New Story -- Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Thaden’s accumulated PICK finally gave out after he hit Level 35, which was a slight disappointment, but it was better than nothing. After gaining another 20 Mentality with the Level-ups, he was now at 112 – giving him a base of 1,120 Mana, which was just short of being able to cast Lesser Resurrection. However, with his robe, he was able to more than afford the cost, which was exactly what he had been hoping for.

At Level 33, Thaden was again able to select another spell, and while he was tempted to upgrade his Lesser Cure Mental Affliction to match his Major Cure Physical Affliction, he instead took the only new spell offered to him.

Major Death Ward (Single Cast): When cast upon a target, any fatal damage that would drop them below 1 Health is prevented, and they will gain a large amount of Health; once Major Death Ward is used, it will disappear.

Health Replenished: 50% of maximum Health

Duration: 3 minutes

Range: 3 feet

Casting Time: 10 seconds

Mana Cost: 350

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Thaden wondered for a moment why he hadn’t been given two choices of spells, as he typically saw a healing and a protection-based spell whenever there was something new; then he realized that Major Death Ward was a combination of them both. It both protected someone from taking fatal damage and healed them up to 50% of their maximum Health; when he concentrated on the information of the spell, he realized that it counted both as a Support and a Defensive spell – meaning that all of his Competency Advancements would work for it.

While it had a 3-minute cooldown, it was still worth having as an extra layer of defense in case he ever ran into trouble. With being able to instant-cast the spell, he could keep it up perpetually whenever the cooldown ended, and there was virtually no downside to it; the only hesitation he had was its Mana cost, which would be tripled and would cost 1,050 Mana –which, at the time, was 10 more Mana than he had as a base – but that had been taken care of with an additional Level.

#32599999-E

Lifewarden

Level – 35

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 8,300/10,300

Adventurer Coalition Rank: Bronze 450/450 RP

Health – 220/220 (+20)

Mana – 1,120/1,120 (+150)

Physicality – 22 (+2)

Celerity – 7 (+2)

Mentality – 112 (+15)

Personality – 8 (-4)

Fortuity – 29

(20) Free Stat Points

Spells:

Lesser Healing (Channeled)

Lesser Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast)

Lesser Health Reduction (Single Cast)

Lesser Resurrection (Single Cast)

Lesser Aura of Life (Reserved)

Lesser Regrowth (Channeled)

Lesser Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Lesser Health Augmentation (Single Cast)

Lesser Healing Circle (Channeled)

Lesser Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Lesser Damage Shield (Single Cast)

Major Repulsion Field (Channeled)

Major Regeneration (Single Cast)

Major Absorption Field (Channeled)

Major Mass Healing (Single Cast)

Major Mass Regeneration (Single Cast)

Major Protective Guards (Single Cast)

Major Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast)

Major Death Ward (Single Cast)

He was looking quite good now with his upgraded spells along with his new ones, and he was only 2,000 PICK away from reaching Level 36. Unfortunately, he had finally used the last of his accumulated PICK…

…but he still hadn’t gone through his message feed.

No time like the present, I guess.

With nervous anticipation, he laid himself down on his bed, as he wasn’t sure what was going to happen once he started going through it and didn’t want to suddenly spasm and fall off the bed and onto the floor. With a few deep breaths to prepare himself, he finally opened his message feed…

…and while there was a sudden surge of information that made him dizzy for a moment, the expected surge of PICK from all the Undead he’d killed didn’t happen.

What?

Quickly scrolling to the top of the very lengthy feed, he ground his teeth together in frustration.

You have slain a Zombie Mauler – Medial – Level 24!

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Please see a Support Class Representative for help in choosing your next Class! Until then, your accumulated PICK (180,000) will be held in reserve; you will not be able to increase your Level until you receive your new Class.

The same message that he’d gotten before greeted him when he looked at the feed of slain monsters. He had hoped that by waiting to check the messages, the PICK rewards would be deferred until now, but apparently that wasn’t the case. It appeared as though the System had evaluated his actions at the time and determined that he was already “full”, so it didn’t bother to reward anything – which was just complete and utter BS, as far as Thaden was concerned.

This is ridiculous!  I demand a recount!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as if he could petition the System to reevaluate everything, as he didn’t even know if it could do that. Regardless, if he wanted to stay under the radar, it probably wouldn’t be smart to point out that he had been exploiting his unlimited Mana as a Contender before he was supposed to be in the world in order to accumulate insanely large amounts of PICK. He’d gotten away with it so far, but actually rubbing the System’s face into something that he considered unfair was bound to come back to bite him.

Fortunately, his maxed-out PICK didn’t seem to affect a few other things. First, Thaden managed to snag a few more Achievements, which were definitely helpful to have – at least for the most part.

Congratulations for solo slaying a total of 2,700 monsters!

Achievement received: Monster Hunter IV

Bonus reward: 12,000 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Contender World First Achievement: +1 to all stats

Congratulations for solo slaying a total of 8,100 monsters!

Achievement received: Monster Hunter V

Bonus reward: (3) Free Stat Points

Contender World First Achievement: When fighting solo, all your stats are increased by +5

Congratulations for completing 9 dungeons of any difficulty!

Achievement received: Dungeon Addict I

Bonus reward: 5,000 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Contender World First Achievement: (2) Free Stat Points

Congratulations for completing 27 dungeons of any difficulty!

Achievement received: Dungeon Addict II

Bonus reward: +2 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality

Contender World First Achievement: (5) Free Stat Points

Congratulations for completing 81 dungeons of any difficulty!

Achievement received: Dungeon Addict III

Bonus reward: +4 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality

Contender World First Achievement: (10) Free Stat Points

Congratulations for completing 9 Quests with the Adventurer Coalition!

Achievement received: Quester II

Bonus reward: 250 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Contender World First Achievement: 1,000 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Congratulations for completing 27 Quests with the Adventurer Coalition!

Achievement received: Quester III

Bonus reward: 1,000 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Contender World First Achievement: 4,000 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Congratulations for completing 81 Quests with the Adventurer Coalition!

Achievement received: Quester IV

Bonus reward: 2,500 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

Contender World First Achievement: 10,000 PICK

No PICK received! PICK accumulation limit reached!

The bonuses to his stat points were amazing, as were the additional Free Stat Points, which brough him up to 40. In addition, when he was fighting solo, he would get an additional +5 to all his stats; while he was in a dungeon by himself, that increased even further with the bonuses from his I Don’t Play Well With Others Achievement.

In other words, he was a powerhouse now… who still couldn’t attack anyone directly to save his life. Still, he wasn’t going to complain about more stats, as they would be helpful no matter the situation he found himself in.

What he did mentally complain about was the fact that the PICK rewards from the Achievements were also negated because he’d hit his limit. That just felt like a kick in the teeth while he was already down on the ground, and he was practically steaming mad at the loss of another 35,000 or so PICK.  Grumbling with repressed anger, he was only somewhat mollified by all of his Competency increases – which were substantial, to say the least.

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 147!

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Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 243!

You may now select an Advancement for your Support Spellcasting Competency!

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 244!

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Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 562!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 143!

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Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 243!

You may now select an Advancement for your Defensive Spellcasting Competency!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 244!

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Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 512!

It was definitely harder to increase Competency Levels as time went on, though he’d still had both of his main Spellcasting ones shoot up quite a bit, earning him another Advancement for each of them once they reached Level 243.

Please select (1) Advancement for your Support Spellcasting Competency:

Faster Healing – All Support spells now have a 50% permanent casting time decrease

Longer Healing – All Support spells now have a 50% permanent duration increase

Even Stronger Healing – All Support spells now heal or reduce 100% more Health

Group Healing – All multi-target Support spells now have a 50% range increase

Self Healing – All single-target Support spells now heal or reduce 100% more Health

Radiant Afterglow – All Support spells now heal an extra 2% of max Health every 5 seconds for 60 seconds

Ready To Go – All spell cooldowns are reduced by 50%

Please select (1) Advancement for your Defensive Spellcasting Competency:

Faster Protection – All Defensive spells now have a 50% permanent casting time decrease

Longer Protection – All Defensive spells now have a 50% permanent duration increase

Thicker Protection – All Defensive spells now prevent 50% more damage

Hardest Protection – All Defensive spells now protect from sources 15 Levels higher than before

More Extended Protection – All single-target Defensive spells now extend to protect 2 additional targets

Disease Protection – All Defensive spells now temporarily protect against Burning, Charmed, Poisoned, and Sleep afflictions

Rejection Protection – All Defensive spells now give the recipient a 100% bonus to hit accuracy on their next strike

Double Team – At the cost of double the per-second Mana cost for each spell, (2) channeled spells can be cast simultaneously

For his Support Spellcasting Competency, the choice was a little harder this time. His healing spells were already powerful, but Even Stronger Healing would make them better. Group Healing would extend the range of his spells, which would be beneficial in a party or against the Undead. And Radiant Afterglow would improve his Afterglow Advancement, making it even more potent.

But what he ended up getting was the new choice on the list, Ready To Go. What made it unique was the fact that it said all spell cooldowns were reduced by 50%, which meant that they also applied to his defensive spells as well – which was unique out of all the choices and incredible. It would cut Major Mass Healing’s cooldown by 5 seconds and his new Major Death Ward down by 90 seconds – and Lesser Resurrection by 10 minutes! Then there were the benefits to some of the protective spells that were good for other people, which would come in handy if he was ever in a party.

He thought that Ready To Go was unique in its ability to affect his cooldowns for any spell, but that was until he saw the new Advancement for his Defensive Spellcasting Competency, Double Team. He didn’t even bother reviewing all of the others before he picked it, because it would allow him – at double the Mana cost of each spell – to cast two channeled spells simultaneously.

That… was impossibly broken, given his unlimited Mana. That meant he could cast both of his protective Fields, or even just one and then a channeled healing spell, or even two healing spells if it was necessary. He no longer had to choose between protecting himself and healing with a channeled spell.

Incredible. Absolutely incredible.

While the new Advancements were a salve to his anger over losing out on all the PICK he thought he was saving up, it didn’t get rid of the feeling entirely. There was a simmering need to go back to the Mausoleum and absolutely devastate the Undead within the dungeon with his new spells, earning back some of what he thought was rightfully his.

With no more messages to go through, there wasn’t anything keeping him from doing just that. Grabbing his pack from where it rested near the edge of his bed, he slipped off his clothes and put them inside, while at the same time pulling out his Dark Abyss Robe of the Dead. Normally, he waited until he was away from town to put it on, as the hit to his Personality stat was a pain to deal with when he interacted with the townsfolk, but at this point he didn’t care. After checking to make sure that all of the rations were still sufficient in his pack, something that he’d taken to ensuring was the case immediately upon his return to Ashcleft, he slipped the straps around his back and headed for the door.

Downstairs, he was blind to the stares of the people in the Coalition lobby, Contenders and the employees alike, as he headed out the entrance into the town. He ignored everyone he passed, even the frowning Town Guard, Virlo, as the Charee stared at him from atop the walls as he exited.

Once he got outside, his anger and introspection faded somewhat as he looked around, shocked at the changes he saw. Normally, other than at specific times of the day when farmers from the town came out to work in the fields, the entire area outside the walls were relatively empty. Now, though, spread out in different areas of the fields nearest the town were parties of 3, 4, or (more rarely) 5 Contenders, all of them working together to hunt down and kill the Level 1 Wheat Rats, Burrowing Bunnies, and Field Mice spread throughout the nearby land.

What caught his attention wasn’t just that there were people out there, but the fact that they were using spells to absolutely slaughter the monsters they were killing.  Fireballs and noxious-looking clouds of mist, fast-flying stones the size of his fist and roots that seemed to emerge from the ground to grasp at their victims, and even beams of light along with floating energy barriers assaulted his senses in a display of magical destruction. That wasn’t all, of course, as he saw some people dressed in dark clothing that appeared blurry to his perception, before suddenly speeding up to attack a monster from behind; some of these same people had bows that they used to send arrows that seemed to glow redly as if from some sort of internal source, and when they impacted one of the beasts they were hunting, it seemed to lightly explode.

There were others who were in the thick of the fight, using the small bucklers they had on their arms to bash the monsters, either killing them outright or just stunning them before they sliced them apart with their swords. Others had a pair of long knives that they used to practically dance around their beastly victims, slicing them apart with a few deft moves.

Then there was something that was familiar to him: healing. While he only saw a few groups that had a Support member, he saw the connection between them and one of their party members that he immediately recognized as the Weak Healing spell. There were even two people that had the tell-tale green glow around them that indicated that they had a Weak Regeneration effect on them.

Overall, though, it seemed like most of the Contenders were operating in only groups of 3 or 4 for some reason; he thought that it probably would’ve been better to replace a non-existent Support or other type of Class with another Fighter or Mage, as those seemed to be the most prevalent. Looking around, he did end up seeing a few pairs fighting monsters together, as well as a very few solo Contenders, all of them Fighters, but the majority were in larger groups.

As he walked, he began to see those that were even further out from the walls, tackling the Level 2 Venomous Snakes and even the Emu Strikers that were Level 3 past them. Looking at the Contenders, most of them seemed to be Level 1 or 2; when he kept walking, he even saw a party that was Level 3. It only took a second to identify the leader of that group, as it was none other than Mr. Arrogant himself, Chad.

As much as he seemed to think too highly of himself, Thaden had to admit that there was a reason behind it as he saw Chad’s party take on the Level 4 Grass Wolves; the man himself was all over the place, absolutely destroying the green-furred canines while his party barely had to do anything. The natural strength and skill he saw was enough to prove that the boast-filled Contender wasn’t all talk, but the new Lifewarden still didn’t personally care for him.

Once he passed the area, none of the parties paying the least amount of attention to him, Thaden was back into his brooding contemplation of the upcoming dungeon. As he walked, he slowed down to finish his preparations, funneling all 40 of his Free Stat Points into Fortuity, brining it to a whopping 70. Looking at his Bonus Traits, he saw that the chance for double-cast support spells and damage reflection had risen to 21% – which was a little bit over a 1 in 5 chance to activate. Some might think that shoveling 40 points into something like Fortuity a waste, but for Thaden, it was exactly what he needed to become even more effective.

The last thing he did was contemplate what he wanted assigned to his Access Slots, as he now had 9 to play with instead of just 5. Looking at the list, he saw that both Lesser Resurrection and Major Death Ward would fill 2 Access Slots each, while the rest were thankfully still only 1; it wasn’t something he had thought about until now, but if they had suddenly needed more Slots, that could’ve been a problem.

Not needing Resurrection right now, he dismissed that while he filled the other 7 slots with his favorite spells – because he was definitely going to be using Major Death Ward. Mainly because he wanted that extra layer of protection now that the System wouldn’t resurrect him anymore if he were to die, but also because he planned on challenging the Maximal difficulty of the Mausoleum now that he had Fields to protect himself from up to Level 90 sources of damage.

Those two Fields, Major Repulsion Field and Major Absorption Field were the first to be slotted in. After that was Lesser Aura of Life, which reserved 20% of his Mana pool, but even with it active, he could still cast everything but Lesser Resurrection.

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

Healing Amount: 9 Health per 5 seconds

Range: 40-foot radius of caster

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost (Reserved): 20% of Mana pool

If it turned out that he needed to bring someone back, which wasn’t likely right now, then he could easily cancel Lesser Aura of Life before doing so. He slotted it in, activated it, and then replaced it with Major Regeneration. Major Mass Healing also joined the others, along with Lesser Cure Mental Affliction and Major Cure Physical Affliction; he wasn’t sure if they would be needed because he was hoping to have his Fields up most of the time, but it couldn’t hurt be ready, just in case.

For his last spell, he threw in something he hadn’t actually used before, because it was a channeled spell: Lesser Healing Circle.

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

Healing Amount: 12 Health per second

Range: 10-foot radius of target within 50 feet of caster

Casting Time: 3 seconds

Mana Cost: 50 per second

He figured he could try it out, because it actually healed – or damaged Undead – by quite a bit every second, and with his Advancements and Bonus Traits, it could be even more effective.

Every other spell wasn’t absolutely necessary, but if he found that some things weren’t necessary or didn’t work out the way he expected, then he would switch them out while in the dungeon. For now, though, his Access Slots were set, so as he moved down the familiar track toward the dead forest that hid the Mausoleum of Despair, he began becoming accustomed to casting Major Death Ward on himself, along with Major Regeneration, while also keeping both of his channeled Fields active at all times.

He was as protected as he could be now, and there wasn’t anything stopping him from tearing through the Undead that awaited his wrath.