New Story -- Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It took a while to get back to the top of what he was mentally calling his main message window feed, where it appeared as though everything of note was logged and recorded. As a Data Analyst, he appreciated the fact that there was a history of his actions to look at and peruse – if it didn’t happen to be what equated to pages and pages and pages of information that all tried to communicate itself to him all at once. Not only that, but as he quickly discovered, as certain things occurred on the main feed, additional windows popped up with additional information.

He ignored all of those for the most part, only acknowledging them when they were relevant, while he instead got to the root of the information; he started right where he had cut it off shortly after his first lopsided fight with the Vogmite Workers in the treasure room.

You have slain a Vogmite Worker – Minimal – Level 5!

You have received 10 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s) as well as Level disparity!

You have received 50 PICK!

Congratulations for solo slaying your first monster!

Achievement received: Monster Hunter I

Bonus reward: 10 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 40 PICK

Congratulations for solo slaying a monster 3 or more Levels above your own!

Achievement received: No Fear I

Bonus reward: 100 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 400 PICK

The Achievements were two of the windows that had popped up among the many others, and he immediately closed them. As soon as he read the messages on the feed and mentally acknowledged the windows regarding his Achievements, which closed them automatically, he felt a surge of… something… filter through both his body and his mind. He instinctively knew that he had finally gained the PICK that was referenced by the messages, which – if he did his math correctly – was way more than enough to reach Level 2, which only needed 100 PICK to advance, and he had far surpassed that. Before he looked more into the message window that popped up regarding his increase in Levels, however, he wanted to get through the rest of the messages because they were still crowding his vision and mind.

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 2!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 3!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 4!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 5!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 6!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 7!

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 2!

Congratulations for surviving after dropping to 1 Health while in a dungeon!

Achievement received: One Foot In The Grave

Bonus reward: 15 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: Natural Regeneration Competency

Congratulations for healing a member of your party after they dropped to 1 Health while in a dungeon!

Achievement received: Party Savior

Bonus reward: 50 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 10% Permanent casting time decrease for all Support-based spells

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 3!

As far as he could tell, the first portion of this series of messages came from using his Weak Repulsion Field against the first Vogmite he killed, and he only received the increases in his competencies after the fight ended. The latter part was a memory he’d like to forget, and it came from when he triggered the traps – but especially the green fire trap, which had nearly killed him.

What was interesting about all the achievements he’d received thus far was that they were considered “Contender World First Achievements”, which he supposed made sense given the fact that he was supposedly the only Contender in the world at the moment. The rewards had changed from a simple bonus amount of PICK from the first pair of Achievements to something more useful, giving him another competency and a permanent 10% decrease in the casting time for all Support-based spells. He assumed that this meant his Weak Healing spell, as it was the only one that wasn’t instant-cast, and although 10% didn’t sound like a lot, he definitely could’ve used it while in the dungeon more than once.

Another thing he noticed about the Achievements was that the first two with simple PICK rewards seemed to be only the first in a series of Achievements, given the “I” after their name, while the others were not. He quickly wondered what those kinds of rewards might give if he were to get the next step in those Achievements, but he quickly forgot about it as he acknowledged all the windows that had popped up regarding the Achievements. An uncomfortable tingle spread through his entire body as his newest Competency likely took effect, but it thankfully stopped after about 30 seconds, leaving him a little weak and hungrier than before.

Ignoring the growl of his stomach, he kept going, as there was still a lot to get through.

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 8!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 9!

You have slain a Vogmite Worker – Minimal – Level 6!

You have received 12 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s) as well as Level disparity!

You have received 60 PICK!

You have slain a Vogmite Worker – Minimal – Level 5!

You have received 10 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s) as well as Level disparity!

You have received 50 PICK!

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

You have slain a Vogmite Guard – Minimal – Level 7!

You have received 14 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s) as well as Level disparity!

You have received 70 PICK!

Congratulations for solo slaying a monster 6 or more Levels above your own!

Achievement received: No Fear II

Bonus reward: 500 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 2,000 PICK

He passed through a large series of “monster slain” messages regarding the deaths of dozens of Vogmite Workers on his feed before he got to his first one of a Guard, which gave him the very Achievement he had been wondering about. The reward was quite a bit higher than the previous version of the No Fear Achievement, at 2,000 PICK, but he didn’t really have a good concept of how much that really was quite yet. Sure, he knew that he needed 100 PICK to reach Level 2, but he had no idea how much it would take to get to the next Level after that, let alone Levels in the future. He was sure it was probably something he would’ve learned during Training, which was just another thing that he missed out on.

The “monster slain” messages continued for a while, as he remembered there had been hundreds of the Vogmites in the tunnels, but the only ones of note were when he killed the Vogmite Foreman, followed by the Vogmite Queen.

You have slain a Vogmite Foreman – Minimal – Level 10!

You have received 20 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s) as well as Level disparity!

You have received 100 PICK!

Congratulations for solo slaying a monster 9 or more Levels above your own!

Achievement received: No Fear III

Bonus reward: 2,500 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 10,000 PICK

Congratulations for solo slaying a total of 300 monsters!

Achievement received: Monster Hunter II

Bonus reward: 300 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 1,200 PICK

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 4!

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 5!

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 6!

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 7!

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 8!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 10!

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

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 11!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 12!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 13!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 14!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 15!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 16!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 17!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 18!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 19!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 20!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 21!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 22!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 23!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 24!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 25!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 26!

You have slain a Vogmite Queen (Boss) – Minimal – Level 12!

You have received 100 PICK!

PICK reward altered based on 1 party member(s) as well as Level disparity!

You have received 1,000 PICK!

You have completed the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon – Minimal!

Speed score: 47/100

Total contribution: 100/100

Bonus reward: 50 PICK

Congratulations for completing your first Minimal difficulty dungeon!

Achievement received: Dungeon Delver I

Bonus reward: 50 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: 500 PICK

Congratulations for solo completing your first Minimal difficulty dungeon!

Achievement received: Dungeon Slayer

Bonus reward: 500 PICK

Contender World First Achievement: As a party leader, you may now choose to delve through any difficulty of any dungeon without having to complete them in order

Support Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 9!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 27!

There were so many more message windows that had popped up after the deaths of the Vogmite Foreman and Queen, which included more Achievements – all of them “World Firsts”.  The bonus PICK was welcome as a reward for completing them, even if he had done it all unaware of what he was actually doing, but the last Achievement – Dungeon Slayer – had a reward that he didn’t know what it meant.

I can choose to delve through different difficulties of dungeons? Why would I want to do that?

It seemed like a ridiculous reward, as that sounded like a good way to end up dead.

Then there was the window that he pushed off to the side for the moment, asking him to choose some sort of “Advancement” for his Defensive Spellcasting Competency. After it reached Level 10 somehow, the exact reason it increased at all was something he could only guess at, it had apparently earned some sort of reward – but he didn’t even look at it closely yet, as he wanted to finish the rest of the messages on his feed.

Fortunately, the last little bit was fairly “normal” by this point, as it was full of more “monster slain” messages for the most part, which included Hill Cougars, Grass Wolves, Emu Strikers, and the rest of the beasts that had died on his way to Ashcleft. In all, there weren’t that many, given that most of them had been killed by each other, though apparently he had contributed to their demise enough that he got credit for their deaths. What he didn’t get even the slightest bit of PICK from was when Virlo had peppered the ones that had been surrounding him in front of the walls; instead, he got a different message.

Grass Wolf slain – Level 4!

You have received 0 PICK (slain by individual or party more than 4 Levels above your own)

What that basically told him was that there was no chance of power-leveling in the future. It was a common tactic in some of the games he’d played in the past, with a high-Level player helping to slaughter dangerous monsters and allowing lower-Level players to group of with them, sharing a portion of the greater experience reward to quickly increase their Levels. It just didn’t look as though that would work in the world of Tarth, though Thaden wasn’t exactly one to do something like that in a game, even if it was commonly done and somewhat expected.

The only other notable messages as he got to the bottom of the feed were additional increases in his Defensive Spellcasting Competency, which apparently qualified for yet another Advancement.

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 28!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 29!

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 30!

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

Defensive Spellcasting Competency has increased to Level 31!

In the end, after he had gotten through the massive backlog of messages on his feed, Thaden felt practically stuffed with the Pick that he had earned, though he wasn’t sure how much he actually earned; when he looked at his Character Report, it simply read:

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 100/100 [SELECT TO INCREASE LEVEL]

This corresponded to the message window that he had left open, which essentially said the same thing.

PICK requirements met! 100/100

Increase Personal Level? Y / N

Note: This can only be completed while not currently in combat and while not in a dungeon.

He had two similar descriptions further down the report for his Defensive Spellcasting Competency and windows regarding making selections just waiting for him to make a decision. Before he did anything else, though, he decided it would be best if he Leveled up; he wasn’t sure where he would end up, and making any decisions without any updated information would be a mistake.

As soon as he mentally confirmed that he wanted to increase his Level, he felt a tiny sliver of the accumulated PICK inside his body – which practically vibrated with the strange energy he had earned – flow from its reservoir deep inside his chest and spread throughout the rest of his limbs.

Level up! You are now a Level 2 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

Thaden waited for something more, but the message window quickly changed to:

PICK requirements met! 400/400

Increase Personal Level? Y / N

Note: This can only be completed while not currently in combat and while not in a dungeon.

Before he chose to increase his Personal Level again, he looked at his Character Report to see what kind of changes there were to his stats, but the only change was that his Mentality had risen to 3, and his current Mana was 30/30. There was a new addition that held his Achievements and something called Traits that included his bonus rewards from his World Firsts, but that was it.

Slightly disappointed, given that he quickly proved that his Mana still didn’t change when he snapped his fingers and cast his Weak Repulsion Field on himself, he underwent the process all over again to raise him to Level 3.

Level up! You are now a Level 3 Assistant Healer!

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

Mentality +1

Personality +1

(1) Spell selection choice.

Ah. That’s more like it.