Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 33

Chapter 33

“And that will be a total of… 434,750 gold and 60 silver pieces for the items given to us for sale, minus our commission, of course.  Would you like to reinvest any portion of this with the Guild?”

Thaden thought about it for a moment, but the choice was made easier when Sadia gave her own opinion.

“Go ahead and do all of it.  You don’t need it, after all.”

That was definitely for sure.  After arriving back in Darkwood and retreating to his Diamond Ranked room – after talking to the Vice Leader of the Darkwood Adventurer Coalition about restricting spells and abilities within the city, as the Region Leader was unavailable – he’d finally taken a look at all of his notifications from the dungeon, as well as all of his loot.  He hadn’t received any other Achievements for completing it solo and he didn’t have a new Quest for it, which was disappointing, but he did receive a massive amount of PICK and loot from the monsters he’d killed.  

The 50% increase in all rewards gained while solo made a huge difference.  Along with his other Achievement bonuses, he ended up with over 3.7 million PICK thanks to approximately half of the dungeon passing the 20-Level threshold for his Unkillable II Achievement, which tripled the normal bonuses for killing the higher-Level monsters while solo.  The rewards certainly piled up with every bonus applying to the kills, as evidenced by the simple killing of a single Level 173 Fungal Launcher with a perceived Level of 225.

You have slain a Fungal Launcher – Intermediate Minimal – Level 173 (Perceived Level 225)!

You have received 450 PICK!

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

You have received 675 PICK!

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

You have received 1,350 PICK!

Unkillable II Achievement activated!

You have received 4,050 PICK!

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

You have received: 12,150 PICK!

That all added up, of course, but the real contributor to such a massive influx of PICK was from the final Boss, which ended up giving a starting PICK reward of 75,000; when all of the bonuses were applied, it ended up being 2.025 million PICK for killing it by himself.  Needless to say, the influx of PICK was ridiculous, especially considering that to increase his Level, at least at Level 201, he only needed 65,500 PICK; with his current stored amount of 4.6 million PICK waiting to be used, he could already Level up to 239 – a jump of almost 30 Levels from what he could achieve before, all from a single dungeon.

But it wasn’t just the PICK that had been flowing into him in outrageous amounts.  His Army Of One Achievement already tripled the rewards he was receiving, which also tripled the number of actual items he obtained, meaning everything he extracted from monster corpses – but not the treasure room – had come to him in triplicate; weapons, armor, and crafting agents had flowed into his Inventory without even looking at them, and combined with what he’d received from completing the dungeon with the Raid Party, which he hadn’t unloaded yet, it had added up to quite a lot of junk.

He was sure some people might want it, but not a single thing was usable by a Support Class, so he’d ended up just giving it to the Market traders at the bottom floor of the Guilded Glory headquarters in the morning, who immediately listed it in the Contender Market.  The reason Sadia said for him to reinvest what that junk was worth was because he’d also received approximately a half-million gold in currency from the dungeon, as it wasn’t divided among a full Raid Party.  With nearly 2 million gold sitting in his Inventory with nothing much to spend it on, another 400,000 or so wouldn’t really make much difference.  Plus, it might even make him money in the long run – or so he assumed, as it was called an investment and everything.

“Sure, invest it all,” he said with a wave of his hand to the Guild’s Market trader.  The widening of her eyes was the only indication that she was surprised at such a large investment, but she started filling out the paperwork for it and was done less than a minute later.  When that was all completed, he thanked her and headed up the stairs to the upper floor, where he raised his hand to knock on the door to the Guild Leader’s office, but he was interrupted when a scream reverberated through the door.

Slamming the door open, Thaden rushed inside, only to find a confusing scene being played out by the two people inside the room.  A distraught-looking woman in strange set of leather clothing covered in metal links that looked like chains was bent over the unmoving body of the Guild Leader, tears running down her face as she mumbled and shook the shoulder of the woman on the ground as if she could simply wake her up.

Diane {Guilded Glory}

Human

Level 168

Rachel (Deceased – 599:48/719:48 Remaining) {Guilded Glory}

Human

Level 173

Stepping up next to both women, he heard Diane muttering, “How could this happen… it was just my new Chained Prison spell I was showing her – it doesn’t even do any damage!”

Thaden instantly knew what happened, and he sighed heavily, which startled the short, dark-haired woman as she threw herself away from Rachel, as if trying to distance herself from the “crime” she had committed.  “Ahh!  I swear I didn’t do it!  I don’t know what happened, she just dropped dead—”

The Omenic Drifter raised his hand to stop her rambling.  “It’s not your fault, Diane.  If it’s anyone’s, it’s mine.  She just fell victim to one of my new Class traits, that’s all; I’ll have her back up in a second.”

Looking down at the Guild Leader on the floor of her office, he couldn’t help but notice that there wasn’t a mark on her, nor was there any sign of how she had died.  If there were murder investigators in Tarth, they would have a hell of a time figuring out what had happened there.

“So, that’s what a 1% chance of death looks like, huh?  It’s a good thing you have your Resurrection spell handy while you’re in the city now.”

Thaden chuckled even as he cast Exceptional Resurrection on the Guild Leader; while she woke up from her sudden nap, he looked at the newest strength of the spell, which now allowed up to 10 hours to bring someone back from the dead, as well as a few other advantages.

Exceptional Resurrection (Single Cast): Resurrects target that has been deceased less than (600) minutes; targets resurrected by Exceptional Resurrection are immune from death for a limited time afterwards, with their Health unable to drop below 1; can be cast at any time, even while in combat.

Healing Amount: 100% Maximum Health

Death Immunity: 30 seconds

Range: 90 feet

Casting Time: 60 seconds

Mana Cost: 24,300

Cooldown: 5 minutes

The immunity from death was incredible, even if it only lasted 30 seconds.  Though, with his spell effectiveness so high and some other bonuses, this temporary period would likely be extended 3 or 4 times, meaning it would be even better.  The other change in the spell was the addition of being able to cast it at any time, even while in combat, which had been a restriction with the other strength versions of the spell. 

“What—?  Why am I on the floor?” the Guild Leader asked as she sat up from where she was laying, a thoroughly confused expression on her face.  She suddenly seemed to notice Thaden for the first time as she looked at him, before glancing at the sniffling Diane across the room where she had retreated.  “What happened?” she demanded, getting quickly to her feet.

“I’m afraid you fell victim to that Class trait I told you about yesterday,” Thaden admitted, not wanting to beat around the bush.  It was best that she knew exactly what it did so that she would have all the information.  “Thankfully, I’ve got my Resurrection slotted so that I can use it at any time.”

“You… were telling the truth, weren’t you?  You really have a hidden Class?”

Thaden nodded.

“Show me.  Diane, come here and sit down—no, you’re not in trouble; but I need to see this in action.”

The horror and confusion that had dominated the Control Class’s expression were immediately replaced by fear, but she didn’t refuse the Guild Leader’s command.  Whether or not it was because she was simply loyal to the woman or because she felt like she should be punished for accidentally killing her, she didn’t say a word a she sat in one of the comfortable chairs nearby, though Thaden could see she was trembling.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?  I mean, I can bring her back, but deliberately trying to kill someone—”

“Yes,” Rachel insisted, cutting him off.  “I need to know how dangerous this trait of yours really is.  It’s only a 1% chance, correct?”

Again, he nodded.

“All of my spells are offensive in nature, but yours aren’t; can you show me what it looks like when this trait triggers?” the Guild Leader asked matter-of-factly.  Seeing that she wasn’t going to back down and that Diane didn’t seem like she was going to protest, he eventually shrugged.

“Sure.”  If he was being honest, he actually wanted to see it in action with a fellow Contender, as while he was fairly certain it had triggered a few times in the dungeon against the monsters inside, especially when he cast the Reclamation spell on them, it hadn’t been much different than them dying due to his Leach spell. 

“I’m going to use Regeneration on her multiple times, counting out each one to see how long it takes.”  He began casting the spell, counting out each one as the green glow of the spell fell over the woman in the chair.  When he reached 50, Diane started to relax when nothing other than her Health regenerating happened, but that lasted until spell number 62, which enveloped her with the glow of the Regeneration spell, before she suddenly collapsed in death.

“Well, then.  It’s really random, then?” Rachel asked as she looked at the deceased woman sitting in front of her.  “It could happen right away or it could take 10,000 casts of a spell?”

“As far as I can tell, yes,” Thaden answered.  “Fortuity apparently doesn’t have any influence over the likelihood of it occurring, only that there is always a 1% chance of instant death each time.”

“Interesting.  Very interesting,” she mused, her hand on her chin.  “Alright, bring her back, if you would.”

Without hesitation, Thaden cast Exceptional Resurrection on Diane, and the next moment she was waking up.  “D-Did it work?  I didn’t feel a thing.”

“Yes, it did.  Thank you, Diane.  You may go; I need to have a conversation with Thaden here.”  As the Control Class got up to leave, the Guild Leader added, “Oh, and spread the word for everyone in the Guild to cease casting or using any abilities that have a single target while in the city, especially while Thaden is nearby.  We don’t want any accidents, after all.”

“Shouldn’t we spread the word to the other Guilds, as well?” he asked.

Rachel shook her head.  “No, they can figure it out the hard way; plus, there are Charee who can resurrect them if it accidentally happens,” she explained with a savage grin on her face. 

“A bit cutthroat, but based on her personality and business sense, it fits.”

That didn’t change the fact that he’d already told the Adventurer Coalition about restricting spells and abilities in their building, but if Rachel wanted to play these types of games with the other Guilds, he wasn’t going to get in her way.  If he saw someone die in front of him, though, he wouldn’t hesitate to Resurrect them even if they were from another Guild.

Diane left after that, leaving just Rachel and Thaden alone in her office.  She invited him to sit down, and he did so as she took a seat across from him.  “I’m sure you know what I want to talk to you about,” she began, crossing her legs and placing her hands on her knee.  “Obviously, your continued role in Raid Parties is in question because of your Wizened Solitary Shaman Class, which makes the usefulness in acquiring any PICK for our people a bit of a problem.  However,” she emphasized, “after witnessing—and experiencing—this trait of yours, which I can only take your word for that it is part of your Class and not the result of some sort of Achievement, I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.  Even if your PICK production turns out to be crap, you can still help provide millions in gold over the course of the contract we have with you and your subsidiary Guild.  If that does turn out to be the case, we may need to alter the schedule a bit, as I’ll want only those who are more focused on wealth generation rather than Level advancement.  Is this acceptable?”

Nodding, Thaden agreed.  “Sure.  More than acceptable.”

“Excellent,” Rachel said as she stood up and crossed over to her desk.  “I already have Corinna and the other members of your core Raid Party meeting you outside the city in about 6 hours, along with some others to round you out to 100.  You’ll be going to The Ghost Town to the north.”

The Ghost Town?  That was one he didn’t remember reading about.  Before he could ask, she grabbed a folder off her desk and handed it to him.  “Here are the few details that we have, but you’ll be the first Raid Party to actually attempt it.  Let me know if it is going to be too difficult for you; if it is, we’ll pick something else.”

Surprised that she was having him go somewhere that hadn’t been completed as an Intermediate Raid dungeon yet, he opened the folder he’d been given and scanned through the scant amount of information.

The Ghost Town Dungeon

Location: 86.3 miles north/northeast of Darkwood Vale, just past a ring of tall, dead trees encircling its entrance

Basic Dungeon Level Ranges:

Minimal – Levels 40 to 50

Medial – Levels 80 to 90

Maximal – Levels 130 to 140

Basic Dungeon Monster Type: Undead

Basic Dungeon Environment: Reminiscent of an Old West Ghost Town, with dilapidated and empty buildings, set in a dusty, arid environment

Intermediate Dungeon Level Ranges:

Minimal – Levels 220 to 230

Medial – ???

Maximal – ???

Intermediate Dungeon Monster Type: Unknown, but likely Undead

Intermediate Dungeon Environment: Unknown

Intermediate Dungeon Notes: Preliminary scouting reports mention starting in an enclosed stone room with no windows, with only a single passage leading onward.  Scouts pulled back immediately after learning the Level Range, which was too high for them to risk exploring any further.

Undead?  Thaden could feel a smile spread across his face as he remembered his experience in the Mausoleum of Despair more than year ago.  It had been a harrowing experience, but his ability to damage the undead by healing them was what allowed him to advance so rapidly when he first arrived. 

The Level Range was a bit higher than his own Level, which could have some impact on his Raid Party when it came to Level Compression, but it was almost too good to pass up.

“Shouldn’t be any problem for you, but your party might suffer a bit.”

He and Sadia were on the same wavelength, it seemed, and he nodded as he closed the folder.  “Should be just fine,” he told Rachel with a grin.  He was actually looking forward to this one.

In fact, it was exactly what he was hoping to eventually find, as it gave him additional methods of killing the monsters inside than just his Leach method.  It was so in line with his Class that he was slightly suspicious of why he was being given it right now, as it was definitely out of the norm for the dungeons he’d run with his Raid Parties, which tended to be a bit lower-Level.  He glanced at the Guild Leader as he took his leave, that suspicion transferring to the woman, trying to determine if this was some sort of trap; he still wasn’t convinced that those who had been trapped in the Descent into Darkness dungeon weren’t still being controlled or influenced in some way. 

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see or detect any sort of deception coming from the woman, and she seemed just the same as she always did.  There was nothing about her actions or her mannerisms that screamed, “I’m not under my own control!”, so he was forced to take Sadia’s advice and consider that she was, indeed, fine – up until the moment that proved to be wrong, if it ever did.

Leaving the Guild headquarters with a sense of urgency and excitement in his step, Sadia had already guessed his plan.

“I agree.  You should check this dungeon out by yourself first; that way, if there is something that could endanger your Party, you’ll at least know about it.”

“You know me so well, don’t you?” he chuckled, hurrying his steps.  He had less than 6 hours to get to the dungeon, complete it, and then come back, so he needed to hurry if he was going to get it all done in time.