New Story -- Chapter 43

Chapter 43

It was time.

Thaden woke up much later that day, refreshed from sleeping at least 10 hours after the day and night he’d had, and he immediately pulled out some jerky he had in his pack – which had been conveniently stowed in his Inventory while in the dungeon’s treasure room so he didn’t have to carry on his person anymore it anymore. He washed it down with some water from the same pack and then put it all away before lying back down on his bed, eager and ready to finally check out his message feed.

The sudden influx of PICK was so strong as soon as he opened it that he was glad that he was lying flat on his bed, because he probably would’ve collapsed from the near-painful intensity of it. Knowing that there were Achievements at the bottom that hadn’t been acknowledged quite yet, he rapidly sped to the top of the unread portion of the feed and found the “monster slain” messages that occurred at the beginning of the dungeon. He largely ignored these, though he found that all of the Extractions and loot results were also recorded in the message feed if he needed to review them, but he saw no need to do that.

The only thing he paid attention for the majority of the messages was his increases in his Competencies. By the time he had arrived at the Boss room, his Support Spellcasting Competency had increased all the way from 562 to 624, while his Defensive Spellcasting Competency increased from 512 to 630. He put the dramatic increase in the latter to the fact that he now had two Fields going simultaneously, meaning that his Competency increased twice as fast.

As for his Natural Regeneration Competency, it hadn’t budged at all by that point – but it did as soon as he killed The Lady Lich, when he nearly died.

You have slain Lavestina, The Lady Lich (Mini Boss) – Maximal – Level 70!

You have received 210 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on Party and Monster Level disparity!

You have received 840 PICK!

Natural Regeneration Competency has increased to Level 2!

>>>>>>>

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Natural Regeneration Competency has increased to Level 9!

You may now select an Advancement for your Natural Regeneration Competency!

Natural Regeneration Competency has increased to Level 10!

Natural Regeneration Competency has increased to Level 11!

Thaden decided to wait on choosing his Natural Regeneration Advancement until later, at least until he had made some other decisions on what he saw himself doing in the future. He felt like he kept flip-flopping on what he wanted to do in relation to the Contenders and his part in the whole world. At first, he had only wanted to get stronger in order to be competent in a party once the Contenders arrived. After they arrived, he had been so focused on what had been personally happening to him that he ignored all the signs of what was happening around him, which led him to actually joining a party – which didn’t go as well as he thought it might. Even if he had been uniquely suited to defeating the Mausoleum of Despair because his healing spells damaged the Undead, that wouldn’t be so for just about any other dungeon out there, and joining a party of Contenders right now, even his current Level, would probably be a bad idea.

Now, well, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Instead of thinking about it any further than that at the moment, he continued on his journey through his message feed.

You have slain Casetkus, Prince of the Grave (Mini Boss) – Maximal – Level 70!

You have received 210 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on Party and Monster Level disparity!

You have received 840 PICK!

You have slain Trunky, The Royal Companion (Mini Boss) – Maximal – Level 70!

You have received 210 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on Party and Monster Level disparity!

You have received 840 PICK!

You have slain Nehetmo, Monarch of the Dead (Boss) – Maximal – Level 75!

You have received 500 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on Party and Monster Level disparity!

You have received 2,000 PICK!

Thaden also received another bunch of Levels in his Support and Defensive Spellcasting Competencies from all the fights in the Boss room, putting them both at just short of 700 with 682 for the former and 695 for the latter. Neither of them gave him another Advancement, but he suspected that they would probably come soon at Level 729 if the pattern remained the same.

But what interested him the most were the Achievements that he received.

Congratulations for slaying a monster 18 or more Levels above your own while in a party!

Achievement received: Big Game Hunter I

Bonus reward: 1,800 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 7,200 PICK

Congratulations for slaying a monster 27 or more Levels above your own while in a party!

Achievement received: Big Game Hunter II

Bonus reward: 2,700 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: Free Stat Point (3)

Congratulations for slaying a monster 36 or more Levels above your own while in a party!

Achievement received: Big Game Hunter III

Bonus reward: All stats +2

Contender World First Achievement: When facing a monster 10 Levels or more above your own, receive a +5 increase to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality

Congratulations for completing your first Maximal difficulty dungeon!

Achievement received: Dungeon Delver III

Bonus reward: 6,000 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: While inside of any dungeon, receive a 25% increase to all stats

Congratulations for completing at least 1 of each dungeon difficulty!

Achievement received: Dungeon Expert

Bonus reward: 3,000 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: While inside of a dungeon, you receive an increase of +10 to Fortuity

Congratulations for completing every difficulty in the Mausoleum of Despair dungeon!

Achievement received: The Dead Should Stay Dead

Bonus reward: (1) Spell/Ability selection choice

Contender World First Achievement: (2) Spell/Ability selection choices

Congratulations for completing a Maximal difficulty dungeon while in a party of lower-Leveled party members, doing 100% of the damage, requiring no healing from anyone else in your party, and somehow kept everyone alive at the same time! Your greatness is unrivaled amongst the Contenders of your generation!

Achievement received: Stay There… I’ve Got This

Bonus reward: Free Stat Point (20)

Contender World First Achievement: Because your Achievements have undoubtedly brought unparalleled attention to in the form of adoring fans and those jealous of your accomplishments, you may now choose to alter your name tag so that it reflects a different name and Level; this change is only cosmetic and will not affect your actual Level, especially when related to Level disparity in a party and Level restrictions for items

Thaden was blown away by the rush of Achievements that rained down on him from completing the dungeon. First, while he did receive more PICK, the amount he received paled in comparison to the other bonus rewards. First, he received 3 free stat points to spend where he wanted, then he raised all his stats by 2, and then gained 3 spell selection choices upon his next chance to choose a spell. He also received some bonus traits that were situational in nature, with him gaining an extra +5 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality when facing a monster 10 Levels or higher than his own; after that, now when he was in a dungeon, he received a 25% increase to all stats and an extra +10 to Fortuity.

When paired with a previous Achievement, I Don’t Play Well With Others, he would also receive an extra +5 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality and +10 to Fortuity if he was solo; added to that, the Monster Hunter V Achievement gave a flat +5 to all his stats if he was solo, meaning that if he was solo in a dungeon with higher-Level monsters, he would be gaining a lot of extra stats when it was all totaled up.

But the really impressive Achievement was the last one, Stay There… I’ve Got This. Not only did it give him an extra 20 free stat points to spend where he wanted, but it also allowed him to change his name tag above his head so that it read something different. If it worked the way the ability said, then he could finally change his name to his real one rather than being stuck with #32599999-E and could camouflage his Level so he didn’t stick out as much. From what he understood of the ability’s description, this wouldn’t affect him when it came to equipping certain items that had Level restrictions higher than his actual Level, which made sense and wasn’t that big of a deal. What was a little bit more of a big deal was that it also didn’t affect the Level differential between himself and his party members, meaning that he couldn’t simply pretend to be low-Level and join one of the new Contender parties – such as the one that he had recently traveled with.

That was fine with him, though, because what mattered most was that it would help him hide in plain sight rather than being forced to sneak around.

Before he did anything else, he tried out this new ability, which turned out to be more user-friendly than his Inventory, as all he had to do was think about what he wanted to change. A new window popped up in front of him, listing his current name and Level, and there was an input for what he wanted to change it to. He changed it to his actual name and set it to Level 2, waiting to see if it did anything, but other than it being accepted by the window, he couldn’t feel or see anything different. If he could actually see what it said above his head, that would make it much easier, but for now he had to assume that it was working. Before he closed the window, he set it back to normal, as he didn’t want to change it quite yet if he was going out of his room later.

He had something he promised to do for Sarah and her group, after all.

Before he did that, he had some PICK to spend.

PICK requirements met! 10,300/10,300

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 36 Lifewarden!

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

Mentality +4

(2) Spell selection choices

Thaden had already obtained nearly all of the PICK requirements for his new Level before he even checked his message feed, but the rewards from all the slain monsters and Achievements pushed it over the line. He wasn’t nearly done Leveling-up, however, but before he could go any further, he had to pick some new spells – and he had a whopping 5 choices available to him.

Please select (4) spells from the following selections:

Major Healing (Channeled)

Major Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast)

Major Health Reduction (Single Cast)

Major Resurrection (Single Cast)

Major Aura of Life (Reserved)

Major Regrowth (Channeled)

Major Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Major Health Augmentation (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 Negation Zone (Single Cast)

Minor Negation Zone (Single Cast)

Lesser Negation Zone (Single Cast)

Major Negation Zone (Single Cast)

Weak Lifelink (Reserved)

Minor Lifelink (Reserved)

Lesser Lifelink (Reserved)

Major Lifelink (Reserved)

Weak Wardlink (Reserved)

Minor Wardlink (Reserved)

Lesser Wardlink (Reserved)

Major Wardlink (Reserved)

Weak Support Sprite (Single Cast)

Minor Support Sprite (Single Cast)

Lesser Support Sprite (Single Cast)

Major Support Sprite (Single Cast)

Weak Defensive Sprite (Single Cast)

Minor Defensive Sprite (Single Cast)

Lesser Defensive Sprite (Single Cast)

Major Defensive Sprite (Single Cast)

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

Without looking at anything else on the list, Thaden picked Major Cure Mental Affliction as his first choice, remembering how he had beat himself up for not getting it earlier. Besides, he hoped it would help with what he had promised Sarah’s group, as helping even one of the “broken” people sitting down in the lobby was worth it in his eyes.

After that, he had some decisions to make for his last four spells choices. He looked at the new spells offered and almost immediately snatched them up, but he still took his time evaluating whether they would be better than improving his existing spells – or even picking up some of the spells he’d passed over earlier.

Major Support Sprite (Single Cast): Summons a small, invulnerable Support Sprite that hovers around a living target; for each single target support spell cast upon the recipient of the Support Sprite, the effectiveness of that spell is increased by 75%

Range: 90 feet

Duration: 10 minutes

Casting Time: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 400

Major Defensive Sprite (Single Cast): Summons a small, invulnerable Defensive Sprite that hovers around a living target; for each single target defensive spell cast upon the recipient of the Support Sprite, the duration of that spell doubles, any charges are increased by 2, and any damage mitigation is increased by 50%

Range: 90 feet

Duration: 10 minutes

Casting Time: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 400

Both Sprites seemed powerful, though the Defensive one was probably only good when he was partied with other people since it wouldn’t do much for him except for perhaps Major Death Ward. Then again, he wondered if both Sprites would work on Death Ward since it was technically both types of spells all rolled up in one….

With that thought, and the fact that having two little sprites roaming around himself at all times would be fun, he picked up both of the new spells. Even if the Defensive Sprite wasn’t inordinately useful right now, it could be in the future.

His last pair of selections were tougher, but it was made a little easier as he began to think about the future. No matter if he was partied up with other people or going solo, it was unlikely that he would be spending much time in the Mausoleum of Despair. He had vague plans of going back a time or two to finish the Maximal difficulty solo, but after that, he would likely move on to other dungeons – ones that didn’t have Undead that he could harm with his healing spells.

With that in mind, he eventually settled on Major Health Reduction and Major Negation Zone. Major Health Reduction was the easier of the two spells to choose, as it would help to reduce the Health of the monsters he fought in the future; when he paired it with his various Advancements, bonus traits, and his new Support Sprite, it could reduce quite a bit – and what was even better was that at the “Major” level, the flat Health reduction changed to a percentage.

Major Health Reduction (Single Cast): Reduces a target’s maximum Health

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 50 feet

Duration: 30 minutes

Magnitude: 15% of maximum Health

Casting Time: 10 seconds

Mana Cost: 180

The second spell was more of a way to escape a dangerous situation that he might find himself in, as being able to prevent all damage from all sources – up to Level 100 – for 60 seconds should be enough to get him out of trouble. He was cognizant of the sudden appearance of the Monarch of the Dead back in the Mausoleum, and he wouldn’t want to be caught again in a situation where he found himself going up against something higher than Level 90. Therefore, Major Negation Zone was the best choice for him for now, even if he hoped to never have to use it; the only drawback was the cooldown, which made switching it out into his Access Slots ahead of time when going into an unknown situation paramount, but it was something for future Thaden to worry about.

With his spells selected for now, all that was left was to keep increasing his Level.