Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 38

Chapter 38

“Stay back, it’s almost dead!” Thaden shouted, though he wasn’t sure if anyone heard him.  The problem with a massive stone serpent as a Boss was that it was huge; when it wanted to surround someone with the intent to constrict around them, all the while biting at them from above, it didn’t leave him a lot of room to see his party, who was busy attacking the giant snake from the outside.  And since he couldn’t see them, he couldn’t target them with his spells.

Fortunately, because the Boss was focused on Thaden, the others were only in danger of being crushed when the Serpent moved around to get a better angle on attempting to crush its victim.  He was fairly certain that most of their protections were still in place, as he could only really tell for sure if he was looking at them, but if the frantic gyrations that the Boss was currently undergoing was any sign of things to come, then it would behoove them to get out of the way.

As the Stonewinder Serpent dropped below what Thaden thought was 5% of its Health, after being struck with reflected damage and whatever wounds the other members of his party could inflict upon it, the writhing snake’s stone coverings were cracked and nearly depleted by this point.  It was at that point that it shook itself and violently shed the rest of the boulders covering its body in an explosion that send massive shards of sharp stone rocketing outward, and he could only hope that the others had enough protection to withstand the sudden barrage.

The coils that had attempted to grind him into paste loosened with the absence of the big boulders covering its body, but he only had a few seconds of unrestricted movement before they tightened once again.  Dark blood started to rain down on him from multiple wounds in the Serpent’s body, opened from reflected damage and whatever the others were doing to it, until his all-white outfit was completely soaked.  There was so much blood, in fact, that it started to fill up the cavity where he was being constricted, and he thought for a moment he might actually drown.

Thankfully, only about 30 seconds later the Boss shuddered a few times and then all the muscles in its body relaxed in death, falling apart as they spread around him in a large spiral that he could actually see over for the first time since the battle started and he was surrounded by enormous coils.

He looked on in relief as he saw all four of his party members, each of them appearing exhausted but completely unharmed.  And other than Carlos, they were clean, without a speck of blood on them; even the Fighter only had a few streaks of dark blood over his front, but it wasn’t his.

“Hey, uh, that was fun, right?”

“Fun?  Fun?!  We had no idea if you were even alive in there!” Melindra screeched, pointing an accusatory finger in Thaden’s direction. 

“Well, actually, I had a fairly good idea he was since it didn’t attack me—”

“Shut up, Carlos!  That was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, and it didn’t even attack me!”

The Lifewarden had to look at it from her perspective, and after a moment he could see that it might be scary.  With the Stonewinder Serpent coiled around him, it towered into the air at least 60 feet as it constricted him.  It was definitely not something that most Level 20 Contenders would see until they were much stronger.

Before Thaden did anything else, he checked his Evolution Assignment and saw that he’d completed the last requirement, lifting a weight off his chest that he hadn’t even been aware of until that point.  He could now get his newly Evolved Class from the Support Class Representative and then move on from Rageharbor once he got the additional information he needed. 

Although it wasn’t needed since he saw his Assignment was complete, he checked his notifications and saw that he’d gotten another Achievement for completing the Crestline Gorge on Medial difficulty – and this time it was also a World First.

Congratulations for completing the Crestline Gorge Dungeon on Medial difficulty!

Achievement received: EnGorged Serpent Killer

Bonus reward: 2,500 PICK (+5,000 from Achievements)

Contender World First Achievement: 10,000 PICK (+20,000 from Achievements)

As the party began to discuss the battle, Thaden interrupted them.  “Good job, everyone.  Let me give you what I promised and we’ll be on the way.  By the way, you all likely got a World First Achievement, so congratulations!”

All four of them appeared flabbergasted at his statement, as it was obvious that none of them had checked their messages yet.  They gasped at the incredible bounty of PICK, which was good enough for at least 5 Levels once they got their new Class, which would help them immensely when they got where they were going after all this.

Climbing over the now-deflated coils of the slain Serpent, he met them near the exit in the stone wall surrounding the Boss area that was glowing with its secret passage to the treasure room and exit.  Pulling out 300 gold from his Inventory, he quickly handed over 75 to each of his temporary party members, and then dug through the rest of what he had stored away and started handing things out depending on their Class.  Anything that wasn’t Legendary or Epic in Rarity and above Level 30 was basically shoved toward them, knowing that if they couldn’t wear them yet, they would be able to soon.  He felt absolutely no loss in seeing them leave his possession, because as much as he liked obtaining all the loot from his delves, most of it he couldn’t even use; he could always sell it, but he already had more than he could spend right now, and he had plenty of gear that was most likely worth even more that he could sell later if the need arose.

“We can’t take this – it’s too much!” Carlos said as he attempted to give some of what Thaden was shoving in his arms back. 

“I don’t need it and it’s cluttering up my Inventory,” Thaden responded, pulling even more things out and handing them over.  In all, it only took about 30 seconds for him to get it all out, but nearly a minute for the others to put it away because they were staring at everything individually.  “Now, do you have a plan for where to go?  Once we exit, you’re going to want to get wherever you’re going as soon as possible, remember.  They might not be able to attack you yet, but if they find out where you went and follow you, that could cause some problems.”

“Yeah, we know,” Gregory said, looking at the others.  “We’ll figure it out on the way, but we’re leaving as soon as we get out and heading east most likely.”

“Well, I hope you find a safe place to Level-up, and perhaps you can even recruit another Support Class to your party at some point.  You never know what you might find out there away from the city and the Guilds.”  While he didn’t really understand the situation that the Guilds created within Rageharbor, he had a fairly good overall picture, and it getting away from them could only be beneficial in the long run for them.  “Again, thank you for your help with all this, and I’m sorry you have to leave.”

“It’s probably a good thing, because I really didn’t want to be a part of the predatory practices of the Guilds, anyway.  The deaths of those turning Level 21 and not backed by a Guild is only what gets the most publicity, but they don’t stop there.  At some point, I can envision large Guild wars between thousands of members, which is not something I want to be part of.”

Thaden had no desire for something like that, either.  Though with the way the Contender-versus-Contender system prevented someone from attacking lower-Level individuals, he wasn’t sure how that would even work.

“Thank you, Angelo, and good luck with whatever you have got going on,” Melindra said with a wink when she said his name.  “As much as leaving sucks, we’re so much further along than we would be otherwise, so I guess I have to thank you for everything you’ve done.”  The others agreed, before shaking his hand and turning toward the secret wall leading to the treasure room.  They walked in together and none of them were surprised when there was no loot, but considering what they just received from Thaden, none of them complained, either.

A moment later, they were outside the dungeon and with a last goodbye, both groups wasted no time in separating.  Thaden was removed from the party and the others took off to the north at first, where they would start heading toward whatever destination they had in mind – preferably as far away from Rageharbor as possible.  As for the Lifewarden, since it was still dark, increased his Celerity via Mana Transformation and took off toward the Sea.  He stopped near the water in a secluded spot and washed himself, getting all of the nasty snake blood off his body and changing into his dark robe and Hood of Obscurity.  After that, he sped away to the south and the city, only moving slow in some parts because it was still an hour or so before dawn and he couldn’t see as well as he’d like.

It only took him 10 minutes to get back, where he slowed down and changed into Christopher, Level 21 because that was what he’d been seen as earlier in the Coalition building, with his Bloodletter’s Robe and minus the Hood to conceal his nametag.  With how close he was to the city and while waiting in line, he didn’t think he would have any issues with someone randomly trying to murder him; if they did, they would find that he was much harder to kill than they expected and much faster to boot, so he could easily escape if needed.  Just to ensure he wasn’t one-shotted, he added a Major Death Ward to himself as an extra precaution.

Thankfully, he managed to get inside without any trouble or undue attention, something he was getting good at accomplishing with all his sneaking about, and then he spent another 45 minutes moving back through the city toward the Adventurer Coalition where he had his room.  He changed again in a dark alley, wearing his Shadow Silk Robe and Hood again, before he opened the secret back door he’d been told about earlier by Hartin, and then made his way up to his room.  Once inside, he undressed, took a shower to get rid of any blood that had been missed in his impromptu bath in the Ragewater Sea earlier, before flinging himself down on his bed and falling asleep within a minute.

As much as he wanted to select his new Class, he was tired enough from the previous day and night-time activities that he didn’t think it would be good to make such an important choice when he could barely keep his eyes open.

Waking up refreshed and starving, he found a familiar-looking handprint on the wall, hoping that it would call a Concierge – even though he told the Vice-Leader not to bother.  He waited for about 5 minutes and was just about to shrug and leave to seek out fresh food on his own when a knock at the door revealed itself to be the aforementioned Vice-Leader, Hartin.

“I apologize for the wait, but we’re in the middle of training a new Concierge to cover the Silver and Gold-Ranked wings,” the man said, giving Thaden a short bow.

“Not a problem, Vice-Leader.  I wasn’t actually sure it would work and was about to seek out food and your advice, anyway.”

“I can have something sent up for you to eat… lunch?  Or is it breakfast?”

Must be later than I thought.

“Breakfast, if you would; and thank you.”

Hartin nodded.  “If I may ask, what advice were you seeking?”

“Oh, I was wondering if you knew where I could find any dungeons with predominately Support Class equipment as loot.”

The Vice-Leader thought about it for a moment.  “I can send someone up with information on that, though historically such dungeons are few and far between.”

“Why is that?”

He spread his hands in a gesture that said that the answer was obvious.  “Because there are fewer Support Classes.”

“Ah.  I guess that makes sense.”  It did, in a way, but it was still annoying.

“Anything else I can help you with?” the Charee asked politely.

“No, that’s it.”

“Then I will be on my way, and will send up someone with food and information a little bit later.  Starting tomorrow, we should have a Concierge available for you.”

“Thank you.  I’ll probably eat and then head down to the lobby for a moment before coming back up here, so if that information comes while I’m away, they can leave it outside the door.”

“Very good.”

The Vice-Leader bowed slightly again before turning away and swiftly heading down the nearby stairs.

Searching through the Contender Market for anything new that might have appeared over the last 24 hours, he was still searching when the food came 10 minutes later and continued to look through the listings while he ate.  He barely even looked at what he was eating, and was only broken out of his idle browsing when he reached down to his plate and found it empty.  Shaking his head, he went back to a couple of listings he had mentally bookmarked and purchased them, and soon enough a light-blue robe and matching newsboy-looking cap appeared on the table, which he quickly slipped on.  Both of them only cost him a few silver, as they had nothing but a self-repair and cleanliness enchantment on them, but they were perfect for his new disguise.

He couldn’t go down to the lobby as a Christopher again, as he’d already been seen as a Level 20 turning Level 21 and visiting the Support Class Representative to get his new Class.  If he did it again as Christopher, or even kept his Level at 21 and spoke to the Representative a second time that would also raise a few eyebrows. 

Therefore, he was going to be Brian, Level 20, wearing a light blue robe and hopefully appearing slightly different than he had before.  Tucking his hair under his cap, he looked like a completely different—okay, not a completely different man, but he’d changed enough that he doubted anyone would recognize him.  Plus, with a different name, there should be no reason to connect him with Christopher, anyway.

Nodding to himself in the mirror in the bathroom, he left his room and headed down the same stairs Hartin had taken earlier, and he found himself in the back portion of the building, where he could join the hallway that led to many of the other, lower-Ranked rooms available for Adventurers.  He smoothly transitioned to this hallway and made his way to the lobby, his appearance causing no one to look at him for more than a moment other than a quick glance, as he wasn’t the only one wearing bright colors; of course, many of the others were mismatched in their appearance as they were wearing equipment that was what they could find or were able to afford, so fashion was the least of their worries.

On his way over to the Support Class Representative, he stopped and pretended to Level himself up to 21, taking a few seconds as if to confirm everything, before walking the last few steps to the Assimilator waiting for him.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few people looking at him with more than a casual glance, but he didn’t necessarily feel any threatening vibes from them.  Then again, he could be wrong and waiting to ambush him as soon as he left he city, but for now he was giving them the benefit of the doubt.

He took a deep breath and centered his thoughts; once he was ready, he raised his head to look into the large black eyes of the freaky alien being.

“Welcome back, Contender.  It seems as though you have completed your Evolution Assignment faster than this one thought was likely.”  For some reason, Thaden thought the Representative was amused.  A little more formally, the Assimilator continued.  “What is it that this one can do for you?”

I would like to evolve my Class.

There was only a slight pause before it answered.  “With the recent completion of your Evolution Assignment, it seems you are ready for a Class evolution; congratulations are in order.  It also appears as though you have earned an additional choice from the list of available Class evolutions, and this one is compiling your information now… done!

“Please select your new Class from the available list.  Once you have done so, you will find that you will be able to increase your Level once again until the next threshold, where you will have to come see this one or another Support Class Representative throughout Tarth to choose your next Class evolution.”

The spiel sounded identical to the first time he had chosen his Lifewarden Class, which wasn’t that surprising since it seemed as though the Assimilators were sticklers for consistency.  As a window popped up in front of him with his Class evolution choices, he had to steady his breathing as he looked through each one.