Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 42

Chapter 42

With some time to kill, Thaden walked around the city, millions of gold coins burning a hole in his veritable pocket.  He first checked the crafters that he’d visited before when he first came to the city looking for Personality-boosting items, but this time, he didn’t have to worry about being turned away from the stat being in the toilet.  Despite getting along well with them now, with them actually greeting him warmly and going out of their way to help him, he was disappointed when he discovered that they couldn’t create anything greater than Level 165.

Still, if he was able to improve upon his current gear, he figured he might as well get something as a temporary measure until he found something better.  He’d been keeping abreast of the Contender Market for anything, but as usual, there was very little for Support Classes at higher Levels and higher Rarities.  As for the few pieces of loot he’d received from the last dungeon, none of it was useful and he’d already given it to the Guild representatives to sell for him.

Therefore, that left finding a crafter to craft something for him.  Thaden just hoped that whatever they were able to create had materials for it in the Market, as he had no desire to go searching for anything again if he could help it.  While his last search had led him to the Anchor dungeon he’d been searching for at the time, this time around, there wasn’t anything he was hoping to find along the way.

“Can you make Focus Stones?” he asked one of the crafters, who he suddenly realized as he was talking to the Charee that she was the same one who had made his belt months ago.  Trela looked at him and smiled.

“You’re back!  I hope that Belt has been working well for you.”

He nodded with a smile, as he’d been pleased with his previous creation.

“As for Focus Stones, I’ve recently expanded my capabilities and can make one of them for you.  What exactly are you needing?”

He thought about it for a moment before bringing up the stats for his current Focus Stone.

Major Supportive Focus Stone of Healing

Rarity: Rare

Class Restrictions: Support

Level Restriction: 85

Physical Damage Modifier: +0

+50 Mentality

+36% cooldown decrease for all Supportive spells

+45% increase in effectiveness for all healing spells and effects

It wasn’t a bad handheld accessory, but with the fact that his cooldowns were already maxed-out without it making a difference if he had this at all, the only real benefit from it was the increase in effectiveness for all healing spells and effects.  The +50 in Mentality was nice, but was fairly low on the scale of usefulness in comparison to some other effects that would be more beneficial.  As for what he needed, when he looked at his Bonus Breakdown again, he found that he was capped out at 95% for Casting Time Reduction and Cooldown Reduction, so neither of those things were currently needed; he already had a lot of extra healing increases, and while more would always be welcome, he was looking to streamline his abilities in other areas. 

When he really thought about it, there was only one thing that was a bit of a limiting factor, if only because it limited the number of spells like it that he could cast.

Reserved spells.

While he had theoretically unlimited Mana that never depleted, his Reserved spells ate away at his total Mana pool to the point where he had to manage them carefully so he didn’t activate too many at a time.  He already had a some bonuses that reduced his Mana cost by 25% for all spells, and another 66% for defensive spells cast on himself, which helped greatly – but there were other “bonuses” from Advancements that actually made spells more expensive, such as being able to instant-cast Support spells but tripling their Mana costs.

This made it a bit more difficult to maintain a lot of Auras, which was why he didn’t use very many of them.  For instance, lately he’d been using his Aura of Life to help add a healing aura around him, which was beneficial against the undead, but it was expensive in terms of use, as it cost a big chunk of his Mana pool.  When he combined it with other Reserved spells, such as his Mirrored Vigil, there really wasn’t any other Reserved spells he could activate without risking being unable to use his Single Cast spells despite having a high Mentality stat to start with.

Therefore, he could definitely use something that would cut his Mana costs, as it would make his plethora of Reserved spells more useful.  With that in mind, he looked at the menu that he remembered from when he was there last.

Effect Requirements (Support)

Effect

CP Cost

Increase in Supportive spell casting speed % (Limit 18/50%)

5 CP per %

Increase in Defensive spell casting speed % (Limit 18/50%)

5 CP per %

Increase in all spell casting speed % (Limit 9/50%)

8 CP per %

Decrease in Supportive spell cooldown % (Limit 18/50%)

5 CP per %

Decrease in Defensive spell cooldown % (Limit 18/50%)

5 CP per %

Decrease in all spell cooldown % (Limit 9/50%)

8 CP per %

Decrease in Supportive spell Mana cost % (Limit 18/50%)

10 CP per %

Decrease in Defensive spell Mana cost % (Limit 18/50%)

10 CP per %

Decrease in all spell Mana cost % (Limit 9/50%)

15 CP per %

Increase in Supportive spell range % (Limit 27%)

3 CP per %

Increase in Defensive spell range % (Limit 27%)

3 CP per %

Increase in all spell range % (Limit 18%)

5 CP per %

Increase in Supportive spell duration % (Limit 27%)

6 CP per %

Increase in Defensive spell duration % (Limit 27%)

6 CP per %

Increase in all spell duration % (Limit 18%)

9 CP per %

Increase in Health replenished through the use of Supportive spells and effects % (Limit 27%)

4 CP per %

Increase in damage mitigated through the use of Defensive spells and effects % (Limit 27%)

4 CP per %

Increase of effectiveness of Supportive spells % (Limit 18%)

6 CP per %

Increase of effectiveness of Defensive spells % (Limit 18%)

6 CP per %

Increase of effectiveness of all spells % (Limit 9%)

9 CP per %

(Other effects upon request)

(Variable)

From what he could tell, it would be expensive in terms of CP (Crafting Point) cost, at 10 CP per 1%, with a limit of 18% for a decrease in Support and Defensive spell Mana costs, and then 15 CP for an all spell Mana cost decrease with a limit of 9%.  Looking at the other chart of how much CP he would have to work with for a Level 165 item, he saw that it was at 495; some quick math in his head told him that it would be 180 CP for the Support spell Mana cost decrease, 180 for Defensive spells, and then 135 for all spells.

Exactly 495.  He didn’t even have to dig one of those special items that he’d gotten from some dungeons in the past to add more CP.  It might be useful to add some stats to it, but he was considering this to be a temporary item for him until he found something better later, so he wasn’t too invested in making it the best it could be. 

“I need a Focus Stone that is Level 165, with Support, Defensive, and all spell Mana cost reduction maxed out.  No other stats,” he told her, but raised his finger to stop her from replying yet.  “But more importantly, the crafting materials need to be able to be purchased from the Contender Market, as I don’t have time to go out searching for any of it.”

Trela nodded, before thinking about everything he’d asked for.  “Give me a moment to see if what I have in mind will be possible with what is available in your Market.”  The local crafter left the counter and entered a swinging door that led to some sort of backroom, or perhaps her workshop.

“That’s a good idea for a crafted item.  If you move some of the AMPs around and attach them to your new Focus Stone, you’ll be able to maximize your Mana cost reduction for all your spells all the way up to 95%, including your Spiritual spells.”

Thaden nodded, thinking the same thing.  It would mean taking them away from another one of his items, perhaps even his Healthful Protection set, but the payoff for the loss in Mentality would be worth it in the end.  Besides, he was likely going to Level-up soon and be able to wear his Lucky Vagabond set of equipment, so the distribution of his Adaptable Mimicry Plates would likely change anyway.  This was simply a stopgap measure until he could wear them, since each piece of that set already had the 9% reduction in Mana cost as part of their normal effects.  That meant that this Focus Stone would be obsolete fairly soon, but until he Leveled-up that far, it would be useful. 

If he was being honest with himself, the creation of this piece of equipment wasn’t necessarily needed, but it helped to pass the time and gave him something new to play with.  That, and since he had the money for it and nothing else to spend it on, he was more than happy to spend it on something.

Trela came back after a few minutes, looking a bit downcast.  “Well, I have good news and bad news.  What would you like first?”

“The good news,” he answered immediately.

“The good news is that I can create it with materials that are accessible in the Contender Market.  I can even purchase them through a contract with a member of your Guild, in fact.”

“Then what’s the bad news?”

She shook her head sadly.  “The materials for Mana cost reduction effects are inordinately expensive, at least for ones that are available in the Market, and while you will receive a discount on the actual crafting of the item, it doesn’t affect the material costs.  As a side note, you could also acquire them yourself, or even an alternative material that would work just as well, but you already stated that you don’t want to do that.”  She sighed, obviously reluctant to share whatever came next.  “So, from what I can estimate, with the materials that need to be purchased and my own, discounted, crafting costs, you’re looking at approximately 3.27 million gold—”

“Sounds fair,” he cut her off.  “How soon can you get it done?”

Trela looked at him, obviously flabbergasted.  “Uh, what?  Didn’t you hear what I said?”

Thaden nodded.  “I did.  If I give you 3.5 million, could you rush the order for me?”  Looking at his current gold reserves, he saw that even after shelling out 3.5 million gold, he would still have approximately 9.2 million in his Inventory. 

“Uh, yes, I’m sure I can do that.  Are you, uh, sure this is what you want to do?”

Again, the Omenic Drifter nodded, before pulling out a bag from his Inventory and handing it over to the crafter.  It didn’t contain 3.5 million gold pieces, of course, because that would likely be a bag larger than the entire shop and weigh multiple tons; instead, the System made it easy by creating bags that were like miniature Inventories, but only for currency.  He’d learned about it from picking up loot from treasure rooms that now contained tens of thousands of gold coins, and found that they could also be created automatically from his Inventory once it reached a certain threshold.

It was definitely useful, especially considering the extreme coin amounts that were more common than not nowadays.

The woman appeared shellshocked as she took the bag from him and mechanically stated that the Focus Stone would be ready for him in the morning.  He thanked her and left the shop, pleased with his purchase despite it likely not being necessary once he reached Level 250; he was more pleased with the fact that he had finally been able to spend some of his accumulating gold.

Speaking of spending gold, he went through the city and bought hundreds of meals that he stored in his Inventory, cognizant of his time of forced solitude where the only reason he hadn’t starved to death was his preparation, so he restocked what little he’d used over the last week or so, making sure he had plenty to last him if he ever found himself in that kind of situation again in the future.

Hopefully it wouldn’t ever happen again, but too many crazy things had happened since he arrived on Tarth that he wasn’t going to rely on hope.

Despite the danger to the populace, considering his 1% instant death trait, Thaden took the time to leisurely look around the city for the first time.  The first thing he noticed was that spell and ability usage within the city happened much less frequently than he expected, or else people were aware of the recent rule changes inside the Adventurer Coalition regarding such things.  Regardless of the source, in his hours-long walk through Darkwood Vale, he only witnessed a half-dozen uses of single-target spells and abilities, none of which resulted in any deaths.  Of course, there might have been more behind closed doors that he couldn’t see, but he didn’t hear of anything tragic happening even as he passed through some areas more than once.

His trait was still dangerous, of course, but it wasn’t turning out to be as bad as he had worried it would be.  It was only if he or someone else deliberately tried to exploit the trait in order to start killing people that it would become a major problem, which he doubted anyone would be stupid enough to start something like that.  Of course, there were some stupid Contenders out there, but as of yet, he hadn’t personally seen any—at least, lately—wandering around the city.

Finally, after his long, leisurely walk, the sun was starting to set.  With a sigh, he turned his steps toward the Coalition Meeting Hall that he’d passed a few times around the city, so he knew exactly where it was.  And throughout the latter portion of the day, he’d seen hundreds of people streaming toward the massive structure that nearly rivaled the main Coalition building next door in size, all of them with the {Guilded Glory} tag next to their name, so he knew that Rachel wasn’t lying when she said that 80% of the Guild would be attending the party.  With over 20,000 Contenders all packed into the Meeting Hall, he became even more nervous at the prospect of being the center of attention for them all. 

“You can do this.  It’s just like when you went around and talked to all those people about the Anchor dungeons, right?  Except that it’s a whole lot more people, of course.”

His steps had faltered slightly on his way to the Coalition Meeting Hall, but Sadia’s words nearly made him trip and fall flat on his face.  It wasn’t that he had crippling social anxiety or anything, but the attention of so many people on him made him more than uncomfortable.  Given his recent exposure to forced solitude by the System, which he was still admittedly recovering from, being around so many people was a bit overwhelming; the Raid Parties that he’d led helped a lot to reaccustom himself to so many people being around him, but this was on a whole other level. 

And while Thaden didn’t have to do this, if he wanted to keep working with Rachel and the Guild, which he knew was a good idea in the long run, he needed to overcome things like suffering through a party thrown in his honor. 

As his steps brought him toward the bustling Meeting Hall, where he could hear the murmur of excited voices already coming through the entrance, he wondered what would be more difficult: Facing 20,000 Contenders who had all assembled because of him or challenging a Maximal Intermediate dungeon with monsters 300 Levels above his own.

The answer was easy, as he forced himself to walk into the most difficult situation he’d ever faced.