Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Sitting back in the chair and stretching from the hunched-over position he had been in, Thaden could keep himself from frowning after evaluating all the information he had absorbed.  From what the Vice-Leader had given him, which was derived from the dungeon delves of Contenders themselves, there were only a few dungeons within 200 miles of the city that a prevalence to drop Support Class gear either through monster extractions or as final rewards in their treasure rooms, though there were more further afield if he wanted to travel that far.  

The problem, as far as he could see it, was that within the 200 miles of the city, only a single dungeon on that list was a high enough Level to make it worth going. 

What did that mean?

Well, the information that was provided to him was taken from Contenders who had either completed the dungeon, or from enough delves through them that a loot table started to take shape from extracted drops.  The ones that almost guaranteed that he’d find something to use were from completed dungeons, and those completed dungeons were all at the Minimal difficulty, with a recommended Level between 5 and 15.  What that meant was the Medial difficulties of those dungeons, according to the information, were between Levels 20 and 35; what was more important was that the Maximal difficulty would probably be between Levels 40 and 60.  It was possible that it might be a little higher on the end of the Level range, but it still meant that the majority of the monsters in those dungeons – other than perhaps the Mini-Bosses and Bosses – wouldn’t provide any PICK, and more importantly, any loot.

Which kind of defeated the purpose of venturing into those dungeons in the first place. 

Only one dungeon that was anywhere near his current location had a Minimal difficulty recommended Level of 20 to 30, which was more likely to have a Maximal difficulty range that would be suitable to him.  The issue was that Contenders were only recently exploring The Devil’s Nail Dungeon, and the collected drops were all over the place, with only a slight edge to the number of Support Class drops. 

There were some others that he had information on that were equally as promising as  The Devil’s Nail, but they would take at least a three or four days of travel – even at his incredible Celerity-boosted speed – to reach them.  Moreover, they were on opposite sides of the Region, so if one didn’t work out, he’d have to travel a week or so to reach the other one.

Of course, there were other possibilities for Support Class items dropping from other dungeons that had much higher recommended Levels at Minimal difficulty, but as no one had even so much as ventured into them, there was no information on what could be extracted from their monsters.  Thaden attempted to guess at what a dungeon might provide based on the name of the different dungeons, but it was a crapshoot at best.

Do I really need more gear? he asked himself, wondering if it was really necessary to search it out.  He looked at his Character Report to see what his stats looked like without any gear or other bonuses affecting them.

#32599999-E

Solitary Shaman

Level – 70

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 20,800/20,800

Adventurer Coalition Rank: Gold 630/630 RP

Health – 960/960

Mana – 3,250/3,250

Physicality – 96

Celerity – 125

Mentality – 325

Personality – 13

Fortuity – 126

It was quite impressive, if he did say so, but it could always be better.  When he looked at what his best gear added to it, he could basically add another 131 to Mentality, 17 to Celerity, and 5 to Physicality – with a smattering of special effects such as a 9% decrease in casting time for Defensive spells, 100% increase in Support spell effectiveness in low-light environments, some additional Heat and Shadow Resistance, and a reduction of 10 in his Personality thanks to his Casket Ring of the Undead he still had from the Mausoleum.

Some of his items were fairly strong, as he’d gotten them recently, and they were designed for someone around his Level; most of what he had to wear, however, was for a much lower-Level individual, with some of it even being for a Level 10. 

Theoretically, if he was to bring his Level up to 75, he had a new Focus Stone that he’d received from The Den that he could finally use, but while it had a nice boost to his Mentality -- +90 compared to his current Focus Stone that gave him +5 – it also had a 10% chance that he would be blinded if he cast a Support spell on himself.  He could get rid of that with Greater Cure Physical Affliction, of course, but was that hassle worth the potential of out-Leveling some dungeons by increasing his Level?  He decided, at least for the moment, that it wasn’t. 

But, did he need an upgrade to his gear?  No.  But he wanted it.  He wanted to be able to use the majority of what he picked up from a dungeon, and he had a lot of very sub-par items that he needed to replace.  He only had as many as he had thanks to people selling them in the Contender Market, but now he’d basically drained it dry of anything that might be useful to him.  He had gold to spend, so it was possible that he might be able to find some locals in Rageharbor that might have the crafting knowledge to make him something instead of finding it.  Or perhaps they were even selling such things right now; unfortunately, if it was anything like what was available in Forgestone, most things for sale immediately would likely be only 10 or 15 Levels above the average Level of the local Contenders, so he was looking at Level 40 or 45 at the highest.  It would certainly be an upgrade to some of his gear, but that would only be a temporary measure as he got stronger and quickly outpaced those items.

What eventually decided it for him was the need to get out and do something productive toward his development, as he’d been stuck at Level 63 without much progress for a while.  Now that he could accumulate more PICK and actually Level-up, he’d rather try and find something for himself rather than wait around the city and see if he could scrounge up something here and there.  After he checked out The Devil’s Nail, and depending on the outcome of his venture there, he would make the decision to search out for potential gear in the city or to head to the other possible Support Class-geared dungeons on his list. 

Then, when he was properly equipped, he would start his search for the first dungeon in his SPECIAL Quests – because that was what he’d been working toward all this time.

Upon making that decision, Thaden placed all of the books and papers that he had been provided outside of his door for pickup later, and then prepared himself to leave.  As he looked out the window, however, he saw that it was nearly evening already, so he decided to wait until the next day to depart the city; he also wanted to stock up on supplies for his journey, which he likely wouldn’t be able to do at this point in the evening as stores closed, so it would be better to do that in the morning. 

He didn’t think he was all that tired when he snuggled up in the comfortable bed, but he was out like a light within minutes.  When he awakened in the early morning later, he took his time getting ready, ordering a breakfast which was delivered promptly by the new Concierge that had been recently assigned to the Silver and Gold-Ranked rooms, named Jervin, but he didn’t keep the young, nervous-looking Charee standing around, letting him leave almost immediately after asking about Quest for The Devil’s Nail; by the time he finished eating, he had been assigned a Silver-Ranked Quest to clear the Maximal difficulty of The Devil’s Nail, essentially completing everything he had to do in the Coalition.

He was all set to leave shortly thereafter when a thought occurred to him.  Who am I today?  His “Angelo” persona was basically burnt by this point, given that he was seen at the Crestline Gorge with Gregory and his crew supposedly “attempting” the Medial difficulty there.  The day before, he had been “Brian” and had been visibly seen achieving Level 21 in the lobby, so there would most likely be people looking out for him; if not to pay to join a Contender Guild, then to try and kill him when he left the city.  The same went with “Christopher”, who’d done the same Level-up to 21 and talking to the Support Class Representative soon after arriving in the city. 

It was a chore keeping up with the different names he was using and who saw him and when and what he was wearing at the time – and he was getting tired of it.  He didn’t exactly have a lot of options of what to wear, especially as if he wore anything but a robe it would look out of place since he was a Contender.  He was tempted to just wear his Shadow Silk robe and Hood of Obscurity and simply leave as quickly as he could, but he also needed to do some shopping to replenish his supplies, and doing that without a nametag would also be out of place.

Sighing, he gave in looked through the Contender Market again, purchasing a basic green robe that didn’t have any stats or anything about it that made it unique.  It appeared on the table and he slipped it on, before changing his named to… Kevin?  Kevin sounded good to him, as he always loved those Home Alone movies, and he made sure his Level was reset back down to Level 20.  There was no point in making it any higher as that would cause the same problems he would’ve had as Brian or Christopher, after all.

Ready to go, he left from the back entrance and checked as well as he could outside to ensure no one was watching out for him, before setting off into the city.  No one seemed to pay him any attention in the early morning sun of the day, and he leisurely moved from store to store, purchasing a few supplies here and there as he made a circuitous route through the city as he headed for the north gate, the same one he had met Gregory.  He would’ve gone through the same one he entered a couple of days before, but The Devil’s Nail was to the north, and he would end up having to cross two rivers and sweep around a short mountain range that branched off the one surrounding the Ragewater Sea. 

It would only save him an hour or so in the end, because it took so long to get through the city, but it was worth it for him to gather up what he needed along the way.  Picking up enough food to last him weeks on the road, he took the opportunity to visit a few stores that sold robes and accessories; amazingly, he did find some Support Class-wearable items, but they were all for Level 30 to 35, as everything else was sold out.  A few would be a minor upgrade, but he decided to skip paying the exorbitant prices – such as a 100-gold bracelet that was marginally better than his existing one – and wait until he had no other options.

Arriving at the north gate about an hour and a half after he left his room at the Coalition, Thaden was about to pass through it when he felt someone invisible pass by him, and he suddenly felt something pressed into his hand.  He looked around for whoever it was, but they were apparently sneaky enough that he couldn’t see even a trace of them.  He couldn’t even listen for footsteps or disturbances in the dirt-covered stone of the ground, as it was busy enough around the gate that everything blended together without a trace. 

Whoever it was, they were good, because they hadn’t tried to attack him, which would therefore cancel their stealth – at least, that’s what he’d learned from Gregory – and was gone in a flash.  It was all done so fast that he didn’t get a chance to cast an area of effect healing spell which might have revealed whoever it was.  And now they’re probably a few blocks away by this point. 

He looked down at whatever had been shoved into his hand, only to find a beige piece of paper that had been crumpled up into a ball, like a piece of trash.  When he opened it fully and read what was written inside, he immediately knew that it was anything but garbage.

It was a threat.

We know U has a secret.  Come to Bayside Grotto in 3 2 hours or UR friends R dead.

Whoever it was who wrote it didn’t know proper grammar, and it the writing was sloppy, but he understood it well enough.  It also appeared as though they were waiting for him at the gate for a while, because it originally said “3” hours, but that number was crossed off and changed to “2”. 

 Who are these “friends” they’re talking about?  There were only a few people that he had interacted with in this world that he might consider himself on friendly terms with, and he didn’t think it was Sarah and her party from Ashcleft; the travel distance alone would make that unlikely.  So, that left Gregory and the others – but they should’ve been in the next figurative time zone by that point.

The note was obviously a trap, that was simple enough to understand.  As for what they thought they knew, he wasn’t quite sure as all it said was they knew he had a secret, but it didn’t appear as if they knew who he really was.  It was more likely that they had seen through his disguises, or somehow witnessed him changing into someone else at some point when he was unaware, and were convinced he had some powerful item or knowledge of how to power-Level themselves.  That was usually what the mobsters did in the movies and TV shows back on Earth, and the Guilds seemed similar enough to The Mob than anything else – and he was fairly certain these people were connected to a Guild in some shape or fashion.  The fact that they wanted to meet by the Bayside Grotto, which was a dungeon controlled by one of the Guilds, was a fairly good indication of that.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember Gregory or one of the others telling him which Guild it was that was controlling it.  Not that it would’ve mattered, he supposed, because even if he knew which one it was, what could he do?

The answer: not much.

What do I do?  The smartest and safest answer was to walk away, because nothing good would come from walking into this trap.  First, he didn’t owe anything else to Gregory and his party, as he’d already paid them for their help and given them enough gear to last them for a while; while they had been party members for a short time, he also wouldn’t necessarily call them friends.  More like acquaintances than anything.  That might be selling short their relationship a little, but for Thaden the whole thing with them had been transactional in nature. 

Secondly, even if he went to the Grotto and they had somehow captured Gregory and his crew, or somehow even Sarah and her party, there was nothing he could do.  All of them were going to be a lower-Level than he was, so it wasn’t like he could go in guns blazing when his attacks would do absolutely nothing to them.  They would simply laugh at him and kill his acquaintances in front of him when he told them nothing.

Because he had no intention of succumbing to their threat.  His SPECIAL Quest was too important to endanger in any way, and more lives than just whoever they were threatening to kill to make him give up his secrets. 

Lastly, even if he was somehow able to extract his “friends” from the situation, talking with these people would only give them more information about him that he really didn’t want to share with anyone.  Thaden might not intentionally give something away, but the risk was there, regardless. 

Therefore, he crumpled up the piece of paper again in his hand and was about to throw it on the ground, but he was standing right in front of gate guard; the last thing he wanted was to be accused of violating some sort of littering law right before he left.  Instead, he threw it in his Inventory and walked the rest of the way out of the gate, confidently heading north and not to the northeast where he knew the Grotto was located.  

But his decision to abandon whoever it was they had captured and were threatening to kill weighed on him with every step he took.  He had traveled approximately a half-mile before he stopped, his hands curled up into fists with his eyes screwed shut as he attempted to clear his thoughts and the guilt that was pressing down on them.

After struggling for nearly five minutes, he finally screamed loudly in frustration, startling a party of Level 20-somethings heading the opposite way. 

“Screw it.  I don’t really care anymore.”

Standing in the middle of the busy road, seething with anger to the point where people were actively avoiding him, he quickly took his recently purchased green robe off, pulled his Shadow Silk Robe of Darkness’ Embrace, Hood of Obscurity, and all of his other wearable items from his Inventory before putting them on.  Mutterings from a few Contenders along the road wormed their way into his ears, but he ignored them. 

His anger at being manipulated like this was so great that it was a physical force, and he was blind to the shouts and visible struggles as those too close to him were pushed to the ground, as if a weight was pressing down on them.  It didn’t hurt them, but it was oppressive enough that they could barely move. 

Quickly boosting his Celerity with Mana Transformation, which – thanks to his new higher base Celerity stat and bonuses from his gear – was nearly 400, Thaden took off to the northeast, tearing across the ground toward the Bayside Grotto Dungeon.

He left behind nearly three-dozen Contenders who hesitated to get back to their feet even after he was gone and the pressure disappeared completely.