dungeons they’d cleared since they arrived in the Region.

That just meant that Thaden was special.  Goody.

At the same time, she also admitted that they hadn’t faced any normal monsters stronger than Level 400 for the most part, and there hadn’t been all that many of them, so even the quality and quantity of the opposition inside this dungeon was unique to him.  Lyn, taking the role of speaker for the group after the Wardens became thoroughly reluctant to converse with him, also added that the Nexus Corrupters they killed were generally around Level 430 or so, which was weaker than the one he’d killed the night before.

Either he was unlucky, or his presence was changing things in these dungeons.  He wasn’t sure what reason was better, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it for the moment.

“We’re here,” he said, turning around to address the Aelveen following him.  Judging by what he could see of the tower, it was likely to contain even more monsters, followed by the whatever Adversarial monster he could detect on the roof or the top floor, where the exit was to be found, as well.  Ideally, it would only take him a short time to race his way up to the top using his Leach combo, as it would be the most efficient use of his abilities, as well as his time – because this whole dungeon was taking far longer than he expected it would.  “Why don’t you all wait here while I go kill everything inside—” he began to say, but the Wardens seemed to grow a backbone again and cut him off.

“No, that isn’t happening,” the one named Fer’la’vina insisted.  “We are the ones appointed by the System to eliminate the threat of the Adversary, and we still don’t trust you to engage with the entity up above for whatever nefarious deeds you have planned.  Move out of the way; we’ll take care of this.”

Thaden was getting really tired of all the slanderous accusations about his working for the Adversary, but all he could feel right now was a headache as he listened to her words.  Why did I bring them all back to life again?  Oh, yeah, that’s right – I’m an idiot that doesn’t want to piss off the System any more than I already have.  He shivered when he thought about the possibility of being trapped in a void again or stuck at the bottom of some unnamed sea for eternity; while he wasn’t sure how realistic that kind of threat was, the fact that it had happened before made him more than a bit cautious.  Still, if his relations with these Aelveen didn’t get any better soon, he might just have to take his chances….

In the meantime, he was prepared to play along with them for now, if only because it would probably be more of a waste of time to argue with them.  “Fine; be my guest.  You do your thing, and I suppose that I can ‘support’ you from the back.”

Tac, the Aelveen Party leader, shook his head.  “Not necessary.  In fact, we would be more comfortable if you were to stay here while we complete our secondary objective,” he stressed, again reiterating the fact that they had been sent to investigate and eliminate Thaden if he proved to be an enemy of the System. 

Thaden, of course, couldn’t allow that.  He remembered what happened the last time with the Nexus Corrupter and how the dungeon had basically fallen apart after it was done, and he could see the Aelveen hatching some plan to trap him inside and kill him that way, therefore completing their primary objective.  “Nope.  I’m following you, but I promise that I won’t get involved unless you ask for help.”

Both Fer and Che immediately seemed ready to protest, but Tac nodded in acceptance.  “Very well.  Let’s go.”  Lyn and Gen simply seemed happy to be coming along, as they didn’t have any particular complaint about Thaden; if anything, they seemed relieved that he was going to follow after them.

As expected, the tower was full of more Dramolga monsters, though these ones were a higher Level than the army outside.  To eliminate their Perceived Level, Thaden made sure to stay far enough back from the Aelveen Party that the monsters weren’t affected, and he also suppressed the effect on the Aelveen themselves, in order to head-off any complaints or questions about it.  That would simply waste even more time.

Dramolga Voidwalker – Intermediate Maximal

Level 525

Dramolga Voidcaller – Intermediate Maximal

Level 525

Dramolga Voidwhipper – Intermediate Maximal

Level 525

In addition to these 3 types of Dramolga, there was one more that was a little more dangerous. 

Dramolga Voidripper – Intermediate Maximal

Level 540

The Voidripper was essentially a combination of the previous monsters they encountered, and it used the void to move swiftly and teleport small distances, enhanced its strikes with explosive void blasts, and had back tentacles that extended for dozens of feet around it.  While it didn’t excel in any one area, the combination of abilities made them formidable foes.

Fortunately, the Wardens and their other Aelveen Party members weren’t slouches.  At a higher Level than everything they faced, along with their sheer power and experience, they were able to handle these new obstacles without any major problems.  The reason for the difference between how they handled themselves in the tower, which was essentially a spiraling staircase that led to individual floors containing these monsters, was the quantity of monsters they faced; while they had been overwhelmed by hundreds of monsters outside, in the tower they didn’t face more than 20 at a time.  With some basic controlling methods using Lyn’s vines and strategically pulling all the attention toward Tac, the others were able to whittle them down despite being outnumbered.  It was a textbook case of a powerful Party handling a dangerous fight using their spells and abilities to their utmost.

The only thing that bothered Thaden about the whole thing was that it took forever.  At least, that’s what it felt like, as each floor took around 5 minutes or more, and there were at least 20 floors to get to the top of the tower.  If it was just Thaden and Sadia, he would’ve completed the entire thing in less time it took them to complete a single floor.

Eventually, they arrived at nearly the top floor, where they encountered a Boss, the first and – hopefully – only one that the dungeon possessed, since he didn’t count any Adversarial entity as one. 

Dramolga Voidking (Boss) – Intermediate Maximal

Level 575

The fight against the Voidking, which was a 30-foot-tall, grown-up version of the Voidripper with even more abilities that threatened to annihilate the Aelveen in seconds, took nearly 30 minutes to conclude – all while Thaden was forced to spend the fight below so that its Perceived Level didn’t activate.  With the Boss being a higher Level than the Aelveen, they were at a slight disadvantage, especially since they didn’t have a full Raid Party with them, but their Warden strength came through and they succeeded when most other people would’ve died.

“Can I heal you, at least?” Thaden asked as soon as he joined them near the corpse of the dead Boss.

The Aelveen looked absolutely ragged, with bloodstains all over them indicating where they had been hurt at one point, but then their Health had regenerated over time.  He could also see signs that everyone was pretty much out of Mana; he didn’t have Rejuvenation in his Access Slots, as it wasn’t something he needed, but he did have Recharge Slotted, just in case he needed it; it would replenish Health and Mana every second at the cost of a temporary stat drain, but it was worth it in a pinch if he needed additional healing on himself.

It was only when Tac reluctantly nodded, the exhaustion from the fight evident on his face, that Thaden realized there might be a problem with his healing; it was a single-target spell, after all.  He hadn’t mentioned the 1% chance of death for single-target spells and effects, as he had no desire to impart that information to them, but if he killed one of them accidentally while trying to heal their wounds and replenish their Mana, they might see it as a hostile attack and he might lose the unstable stalemate he currently had with them.

Ah, screw it.  Might as well get it over with.

Fortunately, despite the 1% chance of death, none of his spells triggered it.  They were more concerned with their sudden loss of their stats during the process, which Thaden assured them was only temporary; it wasn’t like they could tell exactly what was happening to them other than a brief weakness, as they couldn’t open up their Character Report to check, so they had to take his word for it.

When they were all healed and their Mana refilled, they all jumped up from where they had basically collapsed after the Boss battle, eyeing the stairs leading upstairs to the last floor – and presumably the Adversarial monster.

“Do you want my help now?  If it’s anything like this one, or perhaps even stronger, then you may have need of my assista—”

“No!  We’re Wardens of Tarth, and there’s nothing that we can’t handle,” Che practically shouted as she got up into his personal space.

Thaden just sighed again and didn’t say anything directly too them.  As they were heading for the stairs, however, he murmured, “Your funeral.”  He could tell that they heard him despite his low volume, but only Lyn turned back and smiled nervously at him before bounding forward to catch up with the others.

As they disappeared up the stairs, he turned to Sadia, who had been relatively quiet during the entire tower climb.  “Think they’ll succeed?”

She shrugged.  “Don’t know.  Depends on what’s up there.”

“That’s true.  They seem pretty confident, though, so perhaps they’ll be fine—”  Just then, he felt a Level Compression indicative of a monster far above his own Level, though not the crushing pressure of something many hundreds of Level higher.  For instance, even though the Aelveen were 117 Levels higher than his Level 450, he was barely affected by their Level Compression; most times, he didn’t even notice it.  For a monster 150 to 200 Levels higher, he would be more impaired, but still not unreasonably incapacitated.  Anything more than that was approaching worrisome Levels; he could still fight through it, but it wouldn’t be comfortable. 

Gauging on what he felt from the Level Compression coming from above, he estimated that it was just past the 200-Level threshold, but not too much more than that.  However, even if it was only 150 Levels higher and was at Level 600, that could result in some serious issues for the Aelveen if they weren’t prepared. 

The sounds of explosions and the screams of pain echoed down the staircase for all of 15 seconds, not sounding “good” for the Aelveen Party in the least.  Before he could do more than start toward the stairs, thinking to sweep in and save them, he saw something up above.

Gen, the archer, was running down the stairs, a look of extreme panic on his face; his eyes locked in on Thaden’s as he peered up at him, and the Aelveen opened his mouth to yell, “Help—!”  Unfortunately, before the Omenic Drifter could do anything, a blast of something prismatic-colored hit him in the back before he could descend more than a few steps.  Gen’or’fein was completely enveloped by whatever the projectile was, and in less than a second he was gone, disintegrated into less than dust as the prismatic effect surrounding him disappeared.

“Uh, what just happened?” Sadia asked, having watched the same thing he had.

Just as he was about to answer, a sudden influx of strength flowed through him.  He’d felt it multiple times earlier that day as every one of the Aelveen died when trying to attack him.  “I don’t know, exactly, but all my solo Achievement bonuses just kicked in.  They’re all dead.”

“Hopefully they haven’t been disintegrated like that poor Gen fellow,” the giant squirrel said worriedly. 

Thaden wasn’t sure if he should be hopeful or not.  On the one hand, he didn’t particularly like anyone dying permanently, especially someone like Gen or Lyn, both of whom seemed to be, at least generally, “on his side”.  On the other hand, it would certainly take a lot of pressure off him if they all conveniently died during an attempt to eradicate a dungeon of its Adversarial entity.  He had technically done everything he could to convince them that they needed his help, but they refused it – and paid the price.

He shook his head, as even that “logical” thought was too unlike him to contemplate any further.  If it happened, of course, he knew it wouldn’t be his fault – but he didn’t have to hope that it did.   

“You’re right.  I hope they’re just fine, because I can’t wait to tell them to their faces, ‘I told you so,’” he added with a grin.  Sure, it was petty considering that one of them appeared to have been permanently killed already, but he was done being treated like a criminal by these Wardens who thought he was a cheat because he was employed by the Adversary.  Granted, he was a bit of a cheat, but it wasn’t because of any Adversarial affiliation – but that was completely besides the point. 

As he started jogging toward the stairs, he said, “Alright, let’s go see if anyone managed to make it out of there intact.”

Chapter 21: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120426967