New Story -- Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Thaden smiled as he saw the first of the Achievements pass through his feed.

Congratulations for solo slaying a monster 12 or more Levels above your own!

Achievement received: No Fear IV

Bonus reward: 12,500 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 50,000 PICK

Congratulations for solo slaying a monster 15 or more Levels above your own!

Achievement received: No Fear IV

Bonus reward: Physicality +5

Contender World First Achievement: Free Stat Point (5)

Congratulations for solo slaying a monster 18 or more Levels above your own!

Achievement received: No Fear V

Bonus reward: Physicality +10

Contender World First Achievement: Free Stat Point (10)

Congratulations for completing your first Medial difficulty dungeon!

Achievement received: Dungeon Delver II

Bonus reward: 500 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 2,500 PICK

Congratulations for solo completing your first Medial difficulty dungeon!

Achievement received: I Don’t Play Well With Others

Bonus reward: 5,000 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: When inside a dungeon while solo, you receive +5 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality, as well as +10 to Fortuity while inside

You have completed the full requirements for your assigned SPECIAL Quest!

You may now return to the Adventurer Coalition to choose another Quest!

You have received 60 gold, 30,000 PICK, 150 Rank Progress up to Bronze Rank, and 3 additional spell/ability selections upon your next selection chance

Congratulations for solo completing your second SPECIAL Quest with the Adventurer Coalition!

Achievement received: SPECIAL Killer II

Bonus reward: 90 Rank Progress

Contender World First Achievement: 270 Rank Progress

The amount of changes that passed through his body made Thaden collapse on the pathway, screaming out in pain as 15 points in Physicality streamed into his comparatively weak form. This lasted for nearly 30 seconds before the sensations of his muscles being ripped apart, his skin tightening to the point where it felt like he was being strangled, and his bones being broken down and rebuilt stronger began to pass, and he could only lie on the ground with tears running down his face from the pain. Unlike the wounds he’d sustained in the dungeons, this pain was frighteningly intense and personal, as if his own body was fighting against him.

Panting from the exertion even as the agony began to fade away, Thaden got to his hands and knees in anticipation of getting back up, though he paused for a moment as he really took in what had changed as a result of his new Achievements.

The most obvious one was the aforementioned 15 points in Physicality, which was apparently too much for someone to reasonably handle all at once. The single points he’d acquired before hadn’t really done anything noticeable to him, other than later on feeling a little bit stronger, but this experience had felt like he had been ripped apart and put back together again. It certainly hadn’t felt like his mind was ripped apart when he put his robe on, though he supposed it was different because he hadn’t nearly quadrupled his stat as a result of the extra 15 points in Mentality.

Now that it seemed like his ordeal was over, Thaden also saw that he had acquired an additional 15 Free Stat Points to use wherever he wanted. He decided to keep them banked at the moment, given the extreme changes his body had already undergone.

What he looked at next was the World First bonus from the I Don’t Play Well With Others Achievement, which apparently rewarded him with an extra 5 points in Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality, while also adding another 10 points to Fortuity. There was no mention of Personality, which made sense based on the name of the Achievement and for it being based on completing a dungeon solo.

Then there were rewards for completing the SPECIAL Quest, which included 510 additional Rank Progress up to Bronze Rank, 60 gold pieces which he found in a pouch on the ground near where he had fallen, and 3 spell/ability selections. Unfortunately, there was no prompt for him to grab those immediately, and looking at the messages, he discovered that they would likely wait until he acquired a new Class and was able to select more spells. That was disappointing, but he was starting to get used to all of these seemingly arbitrary restrictions.

As for all the PICK he also received as a result of the Achievements, it seemed to be lost. He didn’t feel any additional energy added to his reserve PICK pool, so he could only assume that it was simply gone. Again, it was another disappointment, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

He was alive, he had gotten a piece of good loot, he was practically rich, and he was stronger than ever. Now all he needed to do was get a new Class and upgrade his Adventurer Coalition Rank and he’d be sitting pretty.

As much as this new world sucked in terms of all the pain and near-death experiences he’d encountered, he couldn’t help but feel some excitement for what was to come. It might not be Earth, but his new profession as an Assistant Healer and Adventurer beat the hell out of Data Analyst – even with all the danger and disgusting rotten flesh that came with it. Would he have chosen this type of thing if he had been given a choice? Probably not. But now that he was here, and it didn’t seem like there was a way to get back, he reconfirmed his intent to take advantage of his situation as much as he could.

Picking up and stashing his new pouch of gold in his pack, which even though it seemed to weigh twice as much, was easy enough for him to carry now with his additional Physicality. In fact, he thought that he might even be able to carry some of the lighter weapons that had been in the Mausoleum of Despair’s treasure room, though he doubted that he could actually use them.

Regardless, the pain he had undergone seemed to be worth it, and he was looking forward to seeing how much it helped him in the future. Maybe since he couldn’t use a weapon, he could use his fists and become some sort of monk-type healer, punching monsters to kill them. Nah, I don’t really want to get that close to them if I can help it. He already had to deal with monsters getting uncomfortably close to him; the last thing he wanted was to push his fist into the mouth of a dangerous monster and get his hand bitten off.

I guess it depends on whatever Class I can change into. It was difficult to make plans without knowing more information about what was in store for him in the future, so he decided to simply wait until he was better informed of the possibilities.

The walk back was made slightly faster than his trip out to the Mausoleum thanks to a higher Celerity stat, which seemed to speed his steps up a little bit. It was probably only a few minutes faster, but it felt like so much more because he was eager to get back to town and get something to eat, take a bath, and get some sleep – in that order. After that, he would see about increasing his Coalition Rank and then locate the Support Class Representative about his new Class selection.

“You’re alive? Did you take one look at what you were up against and run away?”

The scathing tone from Virlo, the Ashcleft Town Guard, was a bit more than he expected from the powerful Guard; it was certainly discouraging to be shouted at as soon as he approached the gate to be let inside. He wasn’t like this last time I came through here, even if he wasn’t exactly friendly.

“Uh, no, I completed the Quest. See, I got this new fancy robe and everything—”

“Nasty piece of work, that. Don’t be casting any death-based spells around here, or I’ll be forced to eliminate the source before it becomes a problem,” the man on top of the walls said gruffly.

“Death-based spells? I don’t have any—”

“Anyone who sees you in that robe will think the same as I, so be very careful around here. I’ll have my eye on you.” Virlo didn’t say anything after that, only stared at him with a grim expression.

Wow. This thing is worse than I thought. Maybe I should take it off? No. He had acquired it fair and square and would wear it for as long as he wanted to; who cares if other people think I’m up to no good? I’m not actually going to do anything bad or evil, despite what they might believe, so they’re just being judgmental for no good reason. Though, I guess having only a Personality of 1 gives them a reason, since that apparently affects my social relationships with the people here.

As an experiment, Thaden added one of his Free Stat Points to his Personality; he watched it go up to 2 for a split-second before it dropped back down to 1. I guess the downside of this robe is more serious than just a reduction of 3 Personality. For all I know, there isn’t a limit of how much it will reduce my Personality. With that thought, he decided against using any more of his Free Stat Points until he had more information on how much it actually affected him.

“Well… I don’t really have any other clothes, since the ones I had were covered in bone dust, blood, and rotting flesh. I’ll get another outfit when I get the chance, but for now, this is what I’m wearing,” Thaden explained, gesturing to himself. He decided that getting a normal change of clothes would probably be better to use around town if he was going to spend any amount of time near other people. While he was stubborn enough to want to shove their judgmental attitudes in their faces by wearing the robe around where everyone could see it, he was already ostracized by being an Adventurer that he really didn’t want to have to deal with it more than he had to.

“Suit yourself. Just know that I won’t hesitate to kill you if you step out of line.”

With that ominous statement, the gate to Ashcleft opened and Thaden stepped inside. Almost immediately, he felt the stares of the townspeople on him, and while he was too tired and hungry to care about it too much right now, he was still conscious enough of it to want to take off his robe then and there. Instead, he ignored the looks and the whispering as much as he could while he hurried through the streets. The only stop he made was to a food seller along the sidewalk that had delicious-smelling skewers filled with meat chunks, vegetables, and potatoes. He bought four of them for at least twice what he expected was normal, but at the moment he didn’t really care; he had plenty of money to spare a silver piece or two when he was starving.

He ate all four of them while he walked toward the Adventurer Coalition building, stopping at the main town fountain to suck down handfuls of clean, refreshing water. Satiated and now looking for a bath before getting some sleep, he walked through the entrance of the Coalition with heavy steps, wanting his current journey to finally be over.

Boydlen was behind his desk as he had been almost every time Thaden had seen him, and he looked up with a smile and excitement on his face; that smile faded somewhat as he saw the Assistant Healer walking through the door, though it would probably be more accurate to say that his focus was on the robe rather than Thaden himself.

“You’re back! I got confirmation that the SPECIAL Quest was completed! I’m assuming someone else got there before you did and completed it before you had a chance to join any parties? That’s alright, it happens to the best of us! As long as you actively participated in some way, you’ll still get credit!”

Thaden didn’t really want to go into everything that had happened out by the Mausoleum at the moment because he was so tired, so he just nodded. “Something like that. If you don’t mind, I need a bath and a bed; after that, I’ll have some business with you.”

“Well on, my boy! Take the time you need; I appreciate you willing to help out like you did – it shows great courage by volunteering for something completely beyond your capabilities.”

Chuckling to himself, he passed by the Coalition Leader and made for the baths. It took him nearly an hour to scrub himself fully to the point where he couldn’t smell even a hint of rotting flesh or sulfur on him, and he even cleaned his boots and underwear in the bath to ensure that any of the lingering smells was washed out as much as possible. When he and his clothes were clean, he headed off to bed and slept not only for the rest of the day, but through the next night, as well.

When Thaden finally convinced himself to get up and head downstairs, he found that it was morning again, though a little bit earlier than when he had arrived the day before. Bringing an entire gold piece down with him, he approached Boydlen – who apparently rarely left his desk – and slapped the coin down.

“I’d like to pay in advance for my room here, just so you don’t have to worry about me not paying in time,” he said, sitting down across from the Coalition Leader. “It’s a bit much, I know, but I figure if you have any cooks coming here soon, I’ll be able to take advantage of access before anyone else,” he added with a smile.

Rather than argue, the Charee reached out and took the gold piece faster than Thaden could blink, making it disappear either with some sort of actual magic or simple sleight-of-hand. “Very good. Being proactive is the key to be a successful Adventurer in the Coalition. Are there any other Quests you might be interested in?” Boydlen asked formally and politely, his former excited attitude not on display as much probably because Thaden was still wearing his new robe. It was just another reason why he needed to go shopping after this so that he’d have something else to wear.

“Not quite yet. I have some Rank Progress I’ve acquired and want to increase my Rank with the Coalition.”

The Coalition Leader’s surprise was obvious. “Already? No, that can’t be possible. Even if you completed the minimal SPECIAL Quest requirements, I believe it only rewarded 20 Rank Progress – and you need 90 in order to reach Leather Rank. Now, unless you have any other questions, I really must be getting back to my work. Very busy, you see.”

Thaden was only temporarily put off by the dismissive tone, mainly because while he wasn’t used to being treated this way, he was halfway expecting it by this point because of his robe. Needless to say, he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Oh, but I completed the SPECIAL Quest,” he responded with a self-satisfied smile. “By myself. Twice. Once for the minimum requirements and then when it changed into a more urgent Special Quest, which had even greater requirements and additional rewards. So, yes, I have enough Rank Progress to increase my Rank.”

Boydlen looked at him incredulously before his face transformed to anger. “The Coalition doesn’t abide with liars here, and—”

“Are you saying that the Assimilation System is, what, wrong? That it made a mistake?” The Assistant Healer asked innocently.

The Charee’s face immediately lost any color it had as the anger drained from his entire body, replaced by a nervousness that was visible in his tense muscles and slightly shaky hands. “Of course not, but—”

“Then what are you saying? That I somehow cheated and stole this Rank Progress? I thought that it was the System that supplied the Rank Progress once a Quest is complete? If that’s the case, then there is no way I could lie about it and still have it, correct?”

“True, but there’s no way you could’ve done that Special Quest; more than that, there’s no way you could’ve done it alone at your Level,” Boydlen reiterated, crossing his arms across his chest as if that was enough to settle the matter.

“Well, you can believe what you want, but I must’ve gotten this Rank Progress somewhere, don’t you think?” Thaden asked. “How can I turn this Rank Progress in and prove that I’m not lying?”

Boydlen huffed in impatience, before extending his hand. “It’s simple enough to prove that you’re obviously mistaken,” he said, his palm facing upwards as he laid it on top of his desk. “I have the authority to automatically upgrade your Coalition Badge if you’ve accumulated enough Rank Progress, which I still doubt you have enough. Just place the Badge on my palm and place your own palm on top of it. It’s as simple as that.”

Pulling his Coalition Badge out of his pack, he placed it the Coalition Leader’s palm before placing his own hand on top. It did nothing for a few seconds, which seemed to make Boydlen happy with a smirk on his face, but suddenly Thaden felt a heat beneath his palm and a bright light shot out from the badge in between their hands. The whole process lasted for about 5 seconds, and at no point was it uncomfortable; it only felt odd.

“Well, I guess I was wrong. I owe you an apology,” Boydlen said, beginning to pull his hand away, but another burst of light coming from the Badge interrupted him. “What—?”

“I guess it’s not done yet,” Thaden responded, the smile still on his face at the complete bafflement on the Coalition Leader’s.

When it was done, turning from Leather into a cool Copper Rank badge beneath his palm, he looked in between their palms and said, “It’s not done yet, I believe.”

The shock throughout Boydlen’s entire body was obvious by the shaking in his hand as Thaden pressed down on it, if such an emotion wasn’t clear by the Coalition Leader’s facial expression. Neither of them said anything as the Coalition Badge transformed from Copper to Iron, and then yet again from Iron to Bronze. It was only at that point that it stopped, though it took another 30 seconds before Thaden actually moved his palm. Looking down at the shiny bronze badge in Boydlen’s hand, he couldn’t keep the cheesy grin off his face.

“Aha! That’s a bit prettier than the old wood one, isn’t it?” he asked, plucking the badge of the palm of the petrified Coalition Leader.

The Charee’s mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish out of water, which was an interesting sight, but Thaden managed to stop himself from laughing at the other’s discomfort. It was enough to know that he had been proven wrong – in a big way.

“H-how? How is that possible?”

The Assistant Healer shrugged. “I already told you. Apparently, completing a SPECIAL Quest while solo and way under-Leveled is quite tough to do, and the System rewards it appropriately.”

“B-but, that’s impossi—”

“Not impossible, just improbable. Honestly, I just got really lucky; the right set of circumstances fell into my lap allowing me to do what I did, but sometimes that’s all one needs, am I right?”

Boydlen was silent for a few seconds, before his customary smile returned. “It is as you say. I apologize for ever doubting you, as you must be quite special in the eyes of the Assimilation System to have warranted such rewards. If there is anything I can do to help you, especially now that you are Bronze Rank within the Adventurer Coalition, please do not hesitate to let me know.”

“Thank you. I actually have a quick question that I’m hoping you’ll be able to answer for me and then I’ll be on my way.”

The Coalition Leader nodded. “Ask anything and I’ll do my best to supply you with an answer.”

“Excellent! Well, I was going to head out of here to get some replacement clothes, as all I have is this robe right now, but before that, I wanted to complete another task of mine,” Thaden said. “Would you be able to tell me where I can find a ‘Support Class Representative’?”

“A Support Class Representative? Absolutely. You can find all of the Class Representatives behind that counter right over there,” Boydlen said matter-of-factly with the same smile on his face.

Thaden looked at the long counter the Charee pointed to, but he didn’t see anyone. “But it’s empty. When will they be back?”

Without dropping the smile, the Coalition Leader said, “Oh, in about 84 days, perhaps a day or two sooner. They don’t arrive until the Contenders’ Training period is nearly concluded.”

What? No, that can’t be right. “Are they anywhere else right now? Somewhere I can go to them?”

“Oh, no, of course not. They aren’t needed until then, because only Contenders can change their initial Class. How could you not know this? Why do you need to see one in the first place?”

Well, crap. Now what am I supposed to do?