Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 11

Chapter 11

“I’m not so sure that this is a good idea,” Thaden murmured to himself as he ran the last portion of the trip toward the city of Duskwood Vale.  He had ended up flying most of the way, utilizing his new Wyvern’s Flight cloak with its ability to be mentally activated, which had been an incredible experience – and more than a little frightening.  Even though he knew he would be fine even if he fell out of the sky, thanks to the damage mitigation his spells provided him, once he passed about 300 feet above the surface, he was affected by a natural bout of vertigo.  Dropping down to about 250 feet above the surface – or above a forest or whatever was below him – was enough for him to feel much better about being away from the ground. 

He also discovered that his Celerity stat applied directly to how fast he could fly, which was dangerous in itself.  Without ground-based obstacles to worry about, Thaden was able to let his speed loose.  The only thing he had to worry about was the air pressure against his body as he moved at what had to be at least 400 miles per hour or more, but his Physicality was high enough that he was able to hold out an arm above his head to divert the air around him as he flew horizontally like some old-fashioned superhero. 

He would’ve flown the entire distance to his destination, but he had figured that arriving by air and then dropping straight into the city would probably be a poor idea.  It wasn’t that he was worried about attention, it was more that he didn’t want to break any rules that the Charee might have for their city.

Sadia agreed with him… and she heard him just now when he’d attempted to mutter to himself.  Having essentially dematerialized like she was beaming up into some sort of science fiction starship, his new squirrel companion was nestled inside of his equipment – but was still able to sense the world around him, as well as communicate.

“It might not be something that you want to do, but if it helps you get your Evolution Assignment taken care of, can it really be that bad?”

“Yes; yes it can,” he mumbled, knowing that she could hear him, but also not caring.  Deep down, he knew that her idea was the one that had the best chance of working, even if it was distasteful. 

“Don’t be so grumpy.  I promise that this will be good for you in the long run.”

He didn’t respond as he slowed down, as he began to approach the gates to the city of  Duskwood Vale; there was no reason to say anything, as he knew she was technically correct.

Thaden couldn’t help but be amazed at the complete change in Sadia’s personality and her interactions with him from when he had first been introduced to him.  When she had basically formed into existence due to the synchronization with his Plates, something that she later mentioned was only possible because of him having so many of them installed together in close proximity, she had seemed like she had been formed as some sort of slave to his every whim; but when she finally dug down into the connection they shared together, the swift alteration of her speech and attitude toward him was dramatic.  It was as if she was some sort of psychotherapist that analyzed him in seconds and then changed herself so that she could better fulfill the needs that he didn’t even know he needed.

Privately, he was taking credit for those changes because he turned her into a giant squirrel, but he didn’t mention that.

Now, instead of making him uncomfortable by her very presence, she had shifted gears to be as helpful and encouraging as possible, like he would expect a good friend would act like if he were in trouble.  He’d had friends in the past, of course, but none that – by their very presence – could make him feel like someone had his back no matter what he did or messed up. 

It was an odd experience for him, but it was also one that was growing on him by the minute.  Sadia had only existed for a few hours by this points, but he could barely imagine her not being there with him, somehow sending thoughts into his head as if it was the most normal thing in the world. 

Shaking his head in disbelief at everything that had happened over the last few days, he cleared his mind of all those things as he looked around him as he slipped into the line leading into the city.  Similar to Rageharbor, there were thousands of Contenders outside, though not all of them were trying to enter or exit the city; there were at least a dozen groupings of individual Guilds that he could make out from a distance by the auras their nametags gave off, though he didn’t look too hard at who they were.  The main thing he noticed was that these groups were apparently waiting around for more people to join them before they took off for some Intermediate dungeon or another, and they weren’t just in Raid Parties of 100.  He spotted a couple that had nearly 200 Contenders congregating together, while yet another one had upwards of 300.  He could only assume that there were Intermediate dungeons out there that allowed more members of the Raid Party, especially considering that to advance to Developmental Phase 4, they had to complete a Maximal Difficulty Intermediate dungeon with up to 400 people.

It was something he would have to learn more about from the Adventurer Coalition, as he was sure they had information on the Level ranges and Party maximums for many of the Intermediate dungeons by now.  The fact that he hadn’t taken the time to do that before he started trying to find a way to complete his Evolution Assignment was yet another piece of evidence that his exile under the Ragewater Sea had affected him more than he thought.  Being alone for so long had made him want to rely less on others and more on himself, and it was only the fact that he couldn’t do that in order to evolve his Class that led to him trying to find a Raid Party that would allow him to tag along.  He had been planning on simply using them for his own purposes, perhaps paying them for the privilege, and then likely never seeing them again.  Even joining a Guild – when there didn’t seem to be any other option – was only going to be a temporary measure, as he planned on quitting it as soon as he evolved his Class.

But Sadia had another idea altogether.

“Pay attention, Thaden.  It’s time for you to move up in line.”

He chuckled at the exasperated tone in her voice, as she immediately recognized that he was spacing out a bit.  It was something he’d always done, as he tended to keep his thoughts to himself and didn’t focus on the world around him as much as he probably should, but it had been a bit worse since he’d returned to Rageharbor.  It hadn’t been as obvious to him until Sadia had started to point it out, which annoyed him to no end, but once he became aware of how he was acting, he couldn’t deny it had been happening.

Thaden’s high Level and even his odd, System designated name didn’t pull as much attention as it used to wherever he went, for which he was thankful, though he did still get a few looks from the Contenders ahead and behind him.  No one seemed inclined to try to talk to him, however, as they were wrapped up in their own conversations – to which he now focused on once Sadia brought him back to reality from his own thoughts.

“…attempt the Westfold Gate one, though I’ve heard their hesitating to try.  While we’ve had success with the lower-Level dungeons around here, leadership is wary of attempting one that hasn’t been mapped out yet – especially at that Level.  Bunch of chickens, I say—”

“Is it really calling them chicken if they don’t want us to die needlessly?  Let someone else complete them first, and then we can come in and do it when the dangers are known.  Sure, it costs a bit for that information, but I’d rather not die, you know?”

“Well, sure, but it just puts us further behind.  Maybe we should jump ship and join the {Hellrazers}, because they’re pushing forward faster than—”

“Yeah, and they pay for it, too!  I heard their last run lost a dozen people that couldn’t be rezzed because they were dangerously reckless inside the dungeon.  Plus, I heard their Guildmaster is basically a psychopath; not someone I want to work under.”

“Of course there will be dangers to joining a Guild like that, but look at the average Level of their Guild members!  If you check the Rankings, half of them are in the top 100, which goes to show that they know what they’re doing.”

As Thaden let the back-and-forth argument about Guilds wash over him, he looked up the {Hellrazers} Guild in the Rankings, as well as their most prominent members.  As the overheard Contender had mentioned, many of them were in the top 100 in their respective categories, and the Guild itself was actually in the top 5 – a new Ranking list that he hadn’t really noticed before.  With only 4 Guilds above them in power, it made him look at which Guilds were above them.

Individual Performance

1. Vengeance

Tier 5

Strength Rating: 54

8,654 Members

2. Doom Lords

Tier 5

Strength Rating: 51

15,410 Members

3. Guilded Glory

Tier 5

Strength Rating: 50

25,713 Members

4. Hallowed Rise

Tier 5

Strength Rating: 49

17,886 Members

5. Hellrazers

Tier 5

Strength Rating: 49

9,552 Members

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

The Rankings didn’t make much sense to him, as he had no idea what a “Tier” was or how the “Strength Rating” was determined.  Fortunately, Sadia seemed to have those answers – yet another reason he was glad she was with him.

“When the Assimilation System integrated the Guilds into the collective development of the Humans on Tarth, it established a Tiering classification to them, which indicated at which stage in their development they are operating at.  This is determined not only by the Developmental Phase they are actively involved in, but also by their ability to clear dungeons successfully and a few other factors such as their reach in the Region.

“The Strength Rating is composed of a number of different variables, such as member count, average member level, the number of permanent casualties incurred recently, monetary wealth and influence, Quest completions, dungeon clearances, and dungeon performance.  From the overheard conversation, it sounds like the {Hellrazers} Guild should probably have a higher Strength Rating, but if they actually have that many casualties as a common occurrence, then that negatively impacted their Rating.”

Looking at it from that perspective, he supposed that the Rankings made a bit more sense.  While it wasn’t intuitive how the whole thing was set up, he understood it enough not to be completely ignorant – which was important for where they were going once they got inside the city.

“Badge, please,” the Charee City Guard asked in a bored voice once he got to the front of the line leading inside, and Thaden handed it to him.  The Guard looked at it for a moment before handing it back, only a slight widening of his eyes indicating that he was surprised at it being Diamond Rank.  “Thank you.  Have a pleasant time in Darkwood Vale.”  He didn’t even ask him what his business was in the city before waving Thaden through, which was a novel experience.

“Alright, where to now?”

“We need information on where they’re located in the city.  Should be easy enough to find.”

It turned out that Sadia was absolutely correct.  All it took was a short time looking around the inside of the entrance, which was a bit of a madhouse with all the people moving quickly around the place, before he saw his target.  Moving swiftly to her side, he cleared his throat to get her attention.

“Excuse me, Corinna?  Are you part of Guilded Glory?”  Thaden already knew she was based on her nametag’s aura, but he thought it would be good to confirm it.

Corinna {Guilded Glory}

Human

Level 165

The heavily armored Fighter stopped at his sudden appearance, not looking the slightest bit startled at being addressed so abruptly.  With her helmet off, the long black hair framing her faced spread along the shiny plate armor she was wearing, and it whispered against the metal as she nodded with a grin.  “Yes, I am.  How may I be of service?”

Whether it was his Personality helping with his interaction with the woman or she was genuinely a nice person, he wasn’t quite sure, but he wasn’t going to complain.  “Excellent.  I had heard that you might have a Guild headquarters here in the city, where your Guildmaster might be in attendance.  I have a business proposition for her, but I don’t know where to go.  Would you be able to tell me where I might find her?”

The grin didn’t disappear as she responded.  “I certainly could tell you that.  The fee for that information would be 500 Gold.”

Here, too?  Rather than complain, as he really needed this information and didn’t feel like going about finding it any other way, he took out 500 Gold and handed it over.  It was a small sum, anyway, considering that he had nearly a little over 400,000 Gold in his Inventory after his expedition through the Crestline Gorge dungeon.  In addition, he’d also placed all but the Epic-Rarity items that he’d picked up during that run in the Contender Market, and he was sure to add to that reserve once people started buying it.

“Thank you for your purchase of the information,” Corinna said as soon as she confirmed she’d received the correct payment.  “If you’ll follow me, I was actually headed there.”

He inwardly cringed at the unnecessary loss of Gold, knowing that he could’ve probably followed her without paying, but he pushed it aside as he took off after her when she started moving swiftly through the streets.  They pushed through the crowded thoroughfares without any issues, with Corinna expertly flowing around the traffic like she’d done it thousands of times before, before cutting through alleyways and side streets as they made their way to the northwestern portion of the city.  After approximately 15 minutes of swift walking, they arrived at a fairly nondescript building that was three floors in height, constructed of the same wood as every other building in the city; from the outside, it didn’t look particularly interesting or unique, and there were no plaques or signs indicating that they had arrived at their destination. 

In short, even if he had spent days walking around the city, there was no way he would’ve known this was the headquarters for the Guilded Glory Guild unless someone told him.  In fact, he was fairly certain that even if he had followed the Corinna there, he probably would’ve assumed that it was some sort of apartment that the woman was renting, and not a hub for the Guild he was looking for.

“I’m not sure if she’d in right now or not, as I just got back to the city, but we’ll find out soon enough,” she said as they stopped in front of the entrance to the plain-looking building.  Waving him forward, she continued, “Anyone with a business proposition is welcome here.”  With a smile, she opened the door for him, allowing him to enter first, and he stopped a few feet inside as he looked around in astonishment.

This was definitely not what I was expecting based on the outside.