New Story -- Chapter 35

Chapter 35

“No, it won’t work. The Assimilation System is specially designed to prevent that kind of thing.” Thaden listened to Sarah speak as they walked along, as somehow the Novice Druid had become the spokesperson of the party.

It’s probably because I brought her back first, so she knows me the longest. Though, an extra few minutes of talking with someone isn’t really a huge difference.

The resurrection of the rest of the deceased party had been eventful, especially as his Lesser Resurrection spell had activated twice, allowing him the opportunity to bring back both the older man and the Asian, ninja-looking woman at the same time. Both Diallo and Aki had woken up in nearly the same state as Sarah had, at exactly the same time, and he was just glad that he’d thought to have both his Fields up to protect him. Otherwise, he might have had a knife in the throat or a fireball hitting his chest; as it was, he was entirely unharmed, and fortunately the chance that their dual attack would be reflected upon them never materialized. He cast both Cure Afflictions upon them after the initial attack, as doing it before didn’t seem to do anything, and they calmed down enough to understand what had happened.

They were still unbelieving that they were actually alive, but they adjusted easily enough. One of them mentioned that they had “died” multiple times during their Training, which fit with what he thought he knew about it.

The larger Contender, Rayana, was just as violent when she woke up from her resurrection, but she calmed down faster than the others, even without the use of his Cure Affliction spells. He wasn’t sure what it was about the frankly intimidating woman, but she seemed much more capable of handing the stress of dying than the others.

By the time he had them all back to life and healed, it was already getting dark. He doubted that they would be able to get out of the dead forest without getting attacked without his help, as the now-living Contenders had already drawn over a dozen wandering Undead while they were recovering from the ordeal – which were taken care of by Thaden easily enough. But the Lifewarden was really reluctant to backtrack since he’d already come all this way to go to the Mausoleum of Despair, and camping out in the middle of the forest wasn’t the best idea. Besides, he was too amped up from his Leveling earlier to rest anywhere and even potentially sleep, so going through the dungeon was the better idea.

An idea he shared with the others, inviting them along. While he didn’t necessarily need a party to go through the dungeon, he did want to use the opportunity of them being close so that he could ask some questions that he’d been wanting to know for months now. Sarah had been fairly non-communicative just after being resurrected, as it took her another few minutes to fully adjust to the fact that not only she was alive, but the rest of her party would be too. By the time she had seemed to recover, Thaden was already bringing back Diallo and Aki, and the explanations and recovery of the others had taken precedence over his questions.

They agreed to come with him at least as far as his destination, but that was when Sarah relayed the bad news. “What do you mean it won’t work? If we’re a party, then it should let us in, right?”

She shook her head as they walked, and Thaden couldn’t help but notice that her face still held streaks of blood here and there. All of the Contenders had attempted to clean themselves up after their deaths with some water that Thaden provided for their use, but it was fairly basic in thoroughness. “Not necessarily. There are limits to how dungeons interact with delvers’ Levels. I think it’s designed to prevent abuse and power-Leveling.”

“How so?”

Diallo spoke up, the older man’s lecturing tone reminding Thaden of college, which made him think that the Mage had taught at some point. “Dungeons are designed to be the training grounds for Contenders, and as such they are separated into three different difficulties: Minimal, Medial, and Maximal. The Minimal difficulty is by far the easiest of the three, and are typically useful for Contenders between Level 5 and Level 50, depending on where they are located. Medial difficulty is designed for Levels 15 through 80, again depending upon location, while Maximal is the hardest of them all at Level 30 and above. Typically, dungeons that are nearest areas of habitation, such as a town or city, are designed to be lower in difficulty when compared to dungeons found further afield, though it isn’t a hard rule.

“In order to select a higher difficulty in a dungeon, the previous difficulty must be completed in its entirety by every member of the party. The only exception to this is, of course, the Minimal difficulty, which can be chosen by anyone as a starting point. Only when everyone in the party has finished the Minimal difficulty can they attempt the Medial difficulty, and then the Maximal difficulty once that is completed. In addition, a party may not enter a dungeon when one or more members of their party will receive no PICK from killing 90% or more of the monsters within.

“In this particular case, since you would receive no PICK from killing a monster that is 5 Levels below you, the Minimal difficulty of this dungeon you described will not even let us in with you. Even if it did, while you’re in our party, we would receive no PICK upon the deaths of the monsters. In order for us to join you in a higher difficulty, the four of us would have complete the dungeon at Minimal difficulty, which just isn’t possible at this point. Therefore, as young Sarah mentioned earlier, it won’t work.”

Hmm… that does sound like it could be a problem. It’s a good thing I might have a solution for that.

“I see. Well, we can always try, can’t we? Perhaps by not being a Contender myself, the rules are different? If it doesn’t work, we can try something else, I guess.”

Sarah and the others appeared skeptical, but none of them said anything against the idea.

“So, tell me, how does this whole party thing work? Does it just count if you are near each other?”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about not knowing much, were you?” Aki suddenly spoke up, her normally quiet demeanor broken by her outburst. “How on Earth did you survive this long?”

“What can I say, I was fortunate enough to find a way to protect myself. Anyway, what am I missing?” Thaden quickly asked, not wanting to dwell on his ability to survive what should’ve been impossible situations.

Diallo spoke up again with his lecturing voice. “Parties are formed through the Party Interface, accessible through the Assimilation System. Each party can consist of up to 5 members, with each member being from a different Class structure: Fighter, Mage, Scout, Control, and Support. Any Common looted items are divided evenly between the entire party, with the Party Leader obtaining any remainder to be divvied up later. For Uncommon and above, party members are encouraged to employ the System’s random number generator to determine who receives the item. With each consecutive loss during these random number generations, the next generated number will automatically increase by a fixed amount, ensuring that even those with low Fortuity will eventually get a chance to obtain powerful loot. At the same time, each consecutive win lowers the generated number, which further balances the loot more evenly.

“PICK rewards from monster eliminations are divided between each member of the Party, rounded up, with a minimum of 1 PICK per person per monster. Large Level differentials also play a role in the dispersion of PICK, as those party members with a Level greater than 3 compared to the next highest party member will receive 50% more PICK. Monster Level disparity can reduce the overall output of PICK rewards as well, as anything more than 1 Level less than the highest Level party member will shrink the PICK output by 33%, so that by the time one tries to kill a monster 5 Levels below their own, they receive no more PICK.

“Adventurer Coalition Quests are handled differently depending upon Badge Rank, though the minimums still apply. Parties inside dungeons have a significant bonus toward PICK generation, as it is considered a developmental environment and are therefore subject to different rules as far as PICK rewards are considered. Instead of there being an even split between each party member, the total PICK rewards – after any adjustments for Level differentials – for a slain monster inside of a dungeon is simply divided in half and allocated to each party member, leading to an overall gain in the amount of PICK generated; this encourages Contenders to assemble well-rounded parties rather than smaller parties, because there is little to detract from their overall PICK generation with more members.”

That was a lot that Diallo covered, but Thaden understood it well enough. He mentally added a TL;DR version to his knowledge of dungeons, parties, and how things were handled within a party.

Party Interface with a Party Leader.

5 people in a party, all with different roles.

Bigger party, better PICK payoff in dungeons.

Roll for Uncommon or better items.

Power-leveling in or out of a dungeon was nearly impossible, as the System normally prevented it from even being a possibility.

And finally, Thaden had an advantage that essentially voided the System’s safeguards – or at least he thought it would.

“Thank you, Diallo. That was very informative; did you learn all that during your Training?”

The older man nodded. “Yes, along with a lot more. It was…” he hesitated for a second before continuing, “…intense.”

“That’s the understatement of the century, if I do say so myself,” Sarah noted.

The rest of the trek through the dead forest was relatively quiet after that, especially as the further they progressed, the more they encountered stray Undead that attacked them. More precisely, they attacked the party of Contenders with him, and Thaden used his spells to kill them as quickly as possible.

Eventually, it seemed as though Sarah couldn’t hold in her questions anymore. “What kind of Support Class are you? How are you doing so much damage against these Undead? What is that protective glow surrounding you? How are you able to maintain it without running out of Mana?”

Thaden chuckled a little uncomfortably as he rubbed the back of his neck while figuring out how to respond. “I… well, I’m a Lifewarden, and my healing spells just so happen to deal damage to Undead. As for my defensive spells, they’re just a part of my Class, though they have limitations just like anything else.”

“But—”

“I don’t particularly want to discuss what those limitations are, as I would rather they not become known.  There have been some of the native people that don’t take to kindly to my presence here, and I’d rather not have them looking to eliminate me. I hope you understand?”

All four of them nodded, as if this was obvious. “Completely,” Sarah reassured him. “There aren’t a lot of secrets amongst the Contenders at this stage, as our Training was quite comprehensive when it came to learning about different starting Classes, but we were cautioned that once we developed past a certain point, sharing information could be dangerous. Especially once you pass the Level 21 threshold.”

“Level 21 threshold? When you get a new Class?”

Expecting a response, he was curious as to why she didn’t answer – and saw a confused expression on her face. “No, because at Level 21 is when other Contenders can kill each other.”

That made him stop, causing those following behind to nearly crash into him. “What? Why would you want to kill each other?”

Sarah just looked at him with the same expression of confusion that he felt reflected on his own face, before she sighed and shook her head in obvious exasperation. “Damn. I keep forgetting how ignorant you are of everything. Do you even know why we’re here? Hell, do you even know why you were brought here before the Contenders arrived?”

Thaden shook his head slowly, as the anticipation built in his chest. He was finally going to learn why all of this had happened, why he was on Tarth for the first place, and what being a Contender meant. However, by the solemn look on Sarah’s face, along with the rest of her party, he began to think that he might not want to know.

The young woman began slowly walking again as she spoke, forcing Thaden to at first follow and then lead the way. “I don’t know when you were taken from Earth and brought here, but the rest of us – many millions of people from all over the world – were transported to a Training facility filled with simulations that we’ve briefly mentioned before. All of it was to train us in how this world worked and how to get ahead, using whatever means were available to survive and see us through.

“Why, you ask?

“That was the first question the Assimilators answered once most everyone stopped freaking out and got a handle on themselves. You see, the Assimilation System was created so long ago that not even the Assimilators could accurately determine when that was, but the reason for its creation is still known and necessary today.

“In short, it was designed to be a safety net against the incursion of the Persistent Adversary, or Adversary for short. Before the Assimilation System was created, the Adversary would locate and consume entire worlds through the use of their monsters—yes, the very same monsters we’re killing her—and no one could stop them. That was until the System was developed to produce and nurture Contenders, who would be able to stand up to and defeat the Adversarial monsters that would arrive to attack the worlds in their sights.

“But the cost of this System isn’t free – and there is debate among many of us whether or not the cost is even worth it. For every group of Contenders taken from worlds that are targeted by the Adversary, which Earth is reportedly one such world, there are only so many Contenders that can advance far and fast enough to be able to leave their development world – such as Tarth – to fight the Adversary directly. To those that succeed, their families and loved ones are ensured a place of safety when the Adversary attacks Earth; to those who fail, or don’t perform up to standard, there is no guarantee that their families and loved ones will survive… along with themselves.

“And that is the cost of the System: The lives of the unfortunate Contenders and their families. It feeds on their life energy in order to continue functioning, like a vampire or a parasite. We were told that it was either the Assimilation System or complete destruction of Earth, so we really have no other choice if we want our people to live on.”

She sighed heavily as she continued to walk, and Thaden was too stunned to comment. The complete destruction of Earth? People have to die to feed the system? How is that fair?

“Which brings us to why Contenders would want to kill each other. The answer is simple: Survival of the Fittest. The fewer Contenders there are, the more likelihood that those surviving would be at the top, thereby guaranteeing that they would succeed in saving their families and loved ones. There’s really no other incentive than that.  This isn’t a game where PvP grants you extra experience for killing another player, or faction rewards for killing someone of another faction; killing another Contender means getting one step closer to succeeding in reaching the top.

“Which is why it’s important to get as strong as possible as quickly as possible, so that you become so powerful that no one can take that chance away from you. It’s why we—” she said, gesturing to those in her party, “want to learn how to get as high of a Level as possible, before we fall victims to the Chads of the world who only want to see us fail.”

Thaden noticed the reference to Chad, who he vividly remembered seeing multiple times – and he could definitely picture that arrogant man killing other people just to get ahead. The thought of the bloody massacres that would happen in the future as the Contenders turned on each other made him ill and angry at the same time. How could the System think this was the best solution for a defense against the Adversary? It’ll only produce a bunch of blood-thirsty serial killers who only prey on the weak.

“Thankfully, it’s not as bad as you might think,” Rayana added, her strong voice startling him because she had been unnaturally quiet during their conversations thus far. “There is a restriction that you cannot kill someone of a lower Level than you, which will assist in preventing someone from gaining dozens of Levels and going on a serial killing spree. There are likely ways around that restriction, of course, but it will certainly help to reduce the likelihood.”

That’s good to know, but it won’t prevent the bloodshed I see coming.

“Overall, though, what Earth needs are strong Contenders to help defend against the Adversary, which is what this entire thing,” Sarah said, waving all around her, “is designed to produce. It’s not the way I, or really anyone I know, would do it, but it’s what we have to work with.”

All Thaden wanted to do now was sit down and contemplate the overwhelming information that had invaded his brain, but that wasn’t going to happen right now. Because through a break in the fog, the Mausoleum of Despair appeared in all its creepy glory, right where he knew it would be.

It was all too much to think about right now, so he put it out of his mind – though he would dwell on it plenty later. For now, his frustration still needed an outlet, and the new knowledge only added to it.

“So, how do we go about this Party Interface thingy?”