jonathanbrooksauthor

Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Thaden didn’t necessarily believe in providence by some higher power, but he did believe in his own Fortuity.  To that affect, he wasn’t too surprised that 30,000 in the stat—with his solo-based gear now reequipped—made itself known when the two closest NESTs near the massive gap in the barrier protecting Region #1 from the Wildlands ended up being two different types of Undead.  If there was one monster type that he was uniquely suited against, it was one that was damaged by his healing spells.  While he’d seen other Undead in dungeons other than the Mausoleum of Despair, they weren’t very common.  To have one of them inside of a NEST right outside of Region #1 was coincidence; two of them, however, was pure Fortuity as far as he was concerned.  Even Sadia said that it was unusual, as monster types didn’t tend to clump together in the Wildland NESTs; she put it down to random chance, but Thaden knew better.

Located only 5 miles to the northwest of the entrance to Region #1, the absolute closest NEST was full of run-of-the-mill, boring skeletons.  Of course, given that they were Level 380, they weren’t exactly “simple” walking skeletons, but something a bit more dangerous to the average Contender.

Skeletal Giant – Advanced Wildlands Denizen

Level 380 (Perceived Level: 494)

The Skeletal Giant was humanoid in appearance, but it was much more than that.  Standing 24 feet tall, the bones of the Giant were extremely thick, giving the Undead the appearance of being heavily armored and capable of taking a direct blast by a cannon without flinching.  A dark energy that practically sparked with intensity connected the bones of the monster together, which also surrounded the tree-trunk-sized bone club in its hand, giving it a sinister appearance.  Glowing green eyes filled the skeleton’s eyes, which looked upon him with a murderous gaze, emitting a chilling vibe that could likely make even the stoutest defender quail in fear. 

Unfortunately for the Skeletal Giant, while it was extraordinarily strong and resilient, it lacked any sort of speed.  As a result, when Thaden quickly moved into range, they were barely able to start lumbering towards him before he and Sadia washed a multitude of healing spells over it, killing it nearly instantly.  Granted, most of the other monsters died just as quickly out in the Wildlands, at least those that he’d encountered, but he hadn’t even used his Leach spell in this instance.  If he had, then it would’ve died even faster – if such a thing were possible.

As he immediately delved into the NEST, not even bothering to take his time as he jumped down the pit while killing everything along the way with casts of Mass Healing, Regeneration, Mass Regeneration, Healing Burst, Recharge, Full Heal, Health Renewal, and any available Fortuitous versions, while also having Aura of Life active.  Needless to say, nothing survived even a quick look at Thaden or Sadia, as the Skeletal Giants fell apart near-instantly as soon as they were the target of a spell.

The Skeletal Giant NEST wasn’t too much different from the one with the Gorillum; there were still 3 different tunnels to travel down, and locked door preventing him from getting to the NEST Boss.  The only real difference was what could be found inside the tunnels, as the loose rocks inside looked to be shaped closer to gravestones than simple boulders, and there was a deeper darkness inside of each of the caves that seemed as if it was necrotic in nature, though it didn’t hurt him at all.  Sadia mentioned that it likely would come to that over time, as the NEST became more attuned to the monsters spawning from it, but at the moment it was relatively harmless.

Through each tunnel, he killed everything on the way to the Mini Boss before extracting loot from the corpses on the way back to the bottom of the pit, and again the most time-consuming thing was the actual extraction.  He barely had to walk into each of the Mini Boss caves before he killed the monsters inside and then looting, and he never even got the chance to see what they did.  He caught their names, but that was about all he saw from them because they didn’t live long enough to do anything but shift slightly when he arrived. 

Skeletal Giant Basher (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

Skeletal Behemoth (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

Skeletal Giant Warlock (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

The NEST Boss, once he unlocked the door, was equally as easy to defeat, as were the dozens of Skeletal Giants present within the massive cavern in which it resided.  It took a few steps toward him before it collapsed, but he was at least able to see that the Boss was about 5 feet taller than a normal Giant, was a bit wider with even thicker bones, and carried two dark metal swords 10 feet in length, which emanated an energy that looked capable of crossing the distance to him if he gave it a chance.

Skeletal Giant Champion (Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 450 (Perceived Level: 585)

Overall, once he managed to kill the Boss and loot it, Thaden managed to acquire over 6,000 Gold pieces, which wasn’t a ton, but it wasn’t bad for only about 15 minutes of work.  As he touched the crystal pedestal that appeared at the bottom of the pit, he was only slightly disappointed but not really surprised that he didn’t receive any other Achievements or anything of significance.  He waited for the Defensive Fortification to appear once he was brought back up to ground Level, and he could see for the first time just how many Subjugation Points he received by subjugating the NEST, as well as the updated costs thanks to his newest Achievements.

NEST #0018 subjugation complete!

Subjugation Points (SP) [#32599999-E]: 95 SP

Current (SP) Accumulation [#32599999-E]: 14 SP/hr

Purchasable Defensive Fortification Options (Permanent Discount Cost):

Siege Wall Stage 1 – 10 (7) SP

Wall Walkways Stage 1 – 5 (3) SP

Steel Gate Stage 1 – 5 (3) SP

Murder Holes Stage 1 – 5 (3) SP

Defensive Spikes Stage 1 – 10 (7) SP

Repulsion Barrier Stage 1 – 20 (14) SP

Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (7) SP

Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 1 –10 (7) SP

Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 1 –10 (7) SP

Perimeter Pit Stage 1 – 10 (7) SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Fighter) – 2 (2) SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Mage) – 2 (2) SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Scout) – 2 (2) SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Control) – 2 (2) SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Support) – 2 (2) SP

Upgrade Fortification Guardian to Stage 2 – 30 (21) SP

Resurrection Well Stage 1– 100 (70) SP

Central Keep Stage 1 – 20 (14) SP

Additional options will be made available once certain prerequisites have been met

Remaining NESTs still active… 8,999/9,000

He didn’t bother spending any of the SP yet, as it would be a waste of time, so he immediately left the pedestal and exited the destroyed town where the NEST had been.  Leaving it behind would convert it back to a NEST, so there was no point in building anything up within the Defensive Fortification. 

At least, not at this time.

The second-closest NEST, which was located just over 7 miles to the northeast, was also inhabited by Undead, though instead of skeletons, it was full of Wraiths.

Wraith of Shadows – Advanced Wildlands Denizen

Level 380 (Perceived Level: 494)

The Wraith of Shadows was completely incorporeal, with it being a combination of a spiritual being with access to large amounts of Shadow-based magical attacks.  It was relatively small compared to many of the other denizens of the Wildlands, at only 6 feet tall and about half that wide, but it packed a punch with its magical and spiritual abilities.  What was essentially a floating, ragged-looking, hooded cloak with two spectral blue eyes peeking out of the dark hood and desiccated and bony arms extending out toward its target, could cast some extremely nasty spells such as one that could create a vortex of shadows that shredded anything it passed through.

Of course, none of these spells even managed to get close to Thaden as he attacked the Wraiths without even slowing down, and he only saw the spells themselves go off because the spiritual undead had a fairly extensive detection and casting range, which outstripped even his own healing spells.  Even those that were cast a little distance away from him didn’t manage to harm him in the least, as his defenses were more than capable of standing up to the spells.  His 60% Shadow Resistance didn’t hurt, either.

The NEST was, as he’d seen in the others that he’d cleared, was fairly generic in its setup and environment, though he could see how it would eventually begin to acclimate to the Wraiths that inhabited it.  The darkness inside of it was deeper than even the Skeletal Giant NEST, and there were wider caves that allowed the Wraiths inside a greater distance in which to inflict their magical attacks upon any incoming invaders.

The Mini Bosses and the Boss itself were simply stronger, altered, or “evolved” versions of the Wraith of Shadows, which he was beginning to see was going to be a common theme.  Sadia mentioned that the vast differences in these evolved forms of monsters was greater at the start of the Phase, while minor changes would occur later once a specific evolutionary path was essentially chosen by the NESTs themselves. 

Wraith of Striking Shadows (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender  

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

Wraith of Warping Shadows (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender  

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

Wraith of Screeching Shadows (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender  

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

Greater Wraith of Darkness (Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender  

Level 450 (Perceived Level: 585)

The Wraith of Striking Shadows seemed to be more adept at creating physical shadowy weapons in which to strike its target from multiple directions, while the Warping one could not only move through the shadows with a teleporting ability, but could also teleport its victims who were also bathed in shadows.  The Screeching variety used the shadows filling the caves as a medium to spread ear-piercing and disorienting screeches, which were extremely annoying and he was glad he was able to kill it within seconds.  Finally, the Boss—a Greater Wraith of Darkness—was simply a slightly larger version of the original Wraith of Shadows, and it had some similar capabilities of the other three Mini Bosses. 

The only reason he discovered what these Undead monsters could do was simply because the caves where they were located were quite at least twice as large as any of the others he’d seen thus far, giving them plenty of room to use their abilities before he managed to close the distance.  Thankfully, the fights were over in seconds as his healing spells were able to target them before they could become too annoying.

In the end, he earned a little over 5,000 Gold from his work in the NEST, slightly less than the Skeletal Giant NEST, but there were also fewer monsters in general.  Thinking about all of the Gold he would normally earn from Intermediate Raid Party Dungeons, 5,000 or 6,000 was only a small fraction of those massive sums – but they also typically took longer, not only to delve through, but to reach.  At his current Level, it would be more time-consuming to actually find a dungeon that would have monsters of a high-enough Level for him to earn more than a pittance, both in terms of loot and PICK, than it was to simply move from NEST to NEST.  While he might, theoretically, earn more if he really dedicated himself to moving from each of the dozen Intermediate Dungeons or so that would be beneficial to him, that wasn’t why he was concentrating all of his energy out in the Wildlands.

First and foremost, knowing what they were up against out in the Wildlands was important, and now he was knowledgeable of at least the two nearest NESTs – and he wasn’t planning on stopping until he could map out at least a few hundred square miles of NESTs as he ventured out from the Region #1 entrance.  After all, foreknowledge of what they would be facing as they began the next step in the plan was going to be imperative to success.

Secondly, and what Thaden was looking forward to, was the experiments he wanted to try with the NESTs and the Defensive Fortifications that would be built after they were subjugated.  There were a few ideas that he wanted to try out to see if he could take advantage of his unique abilities, and now was probably the best chance to do that while he had the time and opportunity.

Lastly, there was a tertiary reason he was back out in the Wildlands instead of farming resources inside of the Region.  As he departed the Defensive Fortification around NEST #0019 and the countdown for Wraiths to reestablish their NEST began, he looked slightly up and into the far distance.  He wasn’t exactly sure how far away it was, but in the light of the clear day, he could see what appeared to be a floating structure miles above the surface of the Wildlands.  Details were difficult to make out at this distance, but he had a strange feeling that this was where the Wardens of Tarth called home.  There was a sense of both judgment and authority that practically emanated from the cylindrical structure containing a multitude of grand columns, like some sort of Mount Olympus where the Gods waited while they watched over man.

There was still something he needed from the Wardens that he’d met, after all.  It wasn’t the Aelveen that he needed to see, either, even though he was curious if they’d made it out alright after the explosion that destroyed The Citadel; instead, he hoped that the Charee Wardens had survived, because he still needed them to upgrade his Adventurer Coalition Badge Rank to Platinum.

Yes, he was well aware that it was a petty thing to ask for when the fate of all the Contenders in Tarth was at stake with the early start of Developmental Phase 4, but he earned that Rank – and he wanted it.  There really wasn’t much else that he desired, as there wasn’t likely to be much other than an accessory that would allow him to fly, perhaps, as Gold and materials weren’t anything but trinkets to pass on as he had no use for them.  But to have his Adventurer Coalition Rank to finally achieve Platinum status was something permanent that couldn’t be lost or taken away from him – as far as he knew. 

Thaden wasn’t sure how to get their attention so that he could upgrade his Rank, but he hoped that the more time he spent out in the Wildlands, he would figure out how it worked.  Unfortunately, Sadia was no help in that regard, because she was unaware of any way to get their attention other than doing something that would require their intervention. 

“Such as?” he asked.

“Such as powerful groups of Mages destroying half of the Wildlands with wild spells, which could potentially damage the NEST spawn gates to the point where they might rupture,” she informed him.  “While that wouldn’t be nearly as devastating as letting the Adversary inside the world of Tarth, the consequences of a ruptured spawn gate could have wide-ranged effects, and none of it would be beneficial to the Contenders.”

Even as he ran toward the next NEST, seeing what it had in store for him, he looked over the rest of his recent gains.  In addition to the physical resources that he’d acquired, he also gained some more stat boosts from the use of periodic casts of Spiritual Reclamation on the Wraiths and the Skeletal Giants, which slowly added up over time.

Physicality +76

Celerity +13

Mentality +85

There weren’t any other permanent bonuses from killing them other than stats, but he intuitively felt as though he was right on the cusp of something.  He thought it might be something related to fighting undead, but he couldn’t be entirely sure.

In addition to those extra stats, from all of his fights throughout the Wildlands so far, his solo-focused Growth equipment had benefitted from the PICK he’d been receiving.  It wasn’t a massive increase, but pushing them all up to Level 215 was impressive all the same.  He knew that it would take them a while to reach his own Level, but with all of the fighting he was going to be doing in the near future, he was fairly confident they would eventually get to that point.  Then, he would have to make some decisions about the massive reserve of PICK he had saved up; would he Level-up again, just enough at a time to avoid maxing out his reserves, or would he bump it all the way up to his next Class Evolution at Level 567?  Fortunately, he had some time to decide on that, so he wasn’t under too much pressure to come to an immediate decision.

While he wasn’t under any huge time constraints with his future choices, at the moment he didn’t want to delay his current objectives.  With that in mind, he spent the next hour moving from NEST to NEST, starting the process of mapping out where each one was located closest to Region #1, memorizing what monsters inhabited them and surrounding areas, and noting any unique qualities each of the NESTs might have.  As for the latter, there wasn’t really all that much to note, at least at first, but he could see some slight progress toward the individual environments beginning to change as they acclimated to the monsters that filled their caves.

With each subsequent NEST he subjugated, he could feel himself becoming faster at delving through and killing all of the weaker monsters in addition to the Mini Bosses and the Boss, until it only took a few minutes to clear it out completely after actually arriving.  The longest and most annoying part—especially as he was trying to move through them quickly—of the entire process turned out to be waiting for the NEST to fill up and the Defensive Fortification to appear.  He debated simply abandoning it as soon as he killed the Boss, but his experience with delving through dungeons and acquiring many, many Achievements hinted to him that it would be better for him if he finished the entire process – even if he were to abandon the Defensive Fortification immediately afterward.

It was once he finished subjugating his eighth overall NEST and was heading toward the ninth that he felt something familiar heading straight for him.  As he looked up toward the large structure he’d been eyeing every once in a while, he saw a group of figures flying toward him; the familiar feeling was coming from them, and he knew exactly what it was – the Wardens. 

The biggest differences between when he’d felt their presence before and what he felt now was that the feeling of the System that practically reverberated around them was much stronger – and the Level Compression they naturally exuded as they approached was more than noticeable.  It wasn’t “weaponized” as of yet, as he was simply aware of it, but being able to feel it from such a difference could only mean one thing.

They were much higher Level now.  While he thought that he had left them all in relatively good terms as he left to fight the Adversary within The Citadel, with the current Level difference between them significantly higher than before, he wasn’t sure if they were still insistent in completing the Quest they had told him about.  He thought about preemptively running, but he held off for the moment because he didn’t necessarily feel any hostile intent coming his way; still, he prepared himself with all of the defensive spells he could cast upon himself and Sadia, while he waited for them to arrive.

Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Despite the distance from where he’d landed to where The Citadel used to be being quite a trek, only about 100 monsters met their end while Thaden ran back to The Citadel.  He supposed that made sense because he hadn’t gone out of his way to hunt them down; the ones that died simply happened to cross his path as he shot across the landscape of the Wildlands.  That being said, he saw tens of thousands of monsters along the way, most of them in the distance, wandering seemingly aimlessly around with no specific purpose.  A few outside of his range attempted to chase him when they spotted him running through their territory, but none of them were fast enough to keep up.  After a short time, all of them stopped the chase and retreated back to where they’d started; he thought this was probably a good thing, as he didn’t end wanting to take thousands of monsters back to his Region.

That was about the only good news as far as he was concerned, however, because his return to the Contenders in Region #1 wasn’t exactly the homecoming he had been hoping for.  Granted, he hadn’t been expecting to be welcomed back with open arms, but the sudden hostility by Corinna hurt him more than he wanted to admit even to himself.  The sudden turn in her attitude toward him after his explanation of what happened lessened the impact of the abrupt hostility he felt from the nominal leader of Guilded Glory, but it had certainly tinted the discussions that occurred after the original meeting.

What happened?  Did I do something?  Other than starting Phase 4, of course, which wasn’t my intention.

Whatever it was, he became a bit standoffish with the woman after her treatment of him.  While he logically understood that she was probably lashing out at him over all of the changes that kept coming one right after another, his emotional wellbeing couldn’t take the abuse – especially when his mental wellbeing was still in flux over everything he’d learned from Director Belyssa about the Assimilation System and the Persistent Adversary. 

Shaking his head minutely as he lounged in the chair set up in the giant, open-air tent that someone had pitched near the crater that used to be The Citadel Dungeon, he tried to force his attention back to the planning session that was still ongoing.  For her part, Corinna’s logistical aptitude really showed as she dominated most of the conversation concerning shifting around resources and the like.  The other Guild Leaders, who had multiplied significantly enough that they included more than just the top 50 Guilds in the Region, spoke up and argued over specific points here and there, but it wasn’t over anything critical.

The severity of the situation had put aside many of the differences between the Guilds that might have otherwise been stressed, as cooperation was the only way they were going to survive.  Of course, there were the inevitable, short-sighted individuals who were only looking out for themselves, which caused a half-dozen Guild Leaders to storm off and leave in anger when the others weren’t having any of it.

“…this is ridiculous!  While you all are wasting time playing around, we’ll continue Leveling up through the Intermediate Raid Dungeons!  It’s been proven to work, whereas this stupid plan is only going to get us all killed!”

“Exactly!  I’m not going to risk my people on foolish ideas like this!  Just because you’re in the top 10 doesn’t mean you can dictate to the rest of us what we have to do!”

“You’re just trying to—”

Corinna clapped loudly enough that it sent an audible shockwave through the tent, cutting off the complaints immediately.  “If you don’t care enough about our overall survival here on Tarth to follow the plan, then you can simply leave,” she said sternly in an even voice – with a hint of violence tinting the edges of her words.  “We’re trying to work together to save everyone, but if you can’t add anything constructive and aren’t willing to contribute to our success, then not only do we not want you here, but you’ll be more of a hindrance than a help.”  She paused for a second as, before she continued.  “The adults are speaking here, and if you persist in whining like a spoiled little child, then you can fuck off and get the hell out of here.”

Two of those that were arguing most vehemently got up and left at that point while cursing out Corinna and the other Guild Leaders the entire time, while those that had been on the fence sat back down and shut their mouths.  They still might be an issue in the future, but for now, they seemed to be brought back into line.

Wow.  Is it strange that I’m a little turned on right now?

He worked to mentally regain his composure as he shifted in his seat, and the discussions and preparations continued even more diligently after that.  Thaden gladly contributed even more of his Gold to the cause, as he had no use for it otherwise, and the smile that Corinna flashed him—as well as the way she took charge earlier—almost made him think he’d imagined the way she’d acted toward him earlier.  However, he still wasn’t sure where they stood when they finally broke after multiple hours of organizational planning, in which he’d barely been able to stay awake.

Even if it was important to the survival of everyone in the Region, and potentially all of Tarth, he couldn’t deny that it was extensively boring.  While he had been a Data Analyst in his past life back on Earth, which, admittedly, wasn’t the most exciting of jobs, he enjoyed numbers and looking into the deeper reasons why they changed they way they did.  It was the steps after the data analysis happened that he didn’t care for, which included all of the planning and logistics that Corinna and many of the other Guild Leaders seemed to thrive upon.  He supposed that it was almost a prerequisite to being a powerful Guild Leader, as they needed to be able to herd cats and be happy about it at the same time, something that Thaden wouldn’t ever be comfortable with.

“…and I guess that’s it.  We’ll have to reconvene once things start moving, and I’ll be sending out regular communications to every one of you regarding our progress.  For now, sticking to the plan won’t be too much different than it was before; once we hit that critical point we were talking about, however, is when we’ll need to start moving together.  Anyone have any questions?”

Thaden did have some questions, after he realized that he hadn’t really paid much attention to the decisions that had been made, as he simply tuned it out in his boredom.  He didn’t say anything, however, as he didn’t want to hold up the conclusion of the gathering; he was more of an action person, and having all of these people listen to him ask questions would only make him uncomfortable.

Fortunately no one else had any questions, so the meeting between the most powerful Guild Leaders ended relatively unceremoniously, and they – and their Guild members nearby – immediately began to disperse.  As Corinna turned to him as he got up, she looked at him for a few seconds before sighing heavily.  “You don’t have any idea what the plan is, do you?” she asked with a smirk.

“Not particularly.  I think I know my role, however, if what I mentioned earlier is still on the table.”

She nodded, relief clear on her face.  “Well, let me give you a quick rundown.  I need to get some better measurements of the crater, so I can do that while you join me.”

Corinna began walking toward the hole in the mountain range, or more accurately, the crater below it; Thaden followed after, joining her on her short trek.  “First, we’re mobilizing as many Charee as we can hire, but especially those with construction and terrain-moving capabilities.  The first job is to fill in and smooth over this crater, giving us a sound foundation in which to build our defenses.  Then, we’ll be utilizing periodic teams of Contenders in addition to the Charee we hire who can help to move and construct a massive fortification that will stretch the entire length of this opening in the mountain range, with a wall 100 feet tall and 30 feet thick, which will hopefully be high and thick enough to prevent most monsters heading our way from breaking through into the Region immediately.

“After it’s built, teams of Charee and Contender crafters will be hired to enchant the walls and other fortifications, strengthening it even further, while other crafters will be producing large-scale defensive weapons that will contribute to the strength of our protections, giving us a bulwark against whatever the Wildlands has to throw at us.”

“Won’t they be… sort of weak, though?” Thaden asked.

With a nod, she pulled out a strange metal contraption out of her Inventory and began using it to take measurements of the crater.  “Absolutely.  Which is where you first come in,” she said, glancing over at him to make sure he was paying attention.  “After working with many Charee and Contender crafters, we’ve learned a few things about their capabilities – and how to improve upon them.  First, Charee crafters are typically limited to creating things that are just above the average Level of the Contenders; I can only assume that the System planned for them to not only keep up with the Contenders that they’re helping to outfit, but to keep them ahead of their progress.

“However, Contender crafters aren’t quite as limited, as they can continue to improve their crafting Comptencies far past what the Charee crafters can normally produce at any one time.  The problem is that it takes high-Level materials and lots of Gold to accomplish this reliably, so it is very difficult for Contender crafters to acquire this without someone constantly feeding them these costly resources.  What most people don’t know, though, is that Charee crafters can be boosted the same – and at a much faster rate, with better results.”

It only took him a second to understand what she was saying.  “So, we’ll be feeding the Charee crafters with what they need to improve their crafting Competencies, so that they can produce high-Level enchantments and defensive weapons?  And I’m going to be helping with that?”

“Exactly.  With your unique bonuses, you can help us farm some materials, but those are more easier obtained than you might think.  More importantly, we need Gold – which is where you come in.  You’d be surprised how much of it is consumed in the sheer production of crafts; it’s essentially the fuel that is consumed in the process, and that isn’t figure of speech – I mean that literally.  The System balances out how much is produced by the monsters that are slain within Tarth as it is consumed by crafting, and the higher the Level of crafting, the more it consumes.”

“So, you just need me to kill lots of monsters for Gold?  Is that it?”

Again, she nodded.  “Yes.  We have plenty of reserves right now, even with the upheaval over the last month or so, but it will run out in a few weeks as we push everyone to increase their Competencies like crazy, all so that we can be prepared for when the Wildlands monsters start to attack us.  It won’t necessarily be easy, but I think we can manage at least that much before it’s too late – as long as we get that Gold.”

That sounded easy enough for him.  He could accumulate Gold, materials, and PICK to increase the Level of his Growth equipment at the same time.  It would also give him an opportunity to try a few things with the NESTs and the Defensive Fortifications.

“And after the defensive wall is done?  What then?”

Corinna looked over at him again after recording yet another measurement.  “That’s when we try some of those crazy ideas you had earlier.  If you want, you can experiment a bit with those thoughts you had before it gets to that point in the plan, just to ensure we have time to come up with something else if it doesn’t work out like you thought.”

“I could do that.  Seems easy enough, I suppose.”

“Good,” she responded, even as she started looking at the side walls of the canyon-like hole in the mountain range.  “I’ll have a representative of the Guild here at all times that you can make drop-offs to whenever you can, or if you’re planning on moving around a bit more, then you can drop them off to me.”

“And where will you be?” he asked.

“Where else?  Headquarters in Darkwood Vale.  I’ll have to go out and Level-up myself once in a while, but I’ll likely be organizing everything from there.”  She sighed heavily, her head hanging down.  “I really wish Rachel was still here.  She would’ve had this whole thing organized much better than I ever could, and there wouldn’t be so many unknowns that I need to research before I can make a decision.”

Thaden walked up next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.  “Don’t sell yourself short; you’ve done an amazing job not only keeping the Guild afloat, but from what I’ve heard, you’ve even improved it from what it was before.  I think Rachel would be proud of what you’ve already accomplished, as well as what you’re going to do with it from here.  Besides, saving the world has to be a good addition to your resume, right?”

She sniffed a few times, before turning to him and placing her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist.  Thaden was momentarily conflicted, as he still wasn’t sure what to think of their relationship, but he eventually hugged her back.  He could tell that this didn’t have to do anything with their relationship; she was simply in need of comfort, and he was capable of giving it.

“Thanks.  I certainly hope that you’re right, even if it feels like I’m always a single wrong decision away from everything falling apart.”  They stood like that for about a half-minute before she gradually pulled away, giving him a slight smile as she turned toward her work again.  “Sorry to cut that short, because it was quite nice, but we’ve both got a lot of work to do.” Corinna was silent for a moment as she worked.  “Any other questions?” she eventually asked.

Smiling back at her, feeling slightly better about what they had between them, even if it felt like it was in limbo at the moment, Thaden shook his head.  “No, I think I’ve got it.”

“Perfect.  Then, you go out and do your thing; I can see you itching to get back out there and brave the entire Wildlands by yourself, you maniac.”

Chuckling, he couldn’t deny it.  He had just barely been able to explore the massive area of the Wildlands, and there was more that he wanted to experiment with and discover about Developmental Phase 4.  “I’ll be on my way there in a short while.  There’s something I need to pick up before I get back to it.”

“What do you need?”

He told her about his Party-focused set of Growth equipment that he’d been forced to abandon back near The Citadel.  With a smirk, he was surprised when she began taking those very items out of her Inventory and handed them to him.  “We found them a few dozen miles to the south, and no one could even pick them up.  For some reason, the System thought that I was worthy, so I stored them in the hopes that I’d see you again.”

He paused at that, wondering why it was the System allowed her to hold onto them, but he shrugged it off.

As he thanked her and he turned to leave, she put her hand out and laid it on his arm.  “You’re crazy, Thaden, but a good crazy.  As much trouble as you seem to bring me, I’m glad you’re not dead.  And perhaps when you come visit me later, you can help me relax a little from the intense pressure I’ve been under leading the Guild and saving the world.”  With that statement, it was her who turned away as she ran out of the crater, apparently done with her measurements.

Shaking his head as he processed what just happened, he couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face as he sprinted back north.  Sadia joined him a few seconds later, having given him privacy as he spoke with Corinna.  He ignored the knowing look on her face as she smirked at him; his focus was on getting back to the Wildlands, where he could finally let loose a little, knowing that the Region was in the Guilded Glory Leader’s good hands. 

Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 5

(Little late today on the chapter; I forgot that I needed to finish beta-reader edits and revisions for The Lone Keeper this morning, so I got that done first. It's now all done, so there shouldn't be too many other obstacles in the way of writing the rest of the week!)

Chapter 5

Corinna stood at the edge of the craterous hole in the mountain range, joined by a dozen other Guild Leaders as they stared at the evidence of sheer destruction in silent awe.  The scale of such an explosion that occurred where The Citadel Dungeon had been was so mind-boggling that she had difficulty even comprehending it, but the evidence that it had happened was clear enough that there was no denying that it happened. 

Unfortunately, the utter devastation of the area was only the beginning.

“How?  Do we have any idea?” Corinna heard from the side, a muttered question that wasn’t asked for the purposes of an answer.  No one actually knew what had happened to cause the explosion, after all, only that it had happened.  She, along with most of the major Guilds, had already started moving north toward the site where The Citadel had stood, as the System warned them that the dungeon was starting to break.  The nauseous energy being outputted from the area could be felt for hundreds of miles, and there was an instinctive need to stop it from advancing; this had led to a vast exodus from the south toward the source of it, everyone knowing that if it wasn’t stopped soon, then something bad was going to happen.  No one actually knew what that entailed, but at the same time, they also didn’t want to find out; to that effect, they were planning on doing everything to stop it – even if it cost them their lives.

She wasn’t the only one to recognize that such compulsions weren’t natural, as everyone felt the same thing; the only explanation was that it had been System-driven.  There were some that grumbled at being so easily manipulated, but that had only lasted for a few hours before they seemed to change their minds.  Overall, while there was still some discontent, Corinna and every Contender in Region #1 seemed to understand that it had been done for their own good, regardless of how the act might have been more than a bit of a violation.

It had been for the greater good, after all, and it seemed to work out in the end.  The System was all-knowing and much more powerful than any Contender, so it was only natural that it led them to the problems that needed to be addressed.  She, as well as everyone else, could forgive such a thing when the alternative could’ve meant that destruction of Tarth, itself.  Or so could only assume, based on how insistent the Assimilation System had been that the Contenders respond to the crisis.  And while there had been some deaths from those who were too close to the explosion, they had been recovered and Resurrected quickly as the strongest Contenders finally arrived at the area. 

Cautious about what they might find, they were surprised to discover that any monsters that might have inhabited the surrounding environment had been killed in the blast, and that there wasn’t even a single sign that The Citadel had actually existed.  She’d seen it from a distance at one point, soon after it appeared at the start of Developmental Phase 3, and there wasn’t even a single stone left of it.  The shallow crater and the massive chunk missing out of the mountain range was the only sign that it existed at all, and now they were faced with the area beyond called the Wildlands – and they had absolutely no defenses against what supposedly waited for them out there.

I bet Thaden had something to do with this.  I don’t know how, or why, but I’m sure he had a hand in it somehow.

Her relationship with the powerful Support Class was, admittedly, a bit tumultuous.  She wasn’t even exactly sure what they had together: Was it a just a temporary fling or something deeper?  Did it even matter?  Corinna supposed that it didn’t, given that there was no sign of him here, which she thought wouldn’t be the case if he was still alive.  She knew he was powerful, but surviving an explosion that could destroy a dungeon and carve a hole in a mountain?  Doubts—and hope—that he’d somehow survived flowed through her mind, and she tried to put it behind her. 

In the end, she’d undoubtedly sabotaged any hope that they might have anything more than what they already shared when she shut him down shortly after the tragedy that befell the Guild with the deaths of Rachel and most of the Guild’s leadership.  It had been an inconceivable blow to not only the Guild, but to Corinna herself, that—at the time—she had barely been able to keep it all together.  She’d thrown herself into the work of helping the Guild recover after the horrid events, even if the source of those events were still largely unknown and muddled in the minds of those affected by it.  Now, not even a month later, there were even more world-shaking events taking place, along with no answers to where it had come from or what it was that threatened them in the first place.

Corinna, along with everyone else she spoke to over the last few hours, only knew that the System had told them of the danger and then had urged them to head north to combat it, but anything other than a vague memory of the nauseous energy build-up happening in the vicinity was all the answers they received.  If there was more to it, no one seemed to know.  There were even some who claimed to have seen some extremely powerful Charee and Aelveen showing up at some point, but when pressed, they weren’t able to recall any specific details.  As her Guild specialized in collecting information, she wasn’t prone to discounting these stories altogether, especially as the concept of powerful elf-like people visiting the city she worked out of tugged at some memories of her own, but she couldn’t find any proof.  Only rumors.

Unfortunately, these accounts of powerful people visiting had then been followed by something more important – which was the announcement by the System regarding Developmental Phase 3 being completed, and the details of Phase 4 beginning.  During Training, they had been informed that their development upon the world of Tarth would come in multiple Phases, though details regarding specifics was a bit sparse – at least from what she remembered.  However, speaking of what she remembered, she was fairly sure that the entire process of getting through these Phases was supposed to take much longer than this.  Obviously, the whole deal with the Anchor Dungeons during Developmental Phase 2 had begun early, which led to Phase 3 beginning sooner than was probably planned, as well, but those obstacles had been somewhat surmountable.  While there had been a bit of a time restraint in Phase 2, they had managed to get through it without too many casualties, and Phase 3 had been a time of great development.

Phase 4 changed all of that with the introduction of the Wildlands, which – from a distance – appeared inhospitable and dangerous to venture into.  If it was just that, then they would take the Achievement, Overachiever II, that the System had given them for completing Phase 3 in record-setting time and run with the +250 to all stats and the 300% increase in PICK accumulation it rewarded.  With it, they could Level-up at an incredible rate, eventually catching up to where they would normally be at the end of Phase 3 – but she wasn’t sure if they had that kind of time.

Eventually, instead of venturing into the Wildlands, the Wildlands would come to them.  As it was, at least at the moment, they had no defense against the monsters that would start invading the Region.  And in as much awe as Corinna was at the devastation ahead of her, she and the other Guild Leaders next to her needed to figure out how to survive. 

For her part, she was already thinking about all of her Guild’s crafting connections, wondering if there was any way she could connect them with a force of Mages that could focus on building stone walls.  With all of the gold they had available, in part thanks to very generous donations by Thaden, they might even be able to employ the Charee natives to help with the construction.  Their participation in such matters was something that could be leveraged easily enough; while they were pretty much forbidden by the System from helping in the defense, there was nothing preventing them from assisting in the construction of fortifications.  As long as it was paid for by the Contenders, of course; they couldn’t simply order the Charee around, but had to provide remuneration – just as if they were defending a different world, such as Earth. 

While the incentive of self-preservation was an effective tool, it wasn’t enough of a justification as far as the System went – as they’d learned in previous Phases, when the threat of imminent destruction by a horde of monsters saw very little in the way of defense by the Charee.  There were other reasons why the residents of Tarth didn’t do anything to protect themselves, of course, but the Contenders had found some ways around those restrictions.

“What’s that?” Corinna heard abruptly from her side.  She glanced over at Michael, the Guild Leader of the Chaos Valor Guild, and saw that the Level 185 Scout was staring out over the crater the used to be The Citadel Dungeon.  His words caught the attention of the others, as well, and she joined them in looking past the devastation and into the distance.  It only took her a second to pinpoint what had caught the obviously sharp eyes of her fellow Guild Leader, though hers weren’t good enough to make out what it was.  All she could see was a shape moving in the distance, more of a blur that was getting slightly larger as it appeared to be coming toward them.

Corinna wasn’t the only one to ready their weapons, and she could heard thousands of other Contenders behind her tensing up as they shifted from where they’d been staring at the hole in the mountain range, sensing that something was coming.  Whether it was some sort of group confidence at work or something else, but not a single one broke from their positions, electing to face down what could theoretically be their doom.  They were all aware of what kind of monsters the Wildlands would likely produce, and with very few of the Contenders even close to Level 200, if they faced something Level 350 or higher, there was a good chance that many of them would die.  They might be able to take it down, but not without significant casualties.

“It’s… a man!” Michael exclaimed, and while most of those who heard him relaxed a bit at the news, Corinna tensed up.

No way.  Could it really be him?

As the figure rapidly closed the distance, appearing just on the opposite edge of the shallow crater, she could finally see them well enough to confirm that she was correct.  The giant squirrel that bounded along next to him pretty much confirmed the fact.

“Level 450.  It’s Thaden,” Michael continued, glancing at Corinna. 

The leader of Guilded Glory checked the Rankings again, something she’d done shortly after the explosion; at that time, Thaden hadn’t been on the Rankings at all for some reason.  She remembered how he had previously fallen off the Rankings because of… something she couldn’t precisely remember… so it hadn’t been proof that he was dead, and she hadn’t had it in her to check again after that.  Now, though, he was back on – and he was also on a brand-new one that she’d never seen before.

Total Accumulated Subjugation Points

1. #32599999-E

52 SP

Level 450

Region #1

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Subjugation Points?  That sounds somewhat familiar from Training.  While they hadn’t been told exactly what they would be facing during their development, there was something about NESTs and Subjugation Points that jogged a memory of when they were in Training, though it wasn’t anything substantial.  She hoped that Thaden would be able to tell them more about what the Ranking leaderboard meant, as well as perhaps more information on exactly how much danger they were in by the monsters out in the Wildlands.

Then, she would take some time taking him to task for starting Phase 4 early; seeing him there, she was nearly 100% sure he had something to do with it.

She watched as he paused on the edge of the crater, looking around at the massive hole in the mountain range, as if he hadn’t actually seen it before.  After a few seconds, he seemed to see people waiting along the other edge and stepped forward, intent to meet them; he again stopped, however, as it seemed his squirrel companion spoke to him.  A moment later saw his being equipment swapped out for what appeared to be a simple set of robes and plain accessories.  Even from a distance, she could tell that they were nothing special, and fairly weak, to boot.

What was more, though, the sense of disgust that she hadn’t even been aware of until now that she could feel toward him disappeared, and she also sensed that the others around her relaxed a little more, as well.  Must have had a huge hit to his Personality. 

It didn’t take long after that before the unfathomably powerful Support Class descended into and through the crater, eventually making his way up the other side as everyone watched in uncomfortable silence.  Corinna felt her heart flutter a little as the details of his face came into focus, and she was again confused at where their relationship really stood.  Now that he was alive, she was conflicted between chastising him of everyone else for putting them all in danger or jumping into his arms, happy that he was safe and still in the world of the living.

She settled on neither of those, as the choice was taken away from her.

“Corinna!  It’s so good to see you!” the force of nature said as he ran up, not even the least winded from the run, before picking her up in front of everyone and swinging her around, and then kissing her deeply as he set her down.  Her mind spun as she tried to recover from the sudden reunion and kiss, catching her breath as his arrival seemed to stun everyone.  “In fact, it’s good to see everyone here; I have to admit, while I like delving through dungeons solo, there’s just something different about the utter absence of people in the Wildlands that’s a bit unnerving, especially while having to traverse half of it to get back here.”

“You traveled through the Wildlands?  How did you survive?” Michael asked, yet more proof that not every Contender seemed to know the specifics of Thaden’s strength.

Before he could answer, Corinna blurted out in her continued emotional confusion, “It was you, wasn’t it?  How did you survive an explosion that did this?”

Thaden turned his attention toward her, and he could feel the entire weight of his gaze.  “To answer your second question, I’m quite difficult to kill.  The detonation of the energy around The Citadel nearly succeeded, but I was instead sent flying, appearing quite a ways into the Wildlands.

“As for your first question,” he continued, shaking his head, “It wasn’t me who did this.  The Persistent Adversary managed to infiltrate Tarth, which was why there had been some problems with dungeons lately.  When the Wardens from Region #1 and #6 managed to eliminate the infiltrators in most of the dungeons, the Adversary’s agents managed to take over The Citadel, using it as a way to concentrate massive quantities of Adversarial energy in an attempt to send out legions of monsters from the dungeon to sweep the land clean of people.  Unfortunately, that much energy building in an area was quite volatile, and when I went to stop the agent in charge, it ended up detonating the whole thing in an effort to kill me.  So, if you want to blame anyone, blame the Adversary.”

While he spoke, Corinna followed his words and understood them immediately, and even the mention of the Wardens helped to bring back the memory of powerful elves visiting the city.  It all made sense…

…for all of about 10 seconds.  It didn’t take long after he finished speaking that her mind became confused again, until all she could remember was that there had been a build-up of dungeon energy that got out of hand… somehow.  Not only that, but she instinctively understood that Thaden had been integral to keeping it from being even worse than it was, even if she couldn’t remember the details.  All she knew was that, if not for him, things would’ve been much, much worse; though, based on the current situation, she couldn’t figure out how that could possibly be.

The same comprehension seemed to ripple through everyone else, and Corinna could feel that they all became a bit more amicable toward Thaden, as if the System itself was acknowledging that he had done well.  It was strange, but she wasn’t going to question the System about what information it wanted to impart.

“I see,” Michael said after a moment with a nod.  “Thank you for what you did, then.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that we’ve started Phase 4 far before we can handle it.  Even if you’re Level 450, that doesn’t mean you can do it all yourself.”

From what I know of him, it wouldn’t surprise me if he could.

“You’re quite correct,” Thaden agreed immediately.  “I can’t possibly complete Phase 4 by myself.  It’s going to take all of the Contenders in the Region to not only survive, but to complete the tasks ahead of us.”

“Really?  Even with how powerful you are?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she felt the distance that she inadvertently created between them at her earlier question.

With a nod, Thaden said, “As much as I don’t want to admit it, this Phase is far from being in my wheelhouse.”  He looked around the Guild Leaders and addressed the thousands of Contenders that were behind them, most of whom were silent as they listened to him speak.  “Come a little closer, if you would, and let me tell you about what this Phase is all about, the dangers that you’ll face out there, and the challenges that we’ll face in simply surviving.”

As they shuffled forward, listening to his request as if it was an order, Corinna asked, “And I hope that you have an idea on how we’ll actually succeed in surviving?”

He hesitated for long enough of a moment that his next words weren’t exactly encouraging.  “I have some ideas, perhaps?” he said with unsurety thick in his tone.  “I’m hoping that we’ll be able to work together to figure out a plan.”

Once everyone was close enough, or could at least hear him, Thaden began to tell them what he’d seen out there.  And Corinna was just one among many that listened to every word he had to say, hoping that a solution for the problems they faced which would see them surviving when all hope had nearly been lost. 

When Thaden finished, ideas flowed through her head along with some things that he mentioned, but she knew it would be an uphill battle no matter what they ended up doing.  Still, the fact that they had the powerful Support Class on their side was a net benefit; even if nothing else worked, she knew that he would do everything he could to keep protect them – which still might not be enough.

Regardless, they had a lot of planning and preparation to do if they hoped to survive, followed by months and months of work – and that was just the beginning.

Might as well get started.  Let’s figure out how to come out of this on the other end of this alive.

Plans for June 15-20

Healer Book 6 has begun! I only got a little bit finished this week due to planning for it and the release of Divine Fusionist on audiobook, but next week should have quite a bit more :)

Tomorrow (Saturday), I'll be at Global Fest in Aurora, CO from 11am-6pm, so if you're in the area, come see me and pick up a signed paperback book!

Sunday is Father's Day, so I won't be working -- as we'll be having a small party -- but I'll be back to work on Monday.

Plans for next week:

Saturday: Global Fest in Aurora, CO 11-6

Sunday: Father's Day -- no work

Monday-Friday: Writing Healer Book 6

Have a great weekend!

Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 4

(A long one today, as it's nearly twice the length of a normal chapter. I didn't want to break it up, however, which was why I didn't have a longer Chapter 3 -- sorry for the cliffhanger yesterday!)

Chapter 4

NEST #3823 subjugation complete!

Congratulations on fully subjugating a NEST!  From hereon out, you must defend the transformed Defensive Fortification from the rest of the Wildlands’ monsters, who will stop at nothing to regain their lost territory.  Warning!  If the Fortification Guardian is defeated, you will immediately lose control of the Fortification and it will convert back to a NEST over the course of 60 minutes.  Any Contenders within range of this conversion will be forcibly removed, and the NEST will be invulnerable until the process is complete.

To aid in the protection of the Defensive Fortification, you can spend Subjugation Points to improve the defenses, which includes a strengthening of the physical fortification itself, powerful defensive enhancements, various strategic weapon emplacements, Resurrection Wells, and even additional Autonomous Defenders. 

Keep in mind, the complete abandonment of the Defensive Fortification by Contenders for 60 minutes or more will also result in the Fortification reverting back to its previous state as a NEST, regardless of whatever defenses may have been purchased.  In addition, any SP generated from a conquered or abandoned Fortification that have not been already been spent elsewhere will be immediately lost.

Subjugation Points (SP) [#32599999-E]: 50 SP

Current (SP) Accumulation [#32599999-E]: 1 SP/hr

Purchasable Defensive Fortification Options:

Siege Wall Stage 1 – 10 SP

Wall Walkways Stage 1 – 5 SP

Steel Gate Stage 1 – 5 SP

Murder Holes Stage 1 – 5 SP

Defensive Spikes Stage 1 – 10 SP

Repulsion Barrier Stage 1 – 20 SP

Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 SP

Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 SP

Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 SP

Perimeter Pit Stage 1 – 10 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Fighter) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Mage) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Scout) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Control) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Support) – 2 SP

Upgrade Fortification Guardian to Stage 2 – 30 SP

Resurrection Well Stage 1– 100 SP

Central Keep Stage 1 – 20 SP

Additional options will be made available once certain prerequisites have been met

Again, congratulations on taking your first step in completing the final stage of your development! 

Remaining NESTs still active… 8,999/9,000

Congratulations for destroying and subjugating your first NEST in the Wildlands!

Achievement received: The Final Frontier

Bonus reward: +10 to all stats 

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +15 to all stats

Contender World First Achievement: Earn 10% more SP for each subjugated NEST and increase SP accumulation by 2 SP/hr

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Earn 15% more SP for each subjugated NEST and Defensive Kill and increase SP accumulation by 3 SP/hr

Congratulations for solo destroying and subjugating your first NEST in the Wildlands!

Achievement received: Impressive But Futile

Bonus reward: Permanent 20% reduction in SP costs for all Defensive Formation purchases 

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Permanent 30% reduction in SP costs for all Defensive Formation purchases 

Contender World First Achievement: Earn 50% more SP for each subjugated NEST and increase SP accumulation by 10 SP/hr

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Earn 50% more SP for each subjugated NEST and Defensive Kill and increase SP accumulation by 10 SP/hr

Thaden simply stared at his message feed for what felt like forever, before he turned to see Sadia with a smile on her squirrel face.  “Finally!  You have no idea how much I wanted to say something, and now that you’ve destroyed a spawn gate and subjugated a NEST, I can finally explain some things,” she said with a relieved and excited tone all wrapped up together.

He shook his head, still trying to wrap his head around it all.  “Whoa.  Wait.  Is this really saying what I think it is?  This is some sort of base-building and gradual conquest challenge?”

The giant squirrel nodded.

“But that means—”

“Exactly.  Your second Achievement says it all: Impressive But Futile.  The act of soloing a NEST is amazing, but it ultimately won’t do you any good if you aren’t here to defend it.  Soon after leaving the immediate area, the System will consider you to have abandoned it; after 60 minutes, the NEST will begin reforming again, including the pit and the tunnels below, but more importantly, the spawn gate will reconstitute itself and begin spewing out monsters to first supply defenders inside the NEST, before sending them back out to the Wildlands.”

“But if I have another Contender here to defend it, that won’t happen?” he asked, still clarifying how this whole thing worked. 

“Precisely.  But as it is now, even if you have a 1,000 Contenders positioned here, they are all such low of a Level that they wouldn’t be able to hold out against even a few monsters that are twice their Level.  And they’ll be coming for this place, you can count on that.  As soon as the initial 60 minutes after subjugation occurs, the nearby wandering monsters of the same kind found within, so Gorillum, will automatically attack this place in a bid to get their NEST back.  Within 24 hours, a nearby NEST will send a larger strike force here, which will have to be defended against; another 48 hours after that, multiple NESTs will start to coordinate and send even larger groups of monsters.

“In short, even if 10,000 Contenders defending this place manage to kill a few monsters attacking it, they’ll eventually be slaughtered – unless they flee and abandon the Defensive Fortification.”

Her words hammered at his mind in rapid succession, as his hopes that he could clean up this mess by himself faded bit by bit.  Ever since he’d learned of the different Developmental Phases that the System was putting the Contenders through, he had felt that he could do it all himself.  Sure, he needed some assistance in getting his Evolution Assignments completed, but the larger challenges of getting through the Phases was something that he instinctively knew he could do by himself if he needed to. 

He had felt some responsibility toward his fellow Contenders ever since he’d inadvertently cleared an Anchor Dungeon and started Phase 2; he’d fortunately been strong enough to handle that responsibility, even if it had been difficult at times, but his ability to tackle the problems put in front of him by himself had never been in doubt.  Even clearing the Maximal Difficulty of The Citadel had been something he was sure he could’ve done at pretty much any time, but he had resolved to put it off until the rest of the Contenders in Region #1 had somewhat caught up to him.

Unfortunately, the Adversary’s infiltration into Tarth had obviously changed that, forcing them to push all the way to Phase 4 before anyone but Thaden was ready for it.  He had held some hope that he could continue to step up and handle this Phase by himself, but it was quickly appearing that such a hope wasn’t to be. 

Sure, he could run around and subjugate NESTs while solo, but almost as soon as he left one to strike at another, any that he abandoned would swiftly convert back into NESTs.  And with 9,000 NESTS – according to his messages – around the Wildlands, there was no way he alone could subjugate all of them simultaneously.  He thought that, if he pulled out all the stops and didn’t slow down, he might be able to tear through 3 or 4 NESTs before the first one he subjugated was officially abandoned, but that wasn’t really going to help.  He briefly thought about what would happen if he were to spend his PICK to substantially Level-up again, but even if he was Level 700 or Level 800, his speed and strength might only be able to handle 10 to 12 NESTs before the first one he subjugated reverted.

And, thankfully, getting to that Level was now possible, as he’d completed his Evolution Assignment.

Support Class Evolution Assignments:

Level 21: Cast enough spells to restore 50,000 total Health and prevent 10,000 damage

Level 63: Complete at least 1 dungeon on Minimal difficulty, at least 1 dungeon on Medial difficulty, and at least 1 dungeon on Maximal difficulty while in a complete, 5-member Contender party

Level 189: Participate in a Raid party with a minimum of 100 Contenders and complete the Minimal difficulty of an Intermediate dungeon (Level 160+) without a single casualty

Level 567: Locate and participate in destroying a NEST in uncharted territory

Other than the first Evolution Assignment, which he’d completed before he even knew they existed, this was the easiest Assignment to ever get crossed off his list.  He could now Level-up to 567 and evolve his Class by speaking to a Support Class Representative back at any Coalition building, and he was glad that he didn’t have to jump through hoops to get to that point.  However, for the first time since learning of the Evolution Assignments and actually having it completed ahead of time, he wasn’t in any hurry to do so.  Granted, a Class evolution might end up providing a solution to the whole Phase 4 problem ahead of him and everyone in Region #1, he would end up out-Leveling most of the monsters in the Wildlands.  And, when he looked at how much PICK he was receiving, especially from the NEST Boss, he would be missing out on millions or billions of PICK. 

You have slain a Scaled Gorillum Mauler (Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender – Level 585

You have received 30,000 PICK!

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

You have received 45,000 PICK!

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

You have received 90,000 PICK!

Unkillable II Achievement activated!

You have received 270,000 PICK!

Overachiever II Achievement activated!

You have received: 1,485,000 PICK!

The Overachiever II Achievement significantly boosted the PICK rewards he received, because a 450% increase in PICK accumulation was practically insane.  While he wasn’t accumulating more PICK into his reserves, his Growth equipment was greedily absorbing it to grow.  When he looked at them, in fact, he saw that since he’d arrived in the Wildlands, they had already gained 2 Levels, bringing them to Level 210.  It took more and more PICK for them to grow even by a single Level, but the Wildlands seemed to be the perfect place to do that.

Deadly Crimson Robe of the Lonely Annihilator (+5 AMP)

Rarity: Artifact

Imprinted User Restriction: #32599999-E

Level Restriction: 210

Physical Damage Resistance: 93 (+465)

Magical Damage Resistance: 390 (+1,950)

Durability: Indestructible

Special Properties: Growth

+388 Physicality (+1,940 Physicality)

+292 Celerity (+1,460 Celerity)

+121 Mentality (+605 Mentality)

-110 Personality (-550 Personality)

+210 Fortuity (+1,050 Fortuity)

+35% (+175%) increase in Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting caster

+35% (+175%) reduction in Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting others

+18% (+90%) increase in damage done to all hostile targets while solo

+0.03% (+0.15%) decrease in all spell Mana cost, cooldowns, and casting times for each consecutive target killed within 45 seconds of each other (Max Override to 99.3%); this bonus will only reset when no further targets are killed within 45 seconds

Set Bonus (2): +27% (+135%) to Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting caster, Fortuity/350 % chance for all Support and Defensive spells targeting caster to be cast twice (+5 times) and all Support and Defensive effects to trigger twice (+5 times) (AMP set 5)

Set Bonus (5): All previous Set Bonuses, +119 (+595) to Physicality, +98 (+490) to Celerity, +56 (+280) to Mentality, +105 (+505) to Fortuity, and a +14% (+70%) increase to all damage done to hostile targets while solo (AMP set 5)

Set Bonus (8): All previous Set Bonuses; with every hostile target within 300 feet while solo, you automatically heal and gain damage mitigation equaling 0.1% (+0.5%) of your maximum Health every second (AMP set 5)

Set Bonus (11): All previous Set Bonuses; the Omenic Drifter Class trait of a 1% chance of instant death with single target spells and effects is increased by Fortuity/5,000 % (Chance triggered +4 times) (AMP set 4)

Just those 2 Levels, as well as the bonus reward of +15 to all his stats from his recent Achievements, had increased most of his stats by a base of 125 points when all of his equipment was factored in; Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality were even higher when his equipment bonuses of an additional 135% were factored in – adding an additional 149 to each of those stats above the base 110 gained from all of his equipment.  Personality took another hit with an overall reduction of 40, but he was stronger where it mattered when fighting by himself against monsters.

Physicality – 15,599 (76,238)

Celerity – 11,699 (57,378)

Mentality – 23,635 (42,602)

Personality – 1 (-87)

Fortuity – 15,347 (29,497)

Free Stat Stones (450)

A quick glance as his stats reminded him that he still had an additional 450 Free Stat Stones to spend throughout his stats, but he held off for the moment until he figured out what he was going to be doing in the future.  As it was, he was better served simply gaining more PICK for his equipment to raise his stats, and these extra points would help shore up anything that might need it later.

It wasn’t like he was hurting anywhere in particular – other than in Personality, but all he had to do was take off his equipment to temporarily fix that.  Ideally, he should go and see if he could find his Party-based Growth set that he’d left back in the Region, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about the hit to his stats, but getting back there would take some effort.  It would also help to raise it up in Level a bit more if he wasn’t going to be all alone in the Wildlands.

“I see.  So, what you’re saying is that I’m going to need some help to finish this Phase?”

Sadia chuckled.  “Only you would sound disappointed by being unable to complete an entire Developmental Phase by themselves.  But, essentially, you’re correct.”

While he hadn’t given up on that plan completely, he was also smart enough to know that it was almost impossible without some help.  He still wasn’t sure how he’d go about getting that help, as the Contenders back in Region #1 were still quite low-Level, but the Overachiever II Achievement would help tremendously with closing the gap.  He wasn’t sure if it would be fast enough to make a difference, but he would have to see how he could help once he finally got back there.

But there were still a lot of questions he had about this whole Phase that Sadia seemed more than willing to answer for him – now that she was allowed to.  Perhaps, if he learned some more, he might actually find a way to salvage the whole situation they were in.

“Fine.  Then tell me more about these Subjugation Points and this list of things I can… purchase?  How does that work?”

He’d already looked in his Character Report and noticed a few new entries to it right below his Adventurer Coalition Rank – which he still wanted to get upgraded, though that would supposedly require seeing the Charee Wardens again sometime in the future.  He just hoped that they weren’t still sore at him for what he’d been forced to do when they encountered him in his Personality-draining set of equipment.

#32599999-E

Omenic Drifter (Wizened Solitary Shaman)

Level – 450

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 2,189,500/2,189,500 (512,654,720)

Adventurer Coalition Rank: Diamond 630/630 RP (+1,425)

Subjugation Points (SP): 50

Subjugation Points (SP) Accumulation: 14/hr

“Most of the options are fairly self-explanatory, but they’re essentially upgrades to this,” she answered, waving her squirrel paw toward the waist-high stone wall that surrounded the perimeter of where the NEST pit used to be, as well as the empty space in the middle.  “Go ahead and purchase the first thing on there, the Siege Wall Stage 1, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

With a shrug, he intuitively placed his hand back on the crystal pedestal, somehow knowing that he needed to have contact with it to make any purchases, and felt an intangible energy flow out of him and into the pedestal.  A look at his available SP showed that it had dropped by 10 Points, and he didn’t have to wait long to see the results of his purchase.

The waist-high stone wall started to grow from the ground with a rumble, both in terms of width and height, as it rose about a foot per second; when it reached 20 feet tall, it stopped, and he looked around at it a little closer.  It was about 4 feet wide and was made of solid stone, rather than individual blocks, and there was an archway on one side of the circular wall which was 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide – and completely open to whatever was outside.  The walls might have been strong, but leaving a clear gap in the defenses seemed stupid.

Of course, looking at the list of options he could purchase with his SP, he saw that a “Steel Gate Stage 1” was available.  Without any other prompting, he went ahead and purchased it, and a set of steel bars shot up from the ground and connected to the top of the archway, and he could see a steel lever suddenly materialize in the stone wall a short distance away from the new gate, which he figured was a way to detract the steel bars when one wanted to leave.

“Okay.  Alright.  Makes sense, I guess.  I assume all of these defensive additions and offensive emplacements will help keep the monsters off the walls and protect those inside of it; I will probably want to play around with them later, but I’m more interested in some of these other things.  For instance, what the heck is an Autonomous Defender?”  She just looked at him, and he understood from that look that she wanted him to simply purchase one and find out himself.

So, for only 2 SP, he purchased an Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Fighter) from the crystal pedestal, and from the ground, a figure suddenly emerged.  It started very similarly to what he now knew was the Fortification Guardian, being largely a black stick figure, but it was only about 6 feet tall instead of the Guardian’s 10 feet.

That was where the similarities stopped, because the new figure quickly morphed into what looked like a Human wearing steel plate armor while wielding a shortsword and shield on their left arm.  Its skin was still pitch black like a void, and it had absolutely no face, but the rest of its ensemble appeared “real” enough that if he ignored the actual physical body, it looked like a Contender decked out in Fighter gear.

A look at the new figure, as well as a glance at the Guardian, gave him a little more information.

Autonomous Defender – Fighter

Defensive Fortification #3823

Level 350

Fortification Guardian – Support

Defensive Fortification #3823

Level 400

What was surprising about the two of them were their Levels, as the Autonomous Defender was Level 350 and the Guardian was Level 400.  Against an assault by Scaled Gorillum, for instance, the Defender would be far outmatched, but the Guardian was, at least, a higher Level.  That might not be very significant, however, as the Guardian was classified as a Support, and didn’t seem to have many ways to defend itself.  It looked like Thaden, however, so perhaps it had his abilities?

“The Autonomous Defenders start at a base of Level 350, as you can see.  They have a basic ability to attack and defend against any monsters they face, and can even use some simple abilities that are common among most Fighter Classes.  That being said, one of these Defenders, if facing a Fighter Class Defender at Level 320 or so, would likely lose.  The same goes with the other Defender options, with a Mage being able to cast some simply long-range spells, Scouts attack with bows and empowered attacks, Control attempt to lock down incoming monsters with a variety of different spells, and Support provide a few protective spells and can heal – though none of them are what I would consider strong.  They aren’t a replacement for a Contender defending the Fortification, only an extension of the defenses; in other words, they’re either cannon fodder or minor supplemental damage and healing.

“The Fortification Guardian, on the other hand, is somewhat a replication of a random Contenders who helped to subjugate the NEST.  In this case, it models itself after you, as you’re the only one here.  It copies all of your spells and abilities, so that it is a fairly accurate copy in that respect – but it doesn’t duplicate your stats or equipment, and it certainly doesn’t have unlimited Mana like you do.  So, in this case, since your spells cost so much because of their strength, the Guardian would be limited in what it could actually cast – and how many of them before it ran out of Mana.”

Well, there goes the idea that a copy of me could easily defend one of these Fortifications.

“But,” Sadia added, “as you can see on your list of options, all of these things are only Stage 1.  That means that they’re essentially the weakest that they can possibly be.  From the start, you can already upgrade your Guardian to Stage 2, which will increase its base Level, and with that comes higher stats.  You can upgrade all of your other purchases to Stage 2 and beyond by purchasing the Central Keep at Stage 1, which will give you this ability.  To upgrade it further, you have to continue upgrading your Central Keep to the next Stage.”

Thaden thought about what she said for a moment.  “Is there a limit to how many times everything can be upgraded?” he asked.

Shaking her head after a second’s thought.  “No, not as far as I’m aware.  Of course, as I’m sure you could probably guess, the expense in upgrading these purchases only goes up with each Stage.”  He nodded, as that was what he assumed.  “But as for a limit… if you have enough SP, I imagine you could essentially make one of these Fortifications nearly impregnable.”  She cocked her head to the side as Thaden’s face took on a thoughtful expression.  “We’re talking about millions or possibly billions of SP, Thaden.”

Figures.  “And how do I get more SP?”

“By subjugating NESTs and gradual accumulation by holding the Defensive Fortification safe from monsters that attack it.  As the Central Keep is upgraded, this gradual accumulation increases, but not by enough to afford millions of SP’s worth of purchases.  Oh, and you also get SP whenever you successfully kill an attacking monster within range of the Fortification.”

“Oh, really?  That could certainly change things,” he mused.

“I can see what you’re thinking, but that still doesn’t fix the problem of defending these Fortifications.  Once things really get started out here, even traveling through the Wildlands will be extremely dangerous, so there’s a possibility that any Contenders venturing out to these Fortifications will set upon and slaughtered.  And if you were to possibly go and escort them yourself, then you’d likely have to abandon the Fortification, which would revert it back to a NEST.”

He nodded.  “Yes, I can see that.  But there’s still some possibilities here.”

“Maybe, but there’s something you haven’t considered yet,” the squirrel told him with her paws on her hips.  “The monsters in the Wildlands will eventually evolve inside of the active NESTs, pushing out the weaker monsters.  For instance, any of those Mini Bosses you killed inside the NEST might eventually become the standard monster defending the entire thing, and the normal Scaled Gorillum would flood the local area.  The Mini Boss that now became the evolved standard would be replaced with something stronger, and the NEST would grow slightly, becoming more difficult to clear.

“The environment inside the NEST, which is very basic and plain right now, would slowly transform into what you would expect to see inside of a dungeon.  If you remember back to when you were inside the Vogmite Tunnels, how plain it was compared to what you saw inside dungeons later?  That is essentially the same thing that goes on with NESTs as they acclimate to the monsters that are being spawned inside.  They will eventually become as difficult to subjugate as a Maximal Intermediate Dungeon, and the average Level of the monsters will gradually increase as well.  This NEST that you destroyed here?  It’s the weakest that it will ever be, and even those weak monsters will eventually be pushed toward Region #1 as the density of monsters grows out in the Wildlands.”

He was beginning to see the overall picture now, and his previous plans didn’t seem like they would work as well as he’d like.  But something about this whole Phase was bothering him.

“Why all of this?  Why this base-building and whatnot?”

Sadia sighed, before she answered.  “I forgot for a moment that you didn’t go through Training.”  She gestured around her, and he immediately understood that she wasn’t indicating the walls he’d purchased, but the destroyed town around it.  “This is a very simplified example of what happens when the Adversary invades a world.  They typically appear underground and establish a NEST, which acts somewhat similar to what you’ve seen happen here.  There’s even a spawn gate inside each NEST, which is like an access point for the Adversary to infiltrate the world.

“The rate of growth here is a bit more exaggerated than it would be normally, and the quantity is also far more than would be found in a world upon an initial invasion, but the reason for the differences is simply for developmental purposes for the Contenders.  Otherwise, it’s a fairly decent representation and training of what you’ll face outside of the developmental world of Tarth.”

“Really?  Is it really like this?  Or is that just what the Assimilation System tells everyone?”  After all of his interactions with the Adversary’s agents, he was a bit wary of this kind of information.  As much as Sadia was on his side, she was still technically created by the System, after all.

She looked offended that he would even ask that for a moment, before her face seemed to blank for a few seconds.  “You know, I’m not really sure.  I’d like to believe that this is what it’s like out there, but I can’t be sure.”  Another sigh preceded a shake of her head.  “In all truth, what I know of the outside universe is all based on what the System is telling me.”

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, as she appeared slightly distressed by that revelation.  “It’s fine.  We’ll eventually find out the answers to all of this eventually, right?”  At her nod, he went on.  “For now, I’ll just take the ‘truth’ with a grain of salt, and just go with all of this.  Speaking of that, you still didn’t explain this whole base-building thing.”

“Oh.  Uh, well, this whole Defensive Fortification and the things that you can purchase are based on the worlds that you’ll be defending.  After all, where you’ll be rooting out the Adversary are places that are still inhabited, so SP is essentially representing the work and goodwill of the people you’re defending.  Here, you can build a wall in seconds; on a real world under attack by the Adversary, this work would be done by or would be provided by the people you’re helping to defend.  Like I said, the speed at which things happen here are sped up a bit, but they serve the same purpose.”

Huh.  I guess that makes sense – if this is actually accurate to what happens out there.

“Alright, I can see how they relate,” he said with a nod.  “Last thing.  What is a Resurrection Well?”

For the first time since they’d really started talking about everything related to the Defensive Fortification, Sadia smiled.  “Good question – and an exciting answer.  The Resurrection Well is essentially a siphon for any Contender souls that may have been killed within a certain range of the Defensive Fortification.  It doesn’t matter if their bodies were obliterated so completely that there’s no piece of them left, their souls will show up in the Well.  From there, they will automatically be resurrected after 6 hours without someone having to actually perform the spell.  They’ll unfortunately lose all of the equipment that they were wearing at the time of their death, though anything in their Inventory will be intact; if they manage to return to their body with 24 hours, they can still get it back, but if it’s all miles away while the Fortification is under attack, then that might be difficult.

“It’s because of the Resurrection Well that Phase 4 is typically one of the safer Phases of development, as the risk of being permanently killed is rare.  Unfortunately, most Contender deaths during this Phase happen when a Fortification is conquered by monsters, as a Resurrection Well will release all of its souls within 12 hours; unless the NEST is re-subjugated by that time, then those being held in the Well will be lost completely.”

“That’s… amazing.  Expensive, but well worth it, I would imagine.”  He looked around at the inside of the relatively empty Defensive Formation, wondering if he should play around with more purchasable options—but quickly decided that he’d wasted enough time as it was.  While it was important to find out what this whole NEST thing was about, anything he purchased with the SP would vanish as soon as he abandoned it, and he wasn’t planning on staying there.  From what he understood, all of the SP he still had would be lost, anyway, as well as the accumulating SP that he was getting by holding the Formation in the first place.

“I think I’m beginning to understand this Phase, now.  It’s time to go.”

As he moved to the lever in the stone wall, where he was planning on flipping it to open the gate, Sadia asked, “Where are you going now?”

“Well,” he replied, even as the steel bars retracted into the ground after moving the lever, “I first need to head toward what I’m hoping is the direction of The Citadel – or whatever is left of it.  Then, I need to find out the situation in the Region, and work with Corinna and possibly the other Guilds to formulate a plan of action.”

“Planning ahead?  That doesn’t sound like you,” the squirrel chuckled as she followed him out. 

“It doesn’t, does it?  We’ll see how well that goes, but I figured I might as well give it a shot.”  As he quickly sprinted through the destroyed town, he was interrupted by a message when he was about 50 feet from the town’s outer perimeter.

Warning!  Defensive Formation #3823 is currently unoccupied! 

Abandonment of Defensive Formation #3823 in 60:00… 59:59…

Looking back at the stone walls inside the destroyed town, he mentally waved goodbye, knowing that he’d eventually be back to it one way or another.  He’d have to subjugate the NEST again, of course, but that wasn’t really a problem for him anymore.

Securing it was the problem now, and it was something he would hopefully find a solution for where he was heading.

Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The tunnel leading further underground reminded Thaden of the many dungeons that he’d delved throughout the Region, if only at its most basic level.  The winding passageway led to multiple larger caves, each of which contained Gorillum of higher Levels than the ones he’d fought outside and at the bottom of the pit.  The caves themselves weren’t simply empty, either, but had wide, dark grey stone pillars with connecting branch-like extensions, as if the pillars were pretending to be fossilized trees or something similar.  The scaled monsters waited upon these pillars and “branches”, where they could descend upon anyone coming into the cave; he had to admit that it was a good ambushing tactic, especially as the environment was pitch black and the Gorillum camouflaged well against the greyish stone.

Unfortunately for them, the multitude of spells that surrounded Thaden were more than enough to provide him ample illumination, and as soon as he detected any of the Gorillum in range of his devastating offense in the form of Wild Health Leach, they dropped from the pillars before they could do anything.  Even those he couldn’t actually see with his eyes but he could detect with his other senses inside the cave died to his presence, and soon enough he was rushing through these areas with impunity.  It quickly became a challenge to identify and cast Spiritual Reclamation on the Gorillum before they died, especially with the short casting time the spell required; he wasn’t going to pass up some extra stats if he could get them, especially since he wasn’t in any kind of significant danger, but with them being relatively hidden before he noticed them, his opportunity to tag them with the spell was spotty, at best.

Finally, after 5 of these progressively larger caves with Gorillum that increased in Level, with the final ones being Level 400, 20 Levels above those outside, he came to a larger cave that was actually illuminated somewhat – which allowed him to see the monster that seemed to be waiting for him there.

Scaled Gorillum Ambusher (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

One moment, the Scaled Gorillum Ambusher was standing at the opposite end of the large cavern, all 15 feet of sleek muscle and a darker shade to its scales, and the next it seemed to disappear completely.  His Celerity was high enough that he would’ve seen it move, but that didn’t happen; instead, it simply appeared behind him with its fist already descending toward him in an effort to squish him into a pancake.  Unfortunately for it, despite its ability to seemingly disappear and appear where it wanted, something he had no defense against, all it took was him being aware of its presence for his Wild Health Leach to affect it.

Given that it wasn’t very strong, it died instantly as it was hit by more than a million damage.  A second after it hit the ground, falling to the side of Thaden as it collapsed lifelessly, there was a deep gong that echoed throughout the cave, and the illumination that brightened the cave slightly began to fade.

“Huh?  What was that?” he asked, looking at Sadia.  She just smiled and shrugged as she stared back at him.  “Nothing yet?  Fine; then I guess we keep going.”

 He quickly extracted loot from the Mini Boss, again finding nothing particularly worthwhile, before backtracking down the tunnel.  It wasn’t too long before he was moving through the right-hand tunnel, which was slightly different from the left-hand one he’d just cleared.  Instead of pillars with “branches” inside the caves, they were filled with large, cracked boulders, all of which provided ample hiding places for the Gorillum to await for him to appear in an ambush. 

Needless to say, it didn’t help them, as they died just as quickly as all the rest.

When he got to the end of the tunnel, he encountered yet another type of Gorillum as a Mini Boss.

Scaled Gorillum Bombardier (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

Instead of disappearing and reappearing close to him, the 15-foot-tall Bombadier with larger arms and a heftier chest than the normal Scaled Gorillum started picking up pieces of shattered boulders before chucking them at Thaden from nearly 250 feet away.  When the first one hit him, he was surprised at how much damage it did to his defenses, as it took a significant chunk of it away.  It wasn’t enough to concern him, of course, but it was still strange enough that he looked closer at the next boulder piece thrown at him; a subtle glow around it told him that it was likely magically empowered to do even more damage than normal, so he deftly avoided it with his high Celerity.

Killing the Gorillum Bombardier was fairly easy after that, as all it took was running toward it faster than it could stay at range, and his healing spells did the rest.  He only glanced at Sadia as a pair of gongs rang out and the illumination in the cave began to dim, not bothering to ask her for any information.  He was fairly certain that she would share anything pertinent with him once she actually could.

Another backtrack through the tunnel had him going through the one opposite of the large stone door, and that one was yet slightly different from the others.  Rather than pillars or broken boulders with ambushing monsters, the caves had tiered platforms along their edges that held at least twice as many Gorillum in each cave than the others he’d ventured down.  As soon as he walked into the caves, all of the monsters attacked in a group, attempting to overwhelm him – which, of course, did absolutely no good against someone like Thaden.

The final, illuminated cave held a third Mini Boss, another Gorillum-type monster.

Scaled Gorillum Berserker (Mini Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 430 (Perceived Level: 559)

The name “Berserker” was fairly straightforward, and the massive 15-foot-tall Gorillum immediately charged at him, closing the distance with incredible speed while a reddish aura surrounded the monster.  Strangely enough, the first impact of damage against the Berserker only seemed to increase the intensity of the reddish aura, followed by a second instance of damage that made the intensity of the aura nearly blinding.  The third impact of incredible damage, however, killed the Gorillum while it was moving at speed toward Thaden, and he stepped to the side to avoid the corpse-like projectile as it slammed into the wall of the cave with a heavy thud. 

Three gongs rang out in succession, and the illumination in the cave faded. 

Thaden didn’t bother looking at Sadia as he extracted loot from the Berserker and backtracked through the tunnel.

As he somewhat expected by this point, the faint bluish field covering the stone door was gone when he returned to the bottom of the NEST pit, and the door itself had been cracked open a few inches.  For all intents and purposes, it appeared as though it was inviting him in.

“Let’s not keeping them waiting,” he said out loud, even as he started to walk toward the entrance to what he could only assume—and hope—that this was the final area of the NEST.  With that in mind, he activated a few other spells, including Incarnation of Protection and Mirrored Vigil, just so that he had some extra protection in case whatever was waiting inside the doors was much stronger than what he’d faced so far.

Pushing the doors further open took a slight bit of strength, but his Physicality stat was far above what it required.  Once he could see inside, he was grateful not to see yet another set of tunnels, though what he was greeted with wasn’t exactly something that most people would be relieved to encounter. 

A huge, 1,000-foot wide, circular cavern spread out ahead of him after a short passageway, illuminated by glowing rock chandelier-type formations.  There were pillars of stone with “branches” holding at least two dozen Gorillum, ready to drop down on the unwary; broken boulders were interspersed between these pillars, partially blocking the way forward and giving the two dozen Gorillum behind them an opportunity to ambush those working their way through; and there were at least three dozen Gorillum simply waiting in between the pillars and the broken boulders, as if daring him to walk through them.

And past all of the pillars and boulders, just barely observable from his position at the entrance, was a much larger figure.

Scaled Gorillum Mauler (Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender

Level 450 (Perceived Level: 585)

The Gorillum Mauler stood 20 feet tall, towering over the other Mini Bosses that he’d faced thus far, and it was significantly larger in frame than normal, with bulging arms and chest, and it also had a darker shade to its scales.  If he had to guess, then it was possible that the NEST Boss had some of the same qualities of the three Mini Bosses, though until he saw it in action, he couldn’t be entirely sure. 

Behind the massive Mauler was a swirling, multi-colored, arch-shaped portal thingy approximately 30 feet tall and half that wide, and even as he glanced at it, he saw another basic Scaled Gorillum suddenly emerge from it.  The monster ran toward the forest of pillars and boulders separating Thaden from open space around the Boss and the portal, before jumping up onto a branch and waiting patiently for a victim to walk by.

“Huh.  Interesting.  Will that portal keep spawning monsters forever?” he wondered aloud, and a quick look at Sadia showed that the squirrel was still tight-lipped.

With no further information coming his way, Thaden figured he would simply discover it all for himself.  Wary of any traps that he didn’t notice right away, he walked slowly through the forest of pillars and broken boulders, instead of rushing through.  The moment he took his first step inside the cavern, the Gorillum reacted, with those who weren’t in hiding rushing toward him; they died first, of course, and the only delay the presented toward his progress to the Boss was having to navigate his way around their corpses.  The ambushing Gorillum didn’t fare much better, as his path through the pillars met them as they appeared, killing all of them within seconds, as they didn’t seem to be eager to wait for him to approach too close to him. 

In less than 30 seconds, he was through the obstacles in his way, and even as another weak Gorillum emerged from the portal behind the Boss, Thaden started on his way toward the massive Mauler.  He was still wary of some sort of trap or sudden surprise that would jump out at him, so he took his time – but the Boss was of an entirely different mind. 

It rushed at him with a red aura surrounding it, while it held two large, stone boulders in its hands; when it was only about 250 feet away, it launched both boulders at him, and they flew faster than the Bombardier could manage.  They still weren’t too fast for Thaden, however, so he easily dodged out of their way, even as his Incarnation tanked one of them.  He could feel that it had taken significant damage from the hit, more than the Bombardier, but it wasn’t enough to substantially harm it; any normal Contender, without a lot of protective defenses in place, would likely suffer some painful injuries.

When it was just about to enter the range of his offensive healing spell, the Mauler disappeared similarly to the Ambusher, only to appear next to him already trying to smash him.  The Incarnation took the blow, suffering even more damage, while the monster took damage from Wild Health Leach; its red aura increased in intensity multiple times, and unlike what a Berserker would’ve done, the Mauler seemed to recognize it was in danger.  It disappeared again, seeming to want to gain some distance, but the action was only partially successful.  Halfway to a nearby pile of large boulders, which it was likely going to use as ammunition, it suddenly appeared and collapsed in death simultaneously.  At that point, the final Gorillum that had emerged from the swirling portal got within range of his deadly healing spell, and it, too, fell dead.

The next second, he looked at the swirling portal-like arch and watched as it began to rapidly shrink as it collapsed upon itself; it didn’t take longer than 10 seconds before it disappeared completely with an odd suction sound at the end.  A victorious-sounding ding reverberated through the cavern, unlike the gongs from earlier, and he could visually observe the glowing rock chandeliers gradually starting to lose their illumination.

And yet, there still wasn’t any reaction from Sadia.  He even checked his messages to see if he had triggered something, but there wasn’t anything but the expected kill notifications present.  With a sigh, he quickly extracted loot from the Mauler and the other Gorillum in the cavern; a quick glance at them showed that he actually got some impressive gear – for anyone but a Support Class, as seemed to be the norm.  Most of it was for a Fighter Class, though there was a nice Epic-Rarity Cloak for a Scout Class – though all of them were for someone a much-higher Level than anyone back in Region #1.  Still nothing with a flying ability, unfortunately, but he hadn’t really expected one like that from the Gorillum.

“That was… underwhelming,” he remarked to Sadia as they walked back to the stone doorway.  “Why was this so… easy?  I’d almost say that there were Minimal Difficulty Intermediate Dungeons that were harder than this back in the Region, in fact; well, other than the Level of the monsters, of course.”

Sadia only returned a smile, though he could see her attention was now focused on the doorway ahead of them.  More accurately, she was focused on something beyond them.

Walking back out of door, Thaden immediately found that something had changed at the bottom of the NEST pit that he’d descended earlier.  In the middle of the pit floor, a clear crystal pedestal approximately 5 feet tall and a foot in width glowed brightly with a familiar blue tint to it, and it illuminated the bottom of the pit to the point where there was no longer any difficulty in seeing everything around him. 

Sadia bounced ahead of him and took a position next to the crystal pedestal, looking at him with expectations, before gesturing toward the glowing object that seemed to have come from nowhere.  It only took him a second of consideration before he walked up to the crystal, his only hesitation being that this seemed like the trap he had been expecting this entire time; given that his squirrel companion appeared to approve of it convinced him that he likely wouldn’t come to harm.

Reaching out a hand, he placed it upon the surprisingly warm surface of the crystal pedestal – and he was suddenly inundated with a few messages that he was prompted to read immediately.

Congratulations!  You have destroyed the spawn gate from NEST #3823!  Please gather all members of your Raid Party to this location.

All Raid Party members present…

Prepare for NEST subjugation…

Out of nowhere, the ground began to rumble around him, but it wasn’t enough to even test his balance.  With his hand still on the crystal pedestal and Sadia seemingly unconcerned, he simply stood there as he felt and saw the floor begin to move upwards, as if he was on a large stone lift, reminding him somewhat of the Descent Into Darkness Dungeon.  Unlike that dungeon, however, he was ascending to the surface, and he could feel tremendous energy roiling beneath his feet.  If he was correct, then the tunnels and caves that comprised the majority of the NEST were being filled in, and he was being pushed up by the process.

It took approximately a minute to reach surface level, and as soon as it did, he saw a waist-high stone wall suddenly spring out of the ground around where the original pit perimeter had been.  More than that, an odd figure materialized over the course of a few seconds, standing a few feet away from his own location.

The figure looked vaguely humanoid, if he considered that it had a head, two arms, a torso, and two legs.  Where it differed from a normal Human was the fact that it stood 10 feet tall, had a round head that was twice the size of a Human, its limbs were almost perfectly straight, and it was completely black.  Not like a skin color that was black, but like a void of color without any reflection.  Frankly it reminded him of a large stick-figure drawing, though it at least had a bit more definition and a torso that was wider than a single line. 

As he stood there staring at it, it seemed to fill out a little bit, morphing into a shape that was a little more Human, with actual hands and feet appearing, followed by a shifting of its general body characteristics so that its head shrunk a little and became less round, and he could even see what appeared to be muscles along its body and knees and elbows on its straight arms.  It was almost as if it was a simple clay sculpture at first, and over time it was being molded to match a model.

And that model, unfortunately, was Thaden.  A naked Thaden, still all in black and 10 feet tall, but it was recognizably him.

“What the hell is this—?” he began to say, turning to Sadia, but he was interrupted by a flood of information that staggered him for a moment at the implications as he comprehended it all.    

Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Missing his destroyed Wyvern’s Flight Cloak, which would’ve made the trip a whole lot easier, Thaden leapt over the small hillock in front of him as he tore across the landscape of the Wildlands.  When he landed a few seconds later, he could see the ruins of a town in the distance, which seemed to have a giant hole in the middle of it.  Climbing out of that hole were dozens of 12-foot tall, Gorilla-looking monsters with dark grey scales covering their bodies rather than hair.  The spiked protrusions on their fists dragged along the ground as their loping movement allowed them to quickly disperse into the surrounding landscape.

Scaled Gorillum – Advanced Wildlands Denizen

Level 380 (Perceived Level: 494)

The base Level of the monster was actually quite surprising, given that this was the Wildlands and the Mithril-based construct monsters in The Citadel had started over Level 400.  They weren’t really a concern to him, of course, given that he could handle something of this Level without any concern whatsoever; it was simply confusing why they were so weak.

“Don’t be too shocked by their Level,” Sadia told him as she bounded next to him, easily keeping up with him.  “They start out quite weak, but over time they’ll grow in strength as they evolve.”

He nodded in understanding, even as he started winding up his normal assortment of healing spells so he could start wiping out the Scaled Gorillum as he approached them.  His normal assortment of defensive spells were already locked and loaded around him to prevent any damage from actually reaching him, and he began a cycle of heals to start the process of Exceptional Wild Health Leach going to work on the nearby monsters.  He didn’t get too fancy with his spells, despite being able to essentially equip all of them in his Access Slots, as there was no reason to given the strength of his foes.

It was a simple rinse and repeat situation that he’d done countless times since he’d first become a Solitary Shaman followed by an Omenic Drifter.  Thankfully, he was equipped with his solo-focused Growth set of Artifact Rarity clothing he’d received as a reward for completing the Maximal difficulty of the Mines of Khanordun, which was getting better and better as it absorbed PICK from the monsters he’d killed lately.  At Level 208, his current equipment was nowhere near his actual Level of 450, but he knew that they would get there—eventually.  As it was, they were more than adequate for his current objective.

 “Are you sure you want to do this?” Sadia asked for at least the fifth time since he’d heard the roars indicating that the NESTs inside the Wildlands were activating.

Thaden sighed in frustration, wondering where all of this hesitancy was coming from.  “Of course!  I need to know what we’re going to be up against with this new Developmental Phase.”  He glanced at her for a moment, even as they ran closer to the NEST and the monsters that were emerging.  “Are you sure you can’t tell me any more about NESTs and this Phase?” he asked, somewhat assuming that it wasn’t likely after his initial question shortly after hearing the monsters inside the NESTs activating.

“As I told you, I’m limited on what I can share with you about this Phase that wasn’t already covered by the announcement,” she answered, confirming his assumption.  “However, once certain… things happen, I can explain much more.”

“And you can’t tell me what these things are?”

She just shook her head, which he could see out of the corner of his eye.

As they closed in on the NEST, Thaden couldn’t help but think about all that had happened in just the last day.  Being chased by the Amplified Adamantine Goliath Boss into The Citadel dungeon had been harrying enough, but then to encounter a Director of the Adversary – which he was still a bit hazy on just who they were – who then attempted to kill him, before he caused the explosion that sent him flying into the Wildlands was just the beginning of his crazy experiences.  Waking up in mid-flight had been a bit of a horrifying experience, especially as he didn’t have any way to fly anymore, but then to find that he had inadvertently started Developmental Phase 4 early was yet another blow to his already battered mind.  He still remembered reading the announcement on his message feed and wondering what kind of disaster he’d just initiated.

In your final Developmental Phase here on Tarth, Developmental Phase 4, you will be able to apply your skills working in a larger Raid Party in a real-world situation.  Past The Citadel, which acted as a defense against the dangers of the Wildlands beyond, the Adversary has entrenched itself in thousands of Nonstandard Evolutionary Subjugation Territories, or NESTs.  These NESTs are filled with an assortment of monsters that you will have to adapt to and find a way to defeat; unlike the dungeons that you are used to in your Region, these NESTs are open to the world and will release their numbers to roam over the entirety of the Wildlands.  In addition, while the initial release of monsters will be relatively weak in comparison to the Contenders in your Region, future released monsters will begin to evolve in nonstandard ways, including – but not limited to – an increase in Level and, therefore, strength.

Be warned!  As soon as the monster density in an area reaches a certain threshold, territorial instincts will force those monsters that are weaker than future monster evolutions to migrate elsewhere – which can lead to them swarming into an undefended Region. 

During this final Developmental Phase, it is your purpose to not only develop and secure a defensive perimeter along the paths leading into your Region, but also to assault and subjugate every single NEST found within the Wildlands, securing each site along the way.  Keep in mind, however, that a subjugated NEST can be recaptured by the Adversary if the securing defenses are inadequate or entirely undefended.  Various benefits can be obtained from subjugating and securing each NEST, so strategizing when and how to assault each one is imperative to a successful campaign in this final Phase.

As you are the only Region currently initiating Developmental Phase 4, it is recommended that you maintain your defensive perimeter first before working to thin out the number of monsters that will be released from nearby NESTs; once the other Regions join you in this Phase, that will be the time to strike, working your way through the entirety of the Wildlands as a cohesive army despite your Regional differences. 

As a reminder, every single Contender is competing against each other in the Rankings.  A new Regional Ranking will be set up as soon as 2 or more Regions initiate Developmental Phase 4.  This Ranking will evaluate, by Region, the total number of monsters killed, the total number of NESTs subjugated, the total time each subjugated NEST is held securely, and a contribution rank among all Regions once the Phase is complete.

Good luck!

[Quest Type: SPECIAL – WORLD

Rank Requirement: Any

Quest Time Limit: N/A

Quest Difficulty: High-Maximal

Minimum Recommended Level: 700

Minimum Recommended Raid Party Size: 50,000

Quest Description: By utilizing all of the knowledge and experience you’ve gained on Tarth, it is now time to locate and eliminate any trace of the Adversary away from this world.  By subjugating and eliminating the NESTs located in the Wildlands, you will secure and safeguard the world of Tarth for the future generations of its residents.

Completion Requirements: Completely subjugate every NEST located within the Wildlands

Quest Rewards: Graduation from Tarth, Ranking rewards, and assimilation into the greater System

Quest Failure Penalties: Death of every living being on Tarth

Available World Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: All]

Everything he knew about the current and final Phase essentially came from the announcement, and Sadia wouldn’t—or couldn’t—give him any more details.  Which was what led to him investigating one of these NESTs himself.  If he found that it was way above his ability to check out and potentially destroy, then he would back off and head towards his Region again. 

The only problem was that he didn’t know exactly where it was, though he at least had a general direction based on how he’d landed after his impromptu flight following the explosion at The Citadel dungeon.  It was something he needed to do regardless of his investigation of a NEST, if only so that he could reconnect with everyone there and see about setting up defenses against the monsters of the Wildlands.  Based on the System announcement, he figured that they had some time before those monsters would start attacking, but he didn’t know how long they had before that happened.  Regardless, his side trek into a NEST hopefully wouldn’t take too long, so he didn’t see it being an issue before he got back to his Region.

Besides, knowledge of the enemy they were up against was important, especially if he was forced to finish the Phase all by himself.  The way it was started far ahead of when it should’ve been made him believe that he was likely the only one that could survive against all the threats that presented themselves. 

The first of the Gorillum spreading out from the NEST entrance saw him as he got within its visual range, but it barely took a single step before Thaden and Sadia were within his Leach Health spell’s range, and with all of the healing spells they were cycling upon themselves, the NEST-borne monster dropped dead almost instantly.  The death of the Gorillum pulled the attention of the others nearby, and soon enough they were swarmed by dozens of the monsters – who all died as soon as they came into range. 

Compared to what he’d been up against lately, it was an unsatisfying fight – but he wasn’t going to complain.  A quick run to each corpse extracted loot from them, and he briefly looked at what he’d received – and was thoroughly underwhelmed.

Extractions complete!

Loot obtained:

483 Gold, 27 Silver, 14 Copper coins

6 Gauntlets of Bashing (Rare)

3 Helm of the Gorillum Elite (Epic)

93 Knuckle Spikes (Uncommon)

165 Gorillum Hide (Common)

Because the Gorillum were technically 20 Levels above him based on their Perceived Level, he received triple the loot thanks to the Unkillable II Achievement – and yet, none of it was useful to him.  Unless he somehow found another flying cloak or some other useful item, his current Growth items were much better than anything he could pick up from killing simple monsters along the way.  Even Gold coins didn’t really do much for him, other than buying food, perhaps, but as it was, it just went to join the hundreds of thousands of Gold he already had in his Inventory. 

When he got back to the Guild, he was sure that Corinna and the crafters that were employed by them would love to have the materials, but for now, they simply filled up a tiny space in his Inventory.

He also felt the PICK he’d received from them filter into his aforementioned Growth items, but it wasn’t yet enough to raise any of them to the next Level.  Each Level seemed to take more and more PICK to Level-up, and considering that he wasn’t in a dungeon – which gave him the best reward multipliers – he actually didn’t receive as much as he was used to. 

Cleared of nearby monsters, he reached the edge of the dilapidated town and the pit that held the NEST.  There were still more of the Gorillum emerging, though their numbers had measurably slowed down; the dozen or so that climbed their way to the top of the pit on the opposite side of Thaden, where his range couldn’t reach, filtered out into the countryside, but those within the range of his spells simply dropped dead and fell back into the pit. 

For the first time, he was able to easily see inside the hole in the ground that supposedly held the NEST, and it was somewhat like what he expected.  The pit was the widest at the top, and it narrowed as it descended at least 1,000 feet below the surface, with a layer of dark shadows that attempted to obscure the bottom.  Unfortunately for whatever the NEST was attempting to hide, his 60% Shadow Resistance allowed him to see most of everything down below, and he counted at least another 50 or so Gorillum sitting around in the flat, circular space along the bottom.  They were moving slightly, looking almost like they were lounging and simply waiting for a call to action, which he could only assume would come if he were to start descending. 

As for how to descend, there was a crude pathway cut along the walls of the pit that spiraled downward, steep enough that one would have to take care not to fall forward and roll out of control all the way down.  The pathway was also narrow enough that falling off was a real concern – at least for people without a high Celerity.  Thaden wasn’t necessarily worried about that, though, as he would not only survive jumping off from the top of the pit to the bottom, but wouldn’t even be hurt by it thanks not only to his defensive spells, but his high Physicality.

What he was more worried about was what he couldn’t see.

“This is it?  The requirements for my Evolution Assignment made it seem like there might be a bit more involved than that,” he said, pointing toward the group of 50 Gorillum down at the bottom of the pit.  Just to make sure he hadn’t missed something, he pulled up his Evolution Assignment once again.

Level 567: Locate and participate in destroying a NEST in uncharted territory

Yep.  This seems entirely too easy.

“All that I’m allowed to say is that there’s more going on here than just those few monsters down below,” Sadia responded with carefully chosen words.

Thaden nodded to show he understood the restrictions she was working under.  “Fair enough.  Let’s go see what’s going on here, then.”

Moving along the edge of the pit, the two of them quickly reached the top of the pathway leading down.  Again, he thought that he could probably jump down into the middle of the Gorillum below, but he figured since Sadia warned him that there was more going on than what he could see, he figured he might as well be a little cautious for once.

As soon as he stepped on the stone and dirt pathway leading downwards, he felt a slight tingle pass through him.  It wasn’t like entering a dungeon, however, as it didn’t feel as if he was entering a whole other space; instead, it was like he passed through some sort of invisible boundary that only existed for the System.

You have located NEST #3823!

That was the only message he received as soon as he passed through the invisible barrier.  He was used to some sort of indication of Level Range or difficulty selection, but there was none of that here.  He glanced at Sadia, but as her squirrelly face didn’t reveal anything, he didn’t push for more information.

NEST #3823?  Does that mean there are thousands of these NESTs spread throughout the Wildlands?  From what Thaden had seen when uncontrollably flying through the air above it, he had to admit that the density of potential NESTs was quite high, at least compared to the dungeons that could be found within Region #1.  Then again, he supposed that made sense; the Wildlands was supposed to be the final Phase where all of the Contenders throughout the Regions would come together for a singular purpose.  If there were only a few hundred of them, he could see the Developmental Phase being completed within a few weeks. 

The other result of starting his journey down to the bottom of the pit was that the Gorillum waiting along the bottom immediately reacted.  Like guard sentries that had been alerted to an intruder, they mobilized and began climbing up the walls of the pit, heading straight toward the top where Thaden and Sadia were located.  While he had half-expected it, the relatively few monsters that were there to guard the NEST was still confusing, given that a simple Raid Party of 100 or less – around Level 400 – could probably wipe them out without too much trouble. 

Instead of standing his ground, Thaden instead made his way down the pathway at a safe speed, letting the Gorillum converge on his descending route – only to be hit by his Wild Health Leach combination of spells, dying instantly.  It was totally unfair, of course, but Thaden had done it so many times by that point that he didn’t care how fair it was; as long as the monsters died and got out of his way, he was perfectly fine with it.

It took less than a minute to arrive at the bottom, and that was only because he was taking it relatively slow.  He kept expecting something to suddenly pop out of the walls or attack him from an unexpected direction, but nothing of the sort happened.  The Gorillum sentries all died before they got even within 50 feet of him, so nothing actually stood in his way.

It wasn’t until he was within a few dozen feet of the gloomy bottom that he was able to make out what he supposed was Sadia’s warning.  A large stone doorway that blended fairly well into the stone wall of the pit stood closed and seemingly locked up tight.  Opposite of the closed door and to the left and right were a trio of tall openings in the wall that led to dark passages that led somewhere underground, and he could practically feel that there were even more monsters down each and every one of them.

“Ah.  I see.  The pit was just the entrance of this whole thing, wasn’t it?  Is this like some sort of ‘natural’ dungeon, then?”

Sadia simply shrugged, but he could see the smile on her face indicating that he was likely correct.

“Then this should be where the Boss is, right?” he said, pointing toward the closed stone doorway.  A few steps was all it took to reach it, and he cocked his right arm back before unleashing a punch upon the barrier.  As soon as his fist got close to the stone, it hit a shimmering blue barrier that stopped his hand from making contact; it didn’t hurt to hit, nor did it make his fist rebound backwards.  Instead, it simply halted his punch without any harm, and he instinctively knew that it was demonstrating that no matter how strong he was, he wouldn’t be able to break through.

“Guess I can’t cheese it, then,” he said, slightly disappointed, before turning toward one of the passageways leading deeper into the NEST.  “Well then, shall we go investigate?”

“I go where you go, Thaden,” the squirrel responded seriously, but he could hear the amusement in her tone. 

As he took off in a jog and passed through the tunnel to the left of the sealed door, he heard more bestial roars reverberate against the stone as he passed the threshold.  “Alright then, let’s do this!”

Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“What an absolute disaster.”

Fer’la’vina could only nod in agreement with Che’ga’lera as her feet touched down on the edge of the Stronghold, set high above the Wildlands in an unassailable position.  Turning around and using every bit of her now-restored Level 900 eyes, she looked toward the southern portion of Tarth where Region #1 was located – and the hole that had been blasted in the mountain range where The Citadel Dungeon used to be.  It was the first time in Fer’s experience as a Warden of Tarth that she’d ever seen a dungeon so utterly obliterated, and her mind mentally shivered as she remembered the sheer destruction that had emerged from the detonation of Adversarial energies. 

No one could survive that, could they?  Fer was 100% positive that even she, even if she had been back to her normal 900 Level, would’ve perished in such an explosion.  Yet, the System seems to think that there is at least one survivor.

She pulled up one of the most recent messages on her feed, confirming that assumption.

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

All current instances of the Adversary within Region #1 have been eliminated!  In addition, the investigation of the Support Class Contender, Thaden, with a last known Level of 201, has concluded with a negative determination of Adversarial connections.

In addition, Wardens from two separate Regional authorities have recognized Support Class Contender, Thaden, as a Hero of Tarth!  Title rewards will be distributed to—

ERROR!  No record of Support Class Contender, Thaden, has been found!  Checking posthumous collection database… no record of posthumous collection found!

Note: Once the recipient of the Hero of Tarth title has been located, it will be necessary for at least one of the Wardens who recognized the Hero’s deeds to impart their rewards.

Not only was the Quest they had been given by the System as Wardens complete, which had been to eliminate all instances of the Adversarial energy infiltrating the world of Tarth as well as searching for Thaden as a potential agent of the Persistent Adversary, but the System recognized the very same Support Class Contender as a Hero of Tarth!  While the System couldn’t find him, which she’d learned from Thaden was largely because he had never gone through his mandatory Training, it also seemed to believe that he was still alive – and would be able to obtain the rewards that the Hero of Tarth Title would bestow upon him.  Even Fer didn’t know what those rewards would be, given that Titles were relatively rare even outside of a developmental world, and she’d never heard of a Contender obtaining one before. 

As for where he was, if he actually had survived, she didn’t have a clue.  They had searched the massive hole in the mountain range where The Citadel had been, looking for any sign of him, but they’d had no luck.  It wasn’t as if they had to dig under rubble or anything in their search, hoping to find him under a rock or something, because there wasn’t much of anything left in the area, as the dungeon itself had been destroyed, as well as a half-mile of the surrounding mountain range.  The hole in the ground left behind by the explosion was surprisingly shallow for all of the devastation, as it only descended about 50 feet before there was only a wide, shallow, hemispherical stone dish scoured clean of any debris, and every little bit of the citadel and surrounding mountainside was gone.

It hadn’t been obliterated, of course, as it had been flung outward from the force of the explosion, but even a relatively detailed search over the hour they had before they were forced to return to the Stronghold in the center of the Wildlands turned up nothing but stone debris flung up to 100 miles or more away from the epicenter.  In other words, if he was out there, they didn’t have an easy way to track him down. 

Thankfully, as the message had told them, the destruction of the Dungeon had also eliminated all of the noticeable traces of Adversarial energy within the Region.  Accompanied by Thaden, they had been able to cleanse many of the infiltrated Dungeons throughout the Region beforehand, and while she thought there was a possibility that there were some that they missed, the System considered the matter finished.

Fer’la’vina wasn’t going to complain, however, because she and the other Aelveen Wardens came close to a final death more times than she liked to admit during their foray into Region #1.  While she was devoted to her position as a Warden of Tarth and would dutifully give her life to ensure the System’s directives and the safety of the world, it had been a long time since she’d been so close to permanently dying so many times in such a short period of time. 

They, of course, had a Human Contender named Thaden to thank for their survival.  In fact, everyone in Region #1 and potentially the entirety of Tarth had been saved by him, which she supposed merited the Hero of Tarth Title he’d been bestowed; even Ghareta and the other Charee Wardens admitted after he’d gone into The Citadel to face down the danger that the Adversary presented that they wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t been there.

While Tarth was now relatively safe from Adversarial infiltrations inside the Dungeons throughout the Regions, at least according to the Assimilation System, the danger of the developmental world failing its intended purpose had only been delayed.  The Contenders had gone from one crisis to another; while the issue with the Adversary had been something that required the help of all the Wardens, an occurrence that had never happened before in her knowledge, the current issue was the activation of Developmental Phase 4.

More accurately, it was the activation of Phase 4 before any of the Contenders were ready for it.  Other than Thaden – if he was, indeed, still alive – but he was more than a bit of an outlier.  Normally, there was typically a few Regions of Contenders that were ahead of the others, and they would be able to complete Developmental Phase 3 within months of each other; it was extremely rare for one Region to be so far ahead of any other Region that they would have to face Phase 4 all on their own, and even if they did, it usually wasn’t for long.

But now Phase 4 had started early—too early.  If what she’d seen in Region #1 was any indication of the rest of the Contenders, then they were years away from being anywhere ready to even attempt to complete Phase 3, let alone ready to handle the challenges of Phase 4.  While the previous Developmental Phases were difficult to complete, there technically wasn’t a time limit that they had to adhere to in order to complete them.  Sure, there were some time constraints in Phase 2, but ultimately there was plenty of time to grow stronger and prepare for what was asked of them – but Phase 4 was different.  If the Contenders didn’t immediately start getting ready for facing the challenges of the Wildlands, then those challenges would eventually come to them.

Fortunately, the monsters that emerged from the NESTs scattered around the Wildlands were no threat to them immediately, but over time the density of monsters would eventually push them toward the Regions.  Normally, each Region would be able to take over the Dungeon that had blocked their way into the Wildlands, such as The Citadel, using it as a defensive fortification to prevent the monsters inside the Wildlands from rampaging through the Region.  That, unfortunately, was now an impossibility in the case of Region #1, as they now had a large, gaping hole in their defenses.

Soon enough, Fer could picture waves of powerful monsters, each of which would likely out-Level the Contenders by 200 Levels or more, pouring into the Region, slaughtering everyone in their path.  Once they fully devastated Region #1, they would ten turn to the defenses of the other Regions, forcibly breaking through all of the obstacles in their way to reach the Contenders who thought that they were safe from the Wildlands until they were ready for them. 

It would be a slaughter of epic proportions, and the inevitable failure of the developmental world of Tarth would soon come to pass.

“I can’t believe that we managed to clear the Adversary’s attempt to infiltrate Tarth, only for the Contenders to fail because the final Phase was activated entirely too early,” she muttered, still staring into the distance.  Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see other Wardens returning from their own investigations into the other Regions, all of them with conflicting expressions upon their faces – which she felt as well.  They succeeded in eliminating the threat and completing the Quest the System gave them, which was something to celebrate, but the knowledge that the overall success of the Contenders was on the verge of failing utterly was a horrible feeling.

Tac’fe’hodu stepped up next to her, and it was obvious by his first words that he’d heard her.  “I can only assume that was their intent.”

“Whose?”

“The Adversarial agents, of course,” the stoic Aelveen replied.  “If they couldn’t maintain their foothold in Tarth, then the next-best outcome would be to force the failure of every Contender.  They’ve been one step ahead of us at every turn, so it shouldn’t be surprising that even in their elimination, they’re getting their victory – even if it is a bit more delayed than it would’ve been if we hadn’t eliminated them.”

Fer shook her head.  “We?  Don’t you mean Thaden eliminated them?”

“Fair,” Tac acknowledged with an additional shrug.  “But now he isn’t here.  Even if he was, being able to kill a powerful Adversarial Elite or the equivalent won’t really help.”

She grudgingly agreed.  Phase 4 couldn’t be completed by a single person, after all, even if they were the most powerful individual in the world.  There were many other factors involved in the challenge that Developmental Phase 4 presented to the Contenders, as it was designed to incorporate the help of every single Contender on Tarth to achieve victory.

It’s just so unfair.  Not for the first time, she wished that she—and the other Wardens—could do something to help, especially right now when this was all the result of the Adversary meddling in the operation of the developmental world.  Unfortunately, the assistance they’d given to Region #1 was only because of the Adversarial energy and infiltration of various dungeons; now that it was gone, they were essentially required to be hands-off, only involving themselves when they needed to ensure the safety of the world from Contenders getting out-of-line.  If they tried to act outside of the bounds of their duties, such as helping to thin out some of the monsters to give the Contenders more time, they would be stripped of their positions, at the least; if the violations were more heinous, they could even be eliminated entirely.

In other words, their hands were tied.  They could only observe as the world fell apart around them, watching as the Contenders – and all of the citizens of Tarth – were wiped out to the last person. 

“Still, Thaden would at least give them a chance,” Fer argued.

Tac sighed.  “It would only delay the inevitable, at best.”

As much as she wanted to argue further, she couldn’t – because she knew he was correct.  “I’m well aware that there’s nothing we can do to stop this from happening, but there has to be something….”  Fer trailed off as something else appeared on her message feed.

Wardens of Tarth!

The start of Developmental Phase 4 is imminent!  Now that certain Adversarial complications have been eliminated, thanks to a few particular individuals, the culmination of Contender development can finally get underway.  Be steadfast in your vigilance of Tarth’s safety, ensuring that the Contenders are kept restrained in their misguided efforts to destroy the world with their newly gained strength.  Additional authority has been granted to you at this time, allowing you to monitor the situation within the Wildlands and your assigned Regions with greater fidelity.

*Note: Because of recent Adversarial incursions accelerating the start of Developmental Phase 4, the Contenders in Region #1 have gained a temporary boost to their PICK accumulation to bridge the gap in their Levels to better face the ferocity of the Wildlands’ monsters.  If this proves to be ineffective, it has been decided to let Region #1 fall to the Phase 4 threat; if no other Region is near to completing Phase 3 at that time, the NESTs and monsters within the Wildlands will be temporally frozen for 6 months.  This is to help prevent the complete failure of all Contenders within Tarth, though the remaining Contenders will still face an uphill battle when the first Region finally completes Phase 3 and begins Phase 4.   

*In addition, all Wardens but those responsible for Region #1 now have the authority to prevent premature incursions into their Region by the monsters of the Wildlands by any means necessary.  This authority will immediately be rescinded upon the elimination of every living person inside Region #1.

Stay vigilant, Wardens of Tarth!  A successful final Developmental Phase is upon us!

Fer’la’vina stood staring sightlessly out into the Wildlands as she comprehended what she’d just read.  Even as she felt the additional authority the System granted to her settle over her mind and body, she parsed through the impossibility of the message contents.

The System is altering the Developmental Phase?  I didn’t think that was even possible.

Granted, it had already acted to issue Quests to the Wardens to fight the Adversarial infiltration, but that was understandable; it had been outside the bounds of the Contender’s development, after all, and so the System took steps to fix the problem.  But to alter the actual Developmental Phase was something else altogether; it was an unheard-of situation that she frankly didn’t believe was even possible.  She could only assume that the Adversarial incursion had triggered something that caused the changes, though she’d never thought that it could be done in the first place.

Of course, the change was that the System was essentially sacrificing all the people inside Region #1 to give the rest of the Regions a chance to survive.  Though, even if the inevitable happened and Region #1 fell, she doubted that another 6 months would be enough time for the other Regions to catch up.  Still, it was better than nothing, and would at least give the Contenders more options than being overrun one Region at a time.  And, as she had just been hoping for, the Wardens now had a chance to help out, even if it was simply keeping the monsters away from their Regions.

All but the Charee Wardens from Region #1, of course.  While the danger of the monsters attempting to break into the other Regions while there was a wide hole into Region #1 was fairly low, their help would ensure that the other Regions were safe from such a disaster. 

She turned away from her view of the Wildlands for a moment as her eyes lit upon Ghareta and the other Charee Wardens, having returned not so long before, and she noticed that almost every other Warden was looking at them with pity.  To have the System essentially doom their people even before the first NEST had awoken was a hard truth to swallow, but they simply stared past everyone as if unbothered by the death sentence to their people.

Her attention was pulled away as her new authority and sense of the Wildlands detected something – which was unlikely, given that no one should be inside the land at this point.  Stepping over to the edge of the Stronghold, she looked down and her vision pinpointed the movement, right as Developmental Phase 4 officially began; millions of bestial roars filled the Wildlands as the NESTs activated, but she ignored all of that as her far-seeing vision caught someone getting to their feet.

“That’s… Thaden!” she shouted, and she was quickly joined by Tac and Che a second later.  Somehow, the insanely powerful Contender had survived against the odds, and even as she watched, the Human was on the move – and headed straight toward the nearest NEST, which was currently spewing out hundreds of monsters, which would then filter through the local environment. 

“Is he crazy?  Where’s his Party?” Fer heard from a different group of Wardens looking down the side of the Stronghold after her outburst; it was obvious that they hadn’t been told about the Support Class member that had saved them all.  

 She grinned, strangely relieved to see Thaden, even if she didn’t think it would ultimately make much difference.  “No, he’s not crazy,” she replied, looking at the Warden who had asked the question.  “It’s just that he’s a Party all by himself, and one that is probably stronger than any one of us.”

She saw the disbelief on the faces of almost all of the other Wardens who heard her, though the Aelveen and the Charee who had seen him in action nodded in acknowledgement.

The rest might not believe me now, but I’m sure they’ll discover that I’m telling the truth very shortly.  In fact, I’d say he’s about to show them what he can do right about… now.

Healer Book 6 -- Recap

(It's a little delayed because of the Divine Fusionist audiobook release, but here's the beginning of Healer Book 6! I have Chapter 1 posting right after the recap)

Recap

Thaden was ripped away from Earth by the Assimilation System, but on his way to some sort of “Training Program”, something went wrong.  His bodily disposal went horrifically wrong, and he was burned, torn apart, and even eaten by monsters before his head ended up in a dungeon.  In the end, the only fortunate part of it all was that his body fully reconstituted itself automatically.  That was poor recompense for what he went through, though, especially when he discovered that he had been saddled with the Support Class of Assistant Healer – which had virtually no offensive ability.

However, he quickly discovered that his spells used absolutely none of his Mana.  The only caveat was that he couldn’t cast something that had a Mana cost greater than his overall Mana pool.  Using a Weak Repulsion Field to escape the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon, killing everything inside, he eventually made his way to Ashcleft, a nearby town filled with Charee, an odd race with orange skin, a third eye on their forehead, and one less finger on their hands, which he quickly learned were one of many different races tasked to prepare the world of Tarth for the arrival of Contenders…

…a group to which Thaden technically belonged, even though he hadn’t participated in the Training that everyone else had.

After being told that the rest of the Contenders from Earth would arrive in approximately three months, the Assistant Healer joined the Adventurer Coalition in an attempt to find a way to increase his Level, and he ended up traveling to an Undead dungeon on a SPECIAL Quest, with the intent of joining a party of other Adventurers.  Sadly for him, the only Adventurers he saw were killed before he could join them, which resulted in him tackling the dungeon alone.

Successful because his healing spells were able to damage the Undead, he learned that he couldn’t advance past Level 21 without a new Class.  The only way to get a new Class was from a Support Representative, none of whom were available until the rest of the Contenders arrived.  Forced to wait, he accumulated the maximum amount of reserved PICK (Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge) through the completion of multiple Quests, and he was able to earn more gold than he could easily spend. 

When the Contenders finally arrived, his Level was unexpectedly reduced back down to 1 – but he still maintained all of his stat increases from previous Levels and Achievements.  With his reserve PICK, Thaden was able to raise his Level back up to 21 and acquired a new Class, Lifewarden, an Epic class that allowed him to cast up to Major strength spells.

On his way to test out his new Class, Thaden was followed by a group of new Contenders who wanted his help as a healer, but they ended up dying to the Undead, who were much too powerful for their low Level.  The new Lifewarden resurrected them and invited them to participate in a run through the Maximal difficulty of the Mausoleum of Despair, where Thaden barely succeeded in defeating the Boss, a powerful, vampire-like monster who was 40 Levels higher than his own.  Along the way, he learned from the Contenders with him how to Extract loot from his kills, which was then stored in his Inventory, something he wished he had known about earlier.

Back at the Adventurer Coalition, Thaden was able to help many of the Contenders who were considered “broken”: those with a mental trauma that prevented them from functioning properly.  This, of course, garnered a lot of attention, but he passed himself off as simply a helpful non-Contender, so as not to engender too much animosity among the other Contenders. 

Unfortunately, an unexpected message from the Assimilation System to all Contenders a week after their arrival outed Thaden, revealing the truth that he was actually a Contender – and that he was already Level 45.  This put him at the top of multiple leaderboard Rankings, something he wasn’t even aware of until that point.

With a target on his back, as after Level 21 he was able to be killed by other Contenders, the new Lifewarden had to run.  Escaping from Ashcleft through the intercession of the Town Guard, Virlo, Thaden left the town that had witnessed the first steps on his journey as a Contender.  Heading to parts unknown, he changed his visible name and Level to blend in with everyone else, but he ended up avoiding most towns along the way, as their residents became suspicious of someone traveling alone.

After a relatively unremarkable journey, the Lifewarden eventually arrived in a massive city carved into a mountain, named Forgestone.  There he hoped to blend into the larger Contender population while he searched for some dungeons to delve through by himself.  At one of the Adventurer Coalition branches in the city, he met Veronia, the Vice-Leader of the Coalition for that branch, and he was able to upgrade his Badge to Silver, netting himself a posh “Silver”-ranked room to stay in.  After availing himself of the facilities, Thaden decided to tackle the Magma dungeon located below the city, as it was close by and right within his Level range.

Unfortunately, after defeating the Boss of the Magma dungeon, the Lifewarden learned that it was something called an “Anchor” dungeon, and clearing it on Minimal difficulty triggered “Developmental Phase 2” – and all hell broke loose.  In this case, hell was unleashing Level 55 Magma Worms upon the city, killing Contenders and citizens alike while the city was destroyed.  Thaden managed to kill the Magma Worms, nearly dying in the process, but by that point, the city was essentially lost.

Angry at the high-Level Guards and the Vice-Leader of the Coalition for not protecting at least the people of the city, his outburst upon confronting Veronia caused her to attack him, which forfeited her life in the eyes of the Assimilation System – killing the Level 100 before his eyes.  Having learned that the Charee, or anyone else placed there beforehand by the System, would not help in any serious confrontation with the monsters of Tarth, Thaden knew that if he didn’t want the same thing to happen again, it would have to be him that addressed the two other Anchor dungeons that were part of a SPECIAL Quest assigned to everyone in the Region due to Developmental Phase 2. 

Why?

Because he was the only one with a high-enough Level to complete those dungeons before time ran out.

But before he could tackle them, Thaden needed to visit another city to evolve his Class once again.  Journeying to Rageharbor, a city near a turbulent sea, the Lifewarden completed The Den Dungeon along the way, testing himself against the strongest monsters he’d fought up until that point – and adding to the PICK he’d been accumulating as he hit the Level limit of 63 before Class Evolution.

Near Rageharbor, Thaden discovered that the conflict among Contenders, especially those who had reached Level 21, was worse than he feared, as he came across what he later learned was a Guild, which had slaughtered three women just because they refused to join them.  After resurrecting those women while hiding his identity, the Lifewarden entered Rageharbor and attempted to evolve his Class with the Support Class Representative, only to learn that he needed to complete a Minimal- and a Medial-difficulty dungeon with a full party of 5 as part of his Support Class Evolution Assignment.

After finding a desperate group of Level 20s who needed money to join a Guild – so that they wouldn’t be slaughtered immediately upon obtaining Level 21 – he convinced them to complete both difficulties of the Crestline Gorge dungeon a relatively short distance away from the city.  Unfortunately for them, their actions were noticed by the Execution Guild in particular, which ended up not boding well for everyone involved.

Thankfully, completing his Evolution Assignment allowed Thaden to obtain the Solitary Shaman Class, a Legendary evolution that made him more suited to a solitary role.  Along with upgrading all of his spells in strength and allowing him to learn Superior-strength spells, it eliminated all of his channeled spells, gave bonuses to spells cast on himself, and also made all of his Single Cast spells able to target himself.  On the other hand, it also penalized spells cast on allies and reduced the amount of PICK earned from killing monsters or through Quests or Achievements for himself and allies by a significant amount.

Leaving the city of Rageharbor with the intention of visiting The Devil’s Nail dungeon to see if he could obtain Support-Class loot from there, Thaden learned that the Execution Guild had taken some of his “friends” hostage, and that if he didn’t show up and reveal his abilities, they would be killed.  He decided that he was done playing around with people and headed to the meeting place to confront them.  When he arrived, he discovered that the group that he’d partied with to complete the Crestline Gorge dungeon, as well as the three women he’d resurrected a few days before, were all dead, without any possibility of being resurrected.

It was at that point that a message from the Assimilation System informed everyone that a month had passed since the Contenders had arrived, updating the Rankings – but also changing something significant about the way the “PvP” system worked.  For those who had killed another Contender, they would be marked with a black aura around them that would last for 72 hours, allowing them to be killed without a penalty; in addition, for those who were attacked by someone who was a lower Level than them, they would be able to fight back.  The only caveat was that if they killed their attacker, they would receive a temporary black aura, but that consequence was better than allowing themselves to be killed without being able to defend themselves.

This timely change allowed Thaden to absolutely destroy the Execution Guild members who were trying to force him to submit, as they all had black auras, as well as some of the higher-ups from the Guild who came later to investigate.  Thaden now discovered that looting the corpses of those he killed was possible, and he thought this development would make killing those with a black aura even more tempting than before – and cause a whole bunch more chaos in the process. 

Regardless, it wasn’t his problem anymore, so he continued his journey to The Devil’s Nail to the north.  As he stopped for the night in a forest, Thaden learned that his new Support Class Evolution Assignment for Level 189 was going to force him to join something called a “Raid Party” consisting of at least 100 people, and to complete an “Intermediate” dungeon at Level 160+ with no casualties.

While this threw a wrench in his plan to continue soloing through the world of Tarth, such a development was something to worry about later.  After all, he had two time-dependent SPECIAL Quests to worry about completing.  Of course, he had to find the Anchor dungeons first, but that was of secondary importance to him at the moment.

Because it was time to get some better equipment.

Visiting the Devil’s Nail dungeon, which supposedly had high drop rates for Support-Class gear, he was surprised to find that the Maximal difficulty was filled with angels and other types of angelic beings – all of whom were a much higher Level than him.  After managing to work his way through the dungeon by himself, he was nearly killed by the Dungeon Boss through its incredible Level Compression.  Somehow surviving, Thaden acquired amazing rewards, though most of them would have to wait until he was a higher-Level in order to take advantage of them. 

Staying at Level 70, so that he could benefit from the PICK he would receive from the dungeons he would be visiting in his search for the Anchor dungeons, the Solitary Shaman made his way through the entire Region, completing a total of 21 dungeons without success in his Quest.  Along the way, he also acquired some training on how to apply his Personality stat to talking to people and warning them of potential attacks once he completed the Anchor dungeons, and he even unlocked a Psychic Resiliency Competency from a fellow Contender named Muriel, a Lesser Succubus Class. 

With his failure to find the Anchor dungeons, his last hope was a contact with the Guilded Glory Guild, which was a Guild dedicated to gathering information and making money, but they unfortunately weren’t able to locate the Anchor dungeons, either.  Dejected and disappointed in his inability to complete the SPECIAL Quests, Thaden decided to start Leveling-up a little, but his accumulation of PICK had reached a breaking point, since he hadn’t used any of it since he started his search.  When he acquired another Achievement that led to additional PICK, the Assimilation System and his own body became overloaded with PICK, causing it all to be spent at once, inflicting incredible pain as it shot his Level all the way up to 189.

Unlocking a total of 30 new spells in his Support, Defensive, and Spiritual categories, as well as increasing his stats by leaps and bounds, Thaden was now incredibly powerful.  Able to wear the Legendary Healthful Protection set that he’d acquired at The Devil’s Nail dungeon, he no longer wished to disguise his name or Level, as he found that it had only caused trouble for him.  Unfortunately, as a result of his Level increase, his Personality stat had hit rock-bottom, so he ventured to Darkwood Vale to find crafters who not only could create equipment that would boost his Personality, but would also be able to upgrade his belt.

While there, he visited the Adventurer Coalition and discovered that he could finally upgrade his badge to Diamond Rank.  Unfortunately, the Region Leader who could do that turned out to be the father of Veronia, one of the Vice-Leaders who died back in Forgestone, and he had lost his mind.  His despair led to the summoning of a monster originating from the Adversary, which Thaden was unable to kill as it was a much higher Level than him.  An imbalance of power between the Adversarial monster and the Region Leader led to an explosion that blew up the Coalition building and killed many Contenders, but it also gave Thaden the credit for the monster’s demise.  After nearly dying, he was shocked to find that the Assimilation System reverted the exploded section of the city back to normal, bringing everyone back to life and wiping the minds of everyone but Thaden.  The Region Leader had changed, allowing Thaden to finally acquire a Diamond-Ranked badge, as well as a cushy room that went with it.

Back on track after those events, the materials needed to craft a belt suitable for him were only available in the Darkwood, a massive forest near Darkwood Vale, and he entered it to find some Arachne.  While deep inside the forest, he stumbled across a group being attacked by the higher-Level monsters, and he saved them – only to find that they were part of a SPECIAL Quest to save one of their party members from the Arachne.  Thaden joined them on the Quest, which turned out to lead to the first of the Anchor dungeons he was looking for.

Completing the Quest and saving their party member turned out to be contrary to the System’s plans, however, as an issue came up when the catalyst to have the Arachne rise up and attack Darkwood Vale was never activated.  As a workaround, the System wiped the minds of his temporary party and completed the SPECIAL Anchor Quest without an attack on the city, but it also sped up the time limit on the remaining SPECIAL Quest.

Deducing that the last Anchor dungeon was located inside the Ragewater Sea, the Solitary Shaman rushed there with all haste, applying the full extent of his new Celerity stat to arrive before time ran out.  Before long, he had figured out how to enter the Coral Tower of the Departed underneath the Sea, and he made his way down to the bottom, where he learned that he had just unleashed the might of the Samudran armies upon the city of Rageharbor. 

In his haste to escape the trembling tower, he exited through the designated portal – only to find that the Assimilation System had finally caught up to him.  Managing to survive the ordeal of being nearly crushed by the incredible weight of the deep Sea above him, Thaden was trapped in a bubble at the bottom of the Sea for months as the world went on without him.  When he was finally released, he discovered that many events occurred while he was gone, including the successful repelling of the Samudran armies against Rageharbor, as well as the start of Developmental Phase 3, which he learned was centered around Intermediate dungeons and large Raid Parties.

But Thaden was more prepared for that than ever; he had acquired many new Achievements and rewards for his actions in completing the final SPECIAL Quest, as well as during his confinement under the Sea.  Apart from that, he also learned that a full year had passed since the Contenders officially arrived on Tarth.  The announcement to that effect was accompanied by the revelation of new information available about the Contenders within the Rankings, along with prizes for their placement on those Rankings.

Thaden managed to snag first place in 6 different categories and #89 in a seventh category, granting him a variety of items, as well as an upgradeable Achievement.  The “Mystery” boxes he received for getting first place were incredible and better than he could’ve ever imagined as prizes – but even he wasn’t aware of how they would eventually change everything.

With his stressful ordeal finally over, it was time for Thaden to integrate himself back into the world and finally complete his Evolution Assignment, so that he could evolve his Class and get back to being the strongest Contender on Tarth.  Now that the other Contenders had somewhat caught up to him in Levels and would be capable of tackling Intermediate dungeons on Minimal difficulty with a Level of 160+, he thought that it should be easy enough for him to knock the Assignment out within a few days.  

Unfortunately, Thaden hadn’t factored in the changes the System had undergone while he was absent.  The most prominent of those changes was the rise of the Contender Guilds, which had previously been a simple social construct organized among Contenders; after the System embraced the idea behind Guilds, however, Thaden’s prospects for finding a party to help him achieve his Evolution Assignment fell to virtually zero.  Because in addition to the Contender Guilds rising to prominence, basic information about Contender Classes became common knowledge, and with his Class’s detrimental PICK accumulation while in a Party, no one wanted him in their Guild.

After experimenting and discovering that he could complete an Intermediate dungeon on Minimal difficulty by himself, the Solitary Shaman was surprised when his reward from the yearly Rankings – Adaptable Mimicry Plates – suddenly created for him a “companion”, though not one that he wanted to deal with in its original form.  Instead of a seductive succubus that was inclined to call him “Master,” he decided to turn Sadia into a giant squirrel.  In addition to changing her appearance, once Sadia fully connected with his memories and understood what had happened to him in Tarth, her personality changed, and she became a friend and a true companion to him, offering him advice and helping him fight in the dungeons.

At her suggestion, he offered a contracted opportunity to the business-focused Guilded Glory Guild and its leader, Rachel, to become a subsidiary of the Guild.  In return for helping to essentially power-Level members of the Guild in Raid Parties, including a particular Lieutenant of the Guild named Corinna who had taken a fancy to him, they would help him complete his Evolution Assignment so that he could finally move past Level 189. 

After fulfilling the initial requirements of the contract without any issues, things went wrong when the Guild’s leadership Raid Party took him to complete the Descent Into Darkness Dungeon, where it turned out that an extremely powerful Adversarial Elite had taken control of the dungeon, and they were altering the minds of those who ventured inside.  Thaden managed to keep himself free of its influence, but he was chased out of the dungeon by the Elite, unfortunately leaving everyone else behind.

When he returned to Darkwood Vale, his own Raid Party members learned about their fate, and knowing that they were still alive, left Thaden to see if they could be rescued.  While they investigated his claim that they were lost inside the dungeon, Thaden finally evolved his Class – though in a way he wasn’t expecting.  Unknowingly forced into picking a Unique Class called Omenic Drifter, which was similar to his previous Classes but focused a lot more on his Fortuity stat than ever before, he despaired at some of the negative side-effects of the Class, such as a 1% chance that single-target spells and abilities used near him could cause instant death, that would make his position in the Guild even more difficult than before.

Somehow, his Raid Party succeeded in finding the Guild Leadership outside the dungeon, and while Thaden suspected that they were being mind-controlled, he couldn’t find any evidence of Adversary-tampering within them at all.  Giving them the benefit of the doubt, he took on a much harder dungeon that included a Horde Siege Challenge, completing it first solo and then with a Raid Party – which resulted in a huge win for the Guild, catapulting them to the top of the Rankings.

To celebrate the victory, the Guild leadership decided to throw a party, inviting the majority of the Guild’s members to attend.  While dancing with Corinna and preparing to leave with her to find somewhere more private, Thaden was shocked when the Lieutenant and the other members of the Leadership Raid Party that had gone missing suddenly exploded, killing everyone else at the party and launching the Omenic Drifter through the city.  Barely surviving the explosion, Thaden sensed the Level 700+ Adversarial Elite had somehow snuck into the city, and as the only one with even a chance of killing it before its influence spread too far, he made the decision to finally Level up as high as he could, bringing him to Level 294.  Now able to wear his new Lucky Vagabond set of equipment, as his Healthful Protection set and all of his other accessories were destroyed in the explosion, he took on the Adversarial Elite.

But not everything went to plan.  It turned out that the Elite could speak to him, somehow seemingly recognizing Thaden as an ally, and supposedly powerful enough to be a “Director”.  Playing along while he figured out how to kill the powerful, shadowy beast, he was thoroughly confused when the Elite referenced spatial pockets, nexus points, and the unlikely premise that the sucking out of the souls that the Soul Harvester was removing from deceased members of the Guild – making them unable to be resurrected afterwards – was actually helping to save them. 

After the Adversarial being discovered that Thaden wasn’t actually an ally, a fierce battle ensued between Thaden and the Soul Harvester, with the Omenic Drifter barely coming out on top.  While he was exhausted after the battle, the entire area was subjected to intense scrutiny by the Assimilation System, which had been blinded to the Elite’s presence beforehand, while he and other helpers started to Resurrect those inside the destroyed building.

While Thaden managed to find most of his Raid Party members and bring them back, the Guild leadership seemed to have been completely obliterated – including Corinna.  Nearly out of strength and despairing that he’d ever find any trace of the woman he’d been dancing with only hours before, the Omenic Drifter finally looked up – and found an unrecognizable clump of something smeared above his head.

With joy in his heart, Thaden Resurrected Corinna, happy to have found her despite the worry that he was too late.  Unfortunately, even with her back, the recovery of Guilded Glory was a full-time affair with her being the only ranking member of the Guild having been Resurrected.  In addition, his Leveling-up before the battle with the Harvester meant that the Omenic Drifter could no longer lead Guild Raid Parties because he was now more than 50 Levels higher than the rest of the members, so he was forced to go it alone once again. 

Fortunately for Thaden, he still had Sadia to accompany him as he explored Medial difficulty Intermediate Dungeons throughout the Region.  While they certainly held stronger monsters and had unique challenges to them, they weren’t too difficult for him to complete, netting him millions of PICK that he could use in reaching an even higher Level in the future.

That all changed when he encountered a corrupted dungeon called The Ascent, which trapped him inside without his squirrel companion.  Making his way through deadly traps to the top of a mountain, he faced yet another Adversarial entity, this one being a Level 492 Nexus Corrupter.  After learning some more disturbing information from it, he destroyed the Corrupter and escaped the collapsing dungeon, only to emerge back into a situation he wasn’t exactly prepared for.

The Wardens of Tarth, a powerful force of individuals protecting the developmental world, had come to investigate not only the instances of Adversarial entities, but Thaden, as well.

After escaping their reach, the Omenic Drifter increased his Level to 450 because he was starting to reach his PICK reserve limit again.  Once that was done, Thaden decided to challenge a Maximal difficulty Dungeon, but on his way to one he discovered yet another corrupted dungeon named The Badlands.  While inside, the Wardens track him down and enter it to confront him about being a possible agent of the Adversary, only to find themselves way over their heads with the quantity and strength of the monsters inside. 

Following their almost complete slaughter by the monsters, Thaden resurrects and negotiates with the suspicious Level 567 Aelveen Wardens, which ultimately leads to them accompanying them to the dungeon’s exit – where they ware promptly destroyed by a Legion Commander because they insisted on fighting it without him.  After destroying the Commander and resurrecting the chunks of the Wardens that were left behind, the much-subdued Aelveen agreed to work together to clear out the Adversarial corruption. 

But first, Thaden wanted to finally solo a Maximal difficulty dungeon, which he did shortly thereafter in The Mines of Khanordun.  After surviving endless waves of increasingly powerful monsters – with Levels all the way up to 999, in fact – he received some Artifact-rarity equipment with a Growth property on them.  By allocating his PICK absorption to the equipment, he could cause them to grow and become powerful, while also adapting to his fighting style.

As he and the Aelveen Wardens quickly cleared corrupted dungeons, the System issued a Quest to stop a dungeon breakout from The Warpath Dungeon, and Thaden goes alone to fight the Ogres that emerged.  While he was able to clear most of them, he entered into a conflict with the extremely suspicious Charee Wardens as they fought the last group of Ogres, and he was forced to defend himself against them, killing and resurrecting them multiple times before the Aelveen intervened. 

While the Charee Wardens were handled by the Aelveen he’d been working with, Thaden was sent to The Warpath Dungeon to clear it of corruption, where he battled against another Legion Commander.  During his fight with the Commander, it uses a boost to make it even stronger, but it still couldn’t stand up against the Omenic Drifter’s power, and fell shortly thereafter.  Unfortunately, the boost caught the attention of the System, and as he was leaving the dungeon, he was caught and held for a time in a sort of in between place, before finally being let go.  During this time he was held captive, The Citadel Dungeon, which was the essentially the capstone Intermediate Raid Dungeon that needed to be completed to end Developmental Phase 3, had been taken over by the Adversary and began emitting large amounts of dangerous energy.

Too late to stop it completely, Thaden rushed north, only find that the Wardens were fighting a losing battle against the construct-like monsters coming from The Citadel.  After discovering how to fight them and was eventually beginning to push them back, the Omenic Drifter was chased inside by a massive Boss, where he eventually arrives at a lift that brought him to the roof of the massive dungeon. 

There, he was met by the Boss of The Citadel, the Stalwart General.  However, before he could even attempt to fight it, the General exploded as an Adversarial agent named Director Belyssa replaced it – and he immediately knew she was quite powerful.  After she attempted to smother him with Adversarial energy, cutting him off from the Mana that filled the environment, Thaden found that he was actually generating Mana and fought back with the energy that he was essentially composed of.  The ensuing battle of energy caused an explosion that destroyed The Citadel and sent him flying uncontrollably toward the Wildlands.

After waking up after a bout of unconsciousness, Thaden discovered that he was far from Region #1, and that Developmental Phase 3 had been forcibly completed far ahead of when it should’ve been – which was, unfortunately, a common occurrence when it came to Thaden.  Now, with the final Developmental Phase starting, Thaden has to figure out how to salvage the situation he found himself in, even as millions of bestial roars reverberate through the Wildlands as the NESTs around him begin to activate….

Divine Fusionist is now on audiobook!

The 8th and final book in the Magical Fusion series, Divine Fusionist, is now on audiobook! Miles Meili delivers another awesome performance in over 15 hours of LitRPG and crafting goodness!

Audible US: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0FBMMP81J

Audible UK: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0FBN3RM12

_______________

Larek is now ready to face those who stole his family away…

All Larek wanted in his life after learning that he could make Fusions was to practice and improve upon his new ability, and to create the best and the most creative formations that the world had ever seen.  He had largely accomplished that, but there always seemed to be more to learn about the art of Fusion creation; while resting up after his newest battle successes, he stumbles upon something that would change the way he thought about Fusions forever.

That new knowledge would be needed, as it is time to start looking toward the final confrontation with the Gergasi and their Enclave.  Ridding the Kingdom of their presence wouldn’t just be beneficial for the people living in it, but would also give Larek the chance to free his family from their clutches. 

With the Volunteers and the Scission Interception Corps now behind him, all of the Scissions, Apertures, and Calamities he’d helped to fight and close in the past have led to an upcoming confrontation of monumental proportions.  Unfortunately for the Fusionist and his friends, things won’t be as simple as an epic battle between powerful entities, as a new danger cropping up in the Kingdom threatens to throw his entire plan out the window.

Will Larek be able to save the Kingdom and rescue his family in the process?  Find out now in the final book in the Magical Fusion series!

This weak-to-strong MC story contains LitRPG elements such as character progression and statistics, as well as a heavy crafting emphasis. No explicit sexual content or harems.

The Lone Keeper is on pre-order!

The first book in a new series, The Lone Keeper, is now on pre-order for a June 25th release!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBR43P4D

The Retrogression System made a mistake when they forced Humans to join them…

At first, when Bax suddenly found himself transported from Earth to an organization of powerful, universe-spanning races, he was thoroughly confused.  After he learned that his world was being forcefully inducted into something called the Retrogression System, which would introduce monsters to the Earth while eliminating all of the technology of the Humans living there, he understandably panicked.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that Bax or the Keeper Recruit program that he suddenly found himself being enrolled in could do about it.  Instead, he was told that he had to learn how to be a Keeper, which was a powerful protector of the worlds included in the System in which the Earth was now a part.  More than that, he was to become a Keeper Guide, a teacher of sorts for future Human Keepers once the Retrogression cycle began anew.

The only problem was that he had been transported from Earth while he was in the early stages of the flu he’d contracted from a co-worker.  Bax’s experience being ravaged by the virus was unpleasant, to say the least, but he eventually recovered with enough rest.  However, when he finally emerged from his room, ready to really start his learning as a Keeper Guide, he quickly discovered that the rest of the Cooperative seemed to be abandoned.

Now, what is a Keeper Guide recruit to do when there’s no one left to teach him?

This story contains an overpowered main character, LitRPG progression mechanics and stats, and isekai/portal fantasy elements.  Contains no sexual content or harems.   

Plans for June 8-13

Well, I finished all of the follow-up stuff for The Lone Keeper, and it is in the hands of the beta-readers now! I had a few days off, which has been awesome, and I'm ready to get started on Healer book 6 on Sunday (with the first chapter probably on Monday).

I also approved Divine Fusionist on audiobook, which I'm hoping will be available at some point next week. I'll be spending some time promoting that when it does come out, but I'm still hoping to get 5 Healer chapters done next week.

In addition, next Saturday I'll be at the Global Fest in Aurora, CO, so if you're in the area, come visit me inside the Aurora Public Library.

Plans for next week:

Sunday: Planning for Healer Book 6

Monday-Friday: Writing/promoting Divine Fusionist audiobook

Saturday: Global Fest appearance in Aurora, CO

Have a great weekend!

Plans for June 1-6

Well, I finished The Lone Keeper! At least as far as the story goes, though I'll be working on editing, revisions, beta-readers, blurb, pre-order, and everything else that goes along with finishing the book :)

Starting next week, I'll start releasing the chapters for my $2 and $5 Patrons, and it will all be available before it comes out on Amazon -- which I'm guessing will be toward the end of June.

I'll also be taking a few days off next week before I start on Healer Book 6, which will start with the planning on June 7th.

Plans for next week:

Sunday-Monday: Editing/Revisions on The Lone Keeper

Tuesday: Send to beta-readers/blurb/pre-order up

Wednesday: Finish up anything left over

Thursday-Friday: Off

Have a great weekend!

The Lone Keeper cover art sneak peek!

I finally have the cover for my new story! I ended up naming it The Lone Keeper, as it seemed like it encapsulated what Bax is in the book. I haven't decided whether or not to change the name of subsequent books or simply add a "2" and "3" to them, but I can decide that later.

My hope is to have it out on Amazon/Kindle by the end of June!

Plans for May 25-30

Unfortunately, I didn't get a second chapter done today -- though it's about 2/3 done; I'll finish it on Sunday! This week wasn't as productive as usual, as I ended up taking some time off to go on a date with my wife before my daughter's last day of school (which was on Thursday), and we also had a few end-of-the-school-year events that I had the opportunity to attend. That's all done now, though, and I have nothing that should take me away from writing next week!

If everything goes well, I'm hoping to be done with this book by Friday, May 30th!

In addition, once it's finished, I'll start releasing chapters to my $2 and $5 Patrons, and both tiers will have the entire story before it releases on Amazon.

Here are my plans for next week:

Sunday-Friday: Writing!

Have a great weekend -- and Happy Memorial Day to those in the US!

Upcoming In-Person Events

I thought that I would give everyone a heads-up for the in-person events that I have coming up this year! I did very few last year, but this year I felt like getting out there and having some fun with some conventions and the like :) They are all local, however, but I'm hoping to branch out to out-of-state events next year.

If you're going to be in Colorado sometime this summer/fall, then perhaps I'll see you there! I'll be selling and signing paperbacks to add to your collection

This year, I'll be at:

Global Fest in Aurora, CO -- June 14, 2025

Fan Expo Denver in Denver, CO -- July 3-6, 2025

LitRPG Con in Denver, CO -- July 18-20, 2025

Colorado Springs Comic Con in Colorado Springs, CO -- August 15-17, 2025

Aurora Mini Con in Aurora, CO -- September 27, 2025

I also applied for the Colorado Festival of Horror in Lone Tree, CO, but I haven't heard back from them yet -- it would be September 12-14, 2025 if I do end up going.

Plans for May 18-23

I just passed 100,000 words on my new Tower story! I estimate that it will be another 40-45k words before it's finished, so my goal of having it done before the end of the month is looking good.

On Sunday, I'll be working on figuring out a title and cover details, so I may not have too much time to write. If anyone has any ideas for a title, you can comment down below! I have a few ideas already, but I'm always willing to entertain more :)

On either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday I have plans with my wife to take a vacation day before my daughter gets out of school in about a week and a half, so I won't be writing, but the rest of the week is devoted to getting more of my Tower story done.

And as a heads-up, I'll be getting to Chapter 30 next week, which means that will be the last chapter for my $5 Patrons; once the books is finished, I'll be releasing the remaining chapters for my $2 and $5 Patrons until they'll all be available before it publishes on Amazon.

Plans for next week:

Sunday: Title and cover details for Tower story

Monday-Friday: Writing (though there will be one day early in the week I'll be taking off)

Have a great weekend!

Tower Story -- Chapter 22

Chapter 22

“And you saw nothing?” Cherino, the Guildmaster of Lodgepoint’s local Adventurer’s Guild, asked.  He couldn’t keep the disbelief from his voice as he looked around at the gathered assortment of Adventurers surrounding him. 

“Nothing, sir.  It’s almost as if whatever monsters were here hit a wall and suddenly died.”

He waved around at the area just inside the forest near the edge of the fields.  “I can see that; what I’m asking for is an explanation.  This kind of thing doesn’t just happen.”

Glancing at his own Party, all of whom were more experienced than anyone else present, he was dismayed when they didn’t seem to have any better idea than the others who had been conducting the investigation.  Apart than them, no one else met his eye, obviously feeling disappointed by the fact that they couldn’t provide the answers the Guildmaster had asked for. 

When no one spoke, he turned to Hagrit, the originator of the Dungeon Break Task.  “What was the first wave of monsters supposed to have been?”

The Ranger’s eyes were staring around him in the same confusion that Cherino felt.  “I was only able to use Identification on a few of them before I fled, but they were Scaled Spikers around Level 30.  As soon as I recognized them as a full monster wave, likely from a dungeon break, the System automatically assigned the task.”

“I know that, Hagrit.  But did you see anything else out here that might’ve been able to do this?”

The sleek, dark-furred head of the cat-like Dwinaii shook in response to his question – which somehow didn’t surprise him.  After all, the Guildmaster couldn’t believe that anything could do this to the wave of the Scaled Spikers that had been headed in the direction of town.

“Any sign of additional waves?”  He’d never heard of only a single wave of monsters emerging from a dungeon before, even in the somewhat disjointed history that they had managed to hold onto when everyone had needed to retreat to Derelya for safety.  Even the weakest dungeons had at least 2 waves, so for there to be only a single wave was an unheard of occurrence – an even more unusual occurrence than an entire wave of monsters being killed by some mysterious means within seconds of each other. 

“There are signs of fighting further north, where there might have been additional waves, but there was nothing left behind like there was here.  I can’t tell for sure, but it seems like whatever killed these also killed the other monster waves – as unlikely as that seems.”

This entire situation was fishy, and he didn’t like it.  What could kill monsters like this in such a short amount of time.  Is it a Remnant that we’d missed?  Or is this an incredibly powerful Aberration that somehow showed up here?  Even if it’s either of those, that still doesn’t explain why they would be attacking other monsters, and not the town. 

Or what if it’s an elite Party from Arvoli?  The rumors say that there are supposed to be a few Parties that have managed to reach Level 50 through dangerously investigating reports of high-Level Remnants and killing them, but why would they be here?  Better yet, why wouldn’t they register their presence with the local Guild when they arrived in the area?

None of it was making any sense. 

As he stood there, trying to picture what exactly had happened, his excellent hearing caught a snippet of something that piqued his interest.

“—you think it could be the same thing?  I thought we agreed that they were just delusional from—”

His eyes pinpointed where the soft conversation was coming from, recognizing Palatto and his Party standing near the forest’s edge.  “Palatto!  Come over here!  What do you know?”

The addressed Adventurer swallowed nervously, before walking over to his Guildmaster.  “Sir?  What do you mean?”

“I overheard you saying something just a moment ago.  Would you care to explain?” Cherino asked, not bothering to expound on exactly what he’d heard, as he thought that the vagueness would simply draw more out of Palatto.  He wasn’t disappointed.

“Oh, uh, you heard that?  Uh, then you must’ve heard that it was probably just a delusion—oh, you want to hear it anyway?  Well, sir, you remember the appearance of the Pantherin yesterday and Arbino’s unfortunate death?  Apparently, his surviving Party claimed that something killed the monster in a single attack before disappearing, and that they had no hand in its death.  But that’s impossible, right?”

The current impossible situation around Palatto hadn’t seemed to occur to the Adventurer, but a raised eyebrow and a glance around the scene where multiple Level 30 monsters had been killed, seemingly within seconds of each other, finally got through his thick skull. 

Palatto cleared his throat.  “Oh.  I suppose that this could’ve been the same thing, then?”

“That’s what I want to find out.  I need to talk to Ladrexia and the rest of Arbino’s Party to see if I can get any more information from her.  For now, though, let’s wrap this up and get back to town; this has been enough of a disruption that there’s not point in wasting any more time.  With the Task completed, there shouldn’t be any more danger, but I want everyone to be ready if or when whatever did this decides to set its sight on Lodgepoint.”

He wasn’t sure what additional information he might get from Ladrexia that hadn’t already been reported to the Guild, but he’d do everything he could to coax any more knowledge she had of the event out of her.  As she and her Party were the only ones close enough to somewhat witness whatever it was that killed such a strong monster in seconds, they were the only source that might allow him to get to the bottom of everything.

Leaving the others to look for any additional clues around the area, the Guildmaster of Lodgepoint took his Party and headed back toward town, determined to solve this mystery – before it ended up biting them all in the butt.

It took less time to return to the wall and proceed through the town gates than it had when they cautiously decided to investigate the lack of a monster wave, and before he knew it, he was walking inside the entrance of his Guild branch.  Looking around, he didn’t see Ladrexia, Barton, or Glindir – the surviving members of Arbino’s Party – anywhere, but he suspected they were still recovering upstairs.  Losing a member of one’s Party was devasting and it typically took a few days to recover from such a traumatic experience, so they had been relieved from any Tasks until they were better; it was thought that their state of mind could lead to errors in judgment, endangering the lives of others, so unless it was an emergency – like a wave of monsters getting through the walls of the town – they were essentially off-duty.

What he did see was the enigmatic Level 2 Human that he’d been speaking to earlier after Killix ended up being injured somehow.  There was an odd confidence in the Human that exuded from his very presence that was hard to explain, especially given how weak he was, and at the time he’d been wanting to investigate further to see what was so strange about him.  Now, though, such things seemed unimportant in light of the mystery of the dungeon break that was somehow stopped by something more powerful than all of the Adventurers in town combined. 

Putting the thought of the odd Human aside, he moved toward the back of the building where the stairs were located, all of his focus on finding Ladrexia and the answers to his growing questions regarding the insanity that seemed to have infused recent events.  He’d get his answers, one way or another.

                    *

“How may I help you?” the still rattled-looking woman behind the counter asked Bax as he approached the counter.  The small bit of doubt in her tone was clear to his ears, but he thought that it was probably less prevalent than it would’ve been if he’d spoken with her before the entire dungeon breakout thing; while being attacked by waves of powerful monsters wasn’t exactly great, it had the benefit of helping to relax the suspicion and disbelief that he’d been forced to endure since he’d arrived in this world from random people who didn’t see him as anything but a Level 2 Human.

Despite hearing the slightly doubtful tone in her voice, he still did his best to smile at her in an encouraging way.  It was harder than he thought it would be to seem cheerful, as it had been nearly 2 hours of standing in line until everything in the Guild had seemed to return to normal.  He thought it might be even faster, considering that he’d seen many of the Adventurers – including the Guildmaster – return more than an hour before, but it seemed as though it took longer to put things to right than he expected.  Regardless, it was still probably a lot faster than if he hadn’t gone out and ended the threat himself, so he couldn’t complain too much.

“Hello there, Erinne,” he said, using Identification to see her name, along with the fact that she was Level 8, “I’d like to join the Adventurer’s Guild.”

She paused for a moment, before pointing over his shoulder toward the bar.  “Frindrick handles any of our new hires, and once you’ve worked here long enough, any open positions would be considered based on seniority—”

He held up his hand to stop her.  “I’m sorry, I may not have been clear.  I don’t want to work here, I want to become an Adventurer.  Can you help me do that?”

Erinne looked at him in shock, her mouth open as if she couldn’t believe what he’d just said.  “Uh, hold on a moment.  She left the counter and moved toward the Natruri in charge, and they had a short conversation that he could’ve listened into if he’d wanted, but he didn’t bother.  He could guess what is was about, after all, and he’d find out soon enough.  Erinne nodded at something the tall tree-person said, before returning.

“I’m sorry for the delay,” she apologized as soon as she was back in front of him.  “I was just confirming that we can accept any Humans into the Guild as an Adventurer, as you must be aware that such a thing is extremely rare.  Unfortunately, because there is a risk in devoting resources to a Human that may not be able to handle the demands that are required of its members, there is a hefty upfront fee in order to be accepted into the Guild.  This fee is non-negotiable, but it will be put toward any expenses such as lodging, supplies, and any other incidentals that are normally covered by the Guild for its non-Human members.”

They’re charging a fee to apply?!  And it’s only for Humans?  Now I know why I haven’t seen any Human Adventurers here.  I can somewhat understand it from the point of view of the Guild, as they don’t want to waste time and resources on Humans who have proven to be generally weaker than any other race, but it also feels extremely prejudicial and racist.

It made him slightly angry to hear why and how Humans were being excluded, but then he had to remind himself that he wasn’t there to enact a societal shift in the way things were done.  If anything, it was probably safer if Humans weren’t out Adventuring all the time, as they wouldn’t be on the front line against the monster threats out there in the world; he’d originally wanted to come to a world so that he could find a way to save as many Humans as possible, and it appeared as though that was already happening.  Except that instead of Bax swooping in as some sort of Human superhero, it was the other races that were doing everything they could to protect the Humans – even if some of them didn’t have the best attitudes toward his own people.

Nodding in understanding, he asked, “Fair enough, I suppose.  How much is this fee?”

“The fee for a Human application to become an Adventurer is 10,000 Magems.  In addition to the fee, they must also be tested to ensure they can meet the minimum standards in place for Rank 10 members.”

10,000 Magems!  That’s like 10,000 dollars back on Earth!  I can’t imagine that there are many Humans that could afford a fee like that.  They’re deliberately pricing them out of the opportunity to—

Calm down, Bax.  This isn’t the time to bitch about their policies regarding Human Adventurers.

“Wow, that’s… a lot,” he said after a moment.

“I know, and I’m sorry that you’ve wasted your time coming all the way here, but if you’re still looking for a position in the Guild, you can still talk to Frindrick at the bar—”

“Oh, no, that’s not necessary,” he interrupted her again.  Pulling out 10,000 Magems, which was thankfully easy as the tiny gems could be clumped together to form a larger magical gem when needed, he plopped the large Magem on the counter in front of Erinne.  “I’d like to become an Adventurer, please.”

The surprise in Erinne’s eyes when she stared at the large 10,000-Magem gem on the counter was like a balm to his rising annoyance.  The satisfaction as she slowly reached forward to handle the fee was worth all the bother, and he smiled at her as she looked back up at him.  “Uh, oh, alright.  I—I guess if the fee is in order, we can get you registered to apply for the Guild,” she touched the large Magem and made it disappear, likely into her internal inventory.  With it gone, she seemed to recover her composure somewhat.  “I can hold on to this for now while your application is processed, but remember that there will be a round of testing that needs to be completed in order for your membership to be approved.  If you fail, we will take a very minor fee for the testing, but the rest will be returned to you; upon failure, you will not be able to reapply for membership for an entire full year.  Are you sure you would like to commence with the testing?  Would you prefer to wait until you’ve, uh, gained a few Levels, perhaps?”

Bax shook his head.  “No, I’m good to go, anytime.”

“Uh, alright then.  Hold on for a moment.”  She went to the Natruri again, who looked up in surprise and stared at Bax when Erinne explained that the Human had officially applied to become an Adventurer and had paid the fee.  An uncomfortable minute passed as Bax stood still under the scrutiny of the Natruri, who he saw was named Arbon’thanwe’gherin, similar in length and complexity to the other Natruri he’d seen, before Arbon nodded and quickly walked toward a door near the back wall, stepping through it and disappearing.

“It’ll be approximately 15 minutes before the testing can commence.  Would you be able to sit over there,” Erinne said when she came back, pointing to a bench near the doorway the Natruri had passed through, “and someone will get you when they’re ready for the testing.”

“Sure,” he said, giving her another smile and walking toward the bench she’d pointed to without another word.  As he sat down, he felt the stares of quite a few people throughout the large bottom floor of the Guild building, but he ignored them.  Instead, he looked into his internal inventory space and saw the diminishing pile of Magems that he now had, which had taken a huge hit after paying 10,000 Magems for the application fee into the Guild.  He had just over 2,000 now, which was still quite a bit, but not as much as he’d had just minutes ago.

Then again, he had some additional things to sell now, courtesy of the monsters that he’d killed from the dungeon break.  He wasn’t able to get anything from the Spikers, as the Guild had been all over them when he went to pick them up, but from the Bearboons and Geckoyles he’d received some things that he thought that he could sell or convert into Magems.

Insulated Bearboon Fur

Uses: Material used for enhancing magical resistance in armor

Value: Unknown

Compressed Agate

Uses: Material used for adding durability to blunt weapons or sharpness to bladed weapons

Value: Unknown

He couldn’t help but think that these materials that he’d picked up would sell even better than the Carapaces and Blubber from the Bugeels, giving him more than enough Magems to get by.  But when he thought about selling them later, he quickly realized that there might be a problem with that.

If the Guild knows what kinds of monsters the dungeon that overflowed had inside of it, they might recognize the materials that came from them if they suddenly came on the market.  It might raise more than a few eyebrows if an influx of those materials suddenly showed up, and they would undoubtedly be able to track down where it came from – which would likely have me having to explain where they came from.

Crap.  Perhaps I can visit another nearby town and unload them there? 

It was a possibility that he thought might be necessary if he didn’t have another source of income soon, though he figured he’d be fine for at least a few weeks based on the prices he’d seen in town.  Plus, the “fee” he’d paid to apply for being an Adventurer was supposed to pay for things like lodging, which he now understood meant lodging inside the Guild building, so he wouldn’t have too many expenses.  Perhaps some additional clothes, given his penchant of destroying what he was wearing quite frequently, and food, of course.  But if that was it, he was pretty sure he could get by for at least a couple of months before running out of ready cash on hand.

If I don’t go visit another town or city to unload these materials, then perhaps by that time they won’t be as scrutinized when I try selling a few here and there in Lodgepoint.

He had a lot of options, fortunately, he just had to figure out what his priority was and how he wanted to handle the problems that came up.  Once he had that decided, he could work on his future plans.

The time seemed to pass slowly as he sat on the bench, and as 20 minutes came and went, he began to become impatient.  When another 20 minutes passed, he began to wonder if they had either forgotten about him or were deliberately delaying because he was a Human.  Finally, at about 45 minutes after he sat down, the door opened again, and the Natruri, Arbon, emerged and looked down at him. 

“I apologize for the delay,” he said, waving for Bax to get up and move through the door.  “After the dungeon break earlier, it took longer to arrange the testing than normal.  You may enter now.”

“Thank you,” he said, and walked through the doorway at the Natruri’s instruction, wondering what this testing could possibly entail.

Tower Story -- Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Everyone ignored him as the Adventurers rushed to either the walls surrounding the city or took off outside of the gates before they closed.  Bax followed the latter for a moment and no one remarked on his presence as he passed through gates that he had a feeling would be closing any second.  He looked off into the distance, past all of the fields that he’d worked in the day before, seeing nearby field workers sprinting back to the city from where they had been working when the alarm had been raised.    

At the very furthest of his vision, where the forest surrounded the last fields located as far as could be from the town, he could see even more workers out there, likely from a different shift from the ones that were nearest.  His eyesight couldn’t see into the trees too well, but based on where every other Adventurer was looking, he had a feeling that the dungeon break had come from that direction – and that the monsters that had spilled out of said dungeon were near.  If they were too near, then it was doubtful that these workers would get back in time – especially as it seemed that the Adventurers were only deploying themselves a little ways outside of the walls instead of rushing to save them.  On the one hand, his research in the Co-op told him that this was the right strategy, as it would allow the Parties out front to have the additional coverage from those on the walls; getting too far from them would only needlessly endanger the Adventurers, isolating them from their backup.

On the other hand, they were also abandoning the field workers to whatever fate would befall them if they couldn’t run fast enough back to town.  Having been one of those field workers, if only for a shift, as well as being mostly Humans in the group out there, he couldn’t help but feel that the Adventurers were making a mistake.  Logic be damned, he wasn’t going to let any of them die like he had the day before – especially when he could do something about it.

Besides, if he resolved this crisis himself—and quickly—he could go back to the Guild building and fulfill his purpose in going there that morning.  Sure, it was partially selfish on his behalf, but overall it would benefit everyone if this was done before anyone died.

Slinking along the walls and moving as fast as he could, he ran perpendicular to the fields as he aimed for the forest that surrounded the large swath of flat land on each side.  Once he was largely out of sight of the walls and the people looking out from them, he unleashed his full speed, practically disappearing from the field he was pushing through as he arrived at the trees, turning toward the threat as he tore through the forest with everything he had… 

…which was quite a lot.  In only a few seconds, he was even with the last fields, so he took a turn so that he was in the forest at the edge, out of sight of anyone who might be looking from the direction of town.  It was just in time, too, as he could hear the sounds of large bodies crashing through the trees, cracking some of them, while others were only scratched-up somewhat. 

As he leapt forward, he found the leading edge of a monster wave that had apparently emerged from a dungeon break.  While he had the presence of dungeons confirmed as soon as he arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild building, he didn’t necessarily know where the nearest ones were located; either this was a powerful new one that hadn’t been noticed before this, or it was one that had been ignored for entirely too long, but either way, the monsters were stronger than he expected.

Scaled Spikers

Level: 30

Highest Stat: Endurance

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

The Scaled Spikers looked like oversized buffalos that were covered in scales and had spikes extending from its knees, a dozen all over its back, two in its rear, and a huge one on their head that made them seem like they were some sort of deformed unicorn.  They were strong, but not overly so; their biggest strength was their Endurance, as their scales made them resistant to many different attacks, and the natural armor also helped to reduce the damage they took from magical effects. 

They were also pretty stupid and while they could get up to a fairly good clip when they charged forward, they had difficulty turning both while they were running and when they had stopped entirely.  Their entire attack pattern was to simply run into anything in their way, using the spikes on their body to kill everything within their field of vision, which was fairly narrow.

Them being between Level 29 and 31, based on a few quick Identifications, was concerning, because when a dungeon broke and monster flowed out to attack the nearest settlement in a wave, what typically emerged was on the low end of Levels compared to what was found inside the dungeon.  Therefore, a dungeon that had monsters that ranged from Level 10 to Level 25 would typically only have monsters around Level 10 to 12 emerge if the dungeon overflowed.  For this dungeon to have monsters emerge that averaged Level 30, then it was possible that the Level range for the dungeon itself could be top out at Level 45 – or even higher.  At least, that was what he learned in the Co-op Archives.

Given that he’d only seen the Guildmaster – and likely his Party – at Level 30, this could be a huge problem for them.  It was entirely possible that there were stronger Parties elsewhere that could be called in, but it was almost impossible for those that were already here could handle it.

Even this wave of monsters, which he immediately started to thin out as he jumped from Spiker to Spiker, using his fists to obliterate the heads of the monsters as he moved down the line, would’ve been a challenge for those in defense of the town to defeat.  Because these things couldn’t turn very well, and were stupid enough not to use any advanced tactics, they could do it, but getting through their scaly exteriors would be time-consuming for the Adventurers – which could end up with someone making a mistake and getting killed.  While he wouldn’t cry overly much if Killix or that Orc that he'd met the day before, Granok, were those that died, he’d rather not any of the others risk themselves.

Bax moved so fast around and ahead of the charging Spikers that they barely advanced 20 feet from when he first spotted them before the first wave was destroyed, their heads bashed in.  All told, he counted 25 of them that he’d killed within seconds, but he heard something else coming toward him in the far distance.  From his research, he knew that as time went on and dungeons became stronger and larger with subsequent higher-Level monsters, breakouts could feel nearly endless with dozens of waves, but based on how early it was in the cycle, he doubted there would be more than 2 or 3 waves.

That proved to be true as he went toward the strange hooting/roaring that he heard approximately a half-mile away, leaving the corpses of the Scaled Spikers behind to slowly fade away; looting them wasn’t a priority right now and could be done quickly after the crisis was resolved.  When he arrived at the next wave, he found that they weren’t more Spikers, but something else entirely.

Grey-Furred Bearboon

Level: 32

Highest Stat: Unknown

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Very High

Strangely enough, he hadn’t ever seen these Bearboons in the Keepers’ Tower, so he didn’t have much information about them.  What they looked like, however, was a mixture of an 8-foot-tall baboon and a bear; it had the lengthy arms of a baboon as well as the Dexterity to match its maneuverability as it swung through the trees, while also having the musculature of a grizzly bear, along with its deadly claws and jaws.  It was also fully covered in a stiff grey fur that appeared to be fairly durable, giving it an extra bit of protection from attacks.  Not nearly as much as the scaled exterior of the Spikers, but still better than bare skin.

They hoot-roared – which was an insanely odd sound – when they saw him approach, and as they were largely traveling by swinging from the branches of the trees, he was forced to jump up to them.  The first one he about to punch in the face managed to move just quickly enough to land a claw on his brand-new shirt, ripping a large tear on its sleeve – and he saw red at the destruction of his clothing.  He hadn’t been angry at them before, but now that one of them had torn something he’d just bought the day before, he accidentally took his frustration out on that initial monster.

Bax punched it so hard that it exploded from his impact site with its head, sending a shower of gore in all directions, including all over him and his clothing.  As he landed, he couldn’t help but see that his overreaction had essentially ruined all of his clothes as they were now stained with so much blood he wasn’t sure it would come out clean if he washed them, as well as dirtied him up more than a little bit.  His experience in the tower had proven that even though the bodies and most of the gore disappeared, sometimes the blood would linger based on how much there was. 

He could only sigh and hoped it wouldn’t be that bad, but he also reminded himself that he had spare clothing in his internal inventory in case it didn’t.  Resolved not to worry about it for now, he decided that he might as well take advantage of being covered in such a mess to go all out on the others without worrying about being neat.

The hoot-roars quickly turned into screams of pain as the other Bearboons focused on him, swinging toward him as if they were going to attempt to swarm him with their numbers.  Needless to say, it didn’t work, as it simply made it much easier to let them throw themselves at him on the ground, striking out at them with punches or even kicks – after removing his new boots so that he would absolutely destroy them with a single kick – as they arrived.  He punched a few of them so hard that they went flying, smashing into and through multiple trees as their bodies were broken apart.  He winced once when he accidentally hit one back upwards, breaking through the treetops as it went flying somewhere he couldn’t immediately identify, and he could only hope that no one back near the town could see far enough to notice it happening. 

In the end, there were only 20 of the Bearboons, which also made sense based on his research; the monsters had been a slightly higher Level than the Spikers, and subsequent waves typically had fewer individual monsters as a result of that fact.  It didn’t always happen like that, but the statistics said that approximately 95% of dungeon breaks followed that model.

When Bax finished off the last of them, he stood still in the middle of the relatively silent forest around him and listened for more anywhere.  It took him about 10 seconds of intently listening before he heard what he was fairly sure what was yet another wave, so he took off toward where he could hear the flapping of heavy wings just over the tree tops.

Crap.  I hate flying monsters. 

The problem he had with them was that he didn’t exactly have any real range to his attacks.  Most of the time, when he’d faced flying monsters in the Keepers’ Tower, he’d had to wait for them to fly down and attack him directly; if that didn’t work, such as when he fought a few different ones that had long-range attacks and wouldn’t fly down any closer, he’d had to try jumping toward them if they were low enough to reach, or he would have to throw whatever he had at his disposal at them and hope he got a lucky hit.  Fortunately, the ones that flew high and had long-range attacks weren’t common, and there were only 2 Floor Guardians that had those qualities throughout all of the Floors, so it hadn’t bothered him too much.

When he felt that he’d arrived fairly close to where he could hear them above the treetops but couldn’t see them quite yet, he jumped up a tree and rapidly climbed it, inadvertently tearing his pants in the process.  Damn it!  These clothes are going to be completely ruined by the time I’m done here.  Ignoring the additional damage, Bax was quickly up at the top of the tree he’d climbed, and could finally see the third wave of monsters that came from the dungeon breakout.

Stone Geckoyles

Level: 35

Highest Stat: Endurance

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

Seeing 15 Stone Geckoyles flapping their extremely wide wings, necessary to hold the weight of their large, stone, gecko-shaped bodies up in the air, he groaned at the sight.  Being stone, the Geckoyles were quite durable but slow, and he wasn’t sure if anything he threw up at them would do enough damage to kill them in one shot.  He might have great Strength and Dexterity, but that didn’t mean he had the best aim; throwing things hadn’t necessarily been something he’d ever been good at back on Earth, and that seemed to translate to his new existence as a Level 1,302 Keeper.  He was certainly a lot better than he was back then, but he couldn’t throw a paperclip and shave the wings off a fly like a superhero with spectacular aim could reportedly do; that being said, he could hit the broad side of a barn – perhaps even break a window in said barn.

Thankfully, it seemed as though his appearance at the top of one of the treetops was enough to get their attention, and with a grinding sound of stone-on-stone, he could hear their focus turn to him almost as one.  The whoomp of their massive wings fluttered the leaves beneath them as they swooped toward him, and he smiled as beckoned them on.  This is much easier than the Tower was; these monsters seem to act slightly differently from what I remember.  They were more defensive and many times strategized to stay away from me, but these ones just come right for me.

The whole change of tactics made it easier for him to kill them, of course, but in some ways it was a hassle.  Case in point, when the Geckoyles converged on him nearly at the same time, he was able to smash 3 of them into rubble with swift punches, but his precarious position on top of the tree didn’t afford him much leverage, meaning he was unbalanced when they crashed into him.  After the impact knocked him off, Bax felt a few of the extremely rough, stony, lizard-like bodies of the Geckoyles wrap around him and attempt to squeeze him to death while tearing him up, like a Boa Constrictor mixed with a cheese grater.  While they couldn’t actually hurt him, as his Endurance was too high for such attacks, his already torn clothing was shredded into scraps.

Guess I won’t be having them repaired like I hoped.

Crashing through branches on his way down to the ground, weighed down by a few tons of stone wrapped around him, Bax strained to get leverage to escape their constricting entanglement.  He could hear some cracking as he flexed his muscles, but the Geckoyles were so tightly up against him that it didn’t seem to do all that much.  He was basically in a straight-jacket made of stone, and while he was fairly sure he could eventually force his way out, he had no idea how long it would take; in the meantime, it was possible that the other Geckoyles not currently trying to kill him would keep moving toward town, where they would attack the Adventurers there – and potentially kill them, given that most of the monsters were around level 35.

Fortunately, he was saved from having to worry as he hit the ground with a BOOM, and the impact was enough to crack and loosen a few of the bodies around him, giving him just enough leverage to snap the torso of one Geckoyles in half.  Before they could rearrange themselves to keep his arms trapped by his sides again, Bax quickly smashed the remaining stony monsters wrapped around him, freeing himself and seeing that he was essentially naked again.  Annoyed, when the other Geckoyles dove down from above the treetops to finish him off, he starting picking up handfuls of the rubble around him and chucked it at the incoming monsters.  He didn’t have to aim too much because there were so many targets and mixed with the quantity of stone pieces within reach, he was able to throw the projectiles out at such speed and strength that it was like a shotgun blast that tore chunks out of the Geckoyles that had them crashing to the ground when their wings were clipped.

Many of them hadn’t died when they crashed down, but they didn’t survive much longer once he got among them.  Less than a minute after he first spotted them, the last of the Geckoyles collapsed in a pile of jagged stone, and Bax blocked out the sound of stone knocking against stone as the piles he left in his wake settled.  Cocking his head to the side, he listened for any sound of another wave on its way, but he couldn’t hear anything.  To be sure, he kept traveling toward where he thought the waves were coming from, and likely the dungeon itself, but after about 10 minutes and traversing many miles, he didn’t see any other threats heading toward town.

He also couldn’t find the dungeon that they’d originally come from.  From his studying of the Archives, he knew that the location of dungeons should act like a beacon to those sensitive to the energy of the world, but he didn’t feel a single thing.  While the books he’d read hadn’t mentioned it specifically, he suspected it had to do with his low Unity stat; he could barely connect with his own internal Mana and energy, so why would he be able to connect to the energy of the world?  It was yet another reason why he needed to up his Unity stat.

Despite not being able to find the dungeon, he wasn’t too worried about more waves coming from the same dungeon anytime soon.  Once they overflowed and sent out waves, it took a significant amount of time – something like 6 months to a year – for them to be able to accumulate enough monsters to do such a thing again. 

When he felt that the area was now as safe as it could be, at least from any more monster waves from the current dungeon breakout, he started making his way back to the sites where he’d fought and killed the Geckoyles, Bearboons, and Spikers.  It was easy enough to quickly pick up and store the items from the Geckoyles and Bearboons, at least the ones that he could find, when he started to reach the area where he’d stopped the Spikers, he heard voices nearby. 

Looking down at his current state of complete undress, he retreated and put on some of his spare clothes, as well as his boots once again just in case someone was near enough to see him.  While he couldn’t see himself directly, he could also sense that his face and hair were dirty from all of the carnage and the fight with the Geckoyles, so he decided to leave the loot from the Spikers there and retreat for now.  As he worked his way back to town via the forest to the side of the fields, he surreptitiously made his way to the river, slipped out of his clothes again, took a dip in the water to wash himself, and then got back out.  Another brief run back into the forest helped to dry himself off, and then he reclothed himself before making his way back to the town via the river gate.

Fortunately for him, almost everyone around the walls was looking in the opposite direction, and while he saw dozens of Adventurers still standing in defense, it appeared as though many of them had gone toward where the monsters had been coming from earlier – which was likely why he heard voices near where the Spikers had died.  Bax also assumed they were checking out why they hadn’t seen any waves of monsters, and it was possible that if they’d had a Task to go along with it, they were confused as to why it had been completed.

  Therefore, while a few people saw him slip into town, not a single one of them ever considered that it was the Level 2 Human who had stopped the threat to the town – which worked out exactly as he had hoped.  In the meantime, he made his way toward the Adventurer’s Guild building, wondering how long it would take for things to get back to normal so he could finally complete his objective in going there that morning. 

Even if the disturbance lasted a little longer than he hoped, at least now he was first in line and wouldn’t have to wait for a spot along the counters to free up.  With that thought in mind, he entered the building a few minutes later, walked over to the line he’d been standing in earlier behind Killix’s Party, and settled in to wait however long it was going to take for the Guild workers to come back so that he could finally join. 

Tower Story -- Chapter 20

Chapter 20

When Bax woke up early the next morning, it was still dark out.  Despite desperately needing sleep the night before, his body still didn’t need a long time to feel completely refreshed, which meant that he ended up getting up before the rest of those inside The Lazy Shipman Inn.  He actually considered it a blessing in disguise, as it gave him an opportunity to finally think about his situation and firm up a few plans for the immediate future – as well as some larger goals that he would look at for far into the future.  Most of those far-future goals were a bit unknown until he had more information, but his interactions from the day before had at least given him something to start with.

First, it was fairly clear that the Adventurer’s Guild had stepped up greatly to help with the defense of the towns and cities of the world, as what he’d read in the Archive somewhat downplayed their importance and priority – especially when there were Keepers there to help.  Now, though, it seemed that—out of necessity—the Guild was a lot more militant than a supplementary force used for combating local monsters. 

The introduction of Humans appeared to be a fairly important factor in this change, as his own people had taken on a lot of jobs that freed up the other races to concentrate on defense and proactively fighting monsters.  There were also quite a few Humans in town, outnumbering the other races by approximately a 2-to-1 ratio – at least as far as he’d seen.  While there hadn’t been any Humans in any real authority positions, as far as he could tell, they also didn’t seem to be treated poorly or forced into the positions they did have against their will. 

I wonder if there are so many Humans because we can reproduce faster than the others?  I still remember reading fantasy stories about Elves having low reproductive rates because they lived a lot longer than Humans – is that true for them here?  Is it similar for the other races?

Unfortunately, none of that information was in the Archive.  He was beginning to see how focused the information in the Co-op had been, as it focused on the Retrogression System, Keeper responsibilities, Classes, magical energy, and other physical training aspects – and not on what would necessarily be “common” information on normal society.  He supposed that made sense, as everyone being transported to the Co-op had likely lived within society for a while by that point, so it would be a waste to have that kinds of information when the training was specialized for Keepers.

Second, while it seemed as though the Adventurer’s Guild had a fairly good grasp on defending against the monsters out in the wild, he didn’t know if dungeons had appeared yet around the world.  The timing was pretty close to it, especially as it seemed as though the monster-Level progression was advanced for how many years it had been since the new cycle began.  This was something he would have to discover – and soon.  While Adventurers could likely handle them right now, especially as they would rather weak, eventually they might become a problem.

Adjacent to this was the fact that his Tasks weren’t populating.  Even though it seemed that other people were getting Tasks, such as when the Pantherin had attacked, his Task list had remained completely empty since he arrived.  If there were dungeons in need of eliminating by someone powerful enough, such as a Keeper like himself, he could only hope that he would be alerted by a Task.  Looking into this had to be a priority, as he didn’t think he’d be able to combat any large threats if he didn’t know they were there in the first place.

Lastly, Bax really needed to get a Class of his own to start working on his Unity stat.  The way he’d been immobilized by the town guards the day before had been a wake-up call on how lopsided his stats were, so he needed that to change.  In addition, he’d really like to acquire some more abilities and spells in addition to being able to punch stuff to death – though he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to Level his Class up, given that he needed to kill monsters at Level 1,302 or higher.

All of this would hopefully be started upon the coming day, as he was planning on visiting the Adventurer’s Guild.  He needed more information on just about everything about this world, as well as more knowledge about what happened while he was in Stasis, so that he could make future plans; if he was correct, then the Guild might have an Archive there or would know where it could be found to acquire that kind of information. 

In addition to granting access to some type of study material, in one way or another, the Guild was also where he hoped to find a Party so that he could finally get a Class.  He knew how it worked with Keepers, and even with future Guides, but none of the Keepers had ever directly joined a Party with non-Keepers or Adventurers, so he wasn’t sure if there was anything different he needed to be ready or watch out for. 

Again, that was another deficient area that the Co-op Archive didn’t cover.

Once he found a Party, unlocked his Class, and then likely left the Party to go out on his own again – as he didn’t want to put anyone else in deliberate danger – he would have to base his next objective on whatever he learned from the Guild.  He was hoping that, once he fulfilled the need to join a Party to unlock his first Class, his Task list might start working, allowing him to go from there and make some more concrete plans.

In the end, all of his thinking during this time could be summed up with one statement: Bax was more than capable and eager to help, but he wasn’t sure exactly how. 

Fortunately, he ended up spending enough time lazing around in his surprisingly comfortable bed thinking that dawn broke over the horizon.  One the first significant rays of the sun shone through his window, as well as hearing movement coming from down below in the kitchens, he figured that it was now relatively acceptable for him to really start his day.  Getting up and using the bathroom, he was tempted to look for some sort of bathing or shower room, but one step out of his room to look for it had him inundated with the smell of breakfast – and he was still slightly hungry from the night before. 

Resolving to bathe or shower later, Bax made his way downstairs, only to discover that he wasn’t the first one to arrive, as a third of the tavern was full of only Humans eating hearty breakfasts.  It was only when he saw them dressed similarly to the field workers from yesterday that he deduced that these might be the workers for another shift; if that was the case, then they apparently enjoyed the breakfast enough to eat at the tavern before heading out for the day.

When it arrived at his table a little bit later, it didn’t look like any breakfast he’d ever had before, but he couldn’t complain that it wasn’t delicious.  The eggs he had were oddly blue, the sliced bread he ate were dipped in a strange, orange batter, and the slab of tenderized meat had been cooked with an assortment of spices that was unusual – but it was so delicious that he ended up ordering another full meal for only 2 extra Magems.

After leaving another 5-Magem tip for his server, who was different than Adrelle from the night before, he left The Lazy Shipman and made his way out into the town that was currently waking up for the day.  He took his time reaching the Guild building, watching shopkeepers opening up their stores and generally taking in the entire vibe that flowed through the population.  It also gave him a chance to really appreciate being somewhere there were actual people, as he was still accustoming himself to not being alone anymore; the experience of having to suffer so long on his own hadn’t always been horrible, but he had certainly grown lonely after a while.  Thankfully, the time he’d been there – as he didn’t count his Stasis period when he wasn’t aware of anything – had only been a little bit more than a year.  He was fairly sure that if he’d had to experience a decade or more on his own, the loneliness would’ve been unbearable.

By the time Bax arrived at the entrance of the Adventurer’s Guild, there were a few groups of people moving in and out, signaling that it was already pretty active for being so early in the morning.  He walked inside and looked around, finding that the bottom floor was actually huge, and it reminded him somewhat of the Meal Hall in the Co-op – just on a smaller scale.  Dozens of table-and-chair sets were arranged along the left half of the large hall-like space, which had multiple support columns spread throughout it for structural stability, and there was a bar and open kitchen attached to it along the backside.  Bax estimated that a few hundred people could eat there simultaneously, which was quite an impressive sight considering what he'd seen thus far in this world and in the town.  It was also quite clean, similar to the tavern he’d just left, and while it wasn’t fancy-looking, it had a general “up-scale” feel to it that was hard to define.

Only about a third of the tables were filled, which he was surprised to see given how early it still was; each table that was occupied held 4 people, which he immediately identified as being Parties based on the closeness they seemed to have.  What also hinted that they were Adventurer Parties were their general state of dress and battle readiness, along with the fact that when he quickly used Identification on some of the groups, he found that—almost invariably—each table had people that were exactly the same Level.  While he didn’t look at all of them, he could see that their Level range spread from Level 12 to 26, though there might have been some outliers that he didn’t specifically look at.   

But what really clenched the fact that they were Adventurer Parties was the fact that he didn’t see a single Human among them.  That didn’t mean there weren’t any Humans in the room, as there were at least a dozen servers he saw running around, taking orders or delivering food, as well as cooking in the kitchen.  But their exclusion from the Parties he saw was quite obvious to him, and it only seemed to confirm what he’d noticed earlier when looking around town. 

Humans didn’t necessarily have access to authority here.  For some reason, this bothered him greatly and it took him a few seconds to wonder why this was.  He finally concluded that he’d been brought up being taught that Humans—at least on Earth—were the top of the food chain and had the smarts and technology to keep us there; here, among these other races who were naturally faster and stronger, had better access to magical energy, and were perhaps even smarter, Humans had proven to be worse at all of those aspects.  He had no idea how they would be once they Leveled-up enough to be formidable individuals, but his research in his Archive showed that they would be still be inherently worse – at least as far as stats went.

From personal experience, his own Leveling had shown him that he received a single point in Strength, 2 in Endurance and Dexterity, and 3 in Intellect with each increase in Level; he had to assume that this was similar for every other Human out there.  This was a total of 8 stat points per Level, which he thought wasn’t too bad – at least until he learned that the other races received, at minimum, 11 stat points, with Elves and Anjelou receiving 13, with the extra stat points typically being in the Intellect stat.  While this wouldn’t make a huge difference at lower Levels, at Level 11, this difference in stats was at least 30 points and likely more, especially given that the other races’ starting stats were also higher than Humans’.

Extrapolating that difference out a bit, if he was ever to meet someone of another race that was equal to his own Level, the minimum of a 3,900 stat-point difference would certainly be noticeable.  Even with his Divine Strength Trait, doubling his Strength, that still left another—at minimum—2,600 points spread throughout their stats that he had naturally missed out of because he was a Human.

So, while it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to not see any Humans among the Adventurer Parties, it still hurt to be aware that his people were considered somewhat “weak” and not worth the space in a Party.  It was only practical not to include them, after all, even as much as he didn’t like it.  That still didn’t explain why there weren’t all-Human Adventurer Parties, however, as he would’ve expected that they’d be fairly common with all the Humans around.  That was something he was looking forward to finding out, as it was a strange absence that he was confused about. 

Apart from the dining area, which took up approximately half of the large bottom floor, there was a lot going on in the other half.  A large board took up a good portion of the righthand wall, and it was filled with little slips of paper that he could see—once he focused on them—were filled with different types of Tasks.  There were Patrol Tasks, Escort Tasks, Monster Hunt Tasks, and even Dungeon Exploration Tasks – which answered a question he’d had about whether or not dungeons were now present in the world. 

To the left and right of the board were long counters with Humans staffed behind them in what looked like little booths.  Bax was fairly certain that this was the administrative portion of the Guild, a supposition that was only strengthened when he saw desks and relatively open cubicles behind the counters, with dozens of other Humans working on paperwork and other things he couldn’t see from his position.  There appeared to be a tall, Level 22 Natruri in charge of them all, at least that was his assumption by the way he was walking slowly among them and checking up on what they were working on.

In front of the counters were designated lanes marked by lines painted on the stone smooth stone floor, and there were 6 Adventurer Parties waiting in these lines, while all of the current Guild employees were occupied with others.  An iron vault large enough to walk into that was located behind the cubicles gave the impression that this was simply a large bank with an attached restaurant, though with the armed array of “alien” races acting as the clientele, it was unlike any bank that he’d ever been in before.

Bax’s arrival didn’t garner much attention, thankfully, though a few glanced at him when he walked in before turning away in disinterest.  He supposed that a random Human wasn’t that big of a deal when all things were considered, even if he was unfamiliar and only Level 2.  Then again, I doubt any of them even used Identification on me to check my Level.

That disinterest faded some as he walked over to the lines waiting for the Guild workers, stopping behind a Party that was waiting for their turn. 

“What are you doing?  Are you trying to get a position here?” he was asked by a small female Gnome as soon as he planted himself behind her Party in line.  “If so, you need to speak to Frindrick at the bar,” she continued, pointing toward the guy behind the bar on the other side of the room.  She didn’t necessarily sound annoyed or dismissive when she spoke; it was more that he wasn’t the only Human that had come in lately looking for a job at the Guild.  He supposed it might be a cushy position – but it wasn’t what he was there for.

“Oh, thank you, but no – I’m not here for a position; I’m here to join the Guild.”

The disbelief in her face was evident, but at least she didn’t guffaw like the male Vaneshta in her Party who had overheard.  “You?!  Join the Guild?  What role are you going to play in a Party… bait?”  At this, the devil laughed even louder at his own joke, which began to kindle the fury Bax had felt the previous day when that Orc had spoken about him like he was a worthless waste of space. 

However, knowing that it would probably be a good idea to keep his head in the situation, he tamped down the anger and said as evenly as he could, “No, not bait.  I believe that I could be a beneficial addition to any Party—”

“Sure, maybe if your Class is Tasty Sacrifice!” the Vaneshta practically shouted before almost doubling over in laughter. 

This, of course, drew the attention of anyone in the room that hadn’t been paying attention to the confrontation.  Even as the rage bubbled up further, he was saved from reacting unpleasantly—as much as he really wanted to—when the rest of his Party turned to him and, in fairly stern words, told him to essentially shut up.

“Stop it right now, Killix,” the Gnome said additionally, “or you’re going to get all of us in trouble for your untrue and unfair words.”  She turned back to Bax, and with an apologetic expression on her face and her hands pleadingly pointed toward him, she told him, “I really do apologize for his words, as he just a big, dumb moron that frequently speaks before he thinks.”

Bax nodded, his anger only simmering now, having reduced in intensity at the apology.  “Thank you.  I know it might be unusual, but I’m still determined to pursue this course of action—”

“Unusual!  The only thing unusual is you thinking that you can match up to any Adventurer here!  Face it, you’re weak and pathetic, and the only thing you’re good for is to serve food to a real fighter.  In fact, let me help you over there so you can get started,” the devil said, just as he walked toward the wannabe Human Adventurer despite the protests of his Party members. 

As if in slow motion, Bax could see Killix reaching for him with one of his meaty-looking, clawed hands, the intent to bodily pick him up and throw him toward the tables in the distance clear in his movements.  While he could’ve easily dodged out of the way, being much faster than the prejudiced Adventurer, the fury he’d been holding in check came to a boil and he did something that he thought he might regret later.

Moving faster than anyone could easily follow, Bax reached forward with both hands and grabbed Killix’s wrist with his left, before snapping his right fist down on the devil’s arm, snapping it cleanly at the elbow, before letting go.  Even before the hollow snap that echoed through the room reached his ears, he was back in the same position he had started in.

The Vaneshta was still reaching toward Bax when his arm suddenly bent in a way that it shouldn’t, and it took a few seconds, as well as a stumbling step forward for the pain to finally reach him.  He bellowed out in shock, looking down at his broken arm and, unable to comprehend how it had happened, he collapsed to his knees as the agony of the injury slammed into him.

“Killix!  What happened?!” the Gnome asked, staring at her Party member in shock.  A moment later, she was casting a healing spell at the shouting—and attention-grabbing—devil, pulling his arm into position so that it could heal easier.  There was some disturbance from somewhere near the back of the room where there were stairs leading up to the upper floor, but Bax was barely aware of it; his attention was on something else.

A Keeper’s use of force against world residents detected…

Assessing situational details…

Threat to Keeper’s health and safety by a higher-Level citizen confirmed…

Use of non-lethal force has been approved…

The stress of “non-lethal” in the System’s notification told him that if he’d done something as drastic as killed the Vaneshta, he would probably have been either reprimanded or punished – because it might have constituted as being equitable to murder, which he already knew was extremely frowned upon or forbidden.  This was especially true of Keepers, as there were System rules against violence against the citizens of the world, mostly to avoid the more-powerful Keepers from trying to use their power for nefarious ends.  While he hadn’t necessarily forgotten these rules and regulations that he’d learned about at the Co-op, the anger he’d felt when being ridiculed by the devilish Adventurer had somewhat suppressed that knowledge; in short, he hadn’t really cared at the time.

As much as he thought that it would be better to let the comments he might receive go, ignoring or ducking under the superior attitudes of some Adventurers of this world when it came to Humans, it grated on him to do that.  He had no wish to try and change their minds, as he knew that it would be an uphill battle, but he also had no wish to act meek and take the abuse just to avoid a confrontation.  He was here to help, after all, but that didn’t mean he had to put up with all the crap that seemed to come with it.

Is it really worth it to keep my abilities hidden?  Could I avoid all of this nonsense if I simply revealed who I am? 

It would certainly be much easier without having to tiptoe around what he was capable of, that was for sure.  However, for all that it might be simpler in the long run, in the short-run he still didn’t think that it was something he wanted revealed quite yet – at least until he was able to get the information he needed about the current state of the world, the System, and the threats that endangered them all.  He’d reveal himself if it was necessary, but for now, he’d rather not risk complicating his purpose in coming to the world in the first place.

All of those thoughts took him a few seconds to contemplate, at which time he suddenly found himself and Killix’s Party surrounded by some important-looking individuals.  A swift assessment of their Levels showed that this new group were all Level 30, the highest Level that he’d seen thus far, and the deference that the others showed them was evident.  Even the slowly recovering Killix had stopped yelling in pain and got to his feet at their appearance.

“What is going on here?” said a male Anjelou, who appeared to be the leader based on how he seemed to take charge.

“I don’t honestly know, Guildmaster,” the female Elf from Killix’s Party quickly responded.  “We were just having a conversation and then Killix suddenly shouted out in pain; it was only then that we noticed that his arm had been broken.”

“Just having a conversation?”  Is that really what she thought it was, or are they trying to cover for their Party member?

“And what are you doing here?” the apparent Guildmaster for the town turned to Bax to ask.

Thankfully, his anger had faded as soon as he’d broken Killix’s arm.  “Me?  I’m simply standing here, waiting my turn to talk to someone about joining the Guild.”

If the Guildmaster was shocked or in any way disapproving, he didn’t show it – though he was just about the only one nearby who was stone-faced.  “Very well.  Did you see what happened to Killix?”

“Sure did,” he said with conviction.  “He was saying how weak and pathetic I was, fit only to serve food to a real fighter, before he reached toward me with an intent to grab and throw me toward the bar over there,” he said matter-of-factly, pointing his thumb toward the other side of the room.  “I’m sure anyone here could corroborate what I just said, considering that he was practically shouting it loud enough that everyone could hear it.”

“Is this true?” the Guildmaster asked, his intent and piercing stare tracking back to the Vaneshta. 

As Bax had expected, however, the devil denied it all.  “Absolutely not!  Lies!  I didn’t say anything of the sort to this Human here!”  Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t hide the guilty looks of his Party members, who weren’t fast enough to school their expressions after they heard Bax outing Killix.

“I see,” the Guildmaster said, crossing his arms over his chest.  “And what happened to his arm?” he asked of Bax, turning away from the Adventurer Party.

For his part, Bax shrugged, not wanting to get into exactly what he’d done.  “I can only suspect that someone took offense at his words and stopped him before such vitriol could become physical abuse.”

While the suspicious looks the Guildmaster gave him made him slightly uncomfortable, to the point where he wanted to come out and admit what he’d done, he managed to keep himself composed and not blurt anything out.  Finally, the Anjelou in charge turned away from Bax and he felt a modicum of relief.

“This isn’t the first issue I’ve had with you, Killix.  You got off with a warning last time, as I thought it had been impressed upon you that such actions would have consequences—”

“But I didn’t do anything!  This Human is lying—” Killix cut off the Guildmaster, which even Bax could tell was a mistake, as the chilling aura of restrained violence he felt from the Anjelou could be felt pressed against him.  It didn’t do anything to him, of course, but he could see the others visibly shrink back at its touch.

“Despite your protestations, I can sense the truth in the Human’s words – most of them, at least,” the Guildmaster went on once Killix had shut his mouth.  I guess it’s probably obvious that I know more about what happened to the devil’s arm than I’m letting on.  “And as such, I think it is necessary to—” he continued, beginning to tell the Vaneshta about what Bax thought was likely to be some sort of punishment, but he abruptly stopped a moment before the loud pealing of a bells suddenly reverberated through the entire Guild building.

“Dungeon break!  Everyone get to your designated positions!” the Guildmaster yelled, his voice loud enough to project even over the bells that continued ringing.  He then turned and sprinted out of the entrance, the other high-Level people he’d arrived with following him.  Chaos unfolded among everyone else in the first floor as they scrambled around, with most of them following the Guildmaster out the entrance, even as additional Adventurers spilled down the stair from the floors above.  Even Killix and his Party took off, the devil’s arm only partially healed as they took off, not even looking back at him.

And in all of this, Bax just looked around, forgotten in the maelstrom of activity around him. In fact, he thought that this might be a good idea to talk to the Guild workers now that there wasn’t anyone in his way—

Unfortunately, it seemed as though the remaining Humans had also left their places along the counters, though they didn’t follow the others outside; instead, they seemed to retreat down into a basement of sorts he saw near the vault door, which appeared to be like some sort of fallout shelter where noncombatants could flee for safety.

Apparently getting any business done right now is out of the question.  I guess I better go see for myself if I can hurry this up, he thought, quickly joining everyone else leaving out through the entrance.

Tower Story -- Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The gate guards gave Bax a look as he passed through, but again, they didn’t stop him.  He halfway expected to be picked up again by more town guards when he entered, but thankfully there was no one waiting for him just past the walls, so he was free to explore in peace.  Or in as much peace as he could get, as his state of undress was still an attraction as he walked through a wide street that he could see also led toward the Adventurer’s Guild building in the center.

It really is one of the main focal points here, isn’t it?

He passed what appeared to be many residents as he made his way toward the Guild building, as well as some more stores that seemed to cater to the residents of the town rather than Adventurers, but the large structure in the center of town wasn’t his destination quite yet.  Instead, he turned before he got to it, making his way through a side street that led right to the main thoroughfare that he’d first seen.  It took him only a few minutes to walk the length of the large street, eventually arriving at the area where the temporary stalls were set up.  Theoretically, he could’ve walked into any of the other stores along the way, but he felt entirely too underdressed for them; they might or might not have a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policy, but he didn’t feel like enduring the stares of shopkeepers at the moment.  What he needed was fairly simple clothing, after all, and so he made his way to the stall he’d seen earlier when he first arrived.

The Human man behind it looked at him with disinterest, as if not expecting him to come talk to him.  A quick Identification told him that the man’s name was Burl and was Level 5; he hoped that meant that he had a Class that could use Conversion. 

“Hello, Burl!  I was hoping that I could purchase some clothing from you,” Bax said as he walked up.  He gestured to his body before saying, “As you can see, I’m desperately in need of something to cover myself up.”

Leaning forward with at least a little more visible interest on his face, Burl nodded.  “I can see that.  You have Magems?”

“Actually, that’s something I need a little help with—"

Burl held up his hand with a disgusted look on his face.  “I don’t deal in charity here.  I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“No, wait, I have something that I’d either like to trade or have Converted, if you can do that?  I just don’t have any Magems at the moment, which was what I meant about needing help,” Bax explained.

Fortunately, Burl’s face lost its disgusted expression, though now it was tinged with visible disbelief.  “What exactly do you have?”

That was a good question.  Bax hadn’t actually looked at what he’d received from the Bugeels that he’d killed in the river, so he figured he might as well peer inside of his internal inventory space and look now.

Bugeel Carapace

Uses: Material used for creating highly durable armor plating

Value: Unknown

Flexible Bugeel Blubber

Uses: Material used for enhancing physical force absorption in armor

Value: Unknown

Ah, I should’ve figured it would be something like this.

In all, Bax had a dozen of the Bugeel Carapaces and two dozen of the Blubber, which he thought would be more than enough to get himself some clothes – and a bit extra.  However, he also didn’t know the local market conditions, so “trade” might not be the right choice for a transaction; it could be that the market – being positioned right next to the river – might be flooded with this type of material, so they wouldn’t be worth as much by themselves.  If that was the case, it would simply be better to use Conversion on it to turn it into Magems.

Pulling out one of the Flexible Bugeel Blubbers, he handed it to Burl, who’d eyes widened so much that he half-expected them to pop out of the man’s head.  However, the clothing seller quickly schooled his expression to one of curiosity as he looked at the surprisingly dry and springy hunk of blubber in his hand, which Bax thought looked like a hunk of transparent blue gel approximately the size of a loaf of bread. 

“This is… this is from a Bugeel!” Burl exclaimed after he likely used Identification on it.  “How did you get something like this?” the clothing seller suddenly asked him suspiciously.  “Did you steal it?”

Bax immediately shook his head, even as he scrambled to come up with a plausible answer.  For some reason, he hadn’t even considered that his having something from a Bugeel, which was typically found in much higher Levels than his own apparent Level, would be a cause for suspicion.  All of that learning in the Archives, and yet none of it covered much of what I’ve encountered since I’ve gotten here. 

“No, I didn’t steal anything,” he said after a few seconds of thought.  “It was just something I picked up on my way to town.”

That answer didn’t seem to satisfy him.  “And I’m just supposed to believe you found this somewhere?  What, did it wash up on shore or something?”

“Something like that,” Bax responded.  He didn’t outright lie, as he’d technically found it at the bottom of the river; he just didn’t explain that they had appeared after he’d killed a bunch of monsters.  “If you don’t want it, or even to use Conversion and take a fee for the service, then I’ll take it somewhere else,” he added, holding out his hand for the Blubber. 

“Oh, it’s not a matter if I want it or not; it’s a matter of whether or not you stole this from someone.  I can’t be caught dealing with stolen goods, after all, so I fear that we’re going to have to determine on whether you’re telling the truth or not.”

Great, not this crap again.

Unfortunately, Burl had already signaled to someone over Bax’s shoulder, and the next moment a Fae town guard that he’d seen earlier stationed near the entrance of the temporary marketplace fluttered over, looking the near-naked Human over with the same sort of suspicion and derision that he was finding to be quite commonplace.  I can’t wait until I can actually clothe myself and hopefully reduce that sort of thing significantly.  Not much I can do about my visible Level, but not being essentially naked will probably go a long way towards being seen as more reputable.

“What’s the issue, Burl?” the male Fae asked, looking at the clothing seller.

Burl held out the Blubber toward the guard, who took it, as he said, “I just want to ensure that this wasn’t stolen from someone—”

“Surprisingly, it wasn’t.”  The guard handed it back, as he explained.  “My Evidence Investigation Ability says that it’s clean.  Anything else?”

Burl appeared shocked at that revelation even as he shook his head.  “No; thank you—" he began to say, but the guard was already flying back to where he’d been stationed near the entrance of the temporary marketplace.

Thankful for the surprisingly easy confrontation with the guard, Bax smiled at the clothing seller.  “So, what do you think?  Would this be better used as a trade item, or should it be Converted into Magems first?” he asked, though he could already tell which way the man was going to go just by the way he’d reacted when he saw it.

The greed on the man’s face only reinforced his original assumption.  “Oh, I think I can take this as a trade, if that’s acceptable?”  At Bax’s nod, the negotiation began.

A little over 10 minutes later, Bax was wearing a simple linen shirt and pants, some softer underwear and socks, along with some basic leather boots that were just slightly too small for him – but he was pretty sure they would stretch a little if given enough time and use.  He also had two full sets of extra clothing in his internal inventory space, which he thought was good to have, given that he tended to mess his clothing up quite a bit.

In the end, he knew that he’d been royally screwed over based on how much he suspected the Blubber was worth, but he really didn’t care.  Especially since he was planning on speaking to some other shopkeepers in just a little bit, where he was planning on trading some more Blubber and potentially some of the Carapaces; if the clothing seller had been planning on making a killing by selling it to an armor crafter or someone else, then he would find that he market had been saturated by such items already.  He didn’t deliberately want to screw the man over, but he also didn’t appreciate being accused of stealing something, nor did he like the way he’d been unjustifiably judged based on his half-naked state.  Granted, he probably would’ve judged someone half-naked if they’d come into a store he ran back on Earth, but he thought that this current world would’ve been at least a little more lenient.

Fully clothed and not standing out as much, other than when someone looked at his low Level, he started visiting the permanent shops and had a much more pleasant experience with them.  Most of them were Human, though there were a few Gnomes, Dwarves, Elves, and even a Vaneshta, and while not all of them were necessarily “polite,” he didn’t have any guards called on him to confirm that his good weren’t stolen. 

Approximately an hour later, he’d traded or Converted all of the Carapaces and Blubber that he’d had in his inventory, even though he had originally only intended to sell some of them.  The value he got for them was, as he expected, much more than he got from the clothing seller, but he also concluded that he probably wouldn’t have received that much if he hadn’t been clothed properly in the first place.  So, in the end, while he’d been taken advantage of by Burl, it had been a necessary loss in order to come out ahead on his other transactions.

Now, in addition to his extra clothing, he now had the monetary equivalent of 12,363 Magems in his internal inventory.  By glancing at some of the prices of normal supplies in one of the shops, he mentally equated each of his Magems to be the equivalent of approximately a dollar back in the US on Earth – before his home had been essentially destroyed by the System when it introduced monsters into what was likely an apocalyptic event.  Therefore, his 12,000-plus Magems were about equal to $12,000-plus dollars; it wasn’t a huge amount, but it was more than enough to finance him for a short while, at least.

After he finished with the shops, he eyed the Adventurer’s Guild and thought about going there, but the darkness of night was already spreading across the sky, so he figured it would be better if he did anything with the Guild – or really, anything related to his overall plans – in the morning.  His exploration of the marketplace had revealed a tavern or an Inn of sorts near the dock entrance, as it was meant for traveling merchants on the river, so he made his way there to find somewhere to eat and spend the night.  The hunger had gradually increased over the day, as while it had been satiated somewhat while he’d been held by the guards before, he was now starving enough to want to eat a meal that would be enough for 10 people.

The Lazy Shipman was the tavern-slash-Inn near the docks, and while he somewhat expected it to be filled with drunken sailors and raucous fights in a dark and seedy atmosphere, it was actually a fairly nice, clean establishment with ample magical lighting and no sign of anyone getting drunk or starting fights.  In fact, when he walked in, there were only about a dozen people sitting relatively quietly around some well-crafted circular wooden tables, with half of them being Human, while the rest were a mixture of races – though the Humans and the other races didn’t really mix together.  A few looked up when he came in, but no one seemed particularly interested in him.

“What will it be?” a young Human woman by the name of Adrelle asked as soon as he sat himself down at an empty table.

Smiling up at her, as it felt good to finally be sitting down somewhere that was at least somewhat familiar to a few of the restaurants he’d been to back on Earth, he said, “I’ll take whatever you have on the menu today.  Actually, I’ll take three helpings of whatever you have on the menu – I’m practically starving tonight.”  That’s not far from the truth.  “Also, do you have any rooms available to rent for the night?”

Adrelle looked at him with incredulity in her eyes, but she still nodded.  “We do.  The room will cost you 40 Magems for the night, and it comes with one meal tonight, as well as a meal in the morning.  If you’re serious about three meals tonight, the extra two meals will cost you 5 Magems each.”  She said it all with the air of someone who wasn’t sure if he’d be able to pay or not, but giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Bax immediately pulled out 50 Magems from his inventory and placed them on the table; he figured he might as well pre-pay to assuage her doubt.  If she was surprised, she didn’t say anything as she smiled back at him, picked up the Magems – which disappeared into her own internal inventory, most likely – and then headed toward the bar to talk to someone behind the counter.  She then went into the back, where he could smell food cooking, and his stomach rumbled in response.

A trio bowls of thick, hearty fish stew and 3 loaves of bread accompanied 3 mugs of what appeared to be foamy ale, all delivered with a room key minutes later.  He barely had a chance to thank Adrelle for it all before he was quickly stuffing his face with the food, which—while not exactly the best he’d ever tasted—it was still divinely satisfying for his empty stomach.  He also drank all of the watery ale without even tasting it, as it was a poor substitute for the beer he’d had back on Earth, but it was still better than nothing.  Soon enough, he’d eaten everything that had been brought to him, and while he thought he could’ve put down another entire meal or two, he was satisfied enough with what he’d consumed that it would tie him over for a while.

He looked up to see the amused or disgusted expressions on some of the other patrons of the tavern, as he realized he’d just eaten like a glutton in front of an audience.  Yet, he didn’t really care, because it felt amazing to finally be relatively full after being kicked out of the Co-op.  Leaving a 5-Magem tip on the table for his server, Adrelle, he made his way to the back stairs where she’d told him his room was located.

No more than a minute later, he found his designated room, inserted the key into the lock, and then found himself looking at a fairly barebones hotel room with a bed, a side table, and—thankfully—a toilet in a separate space.  There was no bath or shower, so he figured that there was either a separate space for that in the Inn for that, or there might even be public bathhouses, for all he knew. 

Regardless of the lack of bath or a shower, he didn’t even bother to take his clothes off before he collapsed into the bed, finding himself extremely tired for once.  His Endurance was usually high enough to stave off sleep for long periods of time, but he concluded that his long stint in the final Floor of the Keepers’ Tower, the Stasis he’d been put in for thousands of years, followed by his transition to a brand-new world had coalesced into a his body really needing some sleep to recover from it all.

It only took him a few seconds to fall into a relatively dreamless slumber. 

Plans for May 11-16

Still going strong with my new tower story -- I guess I should start thinking of a title soon, seeing that I'm about halfway through it :)

Most of next week, I should be writing; I have a few appointments that will cut into my writing time, but hopefully not too much! I may get some work done on Sunday, but with it being Mother's Day, I'm not sure how much that will be.

Plans for next week:

Sunday-Monday: Writing!

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day on Sunday! (For those who celebrate it!)

Tower Story -- Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Quickly running around the immediate area inside the forest, streaking through the trees in a blur, Bax looked for any other monsters that might be near.  After nearly a minute of running at full speed, out of sight of any Adventurers or the field workers, the only monster he saw was a toothy bird-like creature trying to camouflage itself in the branches of a tree, but he left it alone as it was only Level 3.  He could’ve jumped up and killed it, but he didn’t want to bother with it as he was looking for any greater threats that could be a danger to those nearby – and even the lowest-Level Humans back in the fields wouldn’t be in too much danger from it. 

With nothing detected in range, Bax ran back toward where he’d entered the forest, slightly angry at himself for taking so long to get to the monster.  He second-guessed his decision to hide his strength and speed earlier as he raced for the treeline, as it had ended up with the death of an Adventurer that he was fairly sure he could’ve prevented if he had only arrived seconds earlier.  The fact that he ended up saving the others there was only a slight balm to his conscience, because he knew he should’ve done better.

Are people going to die wherever I go?  Or is this just coincidence? 

He honestly wasn’t sure what to think.  Specifically remembering Paulina mentioning that this side of the river was supposed to be relatively safe, he couldn’t help but believe that his presence had changed things up.  How could it be coincidence that as soon as he arrived, a monster that was above the average Level and a great threat not only to the field workers but the lower-Level Adventurer Parties suddenly showed up? 

It had taken him a while to get over the majority of the guilt he’d felt after inadvertently killing all of the Keepers and the Guides; it helped that it hadn’t been his fault for their deaths, as he hadn’t asked to be there and he had no way of knowing that they wouldn’t have any type of defense against viruses like the flu.  While it also wasn’t his idea to essentially put him on ice for more than an entire cycle, before randomly plopping him down in a world, he still couldn’t help but see a correlation between his presence and these sudden deaths.

I’m supposed to be here to help, damn it!

Shaking his head in an attempt to get himself out of his current funk, he slowed down as he approached the edge of the forest where he could see out into the fields again.  A random glance down at his fist as he walked along showed that the knuckles on his fist were smeared with a little bit of wet blood from the Pantherin he’d punched earlier, so he stopped to wipe it off on some short grass under the nearest tree. 

Ideally, he’d have rather hit the monster so hard that it flew through a dozen trees while it was obliterated by the impacts, which wouldn’t have transferred so much blood to his fist, but he had restrained himself because he hadn’t wanted to hurt any of the still-living Adventurers nearby.  Especially the Anjelou that seemed to have been severely injured by an earlier attack; after seeing that one of the other members of the Party appeared to be the healer, he was almost certain that she could be healed and not become yet another victim of the monster.  The pair that had died was already too many in his book.

He had, in fact, nearly stuck around to ensure that they were fine after he’d punched the Pantherin – but had decided that discretion was still important enough for him at the moment that he didn’t want to jeopardize it any further than he already had.  It wouldn’t have served any purpose other than being highly suspicious to the Adventurers, anyway, as his measly Mend Wound spell wouldn’t have been able to help the injured Anjelou, anyway.  He did wish that he’d gotten her name so he might be able to check on her later, but at the time he'd only been able to focus enough on the monster and the large Saroon that seemed to be the Party’s front-line fighter, which told him the likely Level of their entire Party, before he took off to avoid being noticed. 

With his fist cleaned up as well as he could get it, Bax walked out into the field he’d left not that long ago, finding it deserted.  The only sign that they had even been there was the lower half of the Human that had been essentially eaten by the Pantherin, as the rest of the workers had abandoned it – and rightly so.  They had no hope of killing something like the monster that had invaded the field, so their sense of self-preservation was the smart thing to do.

Walking out to the main pathway leading back to town, he could see some of the slower members of his shift group still running for all they were worth toward the walls in the distance; he was tempted to follow them, but he stopped himself.  He knew that there was no danger nearby now, not that it was a “danger” to him, and if he went back without finishing his shift in the fields, he figured that his punishment might not be complete. 

With a shrug, he went back to picking out the Phantom Vines in the same field he’d been working in, while keeping an eye out for any sign that he had missed something.

No more than 10 minutes after he’d resumed his work, three different groups seemed to converge simultaneously on his location – or at least in his general location.  First, 3 full Parties of Level 20+ Adventurers were apparently dispatched from the town, and they arrived armed and armored for a fight, likely expecting to find that the fields had been devastated by the monster. 

From the opposite direction, a single Adventurer Party – with this one containing all members at Level 19 – arrived at a run, also looking for the threat that had already been killed.  It took him a second to remember that the Archives mentioned local threat Tasks being automatically assigned to Adventurers when they were identified; he’d been wondering for a moment how they knew about the high-Level monster getting too close to the fields, and that little tidbit of information answered it for him. 

Lastly, he watched with a bit of guilt as the remaining members of the Adventurer Party he’d saved staggered out from the forest, cheeks wet from the tears that they’d tried to wipe away, and the Anjelou that had been injured looking even more pale than usual and holding her chest.  She was on the road to recovery, but it looked like it was going to take little longer until she was completely alright.

At least as far as her physical body; he knew from experience back on Earth how hard it was mentally and emotionally to lose someone you were close to.   

Thankfully, he was also able to use Identification on her to find out her name. 

Ladrexia

Level: 14

Highest Stat: Intellect

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: High

He also glanced at the Fae healer, who he discovered was named Glindir, and while she appeared largely unhurt, her wings appeared to have suffered from the roots that had held her to the ground.  The fact that she hadn’t healed herself told him that she’d spent all of her Mana stabilizing the Anjelou, which he mentally acknowledged was probably the smartest thing to do at the time.  Both of them would survive now – it would just take some time for the healer’s Mana to come back.

The Party coming from the opposite direction of the town reached the area first.  While they did look at Bax with confused expressions on their face, as if they were wondering why he was still there, most of their focus was on the now-diminished Party emerging from the forest.  Even though they were almost a full field over from him, his senses were good enough to hear them clearly.

“Ladrexia!  What happened?  Where’s Arbino?” the front-line fighter from the incoming Party shouted when he was close enough. 

Bax had to turn away when the trio of surviving Party members seemed to break down for a bit, as he was already beating himself up about not arriving in time, before they began to explain what had happened. 

Soon enough, they finished up their recitation of their actions and the fight, including the death of Arbino, who was apparently their Support member, before describing how they had been caught in a rebounded Root Trap.  Bax had been wondering how that had happened, but now it made more sense.  “…I thought I was next after Ar—Arbino was killed, but then… it died.”

“You did enough damage to it?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the still-injured, but recovering, Anjelou shake her head.  “No, we barely scratched it with what we’d done.  Something or someone killed it.  With a single blow, as far as I can tell.”

“Are you sure the pain wasn’t making you see things?  Because that’s impossible, Drex.”

“She’s telling the truth,” the Saroon said in a deep voice, the bass behind it reaching Bax from where he continued to pull up Phantom Vines while he listened and observed.  “Though, none of us actually saw the attack, only the aftermath.”

Hearing that was a relief, as Bax had hoped that he’d been fast and careful enough to avoid being actually observed. 

“You saw nothing?  How is that possible?  Are you blind?”

The healer from the devastated Party spoke up for the first time.  “Knock it off, Palatto.  We were all incapacitated or mortally injured, so we were unable to see anything until the Pantherin stumbled toward us with its head caved in, like some mysterious Level 40 hit it with a giant warhammer.  I don’t know what to tell you, other than something killed it – after it killed Arbino!  That’s what’s important right now, not your questions or your implication that we’re blind.”

Ooh, that’s a spunky one right there; I like that kind of attitude.  And that Palatto’s being an ass, especially to the others when they’d just lost someone. 

Fortunately, any further argument was interrupted when the groups coming from the town finally arrived.  They swept into the area like they were the Feds cordoning off the site of a terrorist attack; they surrounded the field and the other Parties within their perimeter, like they were trying to protect the evidence of a crime or to prevent the people within from getting away.

Bax didn’t really have much time to observe what happened after that, however, though he did see a familiar Elf in a town guard’s uniform shouting, “Report!” at the two Parties that were there already.  His attention was pulled away after that when a pair of Adventurers, both Vaneshta who were Level 25, marched over to him with suspicion in their gazes.  As he stood up from pulling out yet another weed from the dirt, he glanced over all of the Adventurers that had arrived, seeing so many gathered in one place; it didn’t escape his notice that not a single one of them was Human.  Granted, what he was seeing wasn’t necessarily an ideal cross-section of the current local Adventurer population, but after seeing the ones on the boats, the guards in town, and over 20 Adventurers in the field, he was fairly certain that Humans as part of Adventurer Parties was extremely rare.

Which didn’t really make a lot of sense to him.  Sure, he could understand the other races not wanting to have a comparatively “weak” Human in their Party, but then what was to prevent an all-Human Party from forming?  Nothing he’d read about indicated why that might be, so it was something else he noted to find out more about.

“What are you still doing here?  Why didn’t you flee with the rest of the field workers?” one of the approaching Vaneshta asked—no, demanded. 

While Bax didn’t really like the tone as it was directed toward him, he still answered – though with a nonchalant shrug thrown in.  “It seemed like the danger had passed, and I really don’t want to have to come back out here to finish my shift,” he said.  Even as he answered, he walked a little to his left and picked up another Phantom Vine, before tossing it into his internal inventory space.

“What are you talking about?” the other Vaneshta asked, now more confused than anything.  “Everyone knows that you’ll be paid even when an attack interrupts your work out here in the fields.”

Bax gave them another shrug.  “I’m not getting paid for this; I’m working off a punishment.”

“Punishment?  What did you do?”

A third shrug rippled over his shoulders.  “I’m not quite sure.  Something about not registering when I arrived?  I don’t know, but after I was done doing that, I was released and told to work a shift out in the fields as a punishment – and so here I am.”

“Oh.  Alright.”  Bax’s seemingly unruffled attitude had obviously thrown them for a loop, as they didn’t know how to respond.  Or they weren’t used to Humans being so confident in the face of danger.  “Uh, did you see anything?”

Bax told him how the Pantherin had come out of the forest, chomped one of the field workers in half, and then went back into the trees.  “I moved away from the area for a few minutes after that, but when I didn’t hear or see the large monster again, I came back and got to work again.”

Their incredulous stares were a bit uncomfortable, so he ignored them and continued to spot and pull the Phantom Vines as he moved away from them.  Soon enough, stymied by his unflappable attitude, the two Adventurers moved back to the meeting in the other field, giving Bax a chance to listen in again – but it was pretty much over already.  Healers from the other Parties patched up the last of the damage that had affected the injured Anjelou and the Fae, and things were starting to move.  The 3-person Party went back with two of the Parties and the Elf that had come from the town, while the third town Party and the one led by Palatto moved to the forest, likely to resume their patrols or whatever.

Bax caught the eye of the Elf who’d assigned him this punishment as the group heading toward town passed by, and he gave the important town guard a smile and a nod – and amazingly got a nod in return.  When they were gone, he continued doing what he was doing, wondering how long the shift actually lasted.  He’d already been out there for about 5 hours, so he hoped that he only had about a few hours left until he was free.

An hour later, he began to see the field workers return with Paulina at the head.  Needless to say, she looked surprised to see him still working out there.

“What were you thinking?!  You could’ve gotten yourself killed!” she shouted as she stomped over to him, her steps nearly crushing one of the good plants on her way.

Bax pointed this out to her to deflect her question.  “Hey, you nearly crushed that one there.  Aren’t you supposed to be making sure these things are safe so that they can grow?”  He wasn’t sure where the snark came from, but it came naturally when dealing with the attractive woman for some reason.

Spluttering, she looked like she was about to slap him; it wasn’t funny, especially considering the deaths that had happened as a result of the monster attack, but he nearly laughed anyway.  Fortunately, he was able to control his face and the impulse to laugh at her, which was helped by bending over next to her and pulling up yet another of the seemingly countless Phantom Vines spread throughout the fields.  At first, he thought that they just constantly sprung up even through areas that he’d already passed through, but he was relieved when the fields that he’d finished already appeared to still be clear of any weeds.

In a calmer voice, as well as ignoring what he’d said about nearly stepping on the plants beneath her feet, she asked, “Where did you go?  Why didn’t you run away with the rest of us?”

Though he thought it might make him seem like a coward, he told her, “I figured it would be safer in the trees rather than being out in the open field.  Once the danger seemed to be over, I came back to finish my shift.”  He waved around at the field he was currently standing in.  “By the way, I finished that second field and I’m nearly done with this one, too.  Should I do another?  Or will I have time before this shift is over?”

Bax could feel her disbelieving eyes following him as he grabbed another Vine and stored it away.  Rather than return the gaze, he kept working, pulling out the last few within sight in the field he was in; there were more Phantom Vines spread throughout an adjacent field, but he was fairly certain that it wasn’t one that this shift had been assigned.

“You… You’ve pulled all the Phantom Vines out from all three fields?  That’s impossible.”

Shrugging again, which Bax found himself doing a lot lately, he said, “Impossible or not, it’s the truth.  So, what now?”  With that question, he pulled the final one out of the ground, looking back at her with his arms crossed against his chest.

Silence descended between the two of them, even as he noticed the other field workers getting to work all around him.  Finally, she responded with a sigh, followed by, “We’ll just have to see, then.  Let me take you to the Weed Shredder.”

She turned around and he followed her as she walked down the pathway leading to town; unlike what he expected, they didn’t go the entire way.  Instead, they turned about halfway there and made their way to a large, high-roofed, barn-like building made out of wood and stone with windows shining light inside.  As they walked through the large opening at its front, he quickly deduced that this barn was for storage – and for the Weed Shredder Paulina had mentioned.

Unlike a modern industrial machine that he was somewhat expecting, as he didn’t really have any other experience with low-tech devices, Bax was surprised to see what appeared to be a large wooden box on top of four reinforced stilts, elevated so that the top of the box was a few feet above his head.  To the side of the elevated box were approximately a dozen wheelbarrows, similar to what he’d seen some of the field workers from the previous shift pushing around.

What fascinated him, though, was how the box seemed to glow with a purplish aura that was just barely detectable; he could feel the energy that was imbued in it, and he realized that this was likely a bit of Magitech that he was looking at. 

“Alright, head up there and start unloading what you’ve pulled up.  I’ll arrange the wheelbarrows down here to catch the shredded fertilizer when it falls out below.”  She pointed to a set a steps that led up the side of the box, which he quickly moved to and walked up, looking over the side of the box to what was below.  Unfortunately, he was disappointed in not seeing some sort of medieval torture-looking shredding machine; instead, there was simply a glowing wooden plank that seemed to be sitting on the bottom of what looked like a large wooden bowl with a small hole on the bottom, perfectly centered. 

“How does this work?” he asked, unsure how this was supposed to shred something.

It was her turn to shrug now, with a smirk on her face.  “I have no idea.  Just start chucking in the Phantom Vines and see for yourself.”

The moment he pulled out one of the weeds he’d obtained earlier and dropped it inside the box, he immediately saw what she was talking about.  The wooden plank was apparently carved to have sharpened edges, and it began freely spinning around in circles inside the box, almost seeming to hunt down the weed he’d thrown inside.  It reminded him of some of those neat magnetic toys he’d seen on Earth where a piece of metal would be suspended in the air and perhaps spin around, looking like it was defying gravity; in this case, however, he could sense that it was the energy imbuing both the box and the wooden plank, causing it to move all on its own.

Within seconds, the weed had been sliced, diced, and torn apart as if he’d dropped it into a blender, and he could see the sides of the box coaxing the resulting pulp down through the hole.  He bent over the side of the stairway and saw it falling into the wheelbarrow below.  Glancing at the impatient expression on Paulina’s face, he nodded to himself, now understanding at least the basic principles of what he was working with, even as he pulled out a second and third Phantom Vine and dropped it in.  The same result happened as it did with the first, so he kept going, steadily dropping on after another.

“Hold for a moment!  Changing wheelbarrows!” he heard from below, and he paused.  No more than 10 seconds later, he resumed; he saw Paulina easily pushing a full wheelbarrow off to the side before racing to get an empty one to replace it.  A quick estimation of how many of the weeds it took to fill that one made him take a look around at how many were still empty; he was fairly sure that there weren’t enough to handle what he’d brought.

But perhaps he’d be wrong.

Instead of saying anything, he resumed his Vine destruction and fertilizer production, while Paulina worked to push the full wheelbarrows aside and get empty ones to replace them.  After the sixth, he could see confusion on her face as she looked up at him.  “You still have more?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah.  I’d say at least another 6 wheelbarrows; more like 8 or 9.”

“How?!  How did you pull out so many of them?”

He chuckled at her incredulousness.  “I don’t know; I guess I’m just that good?”

Shaking her head, she pushed another empty one up to the bottom of the Weed Shredder.

No more than 10 minutes later, he’d filled up all of the empties – and he still had more to shred.  Paulina, still shaking her head in disbelief, started grabbing some empty wooden barrels and rolled them over to the Shredder, where he was able to resume the shredding process.  In the end, he nearly filled up 2 of the barrels before he ran out, and then he offered to move the nearly-full barrels where she wanted them.

That was almost a mistake, as the barrels were heavy – for a Level 2 Human, at least.  It was only when he saw her struggling to even move them a little as he went to pick one of them up that he paused in his action to easily lift it; instead, he pretended to struggle to shift it to the side, showing only a little more Strength than Paulina.  It took a few minutes to get them into place along the barn wall, and she let out a breath of relief when it was done. 

“So, is that it?” he asked, brushing off his hands.

She chuckled a little hysterically for moment as she looked at him.  “That’s it?  Do you have any idea what you just did?”

“No.”  He added another shrug for fun.

She began walking out of the barn as she explained.  “Normally, we’ll work through most of our shift before our entire group descends as a whole to weed through the fields we’ve been assigned, passing over them in a coordinated wave so that we can be sure to get them all.  This usually takes around 40 of us 2 hours to get all three fields done, but you somehow weeded them all in something like 5 hours – and we were even interrupted when a monster unfortunately attacked.  In addition, I think you pulled more weeds than we’ve ever found before; this has to be some kind of record,” she said, waving back into the barn to emphasize her point.  “So, when you ask if that was it… I don’t even know what to say.”

Oh.  I wasn’t even trying to move that fast.  “So, uh, does that mean my job on the shift is done?” he tentatively asked.

Nodding, her eyes unfocused for a moment.  “Yes.  I’ve authorized the completion of the shift, which fulfills your Task.  Your ‘punishment’ has been fulfilled.”

Opening his APPS, he wondered if his Tasks had finally updated with something – but there still wasn’t anything there.  Regardless of its absence, it appeared as though he was now in the clear – and he was eager to get back to town so that he could start figuring things out.

Getting some clothes would also be nice.

As the day was growing later, he figured he might need to hurry before any of those shops and temporary stalls closed for the day.  With a smile and a wave to his erstwhile “boss”, he thanked her for showing him around the fields.  “Oh, and for putting up for me all day.”

“Anytime you want to pull more weeds for us, you’re more than welcome to come back out.  We’ll even pay you next time,” she called out to him as he took off down the pathway to town at a reasonable pace.  He waved back at her in acknowledgement, seeing her staring at him leave with her hands on her hips and the corner of her lips curling up in a smile she was trying to hide. 

“Finally, back to what I was doing before I was so rudely interrupted by the authorities,” he mumbled to himself as he set his sights on the distant town gates.

Tower Story -- Chapter 17

Chapter 17

“There it is!  Stop it before it gets to the—” Ladrexia shouted, but the Soiled Pantherin was already gone.  She chased after it along with the rest of her Party, frantically searching her mind for the current patrol routes and which other Parties might be nearby to help take this thing down.  Because if they didn’t have help, it was unlikely that they would survive a real confrontation with the monster, given that it was twice their Level.

“Barton, what happened?” Glindir, their Party’s Resuscitator and experienced Healer, asked.  “I thought you had it!”

Barton growled in annoyance as he sprinted ahead of them, pulling away with his greater Dexterity.  “I missed with my Focused Taunt!  I need to get closer!”

“Drex – see if you can slow it down!”

Ladrexia ignored the shortening of her name as she did as Arbino asked, holding out her hand to better aim at the rapidly moving Pantherin.  When she thought she was locked into its stride, she used Explosive Decompression I to form a bubble of air approximately the size of her own torso just over the backside of the monster ahead of them, before it exploded with enough force to break bones.  Her hope was that it would be enough to shatter at least one of the Pantherin’s hind legs from the force of the blast, but the much-faster monster somehow detected her spell and dodged at the last moment.  All that was left was an explosion of powerful wind that the Air Mage saw crack a nearby tree trunk, but only ended up slightly pushing the hind end of the aside a little bit.

Needless to say, that didn’t slow it down even a little bit.

“Blasted beast!  Is there another Party nearby, Arbino?” she asked their Dwinaii Support member of the Party, who always seemed to know the current state of the Parties out on patrol or on special Tasks.  His ursine face scrunched up in contemplation as Ladrexia readied another spell, but the Pantherin was already pulling out of her range.  In addition, using the first spell had put a big hit on her Mana pool, as it required nearly a third of her total; it was a powerful spell, after all, but she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage if—when—they caught up to the monster. 

“Palatto’s Party should be approximately 4 miles to the northeast; no one else is close enough.  A new Task has already been sent out by the System, so I’m sure they’re already on the way.  It’ll probably take a little longer for those inside of town to reach us, too.”

4 miles?  That’s going to take entirely too much time.  If we were anywhere but near the fields outside of Lodgepoint, I’d let this thing go, but we have to do everything we can to minimize the damage it can do to our people here, even if it means our lives.

And it would likely come to that, given that she and her entire Party were only Level 14 and the Pantherin was Level 28.  They might be able to overcome a Level gap of 4 to 5 Levels if they got lucky, but 14 Levels was akin to suicide.  While she didn’t want to die, she knew that it was a distinct possibility that it might happen once she became an Adventurer; little did she suspect that it would happen so quickly.  She’d only been an Adventurer for a decade, after all.

Still, it was her duty to protect the town and the residents of it from monsters like this – even if it had been years since anything over Level 15 had approached Lodgepoint, from this side of the river.  It was why a significant portion of the Protectorate’s food was grown there, as it was typically fairly safe for the field workers there.  They still had patrols running through the nearby areas to ensure nothing slipped through to endanger them, which was what she and her Party had been doing when they detected a monster that was far outside the norm passing through their route.

Unfortunately, it was decently faster than them, and as they weren’t expecting to have something that high of a Level close to town, most of the higher-Level Adventurer Parties were to the south, across the river, where the majority of the dangerous monsters in the area could be found.  Even Palatto’s Party, if they managed to make it in time, were only Level 19 – but they were better than nothing. 

I just hope that we can occupy it for long enough for them to arrive.  She didn’t think they could kill it, but containing it – once they managed to catch it – should theoretically be possible until they received some backup.

Ahead of them, she saw the trees start to thin, and she realized that they had already chased the Pantherin all the way to the fields.  Somehow, Barton managed to use his surprisingly fast speed – for a Saroon – to catch up to the monster just enough to make it pause when he used his Focused Taunt ability again.  However, even as it turned around to attack him, Ladrexia could see that it wouldn’t last that long because of the Level difference.  Skidding to a stop once she was in range, the Air Mage used Explosive Decompression once again despite the Mana cost, knowing that it was imperative that they stop it before it got any closer to the fields.  Her spell went off right on top of its left foreleg, a direct hit that the monster didn’t seem to be able to avoid.  She watched with joy at the successful detonation, sure that it would slow it down enough that they could contain it—

—except that she didn’t hear the tell-tale sound of a bone breaking during the explosion.  In fact, all that happened was that is leg was pushed backwards, causing the monster to stumble a little bit, and she could see some of the fur on its leg was blasted away, but it seemed to be largely unharmed. 

Blasted Level 28!  It’s too strong even for my most destructive spell!

Once it regained its feet after its stumble, the Pantherin took a few steps toward the charging Barton, but just as their scaled, front-line Brawler was about to reach the monster, the Focused Taunt ability faded away, and it leapt away backwards.

“No!  Get it!”

“Come back here!”

“I’m going to Tag it!  Give me a moment!”

Arbino slid to a stop and held out his bear paw-like hands towards the Pantherin, activating one of his Trapper Class abilities.  Normally, their Support largely acted as a front-line attacker with his Strength and Endurance natural to his kind, but his Class had also been invaluable in fights with larger numbers of monsters, where controlling or denying their movements was imperative to success.  Using Tag, he could target a specific monster and then use a Root Trap spell to wrap them up with roots that sprung up from the ground.  He could even use it when his target was out of sight or too far away for a normal spell to reach, as Tag would allow the spell to reach them as long as they weren’t more than a mile away. 

Given that Arbino had to be within 10 feet of the target for him to cast the Root Trap spell normally in addition to being long cast, the Tag ability was almost always necessary to use first – just like in the current situation.  As the Pantherin leapt away, intent to get to the fields to hunt down the low-Level field workers there, Ladrexia saw the familiar glow of Tag enveloping the large, cat-like beast temporarily before it took off.  Barton chased after him, but the Air Mage could already see that the monster had already passed through the edge of the forest and had landed on the nearest field where there were people working.

Cringing as she saw a low-Level Human who froze at the sight of the Pantherin get chomped in half, she waited for Arbino’s Root Trap to finish being cast, even as she tried to plan out how to keep the disaster on four legs from rampaging all over the fields and slaughtering everyone outside the walls.  She wasn’t too worried about the town, itself, as their defensive emplacements were more than strong enough to handle even something like the Pantherin – but there was a good chance that a large portion of their field work force would be wiped out before that could happen.

Arbino completed his spell, and she looked to see the roots that would keep the monster trapped in place—but nothing seemed to happen.  Instead, her ursine Party member staggered and dropped to his knees, his paws to his head as he growled out in pain.

“Argh!  It rebounded my spell!” he said, and Ladrexia felt her eyes widen in shock.  To her knowledge, the only way that could happen is if a monster had access to the same type of spell or a very similar ability; she’d never fought a Soiled Pantherin, but she hadn’t heard that they could—

Roots suddenly sprang up from the ground around her, trapping her in place as she felt herself pulled downward by a pair that had wrapped around her arms and the feathered white wings on her back.  She immediately tried to cast Blades of Air I on another root that was trying to wrap around her neck, but it jerked out to the way and she nearly cut herself instead.  As she strained to break free, her Mana getting low, she tried again and managed to cut her neck free, followed by her right arm.  As she looked up, she watched in horror as she saw Barton and Glindir also trapped underneath tangles of roots, unable to move; Barton attempted to surge up against his bonds, but he was held tight; Glindir did her best, but her delicate wings were being crushed against her back, hindering her efforts to move. 

Worse than any of that, though, she saw the Pantherin bounding toward her, for some reason targeting her as the most worthy of killing for some reason—perhaps it likes Anjelou meat—and she redoubled her efforts to escape.  As it leapt at her, out of the corner of her eye she saw Arbino fling himself at the monster with a roar, slamming into it in mid-leap, altering its flight just enough that its jaws didn’t swallow Ladrexia up.

Instead, she felt something smash into her chest and she was flung backward, ripping out of the roots, and she rolled over and over as she felt herself struggling to breathe.  As she came to a stop, she attempted to move, but her arms didn’t seem to want to work to push herself up.  As a result, she was forced to watch as Arbino and the Pantherin landed, and even as her ursine Party member clawed at the monster’s face, it was a futile attack as it only drew a smidge of blood. 

For the monster’s part, however, it wasn’t happy about the clawing attack.  Ladrexia sobbed in terror as the monster struck like a viper and crunched its jaws into the large Dwinaii, ripping him in half and flinging Arbino’s lower half toward the Air Mage.  She grunted in pain as she was hit by her Party member’s legs, forcing her to roll slightly backwards from the impact, until she was facing the other direction.  Unable to move from the agony filling her body, tears rolled down her face as she heard the crunching sounds of the Pantherin eating her friend, knowing that her death was likely next – and she couldn’t even see it. 

Ladrexia thought that the ground would shake when she heard it take a few deliberately slow steps toward her, seemingly enjoying the torture it was putting her through, but it was surprisingly light on its feet despite its massive size.  Here I am, thinking about such stupid things when I’m about to die.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the struggling, face-down, remaining members of her Party as she was bit in half, knowing that they would be next – and there was nothing she could do about it.  Her Mana was essentially bottomed out, and while she had enough to cast a simple spell or two, she couldn’t even see the monster to hit it accurately – not that she thought it would do a whole lot.  I could use it to end my own life so that it doesn’t get the satisfaction of—NO!  I refuse to be so cowardly!

As the Pantherin stopped near her, she swore that she could feel its hot breath on her back as it readied to snatch her up and snuff out her life.

A sudden rustling off to her left, followed by a hollow CRACK of what sounded like bone breaking startled her, and she opened her eyes in surprise.  The next moment, she saw the Pantherin stumble past her prone form, its head practically caved in along the side with what looked like its brains oozing out of the visible bone inside its shattered skull.  It managed to step forward a few times before it collapsed on the ground, struggling to breathe for a few seconds before it stopped altogether, somehow miraculously dead.

…What?  How?

Another rustle behind and to the left of her was ignored as she saw the roots trapping Barton and Glindir against the ground wither away, freeing them.  Seeing tears streaming down both their faces as they sprang to their feet, Barton rushed toward the fallen Pantherin with murder in his eyes, only to stop in confusion when he saw that the object of his wrath wasn’t moving. 

Their healer, on the other hand, immediately sprinted toward Ladrexia and cast a spell as she slid to a stop; healing warmth spread through her torso, where she was fairly certain a good portion of her torso had been crushed when the monster ran into her.  It would take more than a few spells to bring her completely back to full Health, but she could feel that it was already easier to breathe and she felt movement coming back to her limbs.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Arbino.  As she looked back at his legs where they had been thrown against her, finally able to move, the shock of the entire attack finally hit her and she realized that the big, furry Dwinaii wasn’t coming back. 

What are we going to do without him? she mentally wailed, still unable to comprehend that he was really gone. 

But another question intruded on her thoughts, one that was probably more important than her dead Party member and the difficulty of finding a replacement for him. 

Who or what killed the Soiled Pantherin?

Tower Story -- Chapter 16

Chapter 16

No one accosted Bax as he left the same way he’d come into the building, though he did get some strange looks from the few other guards that were still in the “station”, as the Elf had called it.  He had a feeling that they had gotten what they wanted out of him, so there was no other reason to detain him; to ensure that they didn’t have any other reasons past the one that he’d just been released from, he worked to get his punishment out of the way.

Emerging from the guard station, he found that he was in a part of the town that didn’t look familiar to him; then again, almost everything but the main street leading to the Adventurer’s Guild was unfamiliar, so that wasn’t really surprising.  Recalling his capture and estimating how far they’d gone and in what direction, he took a narrow alleyway to his left and rushed down it, quickly discovering that he’d made the right decision as he emerged back onto the main thoroughfare.  As much as he still wanted to stop and get some clothes, he decided to wait until he had more time; he estimated that he only had a few minutes to get out to the fields and find this “Paulina” woman for his assignment. 

It was difficult to hold back his speed as he dodged through the crowds making their way through the Adventurer shops and the temporary marketplace, but he thought he did a good job tamping it down to what would be considered “normal” for someone of his Level.  He briefly thought about looking for another gate to pass through to get to the fields, such as one that would let out directly into where he needed to go, but he didn’t know where they were and didn’t have time to search; he knew where the gate leading to the docks were, and he’d seen earlier that he could access the fields from there if he ran around the wall.

Which was exactly what he did.  As soon as he was clear of the gate, he ran down the river a bit, following the docks and then a large open space where jagged rocks were clustered underneath the wall, which he had to leap over with probably a little bit too much demonstration of his Dexterity.  He didn’t dare stop himself, however, as he’d already made this choice of route and wasn’t about to turn around.

Rounding the corner of the town’s wall, his path was much smoother and he was able to let out a little more speed as he shot toward the fields in the distance.  He felt that he was probably pushing the bounds of what was likely to be normal for a Level 2 Human, but if anyone asked, he figured he could simply say that he’d worked on improving all of his stats to 10 before he arrived. 

Not even out of breath, as it was a fairly easy—if slow—run, he slowed down as he arrived at the edge of the vast spread of flat fields, seeing what looked like wheat and something similar to corn growing in taller stalks.  Making his way around toward where he saw a gate in the wall – one that he probably should’ve used – he saw a Human woman with long, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail dressed in a white and tan top and pants, staring at the open gate and tapping her foot impatiently.  Behind her was a large group of mostly Humans, with a few Gnomes, Elves, and Natruri spread throughout the restless crowd. 

Assuming that this was where he was supposed to be, he ran up behind the woman, who was just turning around and angrily muttering, “I guess he’s not com—”

She screamed shortly in startlement as he suddenly appeared behind her, his steps fairly quiet for all that he was barefoot.  Taking a step back, she held her hand to her chest as if he’d given her a heart attack, and he could see her eyes widening as she reacted to his sudden appearance. 

An automatic use of his Identification ability revealed more than he expected.

Paulina

Level: 10

Highest Stat: Intellect

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: High

I know her name already?

It suddenly occurred to him what the registration he’d done with that Elven Guard had done.  A brief use of Identification on a half-dozen of the people waiting impatiently in the group behind Pauline showed that he now knew the names of every single person there.  Some of them had their Highest Stat and Weaknesses filled out, but he ignored everything but the fact that it appeared as though “registration” allowed him to know who everyone is. 

I guess that explains why I was picked up by the Guards earlier; being “unknown” full of a town of “known” people, I would’ve stood out.  I wonder how extensive this registration is?  Is for just this town and the people working out of it?  Region-wide?  World-wide?  He’d have to ask some questions later if he thought it wouldn’t put him at risk.

“Where— uh, where did you come from?  I didn’t see you pass through the Gate – and I was watching ever since I got the Task that said you were on the way to spend a shift in the fields.” 

He smiled at the woman, who seemed like she was in her 20s and was quite attractive to him – or it could’ve just been that he hadn’t seen any Human in over a year, but who really cared – and said, “I wasn’t sure where this gate was, so I traveled around from the docks to get here.”  He pointed at the gate he was referring to just ahead.

“You… didn’t know where the gate was?  Who are you?  No, don’t answer that.  We’re going to be late if we don’t get started right now.”  Seemingly recovered from her scare, she shouted to the assembled group of what Bax figured were fieldhands.  “We’re in 46, 47, and 48 this shift!  You know what to do!”

Despite some curious glances in his direction, especially from the other Humans – who all appeared to be a mixture of Scandinavian, Hispanic, African, and Asian descent from Earth, which was quite an exotic blend – the group took off at a steady run, heading down a pathway leading further into the fields, while in the distance down the same pathway he could see a second group of people heading back in their direction.  Even from a distance, they looked tired, but not extraordinarily so; they simply looked like they had completed a tough day at work, but still had enough energy to continue if they had to. 

“Have you worked the fields here before?” Paulina asked as she followed behind the others, though at a slower pace so she could talk to Bax.  He saw her frequently glancing over at him as he accompanied him, and he was made once again aware that he was still largely naked with just a loincloth covering his privates.  For some reason, it made him even more uncomfortable now that it was a Human looking at him; he didn’t think he was hard to look at, and his experiences in the Tower had tanned his formerly pale-ish body to the point where wasn’t too different in skin color from the other Humans, but he was still self-conscious about his state of undress.

“The fields here?  No, I have no experience working these fields, or any fields for that matter.  What do you need me to do?”

She tripped slightly over seemingly nothing when he said that.

“You have no experience preparing the fields, planting, weeding, or harvesting?  Where have you been that you were never exposed to it before this?”

Shrugging, as he really didn’t want to answer that question, he said, “Let’s just say it was a very small village that relied primarily on hunting to provide food.”

“That’s… unlikely, but I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”  She took a deep breath, before stealing a look at him again.  “Alright, let me go over what it is that you’ll be doing….”

Bax listened to her describe the process of tilling the dirt, planting seeds, weeding out invasive plants, and then harvesting the finished produce.  In all, it seemed fairly simple and similar to what he’d seen on TV and movies back on Earth, though without all of the modern equipment and technology that he was used to.  He supposed that, with everyone having Levels and being much stronger, faster, and have more stamina than the average Human back on Earth, they didn’t necessarily need that technology to perform the same tasks at the same speed – they just needed people in general. 

“…and if you didn’t know before now, the reason we have so many fields here at Lodgepoint is because the area on this side of the river has historically proven to be less dangerous than many other regions in the Arvolian Protectorate.  With weaker monsters—and fewer of them—nearby, we are able to divert a portion of the Deepspring River to irrigate these fields and then export the majority of our produce all throughout the Protectorate.  It’s an extremely important duty that we take very seriously, so I want to make sure that – even if you are here as a punishment – you take it seriously, as well.  Can you do that for me?”

He nodded, understanding a little more about the current conditions in the town, the role that many of the Humans played, and the reality that something as simple as farming could be dangerous, as well.  None of this was covered in the Co-op Archives, and he found that he enjoyed learning about something new.  “Yes, I’m more than willing to put in the work and do whatever you need for me while I’m here,” he said sincerely.  It wasn’t like he expected it to be hard work, given his stats, though it certainly might be boring.  Regardless of that, though, he was intent on getting this shift done so he could move on to more important matters.

The fields, being on relatively flat land which made seeing all of it a bit difficult from where he’d first laid eyes on it, extended even further than he expected.  He was reminded of the massive cornfields he’d driven through at one point in Nebraska as he passed through the state, with row upon row of unending cornstalks as far as the eye could see.  While there wasn’t quite that many fields as there were in Nebraska, it still took them 30 minutes at a light jog to reach their destination.

“Due to your low Level and lack of experience, I’m going to have you pulling out the intrusive weeds that always seem to spring up exactly where we don’t want them, as that is both the easiest and simplest of jobs.  Do you have fairly good eyesight?  What about your Intellect?  You’ll need both to be able to pick out and determine which are weeds and which are the plants we want to stay.”

Bax nearly corrected her assumption that he wasn’t strong or fast enough to do some of the other jobs, but he bit his tongue at the last second.  “Uh, yes, I should be fine on both accounts.  Just show me what to look for, and I should be good to go.”

It didn’t take Paulina long to point out the invasive weeds to him on a field that only had sprouting wheat-like stalks coming up from the rich, loamy dirt underneath his feet.  Unlike the weeds he was expecting, such as dandelions or crabgrass, these plants were alive – or at least they moved very, very slowly – and looked like small bushes of entangles vines.  These weeds would literally stretch out their little vines and rip out the plants that were supposed to be there, consuming the plant matter like a meal, before growing and moving on to consume even more.

What was interesting, however, was that it seemed like there was a fuzziness around these weeds, as if they were attempting to hide from his vision.  Their Phantom Vine name made more sense as he figured that the organism was somehow creating a magical camouflaging effect that made most people ignore it – unless they had a decent perception and Intellect stat. 

This was made even more obvious as Paulina demonstrated what it took to find and destroy these invasive weeds.  Bent over until her face was only a few feet above the surface of the field, she slowly made her way through the field, deliberately taking her time as she observed every inch of what was in front of her.  Stopping over one of these Phantom Vines, she called him over and pointed at it.  “See the blurriness here?  And then how it seems to change to look like on of the good sprouts nearby?  This is what you need to look for, as that is a Phantom Vine.  Now, all you have to do is reach down and firmly grasp it, before pulling it out,” she continued, demonstrating how her hands wrapped around the Vine, easily popping it out from the dirt. 

The Phantom Vine didn’t have long roots, so it wasn’t secured in the dirt very well, meaning that it came out with only a simple tug at the invasive plant.  “Once it’s out, as you can see, it loses its ability to hide.” Bax couldn’t really see the difference, but he took her word for it.  Looking out at the field, he realized that he could see at least another 50 of these Phantom Vines from where he was standing; his perception and Intellect were so far above what was necessary to notice these weeds that they all looked relatively “normal” to him.  “Store it in your internal inventory space—if you have room—until later, where you can empty them into our shredder; Phantom Vines are actually great to use as fertilizer, better than anything else we can produce, but it has the side effect of producing more.  It’s an ongoing cycle to get rid of them, use them for fertilizer, and then pull more, but it allows us to keep each field fertile enough to plant another crop directly after harvesting the last.

“Any questions?”

Bax thought about what was being asked of him.  “When I finish this field, should I move on to the next?”

Paulina chuckled at his question.  “Sure, if you finish—which is unlikely, as it takes so long to search through the entire field—then you can help out somewhere else.  But don’t rush through it all and miss even one; even a single one that is missed can wreak havoc on our crop.”

“I’ll make sure to get them all, then,” he said confidently.

“I’ll leave you to it, then, and I’ll check up on you later.”  As she turned to leave, she stopped and looked at him again.  “I have one question for you, however.”

Bax tensed slightly, unsure what she was about to ask.  “Sure, go ahead.”

“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”

Chuckling self-consciously and stopping himself from covering parts of his body with his hands, he told her, “Oh, they got destroyed on my way here and I was picked up before I could buy any more.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up something after this shift out here.”

“That’s… strange,” she skeptically replied, before shaking her head.  “Anyway, good hunting; I’ll be back to check on you later.”  With a last look at him, Paulina jogged away to join a large group of other field workers, who appeared to be harvesting some of the corn-like crop he’d seen in some of the other fields. 

With her leaving, Bax got to work.  It didn’t take him long to reach the first Phantom Vine, and he plucked it from where it was very slowly reaching toward one of the good plants.  Looking at it closely, it still resembled a ball of very slowly moving vines, so he shrugged and stuck it into his internal inventory space.  With a sigh, he moved on to the next and did the same thing, barely hesitating as he moved on to the next, and then then next.  He didn’t move extraordinarily fast so as not to call attention to himself, but he also wasn’t going to go extremely slow and pretend that he actually had to search for these invasive weeds, especially when he could see them easily enough even at a distance.

The hours ticked by steadily as he continually bent over and picked up Phantom Vines, easily finishing the first field that he’d been assigned to weed, before making his way over to one nearby that appeared in need of help of weeding as well.  The monotony of his actions was boring, as he expected, but rather than being tired from working outside in the sun all day, he felt exhilarated for some reason.  Whether it was the simple manual labor being different from his usual day of research or killing monsters, or knowing that he was actually contributing to the well-being of the people of this world already – if in a completely different way than he expected – Bax was somewhat enjoying himself.

“What are you doing over here?!  I told you to go through that field!” he heard Paulina yell angrily at him, her approach noted but not really registering to his monotonous and repetitious weed-pulling.

“Already finished it.  You can check it yourself, but there are no more of these Phantom Vines,” he said as he picked up yet another weed and showed it toward her to emphasize his point, “over there.  So, I started over here.”

“But that is impossible—”

Bax shrugged, cutting her tirade off.  “Not if I can see them even from more than a few feet away.  I told you, I have more than enough perception and Intellect to be fine pulling these things up.”

“No one can see these from more than 5 or perhaps 6 feet away, so you must be mistaken—”

“There’s one approximately 2 feet from your left foot, and then if you take 5 steps directly forward, there will be another one at your feet.”  Each of these Phantom Vines were approximately 40 feet away from him, which according to her was impossible to see; she scoffed, before looking down and seeing the one he’d pointed out first.  With tentative steps, she also did what he told her about stepping forward, finding another Vine approximately where he’d said it would be.

“How— How did you do that?  Did you memorize the position of these before I arrived?” she asked, obviously confused at his ability to see the Vines so clearly.

“No, I didn’t memorize them – what would be the point.  I told you, I can see—”

A loud explosion and then a series of distant shouts coming from the forest that edged the fields reverberated loud enough to reach his ears, and he snapped his head up just as he saw a large, quadrupedal shape about a mile away and one field over emerge from out of the trees.  The cat-like beast was at least 10 feet tall at the shoulder, and its brownish coloring seemed to blend in with the tree trunks behind it, as well as the dirt underneath its paws.

Soiled Pantherin

Level: 28

Highest Stat: Dexterity

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

Bax was frozen in shock at the Soiled Pantherin’s appearance, as he hadn’t really been expecting it – nor did the poor guy at the edge of the field, who stood in clear panic as the monster leaped at him.  The Pantherin’s jaws closed over the Level 7’s upper body and torso, crushing through flesh and bone like the Human it had caught was nothing but a snack.  Leaving the man’s lower body still standing where it had been detached, at least until it toppled over a second later, the monster suddenly bounded back into the trees where he heard even more shouting, which seemed to free up his legs. 

Running away from the field, but still cognizant of needing to hide his real speed, he shot off into the trees while ignoring the shout coming from Paulina for him to stop.  He hadn’t been ready to stop the other man from getting killed, but he would be damned if he let the Pantherin kill anyone else.

Tower Story -- Chapter 15

(Just as a reminder, this is the final chapter for my $2 Patrons; the rest of the chapters will be gradually released as soon as the entire book is complete, leading up to its publication on Kindle)

Chapter 15

Bax instinctively used Identification on the Dwarf, and he was somewhat surprised at how high of a Level they were.

Unknown Dwarf

Level: 21

Highest Stat: Unknown

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Very High

Level 21?  Perhaps the average Level of people in this world is higher than I thought?

“Uh, well, sorry about being wet,” he responded quickly.  “I accidentally fell in.”

The Dwarf grunted in annoyance.  “Obviously.  But you didn’t answer my question.  Who are you, and where were you working to have fallen in?  I don’t recognize you, and your Level is far too low to be useful on my docks.”

Glancing around, for the first time Bax used Identification on the various Humans helping to move boxes and other material on and off the various boats that were parked at the docks.  The lowest Level he saw among them was Level 5, which was only a single person that was built like a body builder; the average of the others was Level 8, with the highest at Level 11.  As for the other races moving in and around the docks, either assisting the Humans or directing them from the boats, they ranged from Level 4 all the way up to Level 18.

In other words, Bax stood out significantly because of his low Level. 

He didn’t really have a good story prepared, which in hindsight was a miscalculation on his part; the details of getting to civilization and integrating himself into it in order to help out hadn’t really been a priority – but it should’ve been.  Especially if he didn’t want to advertise how powerful he was… at least, not yet.

“Oh, uh, I’m actually a new arrival.  This town is unfamiliar enough to me that I lost my footing on the—”

“Of all the—” the Dwarf seemed to curse, but it wasn’t translated properly to his mind for some reason.  “Why are they sending these inexperienced fools out here?” he seemed to mumble to himself, shaking his head in disappointment.  “What were you sent out here for?” the Dwarf again addressed Bax.

He wasn’t sure why he said it, though he thought it was perhaps because he couldn’t think of anything else.  “I’m, uh, supposed to join an Adventuring Party and—”

Bax was interrupted when the still-unknown Dwarf literally guffawed up at him.  “Ha!  That’s rich!  A Level 2 Human thinking to join a Party on the frontier!  I don’t think I’ve heard anything as ridiculous as that before!”

The laughing pulled the attention of almost everyone on the docks, who seemed to see the half-naked man for the first time, but most of them looked away after seeing that the Dwarf was there.

Once the Dwarf’s mirth subsided a bit, he wiped his eyes where tears of laughter had spilled out, before asking more seriously, “No, really; who are you, and why are you here?”

“I’m… Bax, and I’m here to… help out however I can?” he responded, unsure what else to say.  He was tempted to simply run away from this confrontation, as he didn’t really appreciate being laughed at, but he still wanted to keep a low profile until he had a little better understanding of the lay of the land. 

His answer elicited another grunt from the Dwarf.  “Ah, one of those types.  Did you stow away on one of the merchant ships?  Was it the Dawnspire? Or the Verdant Hook?”

Bax shook his head.  “No, sir, I would never do something like that.”

The Dwarf looked at him with a discerning eye.  “Did you take anything from them that didn’t belong to you or deliberately hurt anyone to arrive here?”  Bax felt a tingle as something pressed against his mind, and he realized that the dockmaster had something like a Detect Falsehood or Divine Intentions spell at his disposal; based on the Dwarf’s Level, he suspected that it was the first one, as his research told him that Divine Intentions was only available to Classes at higher Levels.

“No, I didn’t take anything that didn’t belong to me, nor did I deliberately hurt anyone,” he said truthfully.  At least, he hoped that it came across as truthful; he’d technically killed thousands of people, but none of it had been deliberate.

Another grunt, this time sounding satisfied.  “Seems like you’re telling the truth.  It still doesn’t make sense why you would come here, unless you’re running away from something?”

“No, not exactly.”

“That’s a bit dubious, but I don’t have time to care, anymore.  All I know is that I can’t use anyone of your Level here, so GET OFF MY DOCKS!” the Dwarf shouted in a bellowing voice, before turning away to yell at a Human crew fumbling with an extremely heavy-looking box on one of the boats nearby.  “Lift with your knees and use your HEAD, for once!”

Shaking himself to get rid of the majority of the lingering water on his body, Bax quickly left the docks, walking swiftly toward the open gate that led through the stone wall into the town, feeling the suspicious eyes of the armored guards up above looking down at him.  When he got to the gate itself, he was thankful that the two Orc guards – each at Level 20 – didn’t stop him from walking through it, though he could feel their disdain like a palpable aura wafting off of them.

He ignored them, as he didn’t really care about getting into a confrontation with any people who were either racist or would disparage his apparent Level; such an interaction could only end badly.  Either he’d have to reveal himself as someone significantly stronger than they were, or he might lash out angrily and end up inadvertently hurting or killing someone.  He’d never been one to fly off at the handle at the slightest provocation, but he discovered that his patience for the actions of morons had decayed during his forced solitude.  Until he could try and build his patience back up again, he thought it would be best to avoid any situations where he might accidentally react poorly.

Stepping into the walled assemblage of buildings called Lodgepoint, he was immediately assaulted by the sights, sounds, and smells of what he would imagine a medieval fantasy town would be like.  There was a small marketplace with temporary stalls set up just inside the gate, with the majority of them being fishmongers displaying recent catches from the river, though he also saw some others selling other general merchandise and supplies like simple clothing, rope, candles, cookware, and a sundry of basic items such as soap and glass bottles.  Seeing that he was nearly naked with just his loincloth that had seen better days, he was most interested in the clothing stalls, but his attention was pulled away as he looked past the temporary marketplace at the wide street leading up to what appeared to be an enormous building in the center of the town. 

Dozens of groups were heading in and out of this building, which made him believe that this was likely the Adventurer’s Guild building – at least according to his research.  The Guild was the most important part of every village, town, or city in any world, as they were what ultimately kept everyone safe on a normal basis; Keepers might be the ones that were Tasked with eliminating greater threats, but 95% of everyday monster-killing was done by the Guild and the Adventurers that belonged to it. 

However, even knowing that fact, it seemed as though this building was even larger – both in height and width – than what would be expected in a town this size.  His quick assumption was that, if it was known that Keepers weren’t going to be there to help, then the need for more Adventurers and for their scope of Tasks would be expanded.  Whether or not this was the case was something he figured he would find out soon, as he was positive that he’d be checking out the Guild in one way or another, if only to see if he could find more information on what kinds of threats were out there.

The main street leading to the Adventurer’s Guild took the majority of his focus, however.  Permanent shopfronts showed carved-wood signs indicating that they sold weapons and armor of all kinds, as well as what appeared to be shops that had potions and other magical items that could be useful for Adventurers.  There was even one façade on the front of a larger space that appeared to exclusively sell larger weapon emplacements, or possibly ones that could be transported for use in the fields.

The sight of so many stores appearing to cater to Adventurers and the defense of the town wasn’t too surprising, given the importance of such things, but it also seemed like it was the main industry in the town by the way it dominated everything else.  Granted, Bax was far from seeing everything yet, but the general feel he got – along with the sight of so many armed and armored individuals moving around – made him fairly confident in his assumption.

Seeing the temporary clothing stalls, Bax was reminded that he was practically naked and it would be a good idea if he were to cover himself up now that he was back in civilization.  He’d gotten used to his state of undress while he’d been at the Co-op and in the Keepers’ Tower, but now that he was back among people, he needed to where clothes again – especially as he stood out like a sore thumb compared to everyone else he saw.  Getting pointed looks and hearing whispered conversations about his nakedness – and a few admiring giggles from a few Human women – made him increasingly self-conscious, even though his changed body was certainly nothing to be ashamed of.  It was just that he was feeling very uncomfortable under all of those staring at him.

As he began to walk toward the clothing stall, he realized as he took a few steps that he didn’t have any money to buy anything.  If he remembered correctly, the people living in the System didn’t use common fantasy currency like gold, silver, and copper coins as a means of trade; instead, they used something called “Magical Gems”, or Magems for short.  They were created by condensing down energy-imbued items through a special process that any merchant-type Class or those with a high Unity could accomplish.  The Conversion ability was apparently easy enough to learn by anyone with a Unity at 50 or above, but it was also something that the aforementioned Classes received automatically. 

What Conversion essentially did was destroy an item imbued with energy, such as what was acquired from monsters after they were slain, and in its place was a small Magem. These Magem would come in different sizes and colors, depending on how much energy was contained within them, and these Magems – along with certain abilities of different Classes – was what allowed the people who lived within the System to imbue energy into other items.  These items could be something as mundane as the stone used to construct the walls of the town, making them stronger and more durable, to improving weapons and armor, to providing the magical impetus for potions and other useful magical items.  Essentially, nearly everything that required energy to improve it needed these Magems, which was why they were the main currency throughout every world, able to be traded between worlds without any confusion.  Of course, that was before all of the other worlds had been compromised, so he supposed that it only really mattered for the current world of Derelya.

A glance at people shopping and exchanging a few Magems here and there for goods told him that the currency hadn’t changed all that drastically despite there only being one world that dealt in them.  Now all he needed to do was find someone who could help convert at least some of what he’d acquired from the Bugeels not too long ago into Magems and he could clothe himself again – as well as get something to eat.  He had been thirsty, but he’d ended up swallowing some of the river water to slake his thirst a bit; he could probably go for something that was a bit cleaner to drink to go along with some food, however.

Before he could begin to look for someone to do that, he noticed a pair of male Anjelou briskly jogging up to him from his right, dressed in the same sort of guard uniforms as the Orcs by the gate and those upon the wall.  “Halt!” one of them shouted, and he looked to see that both of these angelic guards were Level 22; they were stronger than most of the other guards, but not as strong as the Adventurers who had escorted earlier.

Bax could’ve run or even pretended like he hadn’t heard them, but he did neither.  He figured that if he was going to be questioned or accosted again, he might as well get it over with.  Instead, he just looked at the approaching Anjelou with curiosity, as he had no idea what they might want.

“You are in violation of our registration protocols; any new arrivals must pass through the western gate to register with their writ of passage.  If you are not a new arrival, then you are in violation of removing yourself from the population rolls, as you show up as ‘Unknown’ to our Identification.  You are coming with us until we can get this sorted out.”

Oh, hell no.  Bax was fairly certain he knew what was coming next.  They would take him to jail and then spend weeks trying to establish who he was and where he came from, all because of some bureaucratic nonsense.  He was having none of that, however.  While he was confident of extracting himself from any type of jail they might think to throw him inside, he didn’t want to have to deal with this crap just by walking inside the gates of the town.

Before he could flee, the powerful Human found his muscles locked up tight somehow, and he immediately looked at one of the Anjelou to see an intent expression on his face as he stared at him.  Struggling to break free from whatever was happening to him, he fell facedown on the ground, and he used every bit of his strength to force his body to move at his direction – but it was no use.

What?  How is this possible?

Abandoning the physical attempts at escape, he mentally looked inside of himself using some of the same techniques that had allowed him to bring his Unity up to 10 – and found something disturbing.  An outside force—likely the intently staring Anjelou—had wrapped itself around his Mana and had expanded throughout his entire body, locking it down tight.  He was fairly sure that if he had better control over his Mana, such as what would come with a much higher Unity, he was fairly certain he could overpower the force controlling him, but as it was, he was feeling quite helpless in this situation.

One of the angelic guards easily picked his stiffly frozen body up, still face down, and he had to endure the indignity of being carried throughout the town, staring at the dirt and stone street underneath him.  Eventually, he saw the one carrying him step up some stairs and into a fairly open building, at least that’s what it seemed like based on what he could hear; he couldn’t see anything but the stone tiles underneath him as he was brought down what he further thought was a hallway, before being literally dropped inside what was turned out to be an empty jail cell. 

He discovered what it was as soon as he felt control of his body return to him, and he immediately jumped to his feet and looked around.  The 10-foot by 10-foot room he was in was surrounded by stone walls on three sides, with the last one being completely empty of any permanent fixture.  Instead, covering the opening was a curtain of energy that he could feel even at a distance, and that same curtain covered not only the other walls, but the ceiling and floor, as well.  Stomping on it gently, he could feel that it had a minor shocking effect to it when he attempted to push through, and he surmised that it would only become more significant with additional pressure.  Overall, it was a strange sight, and not one that he was expecting.

I keep forgetting that this is a magical world; steel bars wouldn’t necessarily be a deterrent to those with high Strength, after all.

“What are you going to do to me?” he asked, intuitively knowing that even through the magical barrier, the guards that were still outside his cell could hear him. 

“As stated before, we will attempt to ascertain your identity, with or without your cooperation.  Until that time, you are staying here.”

The hell I will.

Bax was already testing the limits of the barrier, pushing through what was covering the floor, and he was fairly confident that it couldn’t stop him if he really wanted out.  It simply required a higher Strength and Endurance than anyone else in the world could boast having.

The problem, though, was that even if he broke out, the guards seemed to be able to lock up his body on sight.  He might be able to run away before they could catch him, but then he would have to leave and find somewhere else to go; there was a distinct possibility that he would run into the same problem no matter where he went, so he clamped down on his desire to shatter the barrier and attempt to walk out until he knew more about what was to happen.

“Can you at least get me something to eat?  I’m starving.”

That wasn’t far from the truth, either.  From his run through the last Floor of the Keepers’ Tower, to his experiences thus far in the world of Derelya, he hadn’t had anything to eat – and after the guards locked up his muscles, he found himself even more famished than before.

One of the Anjelou nodded before they both walked away.  He could only assume that they would be getting him something to eat, but it was too hard to tell from their stoic expressions if that meant right away or a few hours from that point.

After they left, he sat on the floor and considered what had just happened.  Searching through his memories of his time in the Co-op’s Archives, he couldn’t remember learning anything about a spell or ability that did what had just been done to him.  All he knew was that his poor Unity stat was a weakness that he had no idea could be exploited that way. 

I need to fix it, pronto.  Of course, to do that, he needed to get into a Party so he could unlock his Class, otherwise it was going to be stuck at 10 forever.  If that was the case, then he might have to forever be worried about random Level 20s somehow incapacitating him with a look.  Worse than that, the thought that some monsters that he’d never seen before in the Keepers’ Tower could do the same weighed heavily upon him.

Before he could go too far into depressive thoughts about his poor Unity stat and the possibility that monsters could somehow make him freeze up just like what the guard had done, he heard someone heading back his way.  He looked up and saw the same Anjelou he’d been thinking about and saw that he was carrying something in his hands.  A moment later, the guard reached through the barrier keeping him theoretically trapped in the cell as if it didn’t even exist, placing a large, square piece of what looked like bread and a stone cup full of water on the barrier covering the floor.  Bax momentarily thought about grabbing the Anjelou’s hands before the guard could withdraw them, but decided to let him go.

He'd brought food, after all.

It took no time for the starving Human to scramble over to the bread and he practically inhaled it, tearing into large pieces that he rapidly chewed, swallowing it down with his water at the same time.  While it wasn’t the best bread he’d ever had, as it was a bit more dense than he was used to, it was practically divine given how hungry he’d been.  It was gone too soon, unfortunately, and though his stomach grumbled for more, he was at least minimally satiated for the moment. 

Sitting back and relaxing as best as he could in what was ostensibly a magical box without even a bed or toilet to go in, he began to wonder how long he’d have to wait to get out of there.  He hoped that his original estimate of a few weeks was just an irritated exaggeration, but he honestly didn’t know what to expect.  Nearly everything he’d learned about the actual people and towns of the worlds that the Keepers protected had been fairly broad in subject, so he knew practically nothing about the rules and laws that had to be followed for normal people.  There were plenty of rules that Keepers had to follow, but those didn’t necessarily translate to his current situation.

Again, he internally debated on whether to reveal that he was actually a Keeper that was there to help, but he still wasn’t sure if it would actually help.  In fact, the more he was in this world, the more he suspected that it would be a bad idea, and would invite questions about the other Keepers that he really didn’t want to answer.

If this incarceration looks like its going to last longer than a couple of days, I think I’ll say “screw it,” and try my luck somewhere el—

“Get up,” he heard, and he looked up to see an Elf in a guard uniform that had appeared while he was being introspective.  While he didn’t necessarily want to jump to the beck-and-call of these town guards, Bax still got up off the floor and moved closer to the magical barrier blocking him from the Elf when they gestured him forward.  He was hoping that he might get some answers on how long he was going to be there and of what exactly they needed from him.

“Level 2, huh?  Do you have a writ of passage?”  At Bax’s head shake, the Elf sighed.  “Where did you come from, then?  Did you come in from the trading vessels?”

“I, uh, walked here,” he responded.  That was technically the truth, he supposed. 

“Right, sure, you walked here – even though the closest village is at least two days away for someone at your Level.”  The Elf stared at him as if he was using the same ability the Dwarf on the docks possessed, before shaking his head in disbelief.  “You’re telling the truth, or at least what you believe to be the truth.  Whatever, I’m not going to waste my time trying to figure it out, because I honestly don’t care.”

The Elven guard, who Bax learned couldn’t use Identification on through the magical barrier, pulled something out of his internal inventory space.  It looked like a flat, black, rectangular stone that reminded him somewhat of the control tablet in the Co-op, but it was much more crude and primitive-looking.  “Let’s get you registered and then you can get out of my hair.”  Saying so, he held the black stone up to the magical barrier and pushed it through just enough that it was accessible to Bax… and then looked at him expectantly.

“What are you waiting for?” he asked, clearly annoyed by this point.  “Put your right hand on the registrar.”

With a mental shrug, he did so, and there was a faint tingle that shot through his palm before fading away after a few seconds.  The Elven guard pulled it away at that point and then paused as his gaze went unfocused; Bax realized that he was looking at something that only he could see, such as a notification or his APPS. 

“Baxtonille?  You prefer to go by Bax?”

Crap.  I wonder what information they just got on me?  With only a slight hesitation, he answered, “Yes; I prefer Bax.”

“Fine, Bax.  It doesn’t appear that you have any outstanding infractions, so you’re in the clear.  As far as your inability to present a writ of passage—” The Elven guard abruptly cut off, his expression confused.  “Well, I’ve never seen this before.  Apparently, the System has given you automatic access to move freely wherever you want to go.”  Turning to look at Bax, his irritation was clearly back.  “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“Uh, well—”

“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but you’ve wasted enough of our time with this nonsense.”  The Elf suddenly made the black stone tablet-type thing disappear as he turned his full attention on Bax.  “Now, your punishment for failing to register upon arrival, as well as failing to mention that you have no need of a writ of passage, is to assist in the fields outside the walls for one entire shift without pay.  Once you’ve done that, you’re free to do whatever you came here to do.  Any questions?”

Bax thought about protesting, but the sudden change in his imprisonment had thrown him off.  Instead, he just nodded, figuring that it would probably be simpler to serve out his punishment rather than raise a stink.  Besides, it wasn’t as if he was in any massive hurry; he planned to be in this world for a long time, and he’d rather not get off on the wrong foot by arguing with the local authorities or even refusing to abide by the punishment.  While they couldn’t technically force him to work in the fields outside the walls, he’d also rather avoid them locking him up again with whatever ability they’d used before.

“No… no questions.”

“Good to hear.  And fortunately for you, the next shift is about to start.  Once I let you out, go see Paulina outside and she’ll get you started.”  The next moment, the barrier fell, freeing him from the cell.  “Now, get the hell out of my station.”  Before Bax could respond, the Elf quickly left, and it was only as he turned the corner down the hallway that he realized he’d forgotten to use Identification on the guard.

He stood there for a moment, not completely believing that he was actually free now, before he took off down the same hallway at a jog, intending to get out to the fields as soon as possible to get this whole thing over with so he could get on with his original plans inside the town.

Tower Story -- Chapter 14

Chapter 14

It was almost painful to have to match his speed to the Party that had “rescued” him, as it seemed so slow to Bax, but it also gave him a chance to practice adjusting to those who couldn’t move as fast as he could.  The last thing he wanted to do was arrive in town while pretending to be the Level 2 that the System displayed himself as and then do something that would give away the lie that it was.  As much as he didn’t necessarily want to deceive everyone, he knew it was likely better for everyone involved if he kept his secret at least a little bit longer.

While they crossed over rolling hills, forests, and grassy plains on their way toward the river and town in the distance, Bax thought about what his plan should actually be now that he was back among civilization again.  He’d spent more than a year with the singular goal of finishing his Tasks inside the Co-op and the Keepers’ Tower that his ideas of what to do after he actually accomplished his objective were a bit tenuous.  They had essentially been “get to a world, help them out a bit, then when the portals opened, travel to Earth, and then help the survivors of the System’s coming”.  He had accomplished the first part, obviously, but he hadn’t taken into account that, not only was he not in the same cycle anymore, but Earth was “compromised” and likely overrun with monsters, while the survivors of Humanity were on the current world.  He couldn’t go back in time – at least he didn’t believe he could – so there was no preventing what had already happened; all he could do now was look toward the future.

But what kind of future is that supposed to be?  And how do I ensure that happens?

It might sound arrogant to think that he would be influential toward making whatever future needed to occur happen, but given that he was undoubtedly the strongest person in this world, he likely had more influence than any one person or even small group of people.  He had no desire to become a leader, but after everything that had happened in the Co-op, he felt more than a little responsibility to ensure that the survivors of the disaster that he had inadvertently caused continued to not only survive, but to thrive with his help.

The problem was that he didn’t have enough information about the current state of the world or the other System worlds to know where to concentrate that help.  Sure, he could start rampaging across the world, killing monsters left and right, but would that necessarily be the best use of his time?  As powerful and quick as he was, he was only one person; could he be expected to run all over, solving all the crises himself, or should he look into some way of empowering the people so that they could handle most of it themselves?

Typically, at least according to the Archives, Adventurers throughout the cycle handled the day-to-day business of hunting down average monsters throughout the world, at least at first; once dungeons started to appear, they would then add clearing and closing the easiest of dungeons, while Keepers worried about Remnants, Aberrations, and the strongest dungeons threatening the people of the world they were responsible for.  Later in the cycle, Adventurers would be strong enough to handle roaming monsters and virtually all of the dungeons in the world, and potentially even help out in a tower or a monster horde when they were needed – while Keepers tackled the stronger monsters that might appear, as well as concentrating on towers to keep them from expelling monsters. 

But if there were no Keepers, which he suspected was the case, then the Adventurers would have to handle everything on their own.  According to the records, it was unlikely that they would be able to keep up with the steadily rising average Level of the monsters they faced over the years, which was what he suspected happened during the last cycle; he would have to find some sort of local library or Archive that might have more accurate and current information to tell for certain.

While they were walking, he once again looked at his Current Tasks section on his APPS, but just as it had been shortly after he arrived, it was empty.  He knew that Keepers were typically given Tasks by the System as threats were identified throughout the world by other people, but there was nothing yet – and was beginning to worry that there wouldn’t be.  There hadn’t been any records of future Guides also receiving these Tasks when they accompanied Keepers in their real-world training, but they also didn’t not say Guides received them.  He wasn’t sure if he was still classified as a future Guide or a Keeper at this point, so he would have to just wait and see what happened – at least in regard to Tasks.  As for what he wanted to do separate from Tasks… well, that all just went back to needing more information.

Unfortunately, the Party taking him to town were in a mood that he didn’t want to mess with, so he didn’t bother.  He figured he would be able to get better information from those in town, anyway, so he instead turned his attention to the area close to the river they were approaching – and the town in the distance.

Dozens of what appeared to be fishing boats were sailing up and down the river or docked in the riverside port that was connected to the town, which – now that he was closer – he was able to see was quite large.  Stretching nearly a mile in width on the side he could see, the overall rectangular shape of the thick stone walls were approximately 15 feet tall, which wasn’t that impressive when he thought about it, but it was the first time he’d seen walls surrounding anything before – so it was interesting to see in general. 

Even from across the river, he could see that the thickness of the walls was great enough to allow people to walk across it, and every 100 feet or so was an elevated platform, each of which held what appeared to be a massive crossbow emplacement.  Or is that a ballista?  Not sure what makes them different.  Instead of pointing downward, however, they were angled so that they were pointing into the sky; it took him a second to remember that monsters didn’t always stay on the land, so a threat from the sky was definitely a possibility.  A second look at the piers that stuck out into the river showed even more defensive emplacements, pointed downward this time, and a glance as some of the fishing boats showed that there were armed figures standing along the railings, staring down into the water as they moved along the river. 

They’ve really got every avenue covered, don’t they?

Past the town, he could see that the area around its walls for at least a few miles was relatively flat, which looked almost too perfect to be natural; he realized that the land had likely been altered – probably by something like Stone Shift or similar spells – and it was currently cultivated with large fields of growing food.  Numerous figures could be seen working the fields, and even at a distance he could see that many of them appeared to be Human, or possibly short Elves.  However, even though they seemed to be in the majority, he saw at least a single person from every other race – and they were working just as hard as the Humans. 

So, they definitely are here.  Working menial labor jobs, but at least they’re still alive.

Looking further as he took everything in, he noticed that there were an abnormal of what appeared to be Humans on the fishing boats and at least half of those he saw on the docks were, as well.  As for those positioned as guards or whatever they were in the boats, along the walls, and the defensive emplacements, he could only see those who definitely weren’t Human.  That didn’t mean there weren’t any, of course, but they didn’t seem to be prevalent enough to notice from a casual observation. 

A comment made earlier by the Dwarven healer in the escorting Party was starting to become more clear. 

“The Humans here have their own usefulness outside of fighting monsters; we wouldn’t be as far ahead as we are right now if it wasn’t for them, remember?”

It seemed as though the Humans, after encountering many other races that were naturally faster, stronger, and/or more magically inclined than them had fallen into roles that allowed them to contribute toward keeping things running in a town or a city rather than going out and killing monsters.  Like a stay at home parent that raised the kids while the other parent went out to make money, most of the Humans had likely seen it as their only option.  After personally seeing how pitiful his starting stats were compared to the other races while at the Co-op, he could certainly sympathize with this decision – and he had to admit that he’d probably have done the same if he was born into this world and saw how much of a disadvantage he was at just starting out.

At the same time, it was also mentioned that some Humans had managed to become powerful Adventurers in one way or another, so he supposed that Humans at least had a choice in what they wanted to do, even if it wasn’t as varied of a choice as other races. 

In the end, Bax wasn’t responsible for what the Humans or the other races chose to do.  If he found out that Humans were enslaved or something equally as heinous, he would probably make it a point to see if he could put a stop to that, but he wasn’t necessarily there to cause a social upheaval or anything as drastic; with his Levels, his training and knowledge, and his experience in the Keepers’ Tower, he was there to help the entire world against the monster threat – a world which just so happened to include Humans.  It was lofty goal, of course, but he was going to do his best to achieve it.

“Well, we’re here.  You can take one of those skiffs across,” the Vaneshta abruptly stated as they walked within range of the riverside, gesturing at a rickety-looking rowboat pulled up the rocky shore.  While he’d never actually been in a boat before, let alone a rowboat, Bax was fairly confident he could figure out how it all worked.  “The Deepspring River was clear when we left earlier, so you should be safe.”

As the Party turned away, apparently concluding that their job as escorts was done, he called out to them, “Thank you, again!”

None of them responded, and instead ran off at a much faster pace than when they were bringing him close to town.  Oh; they slowed down for me earlier.  He chuckled at that realization, as he’d had to do the same thing for them.

He wasted no time pushing the nearest wooden skiff into the water as he jumped into it.  Before too long, he found himself drifting downriver through the fast current, and he looked around for the oars that he’d seen in the others skiffs; instead of being inside of the little metal rings alongside the edges of the boat, where the others had been, he finally found them laying along the bottom, placed underneath the benches.  He struggled to get them out without breaking them, because they were positioned in such a way that he couldn’t slip them out; it took approximately 5 minutes of scratching for a solution and nearly giving up and snapping them in half before he realized the bench seats came up, easily allowing access to them.

Once he slipped them through the metal rings, which he’d seen done on some TV programs, he immediately discovered that he’d drifted so far downstream that he was now a few miles from town. Looking around, he saw a fishing boat further downstream, but otherwise it was just himself in a little wooden – and slowly leaking – rowboat along the side of the river.  He took a few seconds to become familiar with the way he needed to move the oars to get himself moving, before he deliberately took his time rowing himself across to the other side; the last thing he wanted to do, at least if he didn’t want to advertise his prodigious strength, was to row so powerfully that he pushed half the river away with each stroke.  Probably not that much, but I bet I could make it across in a few seconds if I really tried.  Though it would be more likely that I’d break the oars or the boat first.

Bax found himself enjoying the process of rowing across the river, the simple movement of the oars pushing against the water before lifting them up and placing them where they could propel him further along.  The boat itself leapt ahead in great lurches despite attempting to keep his strength to a minimum, and while the vessel and the oars creaked a bit under the strain, he found that they were robust enough to handle it – if just barely.  He decided to let up even further, trying to feel how he could scale back his strong movements even further, when he found himself passing the center of the river.

At first, he thought the slight bump below him was simply a result of him experimenting in his movements over the water.  It wasn’t until his next stroke of the oars hit only empty air that he realized the entire rowboat had been lifted violently out of the water, practically tossed up as if someone was playing catch with.  It tilted to the side as the boat reached the arc of its flight upwards, and he looked down to see the nightmarish visage of a monster awaiting his descent so that it could rip him apart and eat him.

Azure Bugeel

Level: 25

Highest Stat: Strength

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

The Azure Bugeel was something he’d seen before in the Keepers’ Tower, though it had been a higher Level and was larger, to boot.  It’s head looked like a cross between a crab and a shark, with gaping jaws filled with serrated teeth, beady eyes, and antennae on top; the rest of it looked more like an eel with a long, sinuous body, but with two eel-like appendages that acted like arms.  It was also a dark-blue color, which meant that it was able to camouflage fairly well in the river, and it as covered in matte scales which didn’t shine in the sun when it shone through the water. 

“This is not going to end the way you think it is,” he said as he descended, having let go of the oars from the boat when they weren’t doing him any good.  Instead, he had his hands free so that he could punch the crap out of the Bugeel when he landed on top of it.  Out of the corner of his eye, however, he noticed the relatively nearby fishing boat – and in particular the guards along the railing – had people pointing toward his location and he knew he didn’t want to be seen, as a Level 2, absolutely obliterating the aquatic monster more than 20 Levels above him with just his fists. 

With a sigh, he dramatically flailed his fists as if he was afraid for his life, letting himself fall into the maw of the Azure Bugeel.  While it wasn’t large enough to swallow him up, he landed in such a way that his torso was engulfed by its teeth, and he felt pressure even as his impact sent him and the monster a few feet underwater.  Unfortunately for the Bugeel, trying to bite him in half was impossible; it was the equivalent of a normal person attempting to bite through a 6-inch piece of steel with their teeth.

Bax made sure to keep his hands free as he landed within the monster’s mouth, so he was able to place his hands on both jaws and push them apart, freeing himself instantly.  He heard and felt something crack within the Bugeel’s head as he probably pushed a bit too hard, and it attempted to free itself from his grip.

He wasn’t having any of that, however.  With his hands full of toothy Bugeel mouth, he kicked downwards, dragging the monster down to the bottom of the surprisingly deep river.  With his stats, he’d discovered in the Keepers’ Tower that he could hold his breath for hours if he needed to, which had come in handy when one of the Floors had been largely aquatic in nature, and he’d also improved his admittedly lackluster swimming skills at the time out of necessity.

At what he estimated to be about 120 feet below the surface, he found the bottom of the river teeming with life – and not all of it was friendly.  Out of a dozen large caves dug into the riverbed came more Bugeels ranging from Level 15 to 24, and they seemed intent on sharing the meal that had just been delivered to them. 

Ripping apart the jaws he already had in his hands, Bax essentially tore the monster apart, before shoving the two halves toward the approaching Bugeels.  Something he’d discovered early on in his Tower climb was that monsters, while they tended to attack prey in groups, would occasionally frenzy at the sight and smell of blood – and it didn’t matter where it was from.  He wasn’t sure if the Bugeels would do the same, but he figured he might as well try.

They didn’t.

With a repressed sigh, given that he was underwater and holding his breath at the time, he quickly intercepted the incoming monsters and tore into them, his limbs moving so fast that the pressure waves he created with his punches actually doing a significant amount of damage in and of themselves, as well as the collapsing voids left as his fists passed through a section of water so fast that the crushing pressure was strong enough to snap the bones of a low-Level Human. 

Needless to say, the Bugeels didn’t stand a chance.  Within seconds of real-time, he had gone among them and obliterated their heads and brains, each strike deliberately targeting what he needed to kill them quickly and efficiently.  Before their bodies could float away to the surface and give away that he’d killed them, which he could see them starting to ascend almost immediately after death, Bax managed to grab them all and kept them in place while the System slowly absorbed their corpses.  A quick debate with himself as he waited form them to disappear was solved when he realized that emerging onto shore close to where he’d been pulled underwater would likely invite questions from the people on the nearby fishing boat if he was discovered unscathed, so he decided on another course of action.

He barely even looked at what was left behind in the monsters’ places as he stuck it all in his internal storage space and then swam away upstream, heading toward the town.  He could vaguely see some shapes in the darkened portion of the river this far down that seemed to stir at his presence, and while he wasn’t afraid of them, he didn’t feel like spending the next few hours killing everything nearby.

Moving extremely quickly through the water, now that he had access to his hands in addition to his feet, Bax found himself passing underneath more fishing boats far up above, and he eventually located the stone pilons that had been shoved into the shallower portion of the river, which stabilized the piers above.  Cautiously moving toward what appeared to be a wooden ladder descending into the water, likely to aid those who may have fallen off the docks.  Ascending above the water line, he looked upwards to see if anyone was looking at where he emerged; seeing no one obvious, he grasped the lower rungs of the ladder and started to pull himself up.  Dripping wet from the river, he finally reached the top and stood up—

—right in front of male Dwarf who looked at him like he was prepared to throw him back in.

“And just who are you?  More importantly, why are you dripping water all over my docks?”

Tower Story -- Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The first thing that Bax noticed was that he was on top of a large hill that held the large tree that he’d fallen through, while the rest of the area was filled with a short grass that reminded him of the first Floor of the Keepers’ Tower, except that this was a healthy green color.  In the distance to his right, he could see a small copse of trees similar in shape to the one he was unfortunately very familiar with, though much smaller, and they were clustered together instead of being a singular one like on the hill he was on.  Far in the distance to his left was a river that he estimated to be around a half-mile or so in width, and a little further up the waterway was what appeared to be a walled village, town, or city; it was distant enough that while he could make out that it was there, he didn’t have enough of a perspective to tell just how large it was.  Either way, it was a relief to know that there was civilization nearby; with how he’d been treated so far in this world, he wouldn’t put it past the System to literally drop him in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away from the nearest people. 

The second thing he noticed was the monster bearing down on him from behind him.  He turned toward it and saw that it was some sort of six-legged beast that had its sights set on him, and it was approximately the size of a wolf – if a wolf had lost all of its fur and had glowing red eyes that gave it a sinister appearance.  His Identification ability quickly confirmed for him what it was, as he was fairly sure he’d seen something like it in the Keepers’ Tower.

Demonic Wargin

Level: 20

Highest Stat: Dexterity

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

Yep, that’s what I thought.

What was strange about Identification, however, was that it classified the Demonic Wargin as “Very High” as far as Danger Assessment went. 

How is that possible?  It’s only Level 20 and I’m—

Oh.  Does the System only think that I’m Level 2?  Doesn’t it take my stats into account? Apparently not.

Before he could intercept the charging Wargin and smash it into paste with a good punch using his 2,682 Strength, a female voice suddenly reached him from behind the monster. 

“Run!  We’ll kill it!”

A slightly glowing arrow suddenly sprouted from the rear end of the Wargin, eliciting a whine of pain that sounded entirely too much like a dog to Bax, followed by a stone the size of his fist cracking into its hind leg so hard that he heard bone break in the process.  While the Wargin stumbled with the loss of one of its hind legs, he could see that the monster still had its complete attention on the near-naked Human in front of it, slobber flinging from its teeth-filled jaws as it stared at him like a delicious morsel. 

Bax wasn’t exactly scared that the Wargin would hurt him, as he was 100% confident that his durability had stayed intact throughout his transportation to this world, but he did dodge out of the way as the monster jumped toward him, likely intending to latch onto his neck and snap it as it rode him down to the ground.  He could’ve easily killed it while it was in the air, because it moved so slowly compared to his own quickness and speed of thought, but he held off; this was the first time that he’d actually seen other people fighting against monsters – and in a Party, it seemed.  Granted, he had killed literally hundreds of thousands of them in the Keepers’ Tower, but that had been when he’d been solo and using his fists without a lick of magic at his disposal because of his lack of a Class.  This was an opportunity to see other people in action.

The Wargin flew past him and stumbled when it landed because of its broken leg and punctured backside, and it rolled a few times before coming back to its feet.  As it rounded on him, another person interrupted his view of the monster as they ran at it, a large man he automatically recognized as an Orc.  They were wearing a heavy-looking iron and leather jerkin that was covering their torso, along with a round helmet that seemed to conform to their head almost perfectly; with some leather pants that covered up their bottom half, along with some sturdy-looking boots, the only reason he knew it was an Orc was by the greenish skin on their arms – and their size, of course.  It could’ve been a Vaneshta or even a large lion-type Dwinaii, but the green skin gave it away.  What he couldn’t tell was whether they were male or female, as they tended to appear very similar in size, but he supposed it didn’t really matter.

The Orc was wielding a large iron warhammer and a wooden shield with sharpened iron straps along the outside edge reinforcing it, and they immediately smashed the weapon into the Wargin’s face as it started to spring toward its half-naked target once again. Bax thought that would’ve been the only blow that was needed to kill the monster, but while the attack dented the Wargin’s skull a little, it simply shrugged it off.  As the Orc moved back from the first attack, intending to hit it again, he could see the warrior’s hands begin to glow red, and he recognized a Class ability from his research in the Archives.

Smashing Blow.

However, as the Orc swung forward again, the faster Wargin sidestepped to the left, and while it stumbled because of its injuries, it avoided the warhammer attack that left a huge divot in the dirt when they missed.  Fortunately, the next moment an arrow sprouted from the monster’s nose, staggering it from the abrupt attack, and then a stone spike emerged from the ground, approximately the size of Bax’s leg, and impaled itself into the Wargin’s chest. 

Even that didn’t kill it – but it certainly immobilized the monster long enough that the Orc was able to recover and send a couple of blows that broke both of its forelegs, while two more arrows and a fist-sized stone pounded into its head.  An arrow through one of the glowing red orbs it called eyes slowed it down even further, and the Orc jumped into the air and brought their sharpened-edge shield down on its neck, cutting through most of it in one blow. 

With that final attack, the Party finally took down the Wargin.

Turning away from the dead monster, she finally got a look at the rest of the Party as they arrived at a run and turned toward him.  There was the Orc, of course, who turned out to be male and had an angry look on his face as he stared at Bax.  The same sort of expression was on the face of the others as they came to a stop, which included a male Natruri wielding a bow, a female Vaneshta wearing a robe and holding a wooden staff in her hands, and a female Dwarf wearing no armor bringing up the rear with a mace on her hip.  Front-line Fighter, Support, Damage Dealer, and Healer?  Sounds like a good Party to me.

Instinctually, as every time he’d encountered something new in the Co-op and the Tower, he used Identification on all of them.

Unknown Orc

Level: 23

Highest Stat: Strength

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Very High

Unknown Natruri

Level: 23

Highest Stat: Dexterity

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Very High

Unknown Vaneshta

Level: 23

Highest Stat: Intellect

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Very High

Unknown Dwarf

Level: 23

Highest Stat: Unity

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Very High

Two things popped out to him immediately when he saw their Levels. First, he was astonished at how weak they seemed to be compared to a monster who was 3 Levels below their own; while he’d read that it became harder and harder at much higher Levels to kill monsters the same Level as you, even in a party, the effort they had gone through to kill a single monster that was theoretically weaker seemed strange to him.  Perhaps their Classes are low Level?  If that was the case, it would certainly explain why they seemed to have some trouble killing the monster.

Secondly, and more importantly, the significance of their Levels suddenly hit him. He wasn’t sure why it didn’t occur to him immediately upon seeing the Level 20 monster, but it hadn’t even registered as something strange until now.  Why was it strange?  Because, unless they were a Remnant, a monster leftover from the previous cycle that managed to maintain a modicum of their energy, then a Level 20 monster shouldn’t have been possible…

…if it had only been a little over a year since the cycle started.

According to the Archives, the average Level of monster within the first 50 years of a new cycle was approximately only Level 3, which was why this was considered to be the safest time of all, even if the people had to focus on reconstruction after the retrogression of everything imbued with magical energy.  There were some outliers, of course, but they typically didn’t show up past Level 10 – and that was a rarity.  Remnants, on the other hand, were usually a much higher Level than the average, but the earliest of them didn’t start become active for at least 50 years after the cycle began anew, which was when Keepers were typically assigned to come back and protect the worlds from those types of threats.

More than that, though, was the Levels of the people around him.  The monster might just be an outlier, an Aberration that was as far from normal as could be, but it was highly unlikely that any person within the first few years of a cycle beginning would be anything past Level 5, possibly Level 6.  The reason for this was the aforementioned average Level of the monsters during this period of time, as most of them wouldn’t be more than Level 3; and as he’d personally seen, killing monsters that were lower Level than oneself only gave a fraction of the Experience that killing one of the same or higher Level would give them.  Therefore, the people within the first 50 years would have to kill thousands of monsters to get anywhere near Level 10 – but it was unlikely that anyone would do that.  Why?  It all came back to Classes.  At Level 3, they could continue killing monsters to improve their Class, but at Level 4, they would only be able to Level up their Class by finding less-common Level 4 monsters, and so on from there with every subsequent Level-up.  Eventually, they would have difficulty even finding monsters that could provide what the needed to improve their Class, so other than a stat increase from the personal Level-up, it wasn’t really worth it to devote much time toward Leveling-up a few times.

All of that went through his mind as he looked again at their Levels and considered the now-dead Wargin on the ground.  For the first time, he wondered if the “Stasis” the System had forced upon him had actually kept him that way for more than the few seconds he thought it was.  With only a slight hesitation, he opened his APPS and looked at the date, which was handily next to time.

Cycle 980.418.583.833

Fortunately, he was able to translate the numbers fairly easily after all of his studying.  What the date was saying was that they were in the 980th cycle since the Retrogression System was initialized, and was 418 years, 7 months, and 25 days into it.

418 years?  How is that possible?

It would certainly explain the higher Levels of the monsters and the people, as it would take a few hundred years for both to start reaching the point he was seeing here.  But for some reason, Bax’s attention kept returning to the first number: 980.  He specifically remembered the speech given to the new arrivals to the Co-op as if it was yesterday, and he was sure that the Elf that had been speaking had said that this was the 979th cycle. 

Could he have been wrong?  Did he make a mistake?

Or… is this an entirely new cycle?  It couldn’t be, could it?

With dawning horror, he realized that the System had kept him in Stasis far longer than 417 years; it had kept him frozen in time for more than an entire cycle of 4,444 years, plus another 400+ years in the new cycle.  His mind worked on overdrive to put things together, as he suddenly had an idea what might have happened to the cause the System to need to shut down the Co-op. 

Thinking about how all but one of the worlds in the Retrogression System seemed to be compromised, why there was a shortage of sapient energy, and all of it was caused by the deaths of all the Keepers, Bax hadn’t even heard the Party around him speaking to him as the weight of all those deaths crashed upon his shoulders.  It was only when an actual hand slapped down on his shoulder and attempted to shake him that his spiraling depression was abruptly interrupted. 

“He’s traumatized by the attack.  We’ve got to bring him back to Lodgepoint before something worse happens to him,” Bax finally heard the devil woman say, snapping him out of his dark thoughts.

The sound of another person’s voice near him after so long was like taking a refreshing shower after a strenuous workout.  The relief he felt as the import of being on this world and back to civilization was nearly overwhelming, though he did have a slight worry that he might infect everyone again with a virus; he didn’t think it would be an issue, though, as he doubted any of the flu virus had survived from back when it had affected him. 

Shaking his head to clear it and deal with the current situation, knowing that he’d be beating himself up about it all later, he said, “No, I’m alright.”  A brief moment later, he thought he should add, “Uh, thank you for—,” but was interrupted.

“You’re alright?!  What is that supposed to mean?!” the Orc shouted in Bax’s face, making him take a step back in surprise.  “Don’t you know that wandering around out here can get you—and those trying to save your ass—killed?  What the hell is a Level 2 Human doing around here, anyway?  Most of your kind should be behind the walls, where you belong!”

The vehement anger in the Orcs words shocked him.  “What?  You know what a Human is?” he asked, now thoroughly confused – but also hopeful.  If he knows what a Human is, then that means that some of my people are still alive!  And if they are here, then it’s unlikely that viruses would have come with them, otherwise the other people here would’ve died off already!

“This fool—we should just leave his useless ass and tell those back in town that he got himself killed by a monster!” the Orc shouted, but fortunately the Dwarf came to his rescue.

“Now, Granok, we’ve talked about this before,” she said exasperatingly.  “The Humans here have their own usefulness outside of fighting monsters; we wouldn’t be as far ahead as we are right now if it wasn’t for them, remember?”

“You know I don’t trust anyone who won’t pick up a weapon and fight—”

“Granok, enough!” the Vaneshta said with a sigh.  “You know plenty well that there are some exceptional Human Adventurers out there—”

“And I could crush any of them even if they were 10 Levels above me!  Like I said, they’re useless.”

The angry expressions on all but the Orc had faded by this time, and Bax was starting to get an impression of the state of the world – as well as of his own people.  He certainly remembered his own experience at the Keeper Co-op and his conversation with Lead Guides; at the time, he was made more than aware of the fact that Humans didn’t have any special affinity with Mana and magical energy, nor did they have high starting stats at Level 1.  Unless something had dramatically changed over the last cycle, like some sort of racial evolution that made Humans stronger or more adaptable to magical energy, then it was quite possible that most of them might seem “useless” to the stronger races in the System.  He began to wonder if this meant that they were prejudiced against or oppressed because of that, but it was hard to tell without more information. 

Not that he knew what to do about it if that was indeed the case, of course.  As long as they’re not slaves or something, then I’m just happy that they’re at least still alive.

“What happened to your clothes, Human?”

His musings were again interrupted, but this time by the Natruri.  The tree-like archer was staring at him as if he was an enigma, rather than useless trash like the Orc, which he thought was at least a good sign that not everyone was as prejudicial as the front-line warrior.

“They, uh, got ripped to shreds by a monster,” he answered, which made him realized that even the clothes in his internal inventory had been emptied and destroyed by the System prior to leaving the Co-op.  For some reason, losing the last link he had to his old life on Earth hit him harder than he thought it would, and he had to stop himself from turning introspective and depressed simultaneously.  “I don’t have any spare clothes, either.”

“You survived getting your clothes ripped to shreds?  Are you still hurt?” the Dwarf asked, walking closer to examine him.  Knowing that his injuries had already been healed by his Health Regeneration, he shook his head.

The Vaneshta spellcaster sighed.  “Very well, then.  Let’s get you back to town, and then we have to continue our route.”

“Let’s just send him back on his own; I don’t want to waste any more time going back and forth than we have to.  There weren’t any monsters in between here and Lodgepoint, anyway, so he’ll be perfectly fine.  And if he isn’t, then I don’t think anyone is going to miss him—”

“Granok, I swear that if you don’t stop that nonsense, I’ll report you to the Guildmaster when we get back from our route,” the Vaneshta interrupted the Orc before he could say any more – for which Bax was glad.  His anger had started to simmer at the warrior’s words, and he felt like he was seconds away from punching Granok in the face.  He was glad he was stopped, however, because he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to reduce his strength enough to ensure his fist didn’t completely obliterate the Orc’s head. “You know that we have to escort any stray wanderers found outside the town – unless they specifically ask to be left alone, of course.”  The devil woman turned to him.  “You do want us to escort you back, correct?”

Bax wasn’t sure how to respond.  On the one hand, he could tell that while the others had defended him against the Orc, they had largely been doing it out of a sense of duty; aggravating them further by having them escort him to the town in the distance seemed like a poor decision – especially since he didn’t really have anything to fear from the monsters around the area.

But I can’t let them know that, can I?  I appear to be a Level 2 Human, right?  I could always tell them that I’m a Keeper—  The sheer thought of doing that sent alarm bells ringing through his mind.  No, that wouldn’t be the smartest idea – at least not yet.  Without any Keepers appearing last cycle, I don’t know how they would react to my presence here.  Would they be thankful or angry that no one showed up until now?  Would they blame me for what happened last cycle?  After learning how strong I am, would they conclude that I had killed everyone in the Co-op?  If so, would they then blame the other Humans that seem to be here, as all of this happened because I went to the Co-op?

Those scenarios and more flashed through his head in less than a second as he quickly decided on how to respond to the Vaneshta’s question.  With the uncertainty of how these people would respond to his real Level and strength, he figured it was probably better to act as if he needed the help for now, otherwise too many questions might arise.

“Yes, I would appreciate the escort back to town,” he said, the silence between the question and his answer longer than usual for a normal conversation, but just barely – thanks to his quick mind.  “I’m actually new around these parts, and would also appreciate anything you can tell me about the current situation—”

“You can ask around in Lodgepoint, Human; we’re not here to answer questions, but to keep ignorant fools like you alive – as much as I despise having to do so,” the Orc snapped out, cutting Bax off.  It didn’t seem as though the others were any more forthcoming in helping him out by answering any questions, so he resolved to keep his mouth shut on the way to town.

With a nod, he acknowledged what Granok said, and after the Orc grunted in dissatisfaction, they were on their way.

Bax’s arrival on a world hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but it was still a whole lot better than being stuck by himself inside the Co-op.  At least, I certainly hope it is.  I don’t feel too welcomed here, but it could also be that these Adventurers aren’t the nicest people to be around.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Tower Story -- Chapter 12

Chapter 12

418 years, 7 months, and 25 days later

Bax jerked instantly awake, a slight headache quickly fading as he sat up.  Springing to his feet off his bed, he looked around to see if the System was about to try to send him into this Stasis thing again, but apparently after failing the first time, it wasn’t going to try again.  From what he’d experienced, he figured he had been sent into unconsciousness for a few seconds before being released by whatever the System was trying to do to him.

“What the hell was that?  You’re not going to send me to a world until I can join a Party?  I’m sure that you have to know by now that there aren’t any left!” he shouted to the empty room, confident that the System could hear him.  Frustrated when he didn’t get a response, he looked around for something to throw, but his room was so sparse that the only thing he had at hand were the blankets on his bed – which wasn’t quite the satisfying destruction he was hoping for.

Sighing as his anger flowed away from him, realizing that acting out wouldn’t really do him any good, it was at that point that he noticed that he was still slightly wounded from his fight with the Tower Guardian; it was still healing, fortunately, but his hands and his torso were still tender and in need of more time for his Health Regeneration to patch him up completely.  It was actually amazing that he felt as good as he did, considering that he’d nearly died – but he wasn’t going to complain about that.

What he was going to complain about was the fact that, unlike what he’d expected once he cleared the Tower, he was still trapped in the Co-op without any way to get out. He’d finished the Tasks he was given, but some stupid rule within the System was preventing him from leaving.

“Wait a minute,” he mused, thinking about potential solutions to his problem.  “If I’m officially a Keeper now, instead of simply a recruit, do I have enough authority to use that command tablet?”  He had replaced the inoperable tablet inside the Restricted room in the Archives after he couldn’t get it to even turn on, but now that he was more “official,” he hoped that it would actually work for him now. 

Tempted to go running for it immediately, Bax decided to hold off for a few minutes until his wounds had healed completely.  Moving around was a bit painful still, he’d rather be fresh and have fewer distractions while he sought after a way for the command tablet to order his release.  He snorted at that thought.  “Release, ha!  Sounds like I’m a prisoner.”  To be fair, that was essentially what he was until he figured out a way to leave, even if he wasn’t confined to a prison cell and had basically free rein to go and do whatever he wanted inside the Co-op.  “Heck, maybe I’ll even start a riot and raid the Armory if I can’t find a way out of here; what’s the worst that could happen?”  He’d prefer going down fighting his captivity than stay trapped in there for thousands of years, after all.

One other thing other than being injured bothered him – he was thirsty.  He’d barely stopped to rehydrate during his wandering around the final Floor of the Keeper’s Tower, so he was feeling a bit parched and hungry by this point. Taking a few steps up to the crystalline box that he’d learned through his research in the Archives were called Energy Reconstitution Units, or ECUs, and were only available in the Co-op because they were apparently designed by the same, now-extinct Ascendale who created the Retrogression System, he placed his hand on its side.  Thinking, “water,” he automatically reached for the stone cup of water that would appear…

…but nothing happened. 

“What the—?  Did I lose access or something?”

He tried again, but after the same non-result in delivery of water, he was about to turn away so that he could head toward the Meal Hall, but was stopped by a notification.  Wary of the System trying to put him into that Stasis thing again, he looked at it with a bit of trepidation.

It turned out that he hadn’t lost access to the ECU; instead, it was something else entirely.

And it was much, much worse than he expected.

Warning!

Sapient energy reserves have reached critical levels!

Seeking alternative sources…

Area: Keepers’ Tower has already been suspended from operation…

Area: Keeper Recruit Cooperative is currently running at minimum operational levels…

Shutting down Keeper Recruit Co—

Error!  Keeper Baxtonille (Bax) has been identified as a current resident in Stasis…

Removing Stasis…

Sapient energy reserves continue to exist at critical levels!

The drain on reserves from the presence of Keeper Baxtonille (Bax) conflicting with primary directive…

Collapse of extradimensional space is eminent if Keeper Baxtonille (Bax) continues to reside in the Keeper Recruit Cooperative…

Searching for an acceptable world for transport—Error!

3,549/3,550 of worlds in the Retrogression System compromised…

Selecting remaining world…

Prepare for transport to World 1,534D – Designation: Derelya

Bax stood in shock as he felt a tingly sensation spread through his body.  On the one hand, he was getting what he wanted, which was to be sent to a world where he could actually help out instead of being trapped in the Co-op.  On the other, the notification said something about almost all of the worlds being “compromised,” which – while he didn’t understand exactly what that meant – he figured probably wasn’t good. 

The tingling stopped for a moment before he was hit by another notification.

Transport interrupted…

Internal dimensional space of Keeper Baxtonille (Bax) too saturated for available transport reserves…

Purging internal dimensional space and absorbing their energy to compensate for high-Level sapient transport…

“Wait—” he began to say, before his room seemed to explode with hundreds of different kinds of crafting materials, weapons, and armor that he’d collected from the Tower.  Even as they appeared, they seemed to crumble into dust, as if their molecular bonds had suddenly been shattered. 

“No!  That was my stuff—!”

Warning!  Detected Level of Keeper Baxtonille (Bax) exceeds safe transport protocol…

Requesting protocol override…

Unable to connect with Keeper Recruit Cooperative administrators…

Forced automatic override approved…

Please be advised that Keeper Baxtonille (Bax) may encounter abnormal effects from the upcoming transport…

“Abnormal effects?” he asked, his anger over all the stuff he’d collected being ripped away from him and destroyed now replaced by worry.  He didn’t get a chance to worry about it long, however, as the tingling began again.

Transport resumed…

Unable to move, all Bax could do was endure the increasingly powerful tingling that spread throughout his body.  Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see his body starting to disappear, and all he could do was watch as the light in his room flickered, as if there was an interruption in the power, before everything went black. 

It was at that point that it felt like his entire being was being ripped apart, similar to when he’d Leveled-up so many times over a year ago.  Even as his mind was undergoing the same process, he couldn’t help but notice how different this transport was compared to when he first arrived; at that time, he hadn’t even felt anything as he suddenly appeared somewhere else.

If anything, his current experience was worse than when he’d Leveled-up, if only because there were so many unknowns; he had no idea where he’d end up or what the System meant by “abnormal effects” when he got there. If there was a positive side to it all, the pain was so great and the strain on his mind so extensive that his consciousness broke apart, forcing him to black out and stop actually experiencing it all, and he happily descended into the forced darkness of nothingness that greeted him.

                    *

Bax awoke a split-second before he slammed into the top branches of a tree that looked like a hybrid of a pine tree and a maple tree, with thousands of red, pine needle-like leaves poking into him as he broke through the weakest of the topmost branches, before hitting the more robust lower branches, which he cracked and then bounced off of on his way down to the ground.  As he got closer to the ground, large, razor-sharp maple leaves brushed up against his naked skin, quite a change from the needles on top.  With each impact, his side hurt worse than before, which told him that he was aggravating his injury that still had yet to be healed completely, but he didn’t feel like he incurred any additional wounds or injuries.

Falling the last 20 feet or so free of any branches, he landed on his back with a heavy thud, which threatened to knock the wind out of him – but his body was thankfully too sturdy for that.  Groaning in pain as his torso injury throbbed from the further abuse it had suffered, he rejected the idea of getting up until his Health Regeneration fixed him up back to normal. 

As he stared up through the cracked branches of the tree that he’d unceremoniously just tore through, as if he’d been dropped from a great height by the System’s transport, he breathed deeply with a twinge of pain as he realized he was looking at a blue sky above him that was real – and not a creation of the Keepers’ Tower.  To the left side of his vision, he could see a singular sun high in the sky, and it looked so similar to Earth that he thought he actually might be back home.

However, the sight of three moons of similar size in a triangular formation in the sky when he looked to his right disabused him of that notion; unless Earth had suddenly obtained two additional moons in the year or so he was gone, then he definitely wasn’t on his home planet again.  When he added in the strange tree he’d fallen through, as well as the notification stating that he’d been sent to a world called Derelya, all of those things convinced him that he was well and truly somewhere else – and that he was essentially an alien in a strange land.  The same could be said of his experience in the Co-op, but in that situation, all of the Keeper recruits had been brought together from thousands of different worlds, and while they all shared similar backgrounds, most of them had been strangers going into it.  Here, though, everyone was already established there on the world, and as likely the only Human they’d ever seen before, he wasn’t sure what kind of reaction his appearance would have.

As he lay there, not wanting to get up until he was free from pain, he began to think about what the notifications had told him.  First, there was the whole thing about “sapient energy reserves,” which he figured was what kept the Co-op and the Tower running; why it ran out was a mystery, but he could only guess that it was due to so many people dying and therefore weren’t there to provide energy?  Unfortunately, he didn’t know enough about the inner workings of the Co-op and the Tower, as that kind of information wasn’t even in the Restricted section of the Archives. 

Secondly, he thought about the other worlds in the System being supposedly compromised.  Was it due to the deaths of the Keeper recruits and Guides from those worlds?  He wasn’t sure why that would be, but again, he wasn’t knowledgeable about that kind of stuff – much to his frustration.  After learning so much other stuff from the Archives, he was surprised that they didn’t have the stuff that would’ve made understanding this situation a bit easier – but he supposed that those who made the System hadn’t needed to provide instruction manuals on its inner workings, except to perhaps whoever was in charge.  It was entirely possible that the information had been on the command tablet that he couldn’t access, but now there was a possibility that he’d never know.

Last, and most importantly, he considered what the System meant by “abnormal effects” that he might experience due to the transport.  Mentally feeling his body, he was fairly sure that he was still as durable as he had been before, as aside from the injury he had aggravated in his side, none of the needles, leaves, or branches had even left a scratch on him.  He also didn’t feel any different, as if he had mutated to have an extra head or set of legs.  Reaching up to his face, he worried for a moment that he was disfigured or something; but a quick perusal of his face, head, and even his hair didn’t show anything that seemed out of place.  Of course, he could have purple, polka-dotted skin on his face or something, but a glance out the extremity of his eyes didn’t seem to show anything to him.  Plus, the rest of his body – which was still primarily naked with just a loincloth – appeared as normal as he could tell, so he didn’t think the “abnormal effects” had to do with something physical.

Unless I’m really tiny now, and that tree I fell through was actually the size of a small bush.  Again, he doubted this was the case, as everything he could see appeared to be sized correctly, but until he had another sense of his scale, he wasn’t dismissing it.

With a physical change largely discarded, he figured that he might have been mentally altered somehow.  A few mental exercises, as well recalling everything he’d learned in the Archives, proved to him that if it was something to do with his mind or mental faculties, then it wasn’t anything obvious.  Neither did it seem to have anything to do with his senses, as he could see, hear, touch, and smell just as well as before.  He’d have to see about taste later, as he was still very hungry and thirsty, but he doubted that a simple change in how he tasted things was the abnormal effect he was looking for.

All of which left a magical change in him.  Mentally reaching inside of himself for his Mana pool, it didn’t feel too much different than before; the only thing he noticed, once he was paying attention to it, was that the energy density all around him was far less than what he was used to in the Co-op and the Keepers’ Tower.  While he didn’t think that it would affect his Mana pool all that much, he was fairly certain that his Mana Regeneration would likely suffer as a result.  To check to see if he was right, he opened his APPS – and quickly discovered the “abnormal effect” that had been mentioned to him by the System.

Advancement Progress and Performance Sheet (APPS)

Name: Baxtonille (Bax)

Race: Human

Overall Level: ###2

Experience: 742,196/15,200,000

Health: 24,257/31,790

Health Regeneration: 2,625/min

Mana: 100/100

Mana Regeneration: 4,343/hour

Strength {2,682}

Endurance {3,179}

Dexterity {2,525}

Intellect {4,343}

Unity {10}

Class: (Pending)

Class Level: —

Threshold: 0/5

(see more)

The first thing he noticed was that his Mana Regeneration had gone from 4,343 a minute to the same amount in an hour; that coincided with what he figured might happen with the energy density in the environment being so low, which was due to the cycle recently beginning.  Fortunately for Bax, that didn’t affect his Health Regeneration, as he was fairly certain it used the energy within his own body to heal him instead of the environment, which could also explain why he was so hungry and thirsty at the moment. 

Secondly, under his Class heading, instead of it usually being blank, it said (Pending) – which was an encouraging change.  However, when he tried to do something with it, he was hit with another notification that wasn’t as encouraging – but there was some hope within it, nonetheless.

For Guide candidates, future Class selection is pending until your first Party is established.

Ah.  I read about that.

Apparently, all it required for most people to acquire a Class was to become associated within a Party – even if it wasn’t one that was actually going to go out and fight.  It was thought that this was required because it gave people a chance to select a Class that would be the most beneficial to the overall Party instead of whatever they might like to choose on a whim.  Regardless of the reason, it meant that he couldn’t yet select a Class until he joined a Party – but it was encouraging because the option hadn’t been there before.  In addition, it didn’t specifically state that his Party had to be a Keeper Party, so he hoped that it meant that he would be able to join any Party and finally get a Class.

But the most impactful of all the changes on his APPS was the appearance of his Level.  Instead of it saying that he was Level 1,302, it instead read as ###2 to him.  It was confusing at first, because it didn’t make any sense, but then something that had been bugging him suddenly made sense.  He’d been wondering why, if the Keepers’ Tower had been able to make a Tower Guardian that designed to be more of a match for him, it hadn’t made it the same Level – instead of Level 999.  He thought that it was just happenstance, but what if it was simply a limitation of the System?  What if it couldn’t create anything of a higher Level because it had never considered it to be necessary?  If he was correct, then it was entirely possible that anything over Level 999 – which was incredibly power all by itself – hadn’t ever existed before or when the System was active, so anything Level 1,000 or above wasn’t properly defined.

He thought about the whole Y2K crisis that had hit the world around the turn of the millennium, when computer systems were thought to crash because they had dates that were hard-coded to start with 19; when the year 2000 arrived, they would be unable to process it correctly or would simply see it as the year 1900.  This led to a panic and a frantic updating of computer systems to handle the changes, and it turned out to be less of a worldwide crisis than a temporary hiccup, but the principle behind of the whole situation could be what was happening with his Level.

In other words, since it couldn’t process that he was over Level 1,000, his Level displayed as only Level ###2 – or possibly just Level 2.  Why it hadn’t done it back in the Co-op, he didn’t know, but he could only assume that when transporting between the extradimensional space where it was located and back into the universe at large, this was one of the “abnormal effects” that he had been warned about.  In addition, why it didn’t simply cut off the thousands place and set him at Level 302 was also a mystery; he could only assume that the error in the System evaluating his Level had worse consequences than he could fathom, and he was worried about what it could ultimately mean in the end.  Would there by any other abnormal effects that might pop up eventually?  He had no way of knowing until something showed up, he supposed.

After another few minutes, he felt the last of the pain in his torso disappear, and checking his APPS once again, he saw that his Health had returned to full.  With a push against the real, honest-to-goodness dirt and fallen leaves underneath his hands, he stood up quickly, looking around him for the first time since he’d arrived.

Tower Story -- Chapter 11

Chapter 11

4,442 years, 10 months, and 18 days later

“Hold the line!” Ariadelle shouted, standing along the ramparts of the wall surrounding the enormous portal only a half mile in the distance.  Putting action to her own words, she pulled back the golden string of her Energetic Siege Bow, using her Mana to form a glowing projectile, which she aimed at one of the recently arrived Level 541 Gargantuan Behemoth that was heading toward her section of the wall.  She released her breath at the same time that she let go of her bow’s string, and the Detonating Shot VII-imbued projectile crossed the distance in the blink of an eye. 

Even with its speed, the Behemoth seemed to sense it coming and attempted to use its 8 legs holding up its massive, scaly bulk to the side, but its weight and devastating charge worked against it.  Ariadelle grimaced in annoyance when her shot didn’t hit the eye she was aiming at as the monster shifted slightly, but when it impacted the side of its head, the detonation caused by the projectile ended up blasting apart about a third of its grotesque face.  Unfortunately, other than a slight stumble and bellow of pain that hurt her sensitive Elven ears, the attack didn’t stop the overall charging attack of the creature heading toward the walls.

Fortunately, Ariadelle wasn’t alone.  A giant boulder suddenly shot at the stumbling Behemoth and clipped one of its forelegs before exploding into a hundreds of pieces of sharp stone shrapnel.  This was followed by a bright, directed, and disorienting light that flashed in front of the monster, blinding it temporarily, which meant it was unable to see the next barrage of defensive attacks that slammed into it from the wall.

Concentrated flame attacks burrowed into the wound in the Behemoth’s face, so intense in terms of temperature that it almost looked as if the monster began to melt like a wax candle subjected to a Fireball.  Roots erupted from the ground, entangling the legs enough that the Behemoth was forced to slow down as it broke away from them, and then an acidic wave of greenish liquid fell from up above, coating the slowed monster from head to spiked tail; she watched as the acid hissed and ate away at the protective scales of the Behemoth, exposing its softer, more vulnerable skin underneath.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched as 4 separate Mana Cannons operated by Magitech Engineers expelled their payloads, and the vibrant blue, slow-moving blobs of concentrated energy lobbed toward the monster, who was now screaming in pain so loudly that Ariadelle had to heal her ears, as they were starting to bleed.  All of that was done unconsciously as she deliberately watched as the Cannon payloads flew through the air; she immediately saw that one of them had overshot, and she shook her head as it landed behind the Behemoth, where it exploded in a shower of dirt that created an enormous divot in the landscape. 

The 3 other payloads from the Mana Cannons, however, were direct hits.  Slowed, blinded, and with its scaly armor now reduced in effectiveness by the Acid Wave one of the other defenders on the wall had cast, the explosions caused by the vibrant blue orbs ripped the monster apart.

There was no cheering, however, as the Gargantuan Behemoth that they’d just killed was only one of many that were streaming out of the portal.  Most of them were exhausted, so cheering was too much to ask for them; Ariadelle was also nearly out of Mana, even though she had been fairly conservative in its use, so she knew that everyone else was probably in the same situation.  Her Mana Regeneration just wasn’t high enough at Level 462 to handle hours of the constant battle against the invasion at the portal.  And it wasn’t the only portal that was being assaulted at the moment, as there were 9 others all around the world of Derelya that were in similar situation as they were near the city of Vigil’s Hope. 

Come on, it has to be at any time now, right?

If their records were correct, then the next cycle of the Retrogression System should be occurring that day – at some point.  For millions of years, it had always been exactly 4,444 years between cycles, and everyone was waiting for it to happen with an urgency that likely hadn’t been seen since the System was established.  Ariadelle had been an Adventurer for the last 542 years, working to preserve what was left of their people, and she was tired enough from the constant vigilance that she – and everyone else – was looking forward to the time when all the energy in the universe was absorbed by the System, and the monsters would go back to being Level 1 nuisances rather than the city-destroying creatures they currently were. 

Of course, she and everyone else defending their world would also be Level 1, most of the energy-imbued materials used in the construction of their cities and walls would crumble apart, and life would be a little more primitive than it currently was… but they would be alive.  At the current rate of the monster assaults through the portals from other worlds, she didn’t think they would last another few days, let alone weeks if the next cycle didn’t trigger soon.

As she shot another devastating Detonating Shot VII at another Gargantuan Behemoth charging toward her portion of the wall, Ariadelle could only hope that this next cycle would go back to the way her history books had indicated it had been for millions of years.  For some reason, the current cycle had been different, and it had caused so much suffering that she wasn’t sure they would survive the next one if it didn’t change.

While she hadn’t been alive at the time, everything had been dutifully recorded throughout all 3,549 worlds that were connected through the Retrogression System – and it had all begun when the Keepers didn’t show up after their expected arrival time at 50 years following the start of the cycle.  The Keepers were supposedly the worlds caretakers, elite individuals who were able to eliminate any threats like Remnants or Aberrations, and were also assigned to handle the toughest dungeons that spawned around the world, as well as keeping the towers in check.  While there had been difficulties in the past where some Keepers had fallen or slightly failed in the fulfilment of their duty, 99% of the time the Keepers were able to protect the majority of their worlds’ people on a day-to-day, year-to-year, and cycle-to-cycle basis.

But never had they not shown up.  When not a single Keeper had appeared 100 years after the beginning of the cycle, the longest it had ever taken Keepers to arrive, each worlds’ leadership began to panic, calling on an Adventurer recruiting drive that was still in effect to this day.

It hadn’t been enough.  As Remnants and Aberrations, which were much stronger than normal monsters than could be normally found within the world, began to wake up or appear, the Adventurers in each world – despite diligently working to strengthen themselves as much as possible – were unable to easily kill these monsters.  Through the sacrifice of tens of thousands of Adventurers, they were able to stay ahead of complete annihilation for a time, but that all changed when dungeons began to appear all over their worlds.  Unable to send many Adventurers to eliminate them when they randomly popped up, as they were too busy defending their own lands from increasingly stronger monsters, the dungeons overflowed and hordes of weaker monsters began roaming the countryside, killing everything in their way.

This was simply the beginning of the end for most of these worlds.  As the people had been relying on the Keepers for so long to protect them from such great threats, the societal culture wasn’t flexible enough to adapt to the changes that were forced upon them, and while many great Adventurers stepped up and had some minor successes, the worlds’ leadership knew that this was only a stopgap measure and that their time was limited without outside assistance. Almost all of them made plans to ask for help from other worlds as soon as the Portal Connection phase of the cycle commenced, each believing that their world had been unfortunate enough not to have any Keepers assigned to protect them.

When the Portals connecting each world with a limited number of others were finally established, they quickly discovered that every other world was suffering from the same situation that they were in.  Taking longer than Ariadelle thought was smart, but was actually fairly fast because of the nature of the decision, it was finally decided that the only way they could survive was if they worked together, pooling their resources to defend themselves from monster threat that would otherwise wipe them all out.  Over the next thousand years, amidst more and more dungeons emerging and even towers beginning to show up, hundreds of worlds were simply abandoned as 3 or 4 worlds pooled their Adventurers together to combat the threats from the monsters on a single world.  This worked for a while, as they had more than enough people at that point who were strong enough to do so, but those original worlds that were abandoned began to fill up with monsters left unchecked – and they started to spill over into these cooperative worlds. 

It wasn’t a lot of monsters, at least at first, and they were of the weaker variety.  However, those in charge at the time right assumed that these minor invasions from other worlds would only increase in severity, and that they would eventually be overrun from the monsters from multiple directions.  It took another thousand years before every world had seen the inevitable end awaiting them, and the delay cost billions of lives as these cooperative worlds slowly merged together, until the only choice they had left was to push themselves toward one singular world where they could pool all of their resources together to make a final stand. 

That world was Derelya.

At first, with literally billions of people spreading throughout the enormous world, inhabiting every land and populating it with civilians and veteran Adventurers from throughout the universe, life had been fairly peaceful because they were able to overwhelm any threats – until they weren’t threats any longer.  They survived and thrived on this singular world, including the brand-new arrival of a new race of Humans, who had just recently been added to the System during the cycle.  At first, many blamed the Humans for their unfortunate circumstances, figuring that the System adding these people had caused them to lose the protection of the Keepers, but seeing how magically and physically weak they were compared to every other race, most couldn’t justify how that could possibly be the case. 

In fact, the way that fewer than 5 million people had survived the coming of the System – despite not having to worry about Remnants and a smaller number of Aberrations that appeared – when they originally had a population of billions on their world, made the majority of those who took refuge in Derelya take pity on them and welcomed them into the last bastion of safety within the universe.  Ever since then, with a safer period of time when they were able to stabilize the world against the monster threat, their population recovered significantly, along with the populations of every other race, meaning that there were even more help in the form of Adventurers rising through the ranks.

Eventually, though, something had to give.  Towers in Derelya, which had originally been handled by the most elite Adventurers that had come together to save what was left of their people, had become too dangerous to completely clear approximately 100 years ago.  This led to increased monster breakages, and while they were easily put down by the large number of Adventurers they had available, things got complicated when the portals to the other worlds started spewing out monsters.

It had taken thousands of years, but eventually every single world in the System had finally filled up with monsters, and they were spilling over into Derelya.  At first, just like when happened when the cooperative worlds had attempted to stave off the threat, the monsters had been relatively weak – but everyone knew that this wouldn’t last long.  Thankfully, it was only within the last 5 years that they really began to become a danger, for which they were prepared; the walls that Ariadelle stood upon were proof of that.  Built of the strongest stone and imbued with so much energy that they were nearly impervious to damage, that assumption had been tested multiple times already when some of the stronger monsters managed to make it to the walls and cracked it when they slammed into its façade. 

Those had only been around Level 500, as well.  With the current monsters streaming through, she didn’t doubt that some of them could actually collapse the wall if they actually reached it.  What all of them knew from the history books, however, was that the monsters coming through were only the start, as they were some of the weakest from the other worlds; the stronger ones maintained their territories in those worlds and pushed the weaker ones out.  Eventually, they would be facing monsters that even their combined power couldn’t kill very easily – which would spell the end of everything.

With having to continue eliminating dungeons that still popped up around the world, to containing the monster breakouts from towers, and stationing themselves around all the portals, the once-plentiful Adventurers throughout the world were stretched to their breaking point.  The only thing that could stop a world-wide collapse of their defenses at this point was if the cycle began anew—

Just as Ariadelle released another projectile, nearly wiping out her Mana reserves once again, she was shocked to see it suddenly freeze in the middle of the air, halfway to its target.  Before she could wonder what had happened, she suddenly realized that she couldn’t move, and that everything else in the world had also frozen to a standstill.

It’s happening!

Her relief was interrupted by all the energy being sucked out of her body, and while she couldn’t move at that point, she could feel herself become weaker in the process.  Much weaker.  Ariadelle also hadn’t realized how painful the retrogression of the cycle would be, as it felt like her body was being ripped apart from the inside by someone wielding a thousand sharp knives, and what was left in its wake was a devastated body that didn’t feel like it could even hold itself up, let alone function properly.  It had been so long since she’d been Level 1 that the difference was so significant that it was hard to fathom how she’d survived back then. 

As she felt the stone wall underneath her feet crumbling away as all the energy was pulled out of it, she felt herself being gently lowered to the ground along with everyone else that had been defending against the monsters of the portal.  Fortunately, they had planned for this to happen eventually, and extremely mundane weapons – such as sharpened wooden sticks that could be used as spears and stone-tipped wooden clubs – had been arranged behind the walls, giving them a chance to fight back against the monsters once the cycle began again.  Even her bow, which she’d had for years and had been imbued with so much of her own energy that it was like a child or a sibling to her, had disintegrated in her hands, along with much of the armor she was wearing.  There were a few simple bows back with the mundane weapons, but she hadn’t used one that required their own arrows in so long that she thought she’d be out of practice.  That, and with her Dexterity having been reduced back down to a Level 1 state, she doubted she could hit a monster accurately if it was more than 30 feet from her.  She planned to grab a spear, instead.

Just as she was gently set down on piles of stone dust, which was essentially what the powerful wall had become after the energy was pulled from it, a notification splashed across her vision.

Congratulations!  Because of your exceptional leadership and performance during the past cycle, you have been chosen to become a Keeper for the current cycle!  Once your training is complete, you will return to an assigned world and help protect it from any and all threats until the end of the current cycle.

Do you accept this responsibility?  Yes/No

Ariadelle was so shocked that she could only stare at the notification while she processed what it was saying.  Fortunately, she wasn’t so flustered that she didn’t understand its importance, and she quickly accepted the responsibility to become a Keeper for the next cycle.  With this, we might just be able to survive the next cycle!  I wonder if they will have more Keepers because we’ve all been consolidated into a single world—

Response accepted.  Prepare for transport to the Keeper Recruit Cooperative…

With a smile, as she was finally getting an opportunity to contribute more than what she’d been able to toward the end of the last cycle, she looked toward the field where the massive Gargantuan Behemoths had been charging the wall as she felt her body start to dematerialize.  The previous monsters had not only dropped back to Level 1, but they had devolved from what they had been before, now appearing as large, snake-like creatures that were only 5 feet long and no more than 5 inches around.  Her Identification ability had gone away with the rest of her energy, so she couldn’t see what it was called now, but she was sure that the veteran Adventurers all around her, despite being much weaker than moments before, could wipe them out within minutes.  With the portals also closing with the start of the new cycle, they fortunately wouldn’t have to worry about any other monsters coming through to reinforce the hundreds that had devolved.

A split-second before she faded from the world completely, she felt a lurch go through her body, and she was suddenly fully materialized and present.  The sudden lack of a transition caused her to fall to her knees into the gritty dust under her legs, scraping them up a bit, but she could only think about one thing.

What happened?

Unfortunately, she was answered not a few seconds later by a second notification.

Transfer of Keeper recruit interrupted…

Energy levels in the Keeper Recruit Cooperative and the Keepers’ Tower are unstable…

Preparing to reroute sapient energy storage from System worlds…

Energy storage is missing…

Unable to establish connection to sapient energy storage…

Until the time sapient energy storage connections are reestablished, the shutdown of the Keeper Recruit Cooperative and Keepers’ Tower will be necessary…

What?  It took her a minute or so of kneeling in the stone dust for her to fully comprehend the devastating news that had just been delivered to her.  She was so out of it that she didn’t even notice Jansen come up next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.  “Are you hurt?  What’s wrong?”

Looking up at the large Anjelou, she shook her head at the first question – before realizing she wasn’t sure how to answer the second.  After a few seconds, as tears started to track down her face, she finally said, “We’re all doomed.  The Keepers are coming to help us this cycle, either.”

“What?  How could you possibly know that?” he asked, taking a step back in confusion at her words.

The words didn’t want to come out, but she forced them from her lips.  “Because I was just accepted as a Keeper for this cycle, but the System just informed me that the Co-op is essentially no longer operational.

“In other words… we’re on our own.  Again.  And this time, I’m not sure that any of us will survive what is coming.”