Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Securing himself in the crook of the tree he managed to lift himself into, despite the enveloping darkness of the nighttime forest, Thaden sat back and sighed deeply.  Getting out of Northbend at night was somehow harder than getting in during the daytime, as more and more people – both Contenders and Charee – arrived and clogged the streets of the town regardless of the late hour.  It took him twice as long to flow against the current of the crowd to leave than it did when he arrived earlier, and it was probably a little after midnight by the time he made it to the nearby forest and climbed up a tree to find a secure place to sleep for the night – because there was no way he was going to find somewhere to sleep in Northbend.  It was possible that he might be able to secure a special room in the Coalition by flashing his Badge, but that brought with it problems with being even semi-recognized by other Contenders or being accidentally called-out by careless Coalition employees.

No, a tree was much safer at the moment.  When he was further away from the vicinity of Forgestone, he might chance it, along with questions about the next Anchoring dungeon; for the moment, though, he was unprepared for the fallout that might occur if there was even the slightest suspicion about his true identity amongst the nearby Contenders.  If some of them wanted to kill him before all this happened, he couldn’t imagine how they would react to knowing the one that caused the deaths of thousands of them recently was nearby – especially as most of them were probably still simply angry with him. 

Exhausted from the previous day and a half, it didn’t take long for him to get to sleep, even as he spotted some Carnivorous Deer roaming through the forest below his perch.  Given that they were only Level 8, he didn’t really have much to fear from them, though they weren’t as much of a deterrent to other Contenders as they would’ve been weeks ago.

He slept late the next morning, the foliage above blocking out most of the morning light as the day awakened around him, and he stretched and yawned for a good five minutes before he scarfed down another meat pie from his Inventory.  He was beginning to dislike them since he’d eaten so many of them lately, but he only had a few of them left before he wanted to dig into all of his other stored food.  It was a good energy boost for the morning at least.

Instead of untying himself and getting on the road with the intention to get as far away from the Forgestone area as possible, Thaden opened up his Character Report and looked at his PICK total.  He’d made the decision last night after talking to Kyler and listening to all the conversations around him in the tavern, and it was time to implement it.

He was going to use his PICK now to Level-up.

It would mean losing out on potential PICK from some of the dungeons he would delve in the future, but he felt like he needed to be as prepared as possible for the stronger monsters he would end up facing.  His inability to finish off the Magma Colossus without what was essentially a gimmick item made him realize he needed to be as strong as he could be, which included new spells.  He doubted he would suddenly receive a spell that he could blast into his targets and utterly destroy all of his opposition, but he also wasn’t discounting it.  At best, he was at least hoping that something new would give him the edge he needed to be able to handle even those monsters who could heal themselves.

PICK requirements met!  13,300/13,300

Increase Personal Level? Y / N

Note: This can only be completed while not currently in combat and while not in a dungeon.

Level up!  You are now a Level 46 Lifewarden!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Mentality +5

Free Stat Points (3)

The feeling of additional Mentality flowing into him as his store of PICK shrunk slightly as it was consumed in his Level-up was a familiar and welcome sensation.  It felt like it had been years since he’d last Leveled-up and he realized that he had missed it, even if it had only been a little less than three weeks since he’d achieved Level 45.  He of course, wasn’t done, so more of his PICK went toward Level 47 and then Level 48, gaining him another 10 points in Mentality and 3 more free stat points, but also another spell selection.  With the four that he had coming to him from recent Quests and Achievements, he could select a total of 5 spells from the updated list. 

Please select (5) spells from the following selections:

Major Resurrection (Single Cast)

Major Aura of Life (Reserved)

Major Regrowth (Channeled)

Major Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Major Healing Circle (Channeled)

Major Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Major Damage Shield (Single Cast)

Weak Healing Wave (Channeled)

Minor Healing Wave (Channeled)

Lesser Healing Wave (Channeled)

Major Healing Wave (Channeled)

Weak Lifelink (Reserved)

Minor Lifelink (Reserved)

Lesser Lifelink (Reserved)

Major Lifelink (Reserved)

Weak Wardlink (Reserved)

Minor Wardlink (Reserved)

Lesser Wardlink (Reserved)

Major Wardlink (Reserved)

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

Thaden looked at the spell list with disappointment when he didn’t see any new ones added.  The same thing had happened at Level 39 and 45 where the only spells available to him were upgrades of previous ones or ones that he had never selected, and it seemed as though Level 48 was the same.  Is this Class out of spells or something?

While it sucked, there wasn’t anything he could do about the lack of new spells right now; instead, he thought about what he could choose as he looked over the list, especially as he had 5 spells selections at this point.

He immediately disregarded the Lifelink and Wardlink spells, as they simply tied the Health or damage protection between two allies and made it one big pool, which he could see the benefit of – if he were in a party.  Since he was still going it solo, they were basically useless right now.  If he got the chance to select them later and there wasn’t anything better, he might pick them up, but for now they were being ignored.

The first one he picked up was Major Healing Wave, as it was a healing spell that filled a gap that he’d been missing. 

Major Healing Wave (Channeled): Heals every ally within a certain targeted radius for a large amount.

Healing Amount: 270 Health per second

Range: 70-foot radius of target within 90 feet of caster

Casting Time: 2 seconds

Mana Cost: 210 per second

What Healing Wave represented was a way to greatly heal himself with something other than his basic Major Healing spell.  It was channeled, which was a bummer, but it also only affected himself and any allies instead of healing monsters like Mass Healing or Healing Circle; that benefit was actually the reason he hadn’t selected it before when he had been fighting at the Mausoleum, because it didn’t affect the Undead – which was important because he needed to cast healing spells on them to damage them.  Now, though, it would more useful as a strong channeled heal that might just save his life without healing the opposition.

Next, he chose to upgrade to upgrade four of his existing spells: Major Aura of Life, Major Healing Circle, Major Protective Barrier, and Major Damage Shield.  While all of them would only really be beneficial when he was with other Contenders, his thought process for his selections went back to the horrifying incident with the Magma Worms.  If he had been more prepared, he might have been able to save some of the people in the tunnel when they first appeared; his Major Negation Zone helped immensely, but once that was up, the rest of the people there had been at the mercy of the Worms.  He still might not have saved anyone, given how panicked he and everyone else was, but he was sure there would be more incidents in the future where having the proper spells at the ready would be imperative to saving lives.

Major Aura of Life (Reserved): A persistent aura surrounds the caster that sends out healing energy to anyone nearby.

Healing Amount: 18 Health per 5 seconds

Range: 50-foot radius of caster

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost (Reserved): 22.5% of Mana pool

Major Healing Circle (Channeled): Heals everyone within a certain targeted radius for a moderate amount.

Healing Amount: 18 Health per second

Range: 15-foot radius of target within 75 feet of caster

Casting Time: 3 seconds

Mana Cost: 90 per second

Major Protective Barrier (Single Cast): Creates a full-body protective barrier around a single target that prevents (4) instances of all types of damage and afflictions from up to Level 80 sources; once damage is prevented, Major Protective Barrier disappears; cannot target self.

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 50 feet

Duration: 5 minutes

Casting Time: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 360

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Major Damage Shield (Single Cast): Creates a full-body protective barrier around a single target that prevents all types of damage; once damage is prevented, Major Damage Shield disappears; cannot target self.

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 50 feet

Duration: N/A

Damage Mitigation: 500 Damage

Casting Time: 2 seconds

Mana Cost: 270

Cooldown: 2 seconds

There was another reason he chose these spells over the other options, and that was because he didn’t want the Major Resurrection upgrade because it was already quite expensive – and the potential that he might not have enough Mana to cast it was still a concern.  Rejuvenation did absolutely nothing for him since he didn’t really have any Mana regen to bother with, and Regrowth was used for regrowing missing limbs; he had enough Mana to get the job done without a stronger spell – though he hoped he never had to do that to himself. 

With the spell selections done, Thaden kept going.  Levels 49 and 50 gave him +11 to Mentality and 7 free stat points, as when he hit Level 50 he apparently now received +6 per Level and 4 free stat points when he got them.  Level 51 gave him another +6 to Mentality and a pair of spell selection choices – but this time he had two new spells to choose from.

Major Wild Health Leach (Single Cast): Affects a single target; whenever a healing spell is cast upon a target with Major Wild Health Leach applied, the healing amount is increased while a percentage of the extra healing is leached in the form of Health from a random target within range of the caster, including the caster themselves; cannot target self.

Extra Healing Amount: 120%

Leached Health Amount: 15%

Duration: 60 seconds

Range: Can be cast on targets up to 90 feet away; leaching effects random target within a 20-foot radius of caster

Casting Time: 4 seconds

Mana Cost: 90

Major Sacrifice (Single Cast): Sacrifices the protective spell on a single ally, inflicting major damage to anyone within range; once protective spell is sacrificed, ally is fully healed but cannot be protected or healed again for a short time; cannot target self.

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 90 feet

Duration: N/A

Area Damage: 1,000% of caster’s Mentality

Area Damage Radius: 20 feet

Target Protection/Healing Cooldown: 10 minutes

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 550

Spell Cooldown: 10 minutes

The first of the new spells was confusing, because it didn’t make much sense until he read it a few times.  He struggled to imagine it in a normal party, but thought that he understood what it was supposed to do after a few moments of thought.  He supposed that if there was a Fighter Class out in front of the monsters and had the Major Wild Health Leach effect on them, then any time they were healed, they would be healed by another 120% of the healing amount.  That was great; what wasn’t so great was the fact that 15% of that bonus healing amount would be leached from a target around the caster, including the caster themselves.  It was a way of boosting the healing of a specific person at the expense of Health damage to what was essentially the back line of the party.  It seemed moderately useful in a normal setting, though he wasn’t sure how often he would use it…

…until he read it again and didn’t see a single instance where it said it could only target or affect allies. 

He snatched it up immediately.

With this new spell, if he was reading it correctly, Thaden could cast it on a monster and then heal it, and then the spell would leach from another target near him.  It could leach it from him, of course, but he could easily heal himself; or it might be prevented with a Field, though it almost sounded like it would be self-inflicted and not subjected to be blocked.  Ideally, it would leach away Health from a monster nearby.

Of course, it would only really work if he was facing more than one monster at a time – which he usually was – and as soon as there was only one left he would have to rely on the tried-and-true damage reflection from his Fields.  Regardless, it was another way to do damage and he was eager to try it out.

He ended up selecting the other new spell, Major Sacrifice, because it was technically a spell that could do damage, but it wasn’t something he could use himself.  He read it twice to see if it also could be used on anyone, as thoughts of adding protective spells to monsters and then blowing them up flitted through his mind, but unfortunately it said it was only for allies.  Still, if he was ever in a party and needed something to do that final amount of damage to a Boss or something, this was the spell to do it – especially as it seemed to be based on 1,000% of his Mentality.  So with a Mentality of 200, he figured it would do 2,000 damage to anything within range, which he thought was a lot. 

With an eager grin on his face at trying out the new Leach spell, but knowing that he wasn’t quite done yet, he kept going. 

He was far from running out of his accumulated PICK, after all.