Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Congratulations for initiating Developmental Stage 2 in Region #1!

Achievement received: What’s Next?

Contender World First Achievement: 200% additional accumulated PICK from all sources for 30 days

Warning!  Your Contract Bond holder has died!  If they are not resurrected within—

Note: Your Contract Bond with Meghan has been dissolved upon their death without possibility of resurrection.  Since this was outside of the parameters of the Bond, no penalty will be assessed.

Alert!  Contender defenses are sub-optimal and may require additional reinforcements to complete SPECIAL Quest in Forgestone; increasing Quest Rewards to compensate for increased danger Level.

Alert!  SPECIAL Quest is in danger of failing!  50% of assigned Adventurer Coalition members have perished or have fled the city of Forgestone!

Alert!  SPECIAL Quest is in danger of failing!  90% of assigned Adventurer Coalition members have perished or have fled the city of Forgestone!

Alert!  SPECIAL Quest is in danger of failing!  99% of assigned Adventurer Coalition members have perished or have fled the city of Forgestone!

Alert!  Assigned Adventurer Coalition members for SPECIAL Quest now number less than a full Raid Party!  Quest rewards have been increased as an incentive to complete the Quest before it is too late for Forgestone.

Alert!  Assigned Adventurer Coalition members for SPECIAL Quest now consist of a single active individual!  Quest difficulty and rewards have been increased as an incentive to complete the Quest before it is too late for Forgestone.

Current Quest Details:

[Quest Type: SPECIAL

Rank Requirement: Any

Quest Time Limit: Immediately

Quest Difficulty: High-Maximal (Updated)

Minimum Recommended Level: 80 (Updated)

Minimum Recommended Party Size: Any

Quest Description: Magma Worms are ascending to the upper world from the depths below Forgestone, and it is up to every single Adventurer nearby to defend the city or it may fall to their wrath; band together with your fellow Adventurers in large Raid Parties of up to 400 individuals to fell these dangerous invaders (Updated)

Completion Requirements: Eliminate all 30 Magma Worms as they emerge from below

Quest Rewards: 1,000 gold, 100,000 PICK, 500 Rank Progress up to Gold, +5 to all stats, and 2 Additional spell/ability selections (Updated)

Quest Failure Penalties: Destruction of the city of Forgestone

Current available nearby Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: 1/1]

You have died.  Death Ward activated; restoring 50% Health.

You have slain a Magma Worm – Medial – Level 55!

You have received 165 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s), Level disparity, and Achievements!

You have received 1,980 PICK!

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

You have slain a Magma Worm – Medial – Level 55!

You have received 165 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s), Level disparity, and Achievements!

You have received 1,980 PICK!

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 702!

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 709!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 743!

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 761!

Natural Regeneration Competency has increased to Level 34!

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Natural Regeneration Competency has increased to Level 38!

Congratulations for dying and bringing yourself back to life!

Achievement received: I’ll Be Back

Bonus reward: 150 PICK (+300 from Achievements)

Contender World First Achievement: 10% decrease in all Resurrection cooldowns

You have completed the full requirements for your assigned SPECIAL Quest!

You have received 1,000 gold, 100,000 PICK (+200,000 from Achievements), 500 Rank Progress up to Gold, +5 to all stats, and 2 Additional spell/ability selections upon your next selection chance

Congratulations for completing your third SPECIAL Quest with the Adventurer Coalition!

Achievement received: SPECIAL Agent II

Bonus reward: 1,500 PICK (+3,000 from Achievements)

Contender World First Achievement: 27 Rank Progress

Congratulations for solo completing your third SPECIAL Quest with the Adventurer Coalition!

Achievement received: SPECIAL Killer III

Bonus reward: 270 Rank Progress

Contender World First Achievement: While undertaking any Adventurer Coalition Quest solo, you receive +30 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality

Congratulations for solo completing a SPECIAL Quest with the Adventurer Coalition at 9 or more Levels under the Minimum Recommended Level!

Achievement received: SPECIAL Assassin II

Bonus reward: 333 Rank Progress

Contender World First Achievement: 2 additional spell/ability selections, Free Stat Point (10)

Congratulations for solo completing a SPECIAL Quest with the Adventurer Coalition at 27 or more Levels under the Minimum Recommended Level!

Achievement received: SPECIAL Assassin III

Bonus reward: Free Stat Point (15)

Contender World First Achievement: Your legendary prowess while solo is unmatched, but success as a Contender is dependent upon your ability to lead others against the Adversary; as a result, anyone within your party is bolstered by tales of your greatest successes, granting them a temporary increase in Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality stats as well as their perceived Level based on your brand-new Emboldened Leadership Competency; Note: Perceived Level is only relevant for dungeon access and slain monster rewards and does not grant any additional stats or spells

Veronia, Forgestone Adventurer Coalition Vice-Leader slain – Level 100!

You have received 0 PICK (you do not receive any PICK from local residents of Tarth)

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 762!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 763!

The deluge of information that his message window full of notifications provided was a bit overwhelming, especially when he looked at all of the new Achievements that he’d had no intention of striving for.  His mind boggled at the World First Achievement that everyone in the Region received, What’s Next, and its effect of essentially tripling the amount of PICK that they would receive – for the next 30 days, at least.  Even more, the bonus PICK affected all sources, not just what was received from killing monsters, so rewards from Achievements and Quests qualified for the extra PICK, too. 

That was huge, and it might end up being the only thing that allowed the rest of the Contenders in the Region to keep up with the rising Levels of the monsters in all the dungeons. 

The notification that said that he had actually died was a bit worrisome, but at least his Death Ward had brought him back with 50% Health.  He didn’t think he would receive an actual Achievement for that, though, but he supposed it wasn’t common to be able to bring yourself back to life.  The normal PICK reward he received from that wasn’t all that great even with the bonus from the What’s Next? Achievement, but the Contender World First bonus was something else entirely.

A 10% reduction in Resurrection cooldown?  That would certainly make a difference, because even the reduction of a minute could mean the difference between someone being resurrected and someone dying because he ran out of time. 

Speaking of Resurrection, he couldn’t help but notice that his Contract Bond had dissolved without his awareness that it was gone, as Meghan had died and been rendered un-resurrectable almost instantly.  He had seen how quickly any of the Contenders scooped up into the mouth of the Worms had been torn apart and their bodies essentially burned into nothing by the magma that composed their saliva; it was obvious now that if there was nothing for him to target for a resurrection, then he couldn’t bring them back.  As much as Camille had been a pain in the butt for the blackmail she was holding over him, he didn’t want her to die; if he could’ve brought her back, he liked to think that he would’ve done it, even if it caused him problems down the road.  That wasn’t a conundrum that he had to contemplate, though, because there was absolutely nothing left of her body for him to resurrect. 

Just as there was very little in the way of corpses in the city for him to offer to bring back to life.  While he had been moving over the rubble, as well as being flung around by the Worms in the deadly game of keep-away, he hadn’t seen more than blood and other evidence that someone had died, but no bodies at all; it was entirely possible that there were some underneath the buildings, buried deep within the destruction, but he had no idea where they were, had no way to get to them, and it had already been too long for his spell to actually work on them. 

Looking over the updated Quest, he saw that it had increased its minimum recommended Level all the way to 80 when it had just been him left in the city.  Could a single Level 80 Contender really kill all 30 of the Magma Worms?  Obviously, Thaden had done it, but he was a highly abnormal case; the question was how powerful a Level 80 Contender was in comparison to the monsters.  Being 25 Levels higher than them and seeing what a Level 100 Coalition Vice-Leader could accomplish, he thought it could certainly be possible for someone like that to handle a bunch of “weaker” monsters by themselves; not a Support Class, of course, unless they received some sort of offensive spell in the future, but likely any of the others wouldn’t have any trouble.

Regardless, the increase in the Quest’s difficulty also resulted in a massive boost to the rewards, which granted him 1,000 gold (that appeared in front of him in a sack which he stashed away automatically into his Inventory), a whopping 300,000 PICK thanks to his new Achievement, 500 Rank Progress up to Gold Rank, +5 to all his stats, and 2 spell choices whenever he got the chance to choose some more.  Along with his other Achievements, he ended up netting another 25 free stat points, 630 Rank Progress that wasn’t limited to a specific Rank like Gold, and 2 more spell selections – a good haul.

But that wasn’t all.  From his new SPECIAL Killer III World First Achievement, he also received a bonus trait that would boost his Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality when he was undertaking any Adventurer Coalition Quest while solo.  It wasn’t entirely clear exactly what that meant, because he checked his stats and didn’t see the bonuses even though he still had the Quest for the Forest’s Wrath dungeon; he could only assume he had to actively participating in trying to complete it for these bonuses to kick in – but there was a lot of grey area there that he’d have to experiment with to see when it stopped and started.

In addition to that was a brand-new Competency, Emboldened Leadership.  From the description in the World First Achievement reward, it would apparently boost the stats of his party members, while also raising their perceived Level?  Again, it wasn’t as clear of an explanation as he would’ve liked, but he supposed that if he ever joined a party it could be useful. 

Toward the end of the list was a notification regarding the Vice-Leader’s death, which made him more than a bit sad to see.  He hadn’t intended for her to die, but that apparently didn’t matter to the Assimilation System, though he was glad that he didn’t receive any PICK from her death.  As it was, he already felt sick to his stomach just thinking about what he said to her followed by her explosive exit from the world.

After he had read through all his notifications one by one, another one appeared on his message window as if waiting for him to finish.

Attention!  Despite calamitous casualties and the near-destruction of the city, the Magma Worm threat in Forgestone has been eliminated!  But this was just the first of the dangers that threaten the Region, as the other Anchoring dungeons are beginning to stir.  The only way to prevent even further loss of life is to meet the dangers head-on by exploring and completing both of the remaining Anchoring dungeons and eliminating any threats that present themselves.

SPECIAL Quests incoming to all Contenders belonging to the Adventurer Coalition located in Region #1…

[Quest Type: SPECIAL

Rank Requirement: Any

Quest Time Limit: 162 days

Quest Difficulty: Mid-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 70

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: Discover, explore, and complete the Minimal difficulty of the ??? Anchoring dungeon before time runs out; once this is done, a secondary SPECIAL Quest will be issued to deal with any threats that emerge upon completion of this Quest

Completion Requirements: Complete the Minimal difficulty of the ??? Anchoring dungeon

Quest Rewards: 200 gold, 75,000 PICK, 180 Rank Progress up to Diamond

Quest Failure Penalties: Imminent release of a threat near ???, resulting in mass casualties and the uncontrolled destruction of nearby area

Available Region #1 Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: 927,215/927,215]

[Quest Type: SPECIAL

Rank Requirement: Any

Quest Time Limit: 333 days

Quest Difficulty: High-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 100

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: Discover, explore, and complete the Minimal difficulty of the ??? Anchoring dungeon before time runs out; once this is done, a secondary SPECIAL Quest will be issued to deal with any threats that emerge upon completion of this Quest

Completion Requirements: Complete the Minimal difficulty of the ??? Anchoring dungeon

Quest Rewards: 500 gold, 100,000 PICK, 270 Rank Progress up to Platinum

Quest Failure Penalties: Imminent release of a threat near ???, resulting in mass casualties and the uncontrolled destruction of nearby area

Available Region #1 Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: 927,215/927,215]

Seriously?  Well, at least I know what my next goal is going to be.  I may have unintentionally started this whole thing, but I’m not going to wait around and let someone else clean up my mess.  I need to see if I can complete these Quests before anyone else gets hurt because of what I did.

Now the only problem was figuring out where exactly to go….