New Story -- Chapter 12

I was originally going to continue The Fusionist book 5 today and Monday, but decided that I wanted too much to get back to my new story.  I'll be doing more Fusionist this Thursday and Friday :)

This is also a longer chapter than normal, as I didn't want to break it up in the middle anywhere.

Chapter 12

Thaden looked at the window that opened after his increase in Level informed him of a pending spell selection. On it were three different spells to choose from, and it appeared as if he could only pick one. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to be something that would allow him to do damage to a monster, though given his Class, he didn’t really expect that they would.

Please select (1) spell from the following selections:

Weak Regrowth (Channeled)

Weak Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast)

Weak Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

All of them, similar to his first three spells, were categorized as “Weak”, but they all did different things. Fortunately, looking closely at each option brought forth another window with slightly more details.

Weak Regrowth (Channeled): Creates a connection between the caster and a target that continuously channels a healing energy that regrows missing limbs; cannot heal fatal dismemberment.

Regrowth Rate: 1 bodily inch per 5 seconds

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 20 feet

Casting Time: 10 seconds

Mana Cost: 3 per second (while channeled)

Weak Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast):Cures a single physical affliction upon a selected target from up to a Level 20 source.

Afflictions Cured: Blinded, Burning, Frozen, Petrified, Poisoned, Sleep

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 20 feet

Casting Time: 1 second

Mana Cost: 5

Weak Protective Barrier (Single Cast):Creates a full-body protective barrier around a single target that prevents (1) instance of all types of damage and afflictions from up to Level 20 sources; once damage is prevented, Weak Protective Barrier disappears; cannot target self.

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 20 feet

Duration: 5 minutes

Casting Time: 5 seconds

Mana Cost: 10

Cooldown: 5 seconds

All three of them didn’t really do much for Thaden, though he supposed that he had to choose one of them. Actually, do I have to? Can I Level some more and keep the choice for later?

He attempted to do just that, but it seemed as though when the spell selection window popped up, he couldn’t go back to his other windows without making a choice. As it didn’t seem to want to allow him to bypass the selection, he looked closer at each spell and tried to determine what might work best for him.

The first spell, Weak Regrowth, indicated something that he wasn’t even aware of – that he could lose limbs and not be able to heal them with his Weak Healing spell. Discounting when his body had been eaten by the Vogmites, he had to think about when he had been injured during his harrowing experience in their dungeon. When it came down to it, he realized that he’d only really been burned horribly by the green fire; he hadn’t actually lost any limbs, so he hadn’t realized that his other spells wouldn’t fix that kind of thing. Granted, since it seemed like he was still in “Training”, his body would likely still recover from having a hand or leg removed, but could he count on that? He hadn’t been so horribly injured that his healing spells couldn’t fix him up, so he was unaware of if he “died” again that he would be brought back to life. Still, he had no reason not to think that it was still active, and he was sure that if given enough time, that mysterious power would regrow a limb or two, so this prospective spell was of limited use to him.

The second spell was called Weak Cure Physical Affliction, and it seemed to be a catch-all for the status effects he was familiar with from video games. Not only did it cure a poisoned status, one of the most common status effects he remembered from games, but it also cured blinded, burning, frozen, petrified, and sleep. He was surprised that there weren’t other status effects such as fear or confusion, but then he looked closer at the spell and realized it said “physical”, meaning that there might be one that related to, perhaps, “mental”? Just like his Weak Repulsion Field only affected physical attacks and not magical ones like the green fire of the Vogmites, he could only assume that there might be a separate spell to fix another range of mental afflictions.

Speaking of his Weak Repulsion Field being limited in scope, he was originally excited to see Weak Protective Barrier, which seemed to protect him from all damage and afflictions. That was, of course, until he read more of the description and realized that the new spell had three major detriments that made it useless for him. First, it only prevented all damage and afflictions once, like a protective bubble around someone that was popped as soon as it did its job a single time. Second, it not only had a casting time of 5 seconds, but it also had what appeared to be a “cooldown” of 5 additional seconds, meaning that he couldn’t just spam-cast it over and over; he would have to wait 5 seconds after the spell completed in order to cast it again.

Lastly, and most importantly, the Weak Protective Barrier was only able to be cast on someone else. Even if he wanted to use it on himself, such as casting it before he got into a fight while also using his other defensive spell, that was impossible; he couldn’t target himself for the spell, meaning that only other people would be able to benefit from it.

Looking again at his choices, he was thoroughly disappointed in the options for spells because there was nothing there that would help him deal damage… but then he remembered what Class he was: Assistant Healer. Theoretically, his Class was designed to be in a party of people who could fight for him, and all of the spells he was offered reflected that type of Support role. The only one that was tailored toward himself was his Weak Repulsion Field, and even that was purely a defensive spell that ensured that he survived long enough so that he could heal the others in the party – it was, in no way, designed to be a weapon like how he had inadvertently used it.

So, he had to realistically think about the future, where he would likely be in a party of people that he could use his spells to heal and prevent damage. He was a “Support”-based class after all, and while he would’ve liked to have something that he could more easily use to defend himself, he had to accept the reality of the situation – as insane as the reality currently was at the moment.

That all being true, he still wanted to choose something that would help him right now in case he was on his own. While the Weak Protective Barrier seemed powerful for a group situation, without someone to cast it on, it did absolutely nothing for an Assistant Healer on his own. Besides, even if he did get into a party, his ability to heal someone without having to worry about running out of Mana was even more powerful in the long run; that wasn’t to say that he wouldn’t choose that particular spell in the future if it was offered again, but for now he crossed it off the list of options.

Weak Regrowth also seemed important, especially when in a party of other people, but in the end it was another spell he passed on – for one very important reason. It wasn’t because he thought his body parts would be restored to full by the same thing that had saved him before; no, it was because Weak Cure Physical Affliction said that it could cure burning. He still had vivid memories of being burned by that horrible green fire that the Vogmites used against him, and if he was able to shorten the agony that the burning flames produced, he would take it in a heartbeat.

Therefore, with only a heartbeat’s hesitation, he selected Weak Cure Physical Affliction and felt the spell slide into his mind until he knew he could cast it, and quickly put it into the fourth of his five Access Slots. Once that was completed, he was able to get back to his feed, using the PICK he had accumulated to Level up once again.

PICK requirements met! 700/700

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 4 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

He kept going, as it seemed like he still had a lot of PICK still left to spend.

PICK requirements met! 1,000/1,000

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 5 Assistant Healer!

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

Physicality +1

Mentality +1

PICK requirements met! 1,300/1,300

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 6 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

Free Stat Point (1)

(1) Spell selection choice

Again, as soon as the spell selection window appeared, Thaden couldn’t do anything else other than select his spell. This time, there seemed to be five options for him to choose from, which included the two he had passed on before at Level 3.

Please select (1) spell from the following selections:

Weak Regrowth (Channeled)

Weak Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Weak Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast)

Weak Health Augmentation (Single Cast)

Weak Absorption Field (Channeled)

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

As he had thought, there was a spell that cured some additional status effects that were mental in nature.

Weak Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast):Cures a single physical affliction upon a selected target from up to a Level 20 source.

Afflictions Cured: Charmed, Confused, Dizzy, Feared, Silenced, Stunned

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 20 feet

Casting Time: 1 second

Mana Cost: 5

After that was a spell that appeared to be a buff for a single target, and Thaden was happy to see that it could also be cast on himself.

Weak Health Augmentation (Single Cast): Enhances a target with greater maximum Health

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 20 feet

Duration: 30 minutes

Magnitude: 20 Health

Casting Time: 10 seconds

Mana Cost: 10

Lastly, there was something available that he wished he had when he arrived at the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon, as it would’ve saved him a lot of pain.

Weak Absorption Field (Channeled): Creates a full-body absorption field on self that absorbs all magical damage up to Level 20 sources and slightly replenishes Mana.

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 10 per second

As good as Weak Cure Mental Affliction and Weak Health Augmentation seemed, Thaden didn’t hesitate to choose Weak Absorption Field. The ability to absorb magical damage up to Level 20 sources would’ve saved him from being burned by the green fire in the Vogmite Tunnels many times, and he immediately slotted it in his last Access Slot. It didn’t exactly make him invulnerable having the new Absorption Field in addition to the one that blocked physical attacks, because attacks that were both physical and magical in nature – such as the burning whip used by the Vogmite Foreman – would still get through one way or another, but a great weight was immediately taken off his back once he had it available for his use. He didn’t even regret his previous spell selection because being able to fix physical status effects was still important, especially if he was poisoned or affected by something that wasn’t a direct attack on him – or if he was inflicted with an affliction at some point when he didn’t have the necessary Fieldactive.

As part of his increase to Level 6, he also received a Free stat point that he found he could place in any of his stats, but thankfully it seemed as though he was able to save it until later. He had no idea what would be good to put it in, and as he also received a point in his Physicality at Level 5 for some reason, he didn’t want to put it into something that would be unnecessary down the line.

Therefore, he kept going, spending his accumulated PICK on additional Levels. Each consecutive Level required 300 PICK more than the previous Level, so getting to Level 7 required 1,600 PICK, Level 8 needed 1,900, and so on.

Level up! You are now a Level 7 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

Level up! You are now a Level 8 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

Personality +1

Level up! You are now a Level 9 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

(2) Spell selection choices

Level up! You are now a Level 10 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

Level up! You are now a Level 11 Assistant Healer!

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

Celerity +1

Mentality +2

Level up! You are now a Level 12 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +2

Free Stat Point (2)

(2) Spell selection choices

Level up! You are now a Level 13 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +2

Level up! You are now a Level 14 Assistant Healer!

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

Physicality +1

Mentality +2

Level up! You are now a Level 15 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +2

(2) Spell selection choices

Level up! You are now a Level 16 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +2

Level up! You are now a Level 17 Assistant Healer!

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

Celerity +1

Mentality +2

At Levels 9, 12, and 15, he had additional spell selections to choose from, though unlike at Level 3 and Level 6, he was able to select two of them instead of just one. The previous options were still on the list, but there were 3 additional spells to choose from as well, though at Level 12 and 15 they weren’t completely new. At Level 9, his choices were a little more interesting and took him a few minutes of contemplation to figure out what he wanted.

Please select (2) spells from the following selections:

Weak Regrowth (Channeled)

Weak Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Weak Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast)

Weak Health Augmentation (Single Cast)

Weak Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Weak Healing Circle (Channeled)

Weak Health Reduction (Single Cast)

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

Weak Mana Rejuvenation was essentially the same as Weak Regeneration, though for regenerating Mana instead. He obviously didn’t need that kind of spell for himself, but he thought it could be useful if he partied with other casters. Or even melee types, as he didn’t know if they used Mana or something else.

Weak Healing Circle was a channeled spell that took 3 seconds to activate, but it essentially created a 6-foot-wide circle that healed anyone within its range. It sounded good at first, until he saw that it healed anyone within its range, which included any monsters that might be within the circle.

Weak Health Reduction was what he ultimately decided upon from the newest spells offered to him, as it did the opposite of Weak Health Augmentation on a target, reducing it by 20 – though it couldn’t reduce it any lower than 1. It was something that he would have to cast, and while it only took 5 seconds as opposed to Augmentation which took 10, he thought it could be handy if he used it before he got into a fight.

The second spell at Level 9 he chose was Weak Cure Mental Affliction, as he wanted to be covered no matter what he came up against outside of the town of Ashcleft. He nearly took Weak Regrowth because he was still unsure if his body would regrow any limbs by itself, but decided to wait on it and take it later if he didn’t have any other good choices.

At Level 12, there was only a single new spell available in addition to the five he didn’t choose before, but there were also two upgrades to his existing spells.

Please select (2) spells from the following selections:

Weak Regrowth (Channeled)

Weak Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Weak Health Augmentation (Single Cast)

Weak Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Weak Healing Circle (Channeled)

Weak Mass Healing (Single Cast)

Minor Healing (Channeled)

Minor Regeneration (Single Cast)

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

The brand-new spell was Weak Mass Healing, which was a spell that healed every ally within a 40-foot radius.

Weak Mass Healing (Single Cast): Heals every ally within a certain radius for a small amount.

Healing Amount: 20 Health

Range: 40-foot radius of caster

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 60

Cooldown: 30 seconds

It was a powerful spell as it healed 20 Health for all allies, as well as being instant-cast, but it also cost 60 Mana to use – which he fortunately didn’t need to worry about. The only downside was that there was a 30-second cooldown, meaning that he wouldn’t be able to cast it over and over again, but it was a good way to heal multiple people – as well as himself – if it was necessary.

The other two options were upgrades to his original Weak Healing and Weak Regeneration spells; they didn’t just double the amount of healing that was done, but tripled it – a theme of 3s he was beginning to notice was quite common. Knowing what had saved his life multiple times during his horrific experiences in the Vogmite Tunnels, he chose to upgrade (which ultimately completely replaced) his Weak Healing spell with Minor Healing, and also picked up Weak Mass Healing as an emergency healing spell.

Minor Healing (Channeled): Creates a connection between the caster and a target that continuously channels healing energy.

Healing Rate: 3 Health per second

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 30 feet

Casting Time: 2 seconds

Mana Cost: 3 per second

The new Minor Healing spell now healed 3 Health per second and had a larger range, though with a higher Mana cost to go with it.  Again, he didn’t really care all that much about the cost, because his Mana still hadn’t budged from where it sat at his maximum.

Finally, at Level 15, there again were two upgrades to his existing spells in addition to all he didn’t choose before, as well as a single new spell – which frankly shocked him when he saw it.

Please select (2) spells from the following selections:

Weak Regrowth (Channeled)

Weak Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Weak Health Augmentation (Single Cast)

Weak Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Weak Healing Circle (Channeled)

Minor Regeneration (Single Cast)

Minor Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast)

Minor Repulsion Field (Channeled)

Weak Resurrection (Single Cast)

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

While Thaden Immediately chose Minor Repulsion Field as one of his spells, which increased the Mana cost per second (which didn’t matter to him) but allowed him to block physical attacks from sources up to Level 30 instead of 20, he stared in shock at the last option on the list.

Weak Resurrection (Single Cast): Resurrects target that has been deceased less than (60) minutes; can only be cast outside of combat.

Healing Amount: 1 Health

Range: 5 feet

Casting Time: 60 seconds

Mana Cost: 150

Cooldown: 30 minutes

I… I can bring people back to life? He knew that it was a common mechanic in video games, but to see something like this as part of his new reality blew his mind. Sure, he had been resurrected by the Training system as some sort of glitch (no matter what Virlo said about the Assimilation System being infallible), but to be able to do such a thing for someone else was, frankly, incredible. There were some limitations, of course, being that he could only resurrect someone within an hour of their death and there was a cooldown of 30 minutes. So, if he was in a party of other 3 or more people and all but him wiped, he would only be able to save 2 of them before time ran out for the third.

There were some other questions he had about the state of the body when a person was killed. Would he be able to resurrect someone if they were eaten by a giant monster? What if they fell into a lava pit and dissolved completely, just like what nearly happened to him when he was dropped into an active volcano? Did he need the whole body, or at least the head, such as what happened with him and the System?

He didn’t know the answers and there was nothing in the windows that let him know those kinds of details, so he supposed that he would have to look into it in the future – because there was no way he was going to pass up being able to resurrect someone by choosing a different spell.

Even if there wasn’t anyone else he needed to resurrect right now.

After selecting Weak Resurrection as his last spell, he had enough PICK to Level-up twice more, putting him at Level 17. After mentally adding up all the PICK that had been consumed to get him to this point, he calculated that he used 37,600 PICK – which was an incredible amount to think about.

After almost everything in his feed was taken care of, Thaden brought up his Character Report to see the changes – and was shocked at how different it was from before.

#32599999-E

Assistant Healer

Level – 17

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 1,375/4,900

Health – 30/30

Mana – 250/250

Physicality – 3

Celerity – 3

Mentality – 25

Personality – 3

Fortuity – 1

(3) Free Stat Points

Spells:

Weak Regeneration (Single Cast)

Weak Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast)

Weak Absorption Field (Channeled)

Weak Health Reduction (Single Cast)

Weak Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast)

Weak Mass Healing (Single Cast)

Weak Resurrection (Single Cast)

Minor Healing (Channeled)

Minor Repulsion Field (Channeled)

Competencies:

Support Spellcasting Competency (Level 9, 13%)

Defensive Spellcasting Competency (Level 31, 56%) (2 Advancements pending)

Natural Regeneration Competency (Level 1, 0%)

Mana Management Competency (N/A)

Achievements:

Monster Hunter I (WF)

Monster Hunter II (WF)

No Fear I (WF)

No Fear II (WF)

No Fear III (WF)

One Foot In The Grave (WF)

Party Savior (WF)

Dungeon Delver I (WF)

Dungeon Slayer (WF)

Bonus Traits:

Natural Regeneration Competency (From One Foot In The Grave)

+10% Permanent casting time decrease for all Support-based spells (From Party Savior)

As a party leader, you can choose to delve through any difficulty of any dungeon without having to complete them in order (From Dungeon Slayer)

Looking at his stats, his Mentality of 25 seemed extremely lopsided, but then again, he supposed that having 250 Mana was probably a good thing for an Assistant Healer to have. His Physicality and Celerity had also gone up by 2 points each, and while he could see that his Health was now 30 instead of 10 like before, he wasn’t sure what that ultimately meant as far as how his body would feel and react in terms of strength and speed. His Personality had also gone up by 2 points, which he felt was probably a good thing considering he was in a town right now and had to interact with the strange people here. He nearly placed his three free stat points in Personality so that he would have a chance of getting along with the residents of Ashcleft, but he paused when he saw that his Fortuity hadn’t risen from the 1 it had been at from the beginning.

If he remembered correctly, Fortuity was essentially a luck mechanic, which affected every interaction he had with the world. Given that he had broken his leg before being transported against his will, then was rejected by the Training program because he ended up being split in half, was subsequently dropped into a volcano, was eaten by Vogmites, and then suffered horrendous burning green flames all over his body that made his mind temporarily snap, he felt like he needed some luck. Thaden dumped all three of his free stat points into Fortuity, bringing it up to 4 – and making it his second-highest stat. He didn’t feel any different, but he supposed he would eventually see if it made a difference or not in the future – or if he had just wasted them on nothing.

There was also something else in his Character Report that he had forgotten about until now: He had 2 Advancements waiting for his selection for his Defensive Spellcasting Competency. He nearly looked into them, but his stomach growled loud enough to startle him and make him chuckle.

He wasn’t sure how long everything on his feed took to go through, but when it was finally done, he was more than ready to get out of bed. He was starving and wanted something to eat before he wasted away, and he figured he could look at those advancements once he got some food in his belly.