Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 30

(This was a longer and more complicated chapter to write, so only one chapter today! There should be much more action after this one, which was necessary to wrap up a few things.)

Chapter 30

Even though he’d spent plenty of nights sleeping in trees since he’d arrived on Tarth, after spending so much time lately in the comfort of a Diamond-Ranked room, he wasn’t much of a fan of roughing it anymore.  Regardless of his feelings, it was necessary for him to be away from the city so that his new trait as a Omenic Drifter didn’t inadvertently kill anyone.  He would eventually figure out a way to coexist in a city so that he didn’t always have to camp out away from people, but that was something that would come in time.

“Shall we go?” Sadia asked, the squirrel quite chipper for having stayed up all night watching for any dangers while he slept.

“Yeah, just let me pack up and we’ll head back to the city.”  It didn’t take him long to finish his preparations, and they were soon rushing out of the forest as the dawn’s light illuminated the world around them.

As soon as they were clear of the trees, Sadia disappeared and hid back in his equipment, as her presence was still a bit of a secret that they wanted to keep hidden from most people.  Plus, they didn’t want to take the chance that someone not in the know saw her and thought she was a monster; the resulting confrontation wouldn’t be good for anyone and he really didn’t want to have to explain her presence to strangers.

“How long do you think it’ll be until they’re ready to go?”

Thaden shrugged.  “Not sure.  Steven mentioned that it might be later tonight, but I’d rather be there in plenty of time in case they’re back early.”  He wasn’t too worried about his core group of party members for his Exploitation Guild Raids, as they were more than capable of taking care of themselves; plus, he was fairly certain that they took his warnings to heart and were going to be careful not to get too close to that dungeon.  If he was lucky, then they were already back and was even now communicating with the leftover leadership of Guilded Glory, freeing them to delve through some more Intermediate dungeons soon enough.

At the speed he could move, it only took a few minutes to arrive outside of the city, where he came to a stop.  There was no need to enter Darkwood Vale again, potentially risking peoples’ lives if he did so, because there was an unofficial meeting spot for the Guild a distance from the walls.  Most of the Guilds had these designated spots that they had claimed months ago, and while there weren’t any signs or other particularly noteworthy indications that a specific spot was reserved for those of a certain Guild, the knowledge of these areas was common enough knowledge that even Thaden – who was admittedly out of the loop most of the time – knew about them now.

As he made his way over to the Guilded Glory’s reserved area for Raid Parties to meet up, he was only slightly disappointed to not yet see anyone he knew.  There were two other Raid Parties forming even in the early morning hours of the day, but he didn’t bother getting too close to them at the moment as he wanted to avoid getting within 300 feet.  Instead, he circled around them and stopped at the extreme western edge of their space, an area clear of anyone nearby, before pulling out a comfortable chair from his Inventory and plopping himself down in it.  He was prepared to wait all day for the rest of his Raid Party to arrive, if necessary, but he would waiting there, regardless.

He was contractually obligated to, after all.

Per the agreement with not only Rachel, but the Guilded Glory Guild as a whole, he had to make himself available to go on at least a single Intermediate Raid Party every day while his contract lasted, unless he specifically worked something out with the Guild Leader to change this requirement.  To make sure he was able to be found and utilized in a Raid Party, he needed to appear sometime before noon in this designated space outside the walls, but preferably sometime shortly after dawn; that was why he was here, so that when his designated Raid Party appeared, he would be ready to go immediately. 

Unfortunately, Thaden didn’t have the schedule for the people who were supposed to meet him, as he hadn’t really bothered to know who he was leading – other than his core Group which included Steven and Corrina – as they typically only joined him once and then were gone afterwards.  As such, he didn’t know who he was waiting for, but he suspected they would show up eventually. 

In the meantime, he did a few things he didn’t have the energy or mental focus for the night before; it had been a very strenuous and stressful day, after all, and he hadn’t wanted to make a decision while he was tired.

“Let’s see, first we have our free stat points… hmm.  Where do you think they should go, Sadia?  I know that I’ll continue losing Personality as I Level-up, but Fortuity suddenly seems like a more important stat with my new Class.”

“I would stick it all into Fortuity, if I were you.  Yes, Personality will continue to decrease as you get stronger, but it won’t necessarily become an issue for a while.  Even if you were to stick all of your free stat points into that stat, it would only delay its inevitable decline.  But what’s more important is that having a high Personality stat doesn’t help you right now – where a higher Fortuity will.”

When he stopped to think about it, she was making a lot of sense.  To prop up his plummeting Personality would only be trying to counteract future issues as the stat dropped precipitously, whereas having a higher Fortuity would help him now.  There was time to address his Personality when it became a problem later; if he had to, he could rearrange his Adaptable Mimicry Plates to add some to a piece of equipment with Personality stat bonuses – at least while it was important to have a higher stat.  While he was in a dungeon, being able to talk to Charee without being cursed at or shooed out of their sight wasn’t a necessity.

Therefore, agreeing with her evaluation of the situation, he stuck all of his free stat points into Fortuity, bringing it up to a base of 985.  With his equipment, of course, it shot all the way up to 3,676, which was an incredible amount – and every bit helped when it came to success of his new Class spells.

Once that was taken care of, he turned to his Competencies and the Advancements that were still pending.  The first one he tackled was for Spiritual Spellcasting.

Please select (1) Advancement for your Spiritual Spellcasting Competency:

Spiritual Domination – All influential Spiritual spells now have a 30% chance of success increase

Spiritual Bond – All successful Spiritual spells now have a 100% efficiency increase

Tantric Meditation – All Spiritual spells now have no Casting Time, but will have a triple the Cooldown

Karmic Balance – All Spiritual spells now have no Cooldown, but will have triple the Casting Time

Spiritual Incubus – All single-target Spiritual spells, when their duration is allowed to expire naturally, have a chance based on Fortuity/1,000 to consume a portion of the spiritual will of the target, permanently increasing the caster’s Personality stat while the target will suffer a temporary loss in Personality that will recover over time; this consuming effect cannot affect caster

“Ha!  I guess this solves some of my Personality problems, right?” he said, noticing that the final Advancement on the list had changed from what it had been before he obtained his new Class.  He couldn’t remember what the old one had been, but this new one seemed like the perfect answer to his diminishing stat issues.

“Somewhat.  You do realize that, right not, you only have an approximate 3.7% chance of it happening, and only when the spell expires naturally – which means that if they die or you cancel it by casting a new version of the same spell, this wouldn’t activate.” 

“True, but it can still happen, even if not very often.  Plus, that chance of success will only increase as time goes on and my Fortuity goes up.  Out of all the options, I think this is the only one that would be the most useful.”

He reviewed the other possible choices, most of which were the same, though he noticed that Haunted Nemesis, the mutually exclusive option that was in opposition to his Soul Mates Advancement, was gone; he supposed that it was eliminated because it wouldn’t be of any use.  The only one that had changed and was a contender for what he might select was Spiritual Bond, which was twice as effective as the Spiritual Connection he’d picked previously, but that wasn’t necessarily needed as much as a way to gain more Personality.

After selecting Spiritual Incubus, he moved on to Emboldened Leadership, which had increased like crazy after all of the Raid Parties he’d participated in, meaning that he had 2 Advancements to choose from.

Please select (2) Advancements for your Emboldened Leadership Competency:

Rubbing Off – In addition to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses, each member of your party also receives an equal amount of additional Personality

Lucky in Love – In addition to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses, each member of your party also receives an equal amount of additional Fortuity

Groupies – The more allies in your party, the higher their Perceived Level, up to a total of 60% of their base Level, while their temporary bonuses in Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality are reduced by an equal amount

Indecent Proposal – All allies within your party can choose to have their temporary Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses converted into Perceived Level, and vice versa, every 3 hours

Compatible Chemistry – The longer you stay in a party, the more they begin to mirror your greatness, increasing their Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses by 5% per hour up to a limit of 100%

Perfectly Paired Posse – If the number of living party members in your party, including yourself, total an even number, their Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses are increased by 66%; if the total number of living party members in your party is odd, their Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality bonuses are reduced by 66%

Aural Authority – Whenever a single-target spell is used on a party member, excluding yourself, there is a chance based on Fortuity/800 that the target will be have their highest stat doubled for 60 seconds, while the rest of their stats are reduced by 30%

The last time he’s had an Advancement to select from, he’d chosen Visible Charisma, which ended up being beneficial as it increased the Perceived Level of every person and every target around him by 30%.  This time, he had to take some time and really consider what would be beneficial for him going forward.

Most of the options to choose from were the same as before, such as Lucky in Love and Compatible Chemistry, but there were two new ones.  The first was an interesting increase or decrease to the stat bonuses his party members received while in his party, and it depended entirely upon whether the total number of them was an even or odd number.  The fact that it specified “living” party members made him think that if there were 100 members in his Raid Party and one of them died – even if he was to Resurrect them shortly – then the drop to 99 members would therefore instantly affect these bonuses.

The second new Advancement was yet another instance of Fortuity popping up as a major component, and it had replaced one of the options that had been there before he evolved his Class.  Whenever he used a single-target spell on a party member, Aural Authority had a chance to double their highest stat for 60 seconds, while also reducing the rest of their stats by 30%.  While the chance was small, around 4.6% right now, it could be extremely beneficial to his party members if he was able to double the Physicality stat in Fighters or Mentality in Mages, even at the expense of reducing their other stats. 

After looking at all of the options and consulting with Sadia, he eventually eliminated the ones that added Personality and Fortuity, mainly because they didn’t affect him; Groupies and Indecent Proposal had to do with either reducing or converting their bonuses, which he didn’t really want for his party members.  Perfectly Paired Posse was a bit dangerous, especially if someone was to inadvertently die while during a particularly difficult battle, as it would swing the strength of everyone significantly, which could lead to even more deaths – so he skipped that for now.  That left Compatible Chemistry, which would increase his party’s bonuses the longer they were in a party with him, and the new Aural Authority, because the temporary doubling of their highest stat could be huge in a fight; he picked them both up and they were added to his Competency Advancement list.

The last Advancement he had to select was for his Psychic Resiliency Competency, and he was actually looking forward to seeing if it, too, had changed from what it had been before he gained his new Class.

Please select (1) Advancement for your Psychic Resiliency Competency:

Tethered Tease – All psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you are reflected toward the psychic user at 50% strength

Polyamory – All psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you are also shared with all targets within 30 feet of your location

Forced Abstinence – All psychic abilities and effects upon you are completely nullified, including those that originate from you

Size Matters – Psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you from sources 50 Levels or above your own are completely nullified; psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you from sources 50 Levels or below your own are tripled in effectiveness

Missed Connection – All psychic abilities and effects attempting to influence you have a chance based on Fortuity/2,000 to make you permanently immune to identical psychic abilities and effects used upon you in the future; this chance is evaluated every 10 seconds while the psychic ability or effect is active

This choice was easy, as none of the older options were something he wanted.  The new Missed Connection Advancement, however, was incredible, as it would eventually make him immune to psychic abilities and effects – and it wouldn’t affect his own abilities or effects like Forced Abstinence did.  The chance for it to happen was low, at just under 2% right now, but it also tried again every 10 seconds while the effect was active.  Just thinking about how long he had been affected in the Descent into Darkness dungeon by the mind-altering effect was enough for him to want something like this, as he would love to be immune to that kind of thing if it happened again.

He didn’t even have to consult with Sadia, as he could sense her approval when he chose the new Missed Connection Advancement. 

By the time he finished with the few things he had been waiting to make some selections regarding, time had seemed to crawl by as it was only mid-morning.  Looking around, he didn’t see anyone around that appeared to be looking for him, as the two Raid Parties that had been assembling before had departed, leaving the Guild’s designated space basically empty.

With nothing else to do, Thaden looked at his Character Report and took a good look at his stats, marveling at how much they had changed from just a few weeks ago.

#32599999-E

Omenic Drifter (Wizened Solitary Shaman)

Level – 201

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 65,500/65,500 (+910,500)

Adventurer Coalition Rank: Diamond 630/630 RP (+210)

Health – 52,910/52,910

Mana – 152,930/152,930

Physicality – 1,898 (5,291)

Celerity – 1,879 (6,208)

Mentality – 4,634 (15,293)

Personality – 560 (3,170)

Fortuity – 985 (3,676)

He then finally took the time to go through all of his spells, including those he’d had for a long time, as each and every one of them had been bumped up in strength to Exceptional from Superior.  What he noticed right away with most of them was that their Mana Cost, for the most part, had doubled or even tripled, making some of them quite expensive to cast; fortunately, his bonuses helped to reduce those costs so that he could still cast them.  But the heightened Mana Cost also brought with it an incredible increase in what the spells produced.  For instance, he was very familiar with the fact that Superior Regeneration used to – at its base – heal for 10% of maximum Health every 5 seconds for 45 seconds; when he looked at the Exceptional version, the difference was more than just an increase in the healing rate.

Exceptional Regeneration (Single Cast): Grants a target continuous healing energy that replenishes Health for a limited time.

Healing Rate: 33% of maximum Health every 5 seconds; heals 99% of maximum Health after duration expires

Duration: 60 seconds

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 120 feet

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 2160 

Not only did the spell heal 33% of maximum Health every 5 seconds, more than triple the Superior version’s healing rate, but it also healed 99% of maximum Health once the duration of 60 seconds ended – which was also 15 seconds longer than the Superior version. 

There were a few other instances of another effect being added to the spells rather than a flat increase in what it did compared the Superior version, but it was rare; most of them were simple upgrades.  The most significant change that he was happy to see, however, was with some of his protective spells – and especially ones that he had stopped using lately when they had proven to be useless against higher-Level monsters.  Superior Protective Barrier and Superior Protective Guards used to only prevent damage and afflictions from sources up to Level 170, or Level 190 with his Hardest Protection Advancement.  The Exceptional versions, on the other hand, changed the Level source to something a bit more useful.

Exceptional Protective Barrier (Single Cast): Creates a full-body protective barrier around a single target that prevents (16) instances of all types of damage and afflictions from sources up to 20 Levels above the target’s Level; once damage is prevented, Superior Protective Barrier disappears; cannot target self.

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 90 feet

Duration: 5 minutes

Casting Time: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 6,480

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Exceptional Protective Guards (Single Cast): Creates a series of full-body protective barriers around a single target that prevents (21) instances of all types of damage and afflictions from sources up to 20 Levels above the target’s Level; once damage is prevented, Superior Protective Guards disappears; cannot target self.

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 50 feet

Duration: 3 minutes

Casting Time: 10 seconds

Mana Cost: 8,000

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Instead there being a hard cap on the source Level each spell could prevent damage, it was now 20 Levels above the Level of the target.  He needed Sadia’s clarification on a few questions he had, however.

“Yes, it works on the Perceived Level of both the target and the source of the damage, so the Level gap can’t be too great for your Raid Party members.  And yes, your Advancement works for this, so instead of 20 Levels above the target’s Level, it will protect up to 40 Levels.”

That was perfect for their plan coming up, at least for the first stages of it.  The goal was to rapidly Level up his core group of Guild members as fast as they could, getting them to their evolved Class, and then pushing the limits of what dungeons he could clear, getting as much PICK as possible to boost them up in Level to the point where they could hopefully survive against the Adversarial Elite monster. 

But it wasn’t just completing Minimal difficulty Intermediate dungeons and Leveling-up that way that they were planning on doing; in addition, once everyone had their new Class, Sadia’s plan was to hit far above their weight class, as they were also going to take advantage of his new trait to solo Intermediate dungeons and boost his own Level up to 50 Levels above the average Perceived Level of everyone else, where they could still receive PICK in a Raid Party.  Then, they would start hunting for Intermediate dungeons at higher difficulties so that the monsters were, at maximum, 60 Levels above him, so that he could start taking advantage of the 1% instant death trait.

They might be slammed into the ground because of the Level Compression that a monster 110 Levels above them would press down on them, but Thaden should be able to handle it well enough to absolutely devastate the monsters when he spammed an instant-cast, single-target spell a hundred times per second. 

At that point, the PICK would come rolling in, even if there were a hundred people in the party.  If he got lucky and his Fortuity held out, then hopefully many of those rewards they would get for killing high-Level monsters – including the Achievements that many of the Raid Party would get for that kind of thing – would be doubled because of his other trait, advancing everyone at a breakneck pace.

Of course, it wouldn’t all happen overnight, but he and Sadia hoped that by the time his contract with the Guild expired, they would all be nearing the next Class evolution at 567.  While they would still be a bit lower-Level than the Adversarial Elite, he was hoping to have enough advantages that the Level difference wouldn’t be as pronounced, allowing them all to take the monster down. 

Thinking about his next Class so soon after his last evolution hadn’t really occurred to him until this point, and since he was still sitting there waiting, he figured he might as well see what the Evolution Assignment was for the next one.  It hadn’t populated before he chose his evolved Class, but now that that was done with, it should be available now.

Support Class Evolution Assignments:

Level 21: Cast enough spells to restore 50,000 total Health and prevent 10,000 damage

Level 63: Complete at least 1 dungeon on Minimal difficulty, at least 1 dungeon on Medial difficulty, and at least 1 dungeon on Maximal difficulty while in a complete, 5-member Contender party

Level 189: Participate in a Raid party with a minimum of 100 Contenders and complete the Minimal difficulty of an Intermediate dungeon (Level 160+) without a single casualty

Level 567: Locate and participate in destroying a NEST in uncharted territory

“Huh.  Alright.  Not a lot to go on, but I assume this ‘NEST’ is some sort of high-Level dungeon?” he mused.

“Something like that.  I can’t really go into it.”

“Fair enough.  It’s not like it really matters right now, as there’s a lot of work to do first, and I’m assuming this uncharted territory is the area between the Regions?”  Sadia didn’t answer, which he figured was because she wasn’t allowed to because of the System.  It was interesting that there were some things she couldn’t talk about, such as things that pertained to the developmental phases, while others, such as conversations regarding the Adversary having a presence in Tarth, were perfectly fine.  But he supposed that since Sadia was ultimately a construct of the System, and the System had all of these “developmental plans” in place that it didn’t want revealed, it somewhat made sense.

By this time, it was slightly past noon as he lounged in his chair, seeing two other Raid Parties from Guilded Glory assemble and then depart, that he finally turned to the last three spells he’d acquired at Level 201.

Similar to his first trio of spell selections, each of the spells were single-target, keeping with the theme of his Class traits, but this time there was no Reserved spell, and the Channeled spell was a Support spell for healing. 

Exceptional External Stimulation (Channeled): Creates a connection with a single target that not only constantly heals them, but with each instance of healing there is a chance for the target’s Physicality and Celerity stat to temporarily increase.  

Healing Amount: 5% of maximum Health per second

Physicality And Celerity Increase Chance %: Fortuity/250

Physicality And Celerity Increase Magnitude: 5% of target’s base Physicality and Celerity

Physicality And Celerity Increase Maximum: 200% of target’s base Physicality and Celerity

Physicality And Celerity Duration: 9 minutes after spell is canceled

Range: 120 feet of caster

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 1,200 per second

Exceptional Internal Automation (Single Cast): When cast upon a single target, Exceptional Internal Automation uses and enhances the target’s internal immune system to automatically repel any hostile afflictions from sources up to 30 Levels above the target’s Level, with additional damage mitigation with each instance of damage based on the caster’s Fortuity.

Duration: 10 minutes

Damage Mitigation : Fortuity*2

Range: 27 feet

Casting Time: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 27,000

Cooldown: 30 seconds

Exceptional Spiritual Reclamation (Single Cast): When Exceptional Spiritual Reclamation is cast upon a single target, if that target dies, you can choose to claim a portion of their spirit; if enough spiritual portions are claimed from the same type of target, you will receive a permanent bonus related to their spiritual makeup; number of spiritual portions needed is determined by caster’s Fortuity, type of target, and target Level.

Duration: 24 Hours

Spiritual Portions Needed: Variable

Health and Mana Restoration: 7% of max Health and max Mana

Range: 300 feet of caster

Casting Time: 9 seconds

Mana Cost: 5,600

Each spell used Fortuity as a method of determining one thing or another, which had been yet another factor in his use of his free stat points earlier.  The healing spell was interesting in how it also had a chance to temporarily increase the Physicality and Celerity of his target; it was something he could use on himself, with a maximum of 200% of those two base stats.

Exceptional Internal Automation was a way to add affliction protection along with damage mitigation, which was approximately 7,300 because of his Fortuity; when he added in his bonuses, and his newly upgraded Exceptional Defensive Sprite, the real damage mitigation was about five times this number – and that was with each hit.  His extremely high Fortuity practically made this spell broken all by itself.

Lastly, he wasn’t exactly sure what gaining spiritual portions from slain targets would get him, but if it didn’t really cost anything to try, he figured he would enjoy collecting them.  Since the number he needed per type of target varied, he didn’t know how many he needed for each one, but he hoped it wasn’t hundreds or thousands.

With nothing else to really look at for the time being, he started to nap in his chair as the day wore on, with Sadia keeping watch from inside his equipment.  It was when the sun was on its way toward setting that the giant squirrel woke him up.

“Wake up, Thaden.  They’re coming.  And, well, you’ll see….”

His eyes shot open immediately and he turned toward the city, expecting to see whatever Raid Party was scheduled to come with him that day, but he didn’t see anyone heading in his direction.  Instead, Sadia subtly nudged his attention in the opposite direction.

“Sadia?  What am I looking at?”