New Story -- Chapter 30

So, I was going to write more Fusionist today, but I couldn't get my mind off this story.  I decided to keep going with it for now, as it's getting pretty far into the story, and I'll probably keep at it until it's done.  I'm hoping that it won't be more than 2 weeks before it's complete, and then I can concentrate fully on The Fusionist Book 5.

Chapter 30

“Look, I know it’s a risk, but it’s the only way we’re going to get ahead and stand out. We’re never going to get high on the Rankings by playing it safe.”

Sarah leaned forward in her chair as she and the others tried to convince their reluctant party member to join them on this reckless enterprise. Unfortunately, Diallo was being stubborn and too cautious for her liking, though she did admit that he had a point.

A hint of his African accent tinted his words as he responded with yet another refusal, the language he was speaking both foreign and completely familiar at the same time; whatever technology or magic that the Assimilation System imparted upon them during Training allowing them to communicate despite coming from different parts of the world. “No. This isn’t the simulation anymore. It would be foolish to think that your prowess during our Training will work here in this world.”

The older man had hints of grey throughout his short, curly hair, but anyone who thought he was too old to be a Contender was unaware of just how much even a couple of Levels could enhance the body and even turn back the hands of time when it came to age. It wasn’t the fountain of youth or anything, but she’d seen even a few 70-year-olds during Training come out looking like they were in their late 30s or early 40s by the time Training was complete.

And that had only been at Level 8, which was around the highest that most of the Contenders taking part in the simulation had managed to reach. She heard of a few that reached Level 11, but it was extremely difficult to countenance such a claim as anything but rumors; having reached the height of Level 9 herself, she knew how difficult it was to push past that in the time they had during Training.

While her own accomplishments weren’t unique, she liked to think that she had worked harder to get to that point than most people. Why? Because after dabbling with a few Classes that hadn’t really felt like her kind of fighting style, she had settled on Novice Druid, which was a Control Class. Unlike a Fighter, Mage, or Scout Class, which could deal enormous amounts of direct damage through their abilities and spells, a Novice Druid – like many of the Control Classes – specialized in controlling the battlefield and slowly whittling down their opponents by a variety of means; while others used barriers, mental influence, or even physical traps, a Druid did this through the use of nature-based spells.

There was no better explanation of what she did other than her initial starting spells, which had proven to be potent enough to last her through many Levels in Training. Weak Root Snare was the bread-and-butter of the Class, as it caused a sturdy root to emerge from the ground, even through rock, and snare a leg of a monster, keeping it trapped in place for up to 30 seconds depending on its Level and physical strength. Weak Nature’s Rot was a weak poison that gradually depleted the Health of a monster over 30 seconds, doing a single point of damage to their Health every 5 seconds; it wasn’t a large amount of damage when compared to a Mage’s Weak Fireball spell, of course, but it also had a low enough Mana cost that she could keep it on a target almost perpetually.

But the damage that Weak Nature’s Rot wasn’t the important part of the spell. In addition to damage, the poison also slowed the victim, cutting their innate Celerity by 50%. They would move and attack at dramatically slower speeds, which was a huge benefit in protracted fights.

The last spell, Weak Blinding Leaves, had another “control”-type effect, which caused a whirlwind of sharp leaves to swirl around a target. While it also did minimal damage, only 1 damage to Health every 5 seconds, it also cut her victim’s ability to perceive incoming attacks, effectively blinding them to any upcoming attacks.

It was the combination of these spells that made her love her Class, as stopping, slowing, and blinding her victims was normally enough for her party members to wipe them without too much trouble. Only a few times was she forced to use her wooden staff, the only type of weapon her Class was allowed to use, to protect herself, but it had been more than enough to finish off her attackers or keep them at bay long enough for the others with her to save her from a mauling – or worse.

Unfortunately, none of those she had been partied with during the simulations had shown up in this sleepy little town of Ashcleft, but that didn’t surprise her. All through Training they had been told that this would happen, that they would have to learn how to form their own parties with other Contenders that they didn’t know, as it was important to learn flexibility and adaptability to fight whatever they came up against.

Which was why almost everyone who arrived nearby had almost immediately found a few others that they thought they could work well with as a party, as they’d had to learn how to fight with dozens of different parties throughout their Training. As Sarah looked around at the others she had joined up with, she was excited at what she saw.

Originally from somewhere in Asia, Aki was equipped with a single rusty knife and a set of ragged black and grey clothing that covered almost her entire body, other than her eyes. She looked like some sort of ninja to Sarah, though she was in actuality a Scout Class called a Rookie Infiltrator. From what she remembered from Training, most Scout Classes based their abilities upon moving quickly and quietly, and the Rookie Infiltrator was good at both. She could use Weak Backstab on unsuspecting victims for large amounts of damage before using another ability to allow her to escape any type of counterattack.

Rayana was from somewhere near Russia, though for some reason Sarah didn’t think it was actually Russia from a few of the things the large, older woman with short brown hair mentioned. Regardless, she was the party’s tank from the Fighter Class of options, a Class called simply Soldier. She had a small wooden buckler, a rusty iron sword, and a worn leather chestpiece that came with her kit upon signing up with the Adventurer Coalition, just like Sarah had a Cracked Wooden Staff and Green Threadbare Robe as part of her own set of equipment. As far as abilities went, Rayana was the party’s meat shield and had a taunting ability that gathered the attention of nearby monsters, an ability that boosted her Physicality for a limited time, and one that allowed her weapon to do more damage with a single hit.

Last of them was Diallo, their Apprentice Fire Mage, who was from somewhere in Africa. She didn’t know where exactly, of course, as it was an unwritten rule that none of the Contenders spoke about where they came from; they all knew that there was no going back, and that they needed to be able to work with people from all over. As such, it was unanimously decided among them all that it was better to look toward the future rather than the past, as they were all from one place: Earth. Countries and nations didn’t matter anymore, as they were a thing of the past.

At least, most of those she had interacted with during Training and afterward thought that way. As she looked past her other party members at the lethargic and nervous-looking people sitting in the Coalition building’s lobby, all of them sitting by themselves without any sign of a party, she knew that some people couldn’t get past what had happened to them. They were broken in some way, either unable to accept their situation and what they had to do in order to get stronger, or were too scared to do it. From what she had observed earlier when they were choosing their Classes from the Representatives, most of these people had chosen to be a Support Class, with the majority of them a healer of some kind.

It was a good choice if they had gotten a party, but most of them only chose to be a healer because they thought it kept them safe from any harm this world would visit upon them. As such, it was unlikely that they would ever venture from the walls of this town, and would either starve to death once they ran out of money, or if they managed to survive until The Culling somehow, they would be eliminated if they hadn’t advanced past Level 1. It was something that all of the Contenders had been warned about from the beginning, but there were those that just didn’t have it in them to put themselves into danger – even if it meant saving their own lives in the process.

Sarah felt bad for them, but there was nothing she could do to help them. She’d partied with a few of them during Training, the unfortunate individuals having no choice but to participate in the simulations, and they were almost all the same; they were essentially checked out, only moving places when told to go somewhere and carrying out tasks with a mindless and lethargic energy, but they completely shut down when a monster would attack the party. They were less than useless in a fight, as they were more of a hindrance than an asset, so most of the time they were ignored, even if they were their only Support Class.

Which was why, despite there being plenty of Support Classes in the lobby right now, their party didn’t have one. They weren’t unique, either, as the majority of the parties that had formed after arriving didn’t have one either. Unfortunately, they couldn’t simply fill up their fifth spot with someone else, as partying with more than one of each class wasn’t possible; the party system wouldn’t allow it.

Of course, that didn’t mean there weren’t any good Support-Classed Contenders out there, because there had been a few from their large group, but they were an exception rather than the rule. Why? Because being a Support Class was extremely tough for a Contender to contemplate choosing – for one major reason.

They couldn’t wield weapons and had no attack spells or abilities. They were essentially only there to support the other people in the party, be it with healing, boosting, or protective spells – which were strong enough in their own right – but they were also extremely weak and practically useless without other people around. She had been forced to choose a Support Class for a very brief time during Training, an Assistant Healer, and she immediately knew that it wasn’t for her – and she was far from alone in that. Having to rely on others to do the fighting for her, with no way to even defend herself other than with her fists and feet – which did almost nothing against a monster – turned her (and many, many others) off from the Class immediately.

Especially when they learned why they had all become Contenders in the first place. Being unable to defend oneself went contrary to their purpose, after all.

But those who cared more for helping others than themselves, despite the dangers of being defenseless, were still willing to be a Support Class. These altruistic individuals were few and far between, however, and any party that could snag one of them was that much stronger for it. Unfortunately, a good 90% or more of the Contender parties out there would have to do without them; thankfully, there existed in this world powerful healing potions that could provide healing, making something like an Assistant Healer very helpful, but not entirely required in order to succeed. In fact, she remembered one of her parties during Training being able to take down a Level 8 Goblin Scout without any type of healing class with them – while they were still only all Level 3!  It was a hard fight, but they were more than capable of doing it without any of them dying.

That was why their plan to challenge the nearby dungeon was bound to work. No one, not even that walking misogynist stereotype, Chad, was daring to challenge themselves at the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon. Sarah didn’t know what Vogmites were, but they couldn’t be any worse than Goblins, could they?

Unfortunately, Diallo wasn’t having it. He wanted to take it slow, working their way up the Contender Rankings through repetitive and boring fights against easy monsters rather than risk dying in a dungeon. But if they were ever to get to the top of the Rankings, they would need to do whatever they could to get a head start on earning PICK and advancing in Levels. The bonuses from being even in the top 100,000 Contender parties by the end of the first year were incredible, but Sarah wanted to do even better. She wished she could be in the top 100,000 ContendersRankings, but that was unlikely given her class; it was dependent upon a number of factors, including Level and Achievements earned, but also by damage dealt and a number of other variables that she had no way of besting the other Classes that specialized in dealing a lot of damage, such as Mages. She could always be at the top of the Control Class Rankings, so that would have to satisfy her for now.

Granted, it was a lofty goal considering that there were over many millions of people that had been taken from Earth and turned into Contenders, so getting to the top of the Rankings would be difficult, but she had confidence in herself and this party to get it done. At least, they would be able to get it done if they could just convince Diallo to go along with them; they couldn’t do it without him, after all.

“Look, let’s at least try it, and if it’s too hard, we’ll leave and come back. Do you think you can compromise on—?” Rayana started to ask their Apprentice Fire Mage, hoping to negotiate for at least a chance to do it, but she was interrupted when there was a sudden hush in the gentle murmur in the lobby. Sarah didn’t even realize that she had been mentally blocking out the low-volume muttering being done by some of the broken Support Classes in the room; when it stopped abruptly, however, she took note – and so did most of the others in the entire lobby.

She looked around, trying to figure out what was happening, only to see everyone staring toward something behind her. Twisting around, she saw someone in front of the Representatives’ counter, though they weren’t talking to the Assimilators there; instead, the man was kneeling on the floor, an expression of extreme pain covering his face and evident in his tense muscles.

He was also glowing with a multicolored light that seemed to emerge from inside of him, though she didn’t think he even realized it.

She held her breath as she watched whatever was going on, as it felt like a momentous occasion for some reason. The glow about the man abruptly stopped and Sarah took a deep breath, feeling like she was coming up from air after nearly drowning. She couldn’t help but watch as the man struggled upright before stumbling away toward the back of the lobby, where she knew the stairs were located that led to a number of rooms for members of the Adventurer Coalition.

As he passed, she thought she recognized him; it took her a moment to work it out, thinking that she knew him from back on Earth, but that wasn’t it. Instead, she remembered seeing him a few hours ago just after she had arrived on the world of Tarth, standing near the wall located by the Representatives’ counter. He had been kneeling then, too, and his clothing stood out a bit because it wasn’t the same as all the other Contenders had been, so she had ignored him for the most part – despite his name tag above his head saying he was Human. She figured that there were probably other Humans here, and she thought he might actually be some sort of robot considering his name.

#32599999-E

Human

Level 21

His name tag was still strange, and it continued to say he was Human, but something else had changed.

Wasn’t he Level 1 when I saw him earlier?

She might have been mistaken, but she was fairly confident that his Level hadn’t been that high, even if it hadn’t been Level 1. How did he do it? Is he a Contender, too? Or just an Adventurer that just happens to be Human? She wanted to find out the answer to all of those questions, but also to see if she could entice him to join their party.

Because something hadn’t escaped her notice while he was kneeling near the counter. He hadn’t been in front of the Fighter, Mage, Scout, or even her own Control Class Representative; instead, they had been kneeling in front of the Support Class Representative.

When the man was gone, disappearing up the stairs, she turned around to her party – only to see the same expression on their faces as she expected was on her own. “I’m assuming you all saw that?” When they nodded, she looked at Diallo. “If we can get him in our group, would that change your mind?”

The Apprentice Fire Mage couldn’t nod fast enough.