New Story -- Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Thaden instructed his accumulated PICK to fulfill the last of the requirements to reach Level 21.

PICK requirements met! 5,800/5,800

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 21 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +2

Free Stat Point (4)

(2) Spell selection choices

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

As he had hoped, by increasing his Levels again through Level 21, Thaden had gained not only all of the stat increases once again, including the Free Stat Points that he was holding in reserve, but he’d also gotten the chance to choose more spells. He had, in fact, chosen all of the spells that he had previously passed over on his first trip through his Levels, as well as increasing them all to Minor quality – which seemed to be the extent of what he could acquire as an Assistant Healer. Thankfully, it appeared as though his extra spell choices carried over to his next available spell selection chance, and he had already obtained every Minor spell by Level 18 – and had 2 choices leftover even after that. With Level 21, he now had 3 spell selection choices to use on his next opportunity to select a spell, which he could only assume would happen once he chose his next Class.

Once he was Level 21, the requirements for Level 22 was filled by his available PICK, but then it stopped with the familiar message of needing to see a Support Class Representative to choose the aforementioned Class. Best of all was the fact that the amount of PICK he’d used, at least as far as he’d calculated, was only about a third of what had been in reserve; what was left wouldn’t get him another 20 Levels, but he still did have his message feed that may or may not give him some more to play with.

Amazed that it had actually worked, Thaden opened up his Character Report and looked at the changes in his stats and his spells, ignoring his Competencies and Achievements for now since they hadn’t changed at all.

#32599999-E

Assistant Healer

Level – 21

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 6,100/6,100

Adventurer Coalition Rank: Bronze 450/450 RP

Health – 220/220

Mana – 640/640

Physicality – 22

Celerity – 7

Mentality – 64

Personality – 8

Fortuity – 8

(21) Free Stat Points

Spells:

Minor Healing (Channeled)

Minor Repulsion Field (Channeled)

Minor Regeneration (Single Cast)

Minor Absorption Field (Channeled)

Minor Mass Healing (Single Cast)

Minor Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast)

Minor Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast)

Minor Health Reduction (Single Cast)

Minor Resurrection (Single Cast)

Minor Aura of Life (Reserved)

Minor Regrowth (Channeled)

Minor Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Minor Health Augmentation (Single Cast)

Minor Healing Circle (Channeled)

Minor Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Not only had all of his stats increased – except Fortuity, as he hadn’t spent any of his Free Stat Points as of yet on it – but he now had 15 spells, all at Minor strength instead of Weak. The new Minor Regrowth spell would help with regrowing any lost limbs, at a rate of 3 inches per 5 seconds, which was triple the speed as the Weak version.  Minor Protective Barrier would be beneficial in helping any party members that he might have in the future stay safe against a single attack from up to Level 40 sources.  Minor Health Augmentation increased a single target’s Health by a base of 60 for 30 minutes, though that increased to 90 because of her Competency Advancements.  Minor Healing Circle created a 9-foot circle of healing that healed everything inside of it for 5 Health every second, but it was also a channeled spell so he was unable to use that while also protecting himself, so he wasn’t sure how much use it would be. Lastly, Minor Mana Rejuvenation was useless to Thaden, but it would help regenerate the Mana of his party members by a base of 3 every 5 seconds, which increased to 5 every 5 seconds because of the Stronger Healing Advancement.

So, while the new spells were of limited use to himself if he were going solo, they would be very beneficial if he was in a party.

Which brought him to the thought of actually finding a party to join. Considering it, he wasn’t sure how beneficial it would even be because of the Level difference, though by joining with people who could actually deal damage to monsters through “normal” means would certainly expand the types of Quests he could complete and dungeons he could delve through. Then again, he was doing fine already by himself, and he still had to consider what was going to happen when he spoke to the Support Class Representative – which he was going to do soon before he lost his nerve.

“This could’ve all been for nothing,” he muttered to himself. “I could go down there and be found-out immediately; the Assimilation System could decide to finish what it started by dropping me into a volcano, and that would be it. If I’m lucky, all that’ll happen is… If I’m lucky… hmm… what if…?”

Still with his Character Report up in front of him, he looked at the 21 Free Stat Points he had waiting to be spent on something. He had originally been keeping until he knew what he might need with his new Class, but facing the proposition of either dying or having all his progress reset, he figured he might as well spend it on something before he couldn’t anymore.

What he needed now was something to boost his chances of coming out ahead when he went to see one of the Representatives. At first, he thought perhaps Personality might be the way to go, as it might influence the creepy figures down in the Coalition lobby to overlook any strangeness around him, but he remembered their interactions with the new Contenders as they acquired their first Classes.

Or, more accurately, their lack of interaction. They hadn’t spoken or even moved when the Humans had approached their counter, so he somehow doubted that a few more points in Personality would make much of a difference.

Instead, Thaden decided to throw everything he had to a chance at a positive outcome. He needed to be lucky to come out of the exchange unscathed, so what better way to bolster his luck but by increasing his Fortuity. On the off-chance that it actually worked, it would be worth every point spent, even if it wasn’t something that had a clear, tangible benefit that he could track.

Throwing all 21 Free Stat Points into Fortuity brought it up from 8 to 29, which was now his second-highest stat after Mentality. Physicality was near that at 22, which would increase to 24 when he was wearing his robe, but he continued to wear his “normal” clothes for now, as he didn’t want his Personality stat at 8 to drop into the toilet.

Hoping he hadn’t just made a mistake, Thaden waited for a few hours inside of his room, getting more and more nervous as time went along, but eventually he shook himself and stood up from his bed, jumping up and down a few times to get himself psyched up to go back down to the Coalition lobby, where he would face either death, punishment, or success.

Needless to say, he really hoped for the latter.

The noisy crowd was gone from the large room when he arrived, and it appeared as though the relatively long lines that had been near the Representatives had depleted entirely. There was no longer anyone near the counters with the strange, creepy beings, which Thaden supposed was a good thing since he would be going over there in a moment.

But that didn’t mean that the Coalition lobby was empty of any Contenders. There were perhaps two dozen of them hanging out on the couches and chairs that were there for their enjoyment, though most of them seemed not to be enjoying themselves. Instead, almost all that were currently there were the lost and defeated individuals he’d seen earlier, most of them looking anywhere but around themselves, or were practically catatonic with a lethargy that only those with severe mental and emotional trauma back on Earth would display.

Only one small cluster of Contenders were what he would classify as “normal”, as the foursome talked animatedly amongst themselves. He was too far to hear what they were saying, but the three women he saw in that group seemed to be trying to convince the lone man with them of something. He was slightly curious what they were talking about and nearly stopped to listen in a little closer, hoping to hear something that might give him some more information, but he kept himself moving.

None of my business. I’ve got more important tasks to complete, after all.

Thankfully, no one but the Charee behind many of the counters even looked at him as he passed by, and as Thaden was looking around, he saw that the Quest Board was starting to look a little bare in comparison to how it appeared before. There were still hundreds of Quests on the Board, but he had a feeling that most of the low-Rank and low-Level requirement Quests were currently being undertaken by the brand-new Coalition members.

Taking a deep breath and doing his best not to stare at the silvery-skinned beings as he got closer to the Representatives’ counter. The Assistant Healer had to stop his hands from shaking as he approached the Support Class Representative, and he stopped just in front of the smooth wooden countertop, before looking up.

Immediately upon making eye-contact, he felt an intrusive presence enter his mind a split-second before it started speaking to him.

“Ah, an intriguing Contender you are. To have accomplished so much, so quickly, is extraordinary and unprecedented. Certainly one to keep an eye out for in the future, if this one must say.”

Uh… what? He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he wasn’t so confused that he didn’t recognize that the Representative had just spoken to him in his mind.

“No matter. What is it that this one can do for you? Just think about your request, and this one will do my very best to fulfill their duty to assist you in your endeavors.”

The being had a strange way of speaking, but he figured that was only right considering its method of communication. Instead of speaking, like he was going to, he instead thought about what he wanted.  Uh, I would like to change my Class?

“Is that a request or a question?”

He fumbled with his reply, his nervousness affecting even his thoughts. Well, uh, I guess it is a request. I was told to visit you to choose my new Class or something like that.

There was a slight pause before the Representative answered. “Quite true. It seems as though you are ready for a Class evolution; congratulations are in order! It also appears as though you have earned an additional choice from the list of available Class evolutions, and this one is compiling your information now… done!

“Please select your new Class from the available list. Once you have done so, you will find that you will be able to increase your Level once again until the next threshold, where you will have to come see this one or another Support Class Representative throughout Tarth to choose your next Class evolution.”

A window popped up in front of Thaden, and he had to temper his excitement that things seemed to be going well enough. It didn’t seem as though he was in danger of being executed once again, or even punished for what he’d done, but he wasn’t going to rest easy until he was done with the Representative and safely back in his room.

Please select your new Support Class from the list of following evolutions:

Healer (Common)

Experienced Healer (Uncommon)

Deathbane (Rare)

Lifewarden (Epic)

Evolutions not selected may or may not be available during your next Class evolution

Thaden held his breath as the window populated with his Class options. He wasn’t sure how many Class evolutions most people had to choose from, but since he had another option thanks to his World First Class Act I Achievement, he could only assume that it was three instead of the four that he saw. This was also the first time he had seen anything related to rarity in reference to Classes, given that his Assistant Healer didn’t have one, but he assumed it was because all of the initial classes were Common, and anything better had to be earned through an evolution.

While the names of the Classes he saw didn’t exactly describe what they did, he found that if he mentally clicked on them, another window popped up with a little more information – something that he wished he’d had when he first became an Assistant Healer.

Healer (Common): A common evolution to the Assistant Healer Class, a Healer builds upon their current healing and protective knowledge to ensure their party is healthy and safe.

· Can learn spells at Weak, Minor, and Lesser strength

· Automatically upgrades 2 previously learned spells at random to their next strength upon evolution

The HealerClass seemed like just the exact same thing as what he’d already had, so unless the other ones absolutely sucked, he was going to skip the common Class.

Experienced Healer (Uncommon): An uncommon evolution to the Assistant Healer Class, an Experienced Healer builds upon their current healing and protective knowledge to ensure their party is healthy and safe, while also using their healing expertise to prolong the life of their patients

· Can learn spells at Weak, Minor, Lesser, and Major strength

· Automatically upgrades 4 previously learned spells at random to their next strength upon evolution

· Has access to a greater selection of new healing spells beneficial for single targets

Again, Experienced Healer sounded like a better version of both Assistant Healer and the regular Healer Classes, but the higher magnitude of strength for the spells was tempting.  Still, he wanted to check out the others before making a decision.

Deathbane (Rare): A rare evolution to the Assistant Healer Class, individuals who choose to become a Deathbane thrive in an environment battling the Undead. A Deathbane’s spells do double damage to all Undead, prevent damage from double the normal Undead source Level, and are able to sometimes have the capability of destroying an Undead instantly. At the same time, all healing and defensive spells when not engaged in combating the Undead are halved in efficiency and effectiveness.

· Can learn spells at Weak, Minor, Lesser, and Major strength

· All prior Class spells are locked at their current strength; rarely, some previously learned spells may be unavailable upon evolution

· Has access to powerful Undead-based healing and defensive spells

At first, the Deathbane Class seemed perfect for him, as he had spent days and days killing Undead at the Mausoleum of Despair dungeon, but he couldn’t help but notice that there were also some serious downsides. The efficiency and effectiveness of his spells being halved outside of an area with Undead present wasn’t that big of a deal, but the locking of his current spells at their current strength could pose a problem.  If both Repulsion Field and Absorption Field couldn’t be improved further than where they were at, then as soon as he went up against a monster Level 41 or higher, he would lose that incredible protection. Sure, he might be almost invincible against the Undead by that point, but was he supposed to kill zombies and skeletons for the rest of his life?

While certainly powerful, Deathbane seemed like a trap. If he chose it, then he would be pigeonholed into one path, and while he was sure there would be other Class evolutions along the way that might fix some of the downsides, he couldn’t count on that happening. With Experienced Healer looking a little better to his eye, he turned to the last Class option.

Lifewarden (Epic): An epic evolution to the Assistant Healer Class, a Lifewarden excels in their support role in a party, using their expertise in both healing and defensive spells to keep their party members alive, while also making many opponents think twice about threatening their charges. Each healing spell that a Lifewarden casts has a small chance to be cast twice, and each defensive spell has a small chance to cause a portion of the damage prevented to be reflected upon the aggressor.

· Can learn spells at Weak, Minor, Lesser, and Major strength

· Automatically upgrades all previously learned spells to their next strength upon evolution

· Has access to additional powerful healing and defensive spells

Thaden only hesitated for a moment before he chose to be a Lifewarden. Not only was it a powerful Class with access to additional spells he was already familiar with, but it also upgraded all of his spells to the next strength – meaning that all 15 of his spells would be of Lesser strength. More than that, there was a line in there that said that there was a small chance that healing spells would be cast twice and that defensive spells, like his Fields, would reflect some damage that it protected against.

That last part was what decided it for him, even if everything else was crap. A chance to actually deal damage to monsters that weren’t Undead or at a very low Level was invaluable, because he had no other real options.

As soon as he selected it, the window disappeared and he dropped to his knees as a fire ran though his entire body before focusing on his head. He barely caught himself from falling to the floor completely, and he had to wait for nearly a minute before the feeling faded, his breathing ragged as he experienced a massive upgrade to all of his spells all at once.

“Good luck and don’t die, Contender. This one looks forward to seeing your progress in the future.”

Thaden didn’t respond to the Representative other than to nod and get up from his knees. As he stumbled back toward the stairs to his room, all he could think about was that he had not only survived, but had gotten a class that would be invaluable going forward.

He was so wrapped up in the sudden changes that he didn’t notice that he’d gotten the attention of just about everyone in the Coalition lobby.