Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Well, crap.

The Level Compression he felt wasn’t as strong as it had been inside, or even outside, the Descent into Darkness dungeon, but the particular “flavor” of the Adversarial Elite that he encountered there was unmistakable.  He could only assume that distance made the difference in the power he felt, or else the Level Compression was directed in a more localized area.  Either way, the fear that had flooded him back then started to creep into his mind, forcing him to hesitate in taking another step. 

Suddenly wishing that Sadia hadn’t temporarily sacrificed herself to save him, as now all he was feeling was lost and confused at what to do, he shook himself and pulled his fracturing emotions together.  Mentally slapping his mind upside its head, he began to think a little bit more clearly, before putting a plan together.

The first thing he acknowledged was that he had no intention of running away this time like he had outside the dungeon; for one, if the Elite was really in the city, then it was only a matter of time before it attacked and started killing everyone.  The fact that it hadn’t already started demolishing everything in sight was actually surprising, because as far as he could tell from his position, none of that was happening.  There were screams and the panic from a busy city suddenly beset with explosions and an aura of powerful Level Compression, but he didn’t hear any buildings collapsing or the roar of a monster wreaking havoc among everyone.

“Alright, what do I have to fight this thing?” he murmured to himself, knowing that it was more than likely he was going to lose.  He might be powerful, but if this Adversarial Elite was the same Level it had been before, Level 710, then there was a good chance that he was going to die no matter what he did.  Despite that, he was determined to go out swinging, if only because he felt as if he needed to enact revenge upon this monster for what it had already did.  He didn’t want to even think about not being able to bring Corinna and whoever else may have died back to life, but even if everything went well in finding enough body parts to use Resurrection, the Elite was still there…

…somehow.  He didn’t know if it had suddenly showed up or if it had been in the city the entire time and stayed hidden, but the fact was that it was an obstacle in his way to saving his friends and Guildmates from a permanent death. 

Then there was the whole absence of any response by the Assimilation System, as it didn’t acknowledge the presence of the Elite at all.  It could be explained before because it had been hiding in a dungeon, which was relatively autonomous creations of the System – or so he was led to believe – but if it really was here in the city, then he would’ve expected some sort of Quest to kill it, similar to what happened when the old Region Leader had somehow summoned an Adversarial monster.

But there was nothing in his notifications to indicate that it was even aware of it.

Pushing those thoughts out of his mind for the moment, he started looking through his Inventory again, hoping he had missed something.  It turned out he had missed the fact that his Adaptable Mimicry Plates had been returned to his Inventory at some point, likely because the equipment it had been attached to had been destroyed.  If he remembered correctly, the Plates were labeled as “industructable”, and this was obviously proof of that fact since they didn’t appear harmed by the explosion that blasted everything else apart.

While he lamented the loss of his Healthful Protection set, what he was most disappointed in losing was his Mithril Ring and Necklace of the Elite Quester, as both of them had been integral to granting him a flat increase to all of his stats, including Fortuity.  As it was now, without any bonuses from his equipment, he was looking at only around 3,200 Fortuity – whereas before it had been nearly 6,000.  Mentality had also taken a huge hit, losing nearly 11,000 in the stat, meaning that he was just now barely able to cast most of his spells, with some now being a little iffy even with his permanent bonuses to Mana cost reduction.

He wasn’t exactly weak, but the loss of his gear from an explosion that should’ve killed him many times over had severely reduced not only his survivability, but his ability to deal massive amounts of damage.  The reduction of all that extra healing that he’d gained from his gear and the AMPs attached to them couldn’t be discounted as anything but a disaster.

As he’d already assessed, he didn’t have any of his old equipment that he’d used before he acquired the Healthful Protection set, as he’d either sold or given it all away to make room for more of the stuff he’d picked up along the way; and for food, of course, because he always wanted to be prepared for everything.  But that didn’t mean he didn’t have anything to use, as there were two things in his Inventory that he hadn’t gotten rid of in case he ever needed them again. 

First, there was the extremely helpful Ring of the Mermaid’s Breath, which was for breathing underwater.  Obviously, that wouldn’t really help right now, so he moved on to his other item.

Sunsilver Ring of Brilliance; it gave him +30 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality and provided illumination in even the darkest of spaces.  He’d kept it in case he was ever stuck somewhere that the natural glow of his other equipment wasn’t enough to push back the darkness, but hadn’t really needed it even in the Descent into Darkness dungeon. 

He slipped it on since he didn’t have any other option and felt the slight bump in his stats that it provided, knowing that it was better than nothing. 

Other than those two rings, he had nothing else he could equip right now, as his Inventory was relatively light after unloading everything he didn’t need earlier in the day.  He briefly thought about going to the Adventurer Coalition to shop on the Contender Market for something or even the Guilded Glory headquarters, as they also had access to it, but decided against it as it was probably a bit too close to the Meeting Hall for comfort.  That was when he remembered seeing a number of relatively decent items for sale in the local shops; they weren’t nearly as good as what he’d already possessed at that time, so he had largely ignored them, but now he needed something to wear in order to stand a chance against the Adversarial Elite. 

Thaden started running down the adjacent street, identifying where he was from his wandering trek through the city earlier that day, and he aimed right for where the closest shops were located that might have something for him.  However, before he could move toward the first, the Level Compression from the Elite suddenly ramped up, washing over the city in a wave, causing him to grunt in surprise at how strong it suddenly felt.  It wasn’t debilitating, at least not yet, but it was quickly getting to that point. 

But not debilitating for him didn’t mean it wasn’t debilitating for everyone, as he immediately saw dozens of frightened Charee slammed into the ground and held down by the pressure being emitted by the Elite, including many a shopkeeper.  While he could theoretically still walk in and attempt to purchase something, it would also likely amount to stealing when the shopkeepers couldn’t accept his payment on account of being held down to the ground with a force strong enough to incapacitate even the hardiest of normal Contenders.

“Fine.  I guess it was inevitable,” he mumbled, as he opened his Character Report and looked at his Level and his PICK.  If he wasn’t going to be easily able to find some barely adequate equipment from local sources, then he was going to have to turn to something he already had waiting for him. 

Fortunately, despite the aura of Level Compression pushing at him, it wasn’t considered combat – and he certainly wasn’t in a dungeon – so he was able to apply his PICK toward Leveling up past 201.

PICK requirements met!  65,500/65,500

Increase Personal Level? Y / N

Note: This can only be completed while not currently in combat and while not in a dungeon.

Level up!  You are now a Level 202 Omenic Drifter!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Physicality +5

Celerity +5

Mentality +25

Personality -5

Fortuity +10

Thaden didn’t stop there, of course – he kept going.

Level up!  You are now a Level 203 Omenic Drifter!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Physicality +5

Celerity +5

Mentality +25

Personality -5

Fortuity +10

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Level up!  You are now a Level 250 Omenic Drifter!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Physicality +5

Celerity +5

Mentality +50

Personality -5

Fortuity +10

Not only did he keep going until he could equip his new Lucky Vagabond set, as well as the Spiritual Focus Stone he’d picked up, which had a Level Restriction of 225, but he didn’t stop there.  If he was going to stand any chance against the Adversarial Elite monster, he needed any extra stats he could get.

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Level up!  You are now a Level 294 Omenic Drifter!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Physicality +5

Celerity +5

Mentality +50

As he suffered through the rapid increase to all of the additional stats that flowed into him from his Level-ups, which he had been able to bring himself all the way to Level 294 with the nearly 19 million PICK he had saved up, he realized that he felt stronger than ever.  His base Physicality and Celerity had both increased by +5 every Level, increasing them both by 475 points, whereas his Mentality – which topped out at a 50-point increase, apparently – went up by 3,950.  The other positive was his Fortuity, which rose by 620, but his Personality dropped by a total of 315; he was glad that he’d added some to the stat earlier, as he could see it becoming a problem in a few hundred Levels.  After rapidly equipping his new equipment, but before starting to add his Plates, he looked at his new stats.

Physicality – 2,635 (2,674)

Celerity – 2,659 (4,222)

Mentality – 8,838 (17,814)

Personality – 851 (824)

Fortuity – 3,660 (4,200)

Without all the AMPs attached to his equipment, he still received nearly 9,000 Mentality, a little over 1,500 Celerity, and 540 Fortuity; Physicality took a big hit from what he was used to, which had been over 5,500 with his old equipment, and his new Focus Stone actually took some more of his dwindling Personality stat away. 

Superior Spiritual Focus Stone of Necrotic Ectoplasm

Rarity: Epic

Class Restrictions: Control, Support

Level Restriction: 225

Physical Damage Modifier: +0

+90 Celerity

+270 Mentality

-27 Personality

+30% increase in effectiveness and duration for all spiritual spells

+30% decrease in mana cost, casting time, and cooldowns for all spiritual spells

Looking at his Plates in his Inventory, he debated on where to place them; if he wanted his Physicality back up a bit, he would have to add a bunch to his Ring of Brilliance, but even if he was to add all 54 of them to the Ring, he would only be adding around 2,100 Physicality – which wasn’t bad, but that wouldn’t bring him anywhere near his old total.

Instead, he decided to go all in with his new set, as it would provide him a plethora of Celerity, Mentality, and Fortuity; more importantly, it would also help to reduce casting time, Mana cost, and cooldowns for all his spells, as well as massively boosting his healing and damage mitigation.

Fancy Robe of the Lucky Vagabond

Rarity: Legendary

Class Restrictions: Omenic Drifter

Level Restriction: 250

Physical Damage Resistance: 35

Magical Damage Resistance: 415

+18 Physicality

+120 Celerity

+720 Mentality

+45 Fortuity

9% Reduction in casting time, Mana cost, and cooldowns for all spells

18% Increase in all spell effectiveness

27% Increase to Health replenished through the use of spells and effects

27% Increase to damage mitigated through the use of spells and effects

Set Bonus (2): +30% to all spell effectiveness, +270 Mentality, +90 Fortuity

Set Bonus (4): All previous Set Bonuses, +100% increase to Health replenished and damage mitigated through the use of spells and effects, +720 Mentality, +360 Celerity, and +180 Fortuity

Set Bonus (6): All previous Set Bonuses, all single-target spells you cast have a Fortuity/500 chance to heal you instantly for 100% of the target’s maximum Health, provide damage mitigation equal to 50% of target’s maximum Health that lasts for 3 minutes, increase all spell effectiveness by 100% for 3 minutes, and increases all stats by 10%; does not stack.

Of course, adding all of those Plates to each item in the Vagabond set was easier said than done.  Even simply equipping the set had been a significant change in his stats, and while his body was already adjusting to the changes, adding so many more in a short amount of time would undoubtedly overwhelm his mind, especially with such massive increases to his Mentality. 

Another pulse from of the Adversarial monster’s Level Compression aura flashed through the city, pushing him back slightly as he stood in the middle of the street, leaving the feeling of pressure changed from what it was before.  While it felt weaker to him after gaining 93 Levels in a matter of a few minutes, it felt a bit stronger than just before the pulse, which either he thought meant it was likely making a concentrated effort to start attacking the city, or it was somehow getting stronger by the minute.  As much as he still wanted to see if there were any other accessories that he might be able to “borrow” temporarily from the local shops, he was also fairly certain that the longer he took, searching through different items that might be useful, the enemy within the city would only grow stronger. 

With a last look at the shops nearby, he began adding the Adaptable Mimicry Plates onto his Vagabond set as quickly as he could do it safely, which meant one every few seconds as he jogged—not ran—toward where he felt the Level Compression the strongest: the Coalition Meeting Hall.  As he approached its location, more and more of the city appeared damaged, either from flung shrapnel or through some other source, with a few collapsed buildings scattered around.  He discovered his own route that he’d blown through a short while ago, and it appeared as though his route through the buildings had hit some important structural columns, which had caused the collapse of a few of them; fortunately, he didn’t see anyone inside of them, but even if they were buried, he didn’t have time to dig them out.  If he survived the coming confrontation, he would see what he could do to resurrect anyone who had died because of his impromptu flight that literally went through the city.

When he came to Adventurer Coalition building near the Meeting Hall, he winced when he saw that about a quarter of it had collapsed from the explosion, including where he was fairly certain his Diamond-Ranked room had been located, and the interior was exposed.  It took him a moment to wonder why he didn’t see anyone moving around, but then he realized it was because every living person was essentially glued to the floor with the incredible pressure that was being given off by the monster hiding in their midst.

As he rounded a final corner that would lead to the epicenter of the destruction, he finished the attaching the last of the AMPs, but before he could take a look at his newly updated stats with everything now included, he stopped in shock as he took in the Coalition Meeting Hall.

Or at least what had been the Meeting Hall, because it certainly didn’t look the same as when he’d involuntarily left it.