Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Thaden reeled back in surprise; he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“No, we have absolutely no desire to add you to our Guild, even on a trial basis.  You would be a detriment to any Raid Party that you joined.”

Standing across from the Level 165 Mage Class, who was actively recruiting inside the Rageharbor Adventurer Coalition for the Vibrance Guild, he could feel his mouth gaping open in shock.  After a few seconds, he snapped it shut as a wave of irritation and anger flowed through him.  “What are you talking about?  I’m the best healer you’re ever going to find—”

Diedre, the Vibrance Guild representative, held up her hand to interrupt him while looking at him like he was crazy.  “This isn’t about your healing ability; I have no doubt it’s spectacular,” she quickly explained.  “You might be at the top of the Rankings, but it’s your Class and Level that are the issue.  There aren’t any Guilds that would accept a Solitary Shaman into their ranks with what that mean in a Raid Party.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said in exhausted exasperation. 

Not to be outdone, she responded with clear annoyance in her voice.  “If you don’t know, I can’t help you.”  Her statement was final, as if she had nothing else to say.

Restraining the desire to punch her smug-looking face, Thaden turned on his heel and left the lobby of the Coalition, heading out into the city to clear his head a bit.  He’d had a frustrating two days since he’d returned to Rageharbor after being freed from his personal purgatory underneath the Ragewater Sea; the hardest part of it all was that he didn’t understand why everything was harder than he expected it to be.

After acquiring all of his prizes from the year announcement and his #1 Rankings, he had spent the first part of the day relaxing a bit after his recent ordeal, not wanting to do all that much.  That lasted for all of a few hours before he started planning what he wanted to do next.

Now that the timed SPECIAL Quests regarding the Anchor dungeons were completed, the urgency and responsibility he had felt regarding their completion were gone, leaving him time to think about what he wanted to do.  He now had equipment that would suit him for a bit, and while he could theoretically farm some dungeons for potentially stronger gear, there was no need for it at the moment.  He still had over 100,000 gold to his name as well as some random pieces of equipment and sets that, while lower-Level compared to the Average Contender, he thought he could still sell for another 40,000 to 50,000 gold in the Contender Market.   

Not that he had any real need for gold right now, other than to buy food and any other lodging requirements.  Even after searching through the Market when he got bored of doing nothing in his Diamond-ranked room, there weren’t any equipment pieces that were better than what he already possessed – at least not on their own.  His Healthful Protection set bonuses far outweighed any of the individual pieces of equipment he saw for sale, and there weren’t any sets for sale, at all.  He figured that they all either sold quickly when they were for sale, or they were so strong that no one would part with one; he decided it was most likely the latter, as he would be extremely reluctant to part with his current set, even if he outgrew it.

So, if he didn’t need gear or gold, what did he need?  The answer was simple: He needed to evolve his Class so that he could continue accumulating PICK.

At Level 189, he was at his maximum Level until he evolved his Class and he had maxed-out the amount of PICK he could hold in reserve; in other words, he had hit a wall in terms of development.  To improve himself, there were only two things he could do at the moment.  First, he could search out dungeons and complete them for the Achievement he’d receive, but if he wasn’t able to gather any PICK and loot at his current Level didn’t really interest him all that much, then this option would only be for the Achievements.  Unless they all gave him something spectacular that he didn’t already have, then it wouldn’t really be worth it; his Coalition Rank was essentially maxed-out as well until he could figure out ho to promote himself to Platinum Rank, and even small additions to his stats were relatively negligible.

Especially with what he’d received as prizes from the recent Ranking updates.

That left his second choice, which was to evolve his Class by completing his Evolution Assignment.  As he stormed out of the Coalition building and started to wander aimlessly around, he brought up the requirements again, hoping that it had somehow changed – but also knowing that it a forlorn hope.

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: ??? (Locked)

Nope; still the same as it’s always been.

He really wished he had known about this particular Evolution Assignment before he chose to become a Solitary Shaman; then again, he wasn’t sure if he would’ve picked anything different, if he was being honest with himself.  Regardless, the need to join a Raid Party of 100 Contenders or more and complete a Minimal difficulty Intermediate dungeon at Level 160 or higher without a single casualty was turning out to be much harder to get done that he had expected.

First, since he was already looking at the Contender Market for anything that he might want to buy, he looked for any service postings for Raid Parties looking for more people to fill out their numbers.  He found plenty of them after only seconds of searching, but there was one glaring issue with all of them: They required that someone join their Guild in order to participate.

Thaden had no real desire to join a Guild, as he was fairly independent and didn’t want to be tied down to an organization like that.  Therefore, he searched through the postings for over a few hours to see if there were any Contenders putting together a Raid Party that wasn’t part of a Guild, only to come up empty-handed.  Before he went through them all, he would’ve thought that such a thing would’ve been impossible, but the evidence was staring him right in the face.

That was when he discovered a few posting about changes implemented by the Assimilation System regarding the Adventurer Coalition and the Guilds that the Humans from Earth had unofficially created amongst themselves.  Apparently, the idea of individual Guilds containing groups of Contenders was relatively unique to those from Earth, or at least to the depth and complexity that the Humans had created.  As a result, the System had adapted them to work directly with the Adventurer Coalition, not only legitimizing their presence as official organizations, but even going so far as to create Guild Quests that could be completed by members of that Guild.  When a new hierarchy of Guilds was added, and which were now included in the official Rankings, this led to increased competition between the Guilds to heights unseen.

Fortunately for the relative health and safety of the Guild members, this competition didn’t extend to Guild wars and the assassination of other Contenders; in fact, once he looked deeper into the service posts for more information, it seemed as though directly interfering with another Guild, either through blocking dungeons or killing their members, was seen as unfavorable and would result in loss of Guild Reputation – which was something new and was directly responsible for affecting the Guild’s Ranking.  Instead, the way to get ahead wasn’t by taking other Guilds down, but by raising your Guild up, which included completing Guild Quests and finishing Intermediate dungeons.

As a result, everyone wanted to join a Guild so that they could partake of not only Ranking prizes, but the rewards from the Guild Quests – which were reportedly better than something like a Dungeon Maintenance Quest.  He quickly learned this the hard way when he decided to make his own posting in the service section on the Contender Market, and over a 3-hour period, he didn’t get a single person interested in joining a non-Guild-affiliated Raid Party.

Because he was getting desperate, he then offered a 1,000-gold bonus to anyone joining up for the Raid Party, and he sat back waiting for people to jump aboard in a rush.  After 8 hours of waiting and checking on the responses, he received a grand total of…

…two people.  From his brief messages with them regarding the Raid Party, he quickly understood that the two Contenders that had contacted him were of the highly disreputable sort, and he immediately called it off when he suspected they were only doing it so that they could try to kill him – or something equally deplorable. 

All of which led him to a dejected night when he barely slept while he tried to figure out what to do.  In the morning, he finally decided that he didn’t have any other choice but to join a Guild, so he went down to one of the Guild representatives in the Coalition lobby that he’d seen on his way in.  His name and Level immediately got a smile from the Vibrance Guild representative, which he thought was a good sign, so he asked about joining so that he could participate in some Raid Parties.  Before she answered, her eyes went unfocused for a few seconds and a frown immediately consumed her cheerful expression.

“No, we have absolutely no desire to add you to our Guild, even on a trial basis.  You would be a detriment to any Raid Party that you joined.”

Her words still echoed through his mind as his footsteps took him through the city with no conscious destination in mind.  Thaden wasn’t necessarily used to rejection, but he was normally aware of the reason behind the rejection; for instance, when his Personality was in the toilet, the reaction of the Charee and even many Contenders toward him was relatively understandable.  Jealousy and greed were also factors in the reaction he’d gotten from other people, and while he thought it was stupid, he at least comprehended where it was coming from.

But this?  What does my Class and Level have to do with anything?  Why—?

He cut off his own train of thought as he froze mid-step.  Thinking about his interaction with Diedre, he remembered that her eyes went unfocused before she rudely refused his query about joining the Guild; the only thing he could think of to explain that was if she had been looking at something that he couldn’t see – and it had to do with Thaden.  This obviously led him to remembering that the Rankings were now kept up-to-date and that additional information was available about people as part of that update.

She saw my Class, obviously; but why does that matter?

The Solitary Shaman brought up the Rankings again in his vision, finding his name easily still at the top of six lists.  He mentally selected it and saw what he’d seen before, which was his Class and Level, obviously, but he suddenly realized that there was an extra layer to his Class that he hadn’t really been paying attention to before.  It was only when he dug a bit deeper that his heart sunk into his stomach, as his interaction with the Guild representative suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

Name: #32599999-E

Level: 189

Adventurer Coalition Rank: Diamond

Class: Solitary Shaman

             Class Details: Solitary by nature, the Solitary Shaman excels in keeping himself alive without the help of others.  Benefits include a larger selection of spell strengths, advanced single-target spell ranges, additional spell categories, and a 50% spell efficiency boost on spells used on self.  Detriments include a 50% decrease in spell efficiency when targeting allies and a 90% reduction in all PICK accumulation for anyone in a party with a Solitary Shaman.   

Not only did it reveal the benefits he received from his Class, but it also described its detriments – which included the 90% reduction in PICK accumulation for anyone partying with him. 

Crap.  No wonder she acted like that.

While it didn’t excuse the rudeness he’d experienced from her, he finally understood it.  Everyone was focused on gaining PICK and increasing their Level, but with Thaden along, he pretty much removed most of the PICK that they would expect to earn.  When he factored in his Level, which was still a bit higher than next-highest Level in Tarth, they would receive even less PICK and loot when tackling a dungeon that was around their Level range.

Of course, the benefit of partying with him was that he could lead a group of Contenders through a dungeon that was much more difficult than one they would normally face, which would help to boost those PICK and loot numbers a bit.  Then there were things like his Emboldened Leadership Competency and its Advancements, which affected the Perceived Level of not only his party but any other targets around him, strengthening both, which would also affect the rewards.  Even with that, though, the resulting PICK would still be a bit less than they were likely used to, and it included things like Achievements and Quests – such as the Guild Quests that the Guilds were obsessed with completing.

At the same time, he was pretty sure that he could make a Raid Party run through an Intermediate dungeon not only much safer, but much faster than they could complete it normally.  After all, Thaden had enough confidence in his abilities that he was fairly certain he could keep everyone alive while also defeating all the monsters that tried to kill them – and at a fraction of the time needed to normally complete one.  That meant they could do multiple dungeons in the same timeframe that they would normally only complete one, which might just balance out the PICK loss.

Now all he had to do was to figure out how to convince them of that.  His boastful proclamation that he was so much more powerful than them that he could escort them through an Intermediate dungeon would likely end up with them laughing at him.  He could tell them, in more detail, about his stats and abilities; he was reluctant to share that kind of information, but if it helped him evolve his Class, than he considered it worth it.  However, there was no way for him to officially prove to anyone he told that his stats were real, as he’d learned – when talking to the Region Leader of the Adventurer Coalition – that he was unable to share portions of his Character Report to other people.  They would simply think he was a liar when he couldn’t back up his stats and specific abilities with proof; powerful spells cast upon them would only go so far.

What if I brought a few of them through with me while I basically solo an Intermediate dungeon?  That would be sure to change their perception of my worth, right?

He didn’t know if that was a fool-proof idea or not, but he couldn’t think of anything else at this point.  Shaking his head at the sheer stupidity of the situation, he looked around for the first time since he paused, and he realized that his undirected footsteps had taken him all the way to the northern gate of Rageharbor, quite a bit away from the Coalition building where he’d talked to the Guild rep.  He nearly turned around and marched back, demanding someone from their Guild accompany him to see what he could do, and perhaps invite a few other members from competing Guilds along with him, but he stopped himself. 

Instead of doing that, he kept walking on the route his feet had apparently chosen, his stride becoming more confident as he passed through the gate and into the area beyond it.  The last time he’d left through this gate had been when Gregory and his party had been captured and killed, and the Execution Guild had attempted to extract information from him; while he didn’t look fondly back at that time, he recognized that it had been a pivotal moment in his development, and the first of many changes to the Contenders and the world of Tarth with the introduction of the black auras denoting those who had killed their fellow Contenders.  At the time, those events had made a huge impact on his views towards other Contenders, cementing his choice to stay solo as long as possible, but now it was imperative that he join a party in order to complete his Evolution Assignment; not just any party, though, a 100+ person Raid Party, which was even more complicated and difficult for it to be.

In consideration of how difficult it was going to be to convince a Guild to allow him to join in on a Raid, he decided that it was probably better to ensure that if he brought some Guild members along with him to prove that he could complete these Intermediate dungeons faster than they could without him, he should probably make sure he could back up that claim. 

In other words, he needed to complete an Intermediate dungeon solo just to see how difficult it would be.

Once he was clear of the gate and the crowd of people around it, he tapped into his Celerity and took off down the well-worn path, heading for the only dungeon he was familiar with in the area.  It was the same one he’d visited with Gregory and his party months ago before tragedy struck them down, and he thought it would be a fitting test of his abilities.

In less than a minute, he was slowing down as he approached the Crestline Gorge Dungeon.