[CYA] Chapter 114: Plans for the Future

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/161hHms_XHtGMLVlKu1YkrFe0PI7lFsE-5T3UBIZVUCo/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Cafeteria>

All the Initiates were shaken by the wave, by just how close they’d come to disaster.

Worse yet, they’d simply been ground down, and in the end overcome with unexpected intelligence from the undead. There hadn’t been any truly horrifying opponents, which meant that those were likely being saved for the second or third wave.

To add to the trepidation, the consensus was that they should expect and plan for the undead being intelligently controlled from the beginning.

If they were wrong, that would be a pleasant surprise. If they didn’t plan for that, and it came about? They’d not survive.

On the good side, Kaylee had a lot to work with in the base system. The fact that undead had taken time to thoroughly destroy the outer defenses would be in their benefit as well, as she could now build taller, more robust walls with the points they’d all earned among other things.

The non-Initiates reported having heard oddities in the buildings where many huddled around the perimeter. The sounds had seemed like the flanking structures had contained scrabbling creatures, trying to find a way through.

That was… unfortunate. In all likelihood, the undead could do just that, find a path through the buildings—likely by punching through a few walls—and that would let the horde into the claimed space.

Yet again, the conclusion was clear. They couldn’t just defend the gaps.

Unfortunately, Kaylee did not have enough base points to reinforce all the building divisions around the perimeter.

They needed a new solution.

No one had any instant ideas, but they were all on the tired side despite most sleeping well into the morning after the stressful, interrupted night.

It was agreed that while they needed to improve the base, the Initiates themselves needed to level up. Only then would they have a better chance of surviving.

One man—honestly reminding Alex of Grant due to the sledgehammer he carried on his shoulder—raised a complaint then. “Aside from the wave, most of the undead around here are common. I know that’s enough for many of us, but, I and quite a few others, have an uncommon class. The experience penalty is killing me, even when they outlevel me.”

Alex blinked a few times. He was tired enough that he asked without thought. “What now?”

All eyes turned toward him. There was a mix of those seemingly grateful that he had asked and those who were utterly confused why he’d ask.

The man frowned. “The experience penalty for rarity disparity. You know about that… right?”

Alex gave a slow nod. “Yeah, for each rarity increase it takes three times as much experience to level up.” He grimaced. He had an Epic class and race, and that meant it required twenty-seven times the experience to level as someone with a Common class or race.

“Well… yeah, that’s on our side of things, but that’s not what I’m talking about. You know that undead give less experience when you outlevel them, right?”

Alex gave a slow nod, not liking where this was going. “Of course, that’s a standard mechanic.”

“Well, the same thing happens for rarity difference.”

His eyes widened. “No… I mean…” He leaned back. “Are you kidding me?”

The man gave Alex a commiserating glance. “It just makes sense. After all, killing Simple monsters gets less experience than killing Common monsters of the same level.”

That… was true. It was obviously true.

The man continued. “If you earn experience, thankfully you seem to always get at least one point—not that we can actually see the number, I’ve just seen the marginal tick up even when killing Simple, level 1’s—but down to that point, the amount is reduced when you are superior to your foe. Sure, there are the group multipliers, and other modifiers that can help in making that up, but it still royally hoovers.”

Alex blinked in confusion, then realized that the last phrase had been a System change. That made him huff a laugh before his face fell as his thoughts returned to the topic. “That… that makes way too much sense…”

So, the penalty was worse than he’d realized. It made sense that it hadn’t been mentioned, because it was true across the board. He wasn’t warned every level up that enemies would give less experience once he accepted. The only reason the upgrade in rarity told him was because it was a quantitative change.

Wait… is that true? Could I just stockpile experience points at a lower level, then go up multiple levels at the same time? He could honestly see it either way. The System might automatically lessen the experience gained once he crossed the threshold regardless of whether or not he accepted the level, and that would make sense. He could also understand the System rewarding fighting strong monsters while remaining weak, by not changing the experience gained until he became stronger.

Ultimately, he didn’t know, and likely wouldn’t find out for a while… or he could not try to solve everything himself and just ask. “Do the level penalties increase when you accept a level up or once you have enough experience to level?”

That caused a pause in the myriad side conversations, many people frowning in thought.

Interestingly, it was Brianne who answered. “The System seems to care what you could be. I think it’s something like, you’ve fought enough to level up so you will have an easier time defeating the monsters with or without actually advancing.”

Alex sighed, nodding. “I can see that, yeah.”

So, that wouldn’t be an easy workaround.

Regardless, it was no wonder he’d been having so much trouble leveling… It also made sense why he’d been able to get his last level ups. They’d been out killing Rares by the horde, which were only one step below him.

He found himself sitting on one of the benches, head in his hands. “And the only balancer for me is that I have a lower level. This is such… gah…” He rubbed at his temples. “I need more coffee.”

When it was clear that he wasn’t going to say anything else, Kaylee nodded. “Thank you for letting us know, Bret. It fits with what I’ve seen, but we hadn’t actually categorized it like that.”

The hammer man—Bret apparently—grunted and shrugged. “Happy to help I suppose? Regardless, we need to deal with that issue. We need to find actual rare opponents or we’re going to be in a numbers game. I think my requirements to level are in the thousands of experience points—again, I wish the System would just show us the freaking number—and I don’t know that I have the stamina to kill that many commons, even if they aren’t really a threat anymore.”

Someone from the other side of the room called. “Well, the fact that they aren’t really a threat anymore is probably why they give less experience.”

Bret grimaced, but finally nodded. “Yeah… I didn’t say it didn’t make sense. We just have to find a way to level anyway. It’s like the System doesn’t want us to be able to power-level too high.”

Kaylee nodded. “I could see that. If we could, it would destroy what semblance of balance there is and maybe force them to make it even harder… I’m glad we aren’t dealing with that.”

That got a hearty agreement from the gathered Initiates.

“So, we know when the next wave is coming, and we have perfect defenses until then…” Her eyes flicked to Alex, who was over at the coffee machine filling the biggest cup they had. “What do you think about expeditions? Sweep the nearby streets and work our way out?”

Alex paused, grimacing. “Yeah… That makes sense. We used our cure disease potions though, didn’t we?”

She nodded, grimacing in turn. “We had to. It’s a miracle we had enough, honestly. We even had to rely on Stephen’s less than ideal method.”

Alex frowned. He’d heard about that. Stephen could effectively cure the plague by killing the person one piece at a time. Brianne healed the dead part right after, and they moved on before the plague could spread once more. It was apparently painful, if effective.

He took a swig of coffee and muttered, “A miracle or a carefully calibrated result.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Pilar grunted nodded, adding in her two cents. “Could be, yeah. It seems like the System has some limiters, so it’s possible that the challenge was kept just inside what it determined we’d have a chance with, but that might just be wishful thinking.”

Natasha frowned, adding in, “How is that wishful thinking?”

Kaylee smiled interjecting,  “Because it would mean that future waves also would be restricted to what we could handle. Unfortunately, I think planning for that will get us killed.”

Again, the mutters of agreement rippled through the room.

Alex cleared his throat. “So, no cure disease potions… That means any expedition as you call it needs to have either myself or Brianne with it.”

Brianne looked up with shock from the far side. “Me? I can’t cure the turning plague.”

Alex smiled. “No, but you can let those with a bit of resistance fight through. Even those with no resistance can be maintained while they are rushed back to me. So, as long as you and I don’t go out at the same time, I can wait in the base near where you went out, ready to help any who turn out to have no ability to resist.”

Some muttering began to rise, but Stephen spoke into the growing murmurs, cutting them off. “I don’t want my magics to be a mainstay for fixing the plague. It’s literally killing my friends one bit at a time. I’ll do it at need, but I shouldn’t be the core of any primary solution.”

That seemed to mollify those who had been moving toward offense on his behalf.

Kaylee was nodding along. “It’s actually better than you all are assuming. By this point, everyone knows if they have resistance to the plague or not. No guesswork.”

Alex gave a slow nod. “How many have none?”

Kaylee looked around, and six Initiates raised their hands, two were spear wielders, Ben and Laura. The other four were people Alex hadn’t really interacted with before, save healing them of the plague the previous night… a couple of times in one case.

That woman gave a sheepish glance his way, her cheeks coloring slightly, likely thinking of the same thing.

Alex scratched at the side of his neck, feeling a bit foolish. “Huh… yeah, I suppose I could have figured that out if I’d given it some thought…”

Grant laughed. “Yeah, you could have.” When Alex gave him a narrow-eyed faux glare, he laughed again. “Hey, nobody's perfect.”

Alex sighed and rolled his eyes, taking another long pull of his coffee… He then tucked a full, hot second cup into his Inventory. I need to do that more. What if the next scenario doesn’t have coffee? He shuddered at the thought, starting to fill another cup for storage. Let’s not risk it…

Still, this wasn’t the most efficient way of—

Kaylee cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention back as she shrugged. “So, those have to go with Alex, everyone else can rotate between the groups.

A moment later, Brianne’s hand lifted. “Unfortunately… I actually have never been infected.”

Alex frowned. That couldn’t be right… could it? As he considered, he realized that he must have been wrong when he thought everyone had been infected at least once. He had never healed her, and he’d just assumed she’d cured herself.

“I might be able to heal myself, but if it turns out that I have no natural way to fight off the plague? My infection would end badly.”

Kaylee considered, then shook her head. “Yes and no. Unless you are somehow different from everyone else, you’ll be fine. Your magic will be able to preserve you, and if you are infected and have no resistance, you can be run back here. Either way, it might even be worth letting you get bit or scratched with Alex nearby so you get through the first infection paralysis, and we can determine just how careful we need to be with you.”

The woman reluctantly agreed.

Kaylee nodded in acknowledgement, moving on. Once they’d tested Brianne’s resistance, the first expedition would leave, the timing placing that departure just after lunch.

All expeditions after would be on a rotation. Each group would go out once per day, either morning or evening, and they’d try to bias toward including people who needed the leveling more, even if that meant that individuals would go more than once per day. All in all, it was a workable basic plan.

The final addendum to the expeditionary schedule was what they would do if they found powerful or rare monsters. In that case, the group would call in the location, and allow the highest level and highest rarity Initiates to come and deal with them, in order to have a chance at leveling as well. Hopefully, of course, any group would have at least one or two such individuals with them, so it shouldn’t cause any sort of delay.

All told, it was a workable skeleton of a plan. After all, they didn’t know how the greater city had changed after the wave. Also because of that, both Alex and Brianne would go out with the first group, along with the strongest of the Initiates.

They’d do an initial assessment, and the true rotation would start the next day.

That set, Alex, Brianne, Kaylee, and the spear wielders went to the edge of the base.

Alex stopped in awe as he saw mana woven with something else seeming to almost print new defenses from thin air.

It wasn’t fast by any means, and non-Initiates were gathering materials to add to locations that glowed, floating icons depicting what each location needed, whether metal, stone, or something else.

It was honestly more videogame-like than most things they encountered, but he supposed with magic being able to create light and illusion with ease, this was a logical manifestation of the tools they had at hand.

Kaylee confirmed that she’d paid a bit extra for those highlighted locations. Doing so had allowed the non-Initiates to help more easily.

He was curious exactly what was going into the new defenses, but he’d learn soon enough.

Alex looked around, noticing that the students and teachers were working with others to tear down the fencing to feed into the construction along with the cars and other detritus to be found around the school.

He… didn’t like the fence coming down even if he understood it.

Any of the uncommon—let alone rare—variants could get through with relative ease, while it slowed the defenders’ ability to respond, creating a barrier they had to circumnavigate. Add in flying enemies, and the simple chainlink fence—even as tall as it was—was a liability rather than a defensive asset.

Taking it down still made him feel less safe…

True safety trumps feeling safe, Alex. Don’t forget that. Security theater makes mockery of all involved. He took a deep breath and nodded to himself.

He and the group crossed the ongoing construction without disrupting it, coming to the edge of the ‘perfect’ defense around their base.

Just beyond, undead were wandering about aimlessly.

Brianne looked a bit sick, but she waved off the few attempts to chat with her.

Finally, she nodded, shaking her arms out, clearly psyching herself up. With a final few vigorous hops, she stepped across the invisible line.

Several people gasped, and Alex groaned, moving forward quickly. She’d been meant to just stick her arm through, but clearly, in trying to overcome her fear, she’d gone a bit overboard.

The undead instantly locked onto her, and the closest one swiped at her.

She lifted her arm, letting its jagged nails rake across the back of her hand. Blessedly, she was at least a little smart about it, leaning back as she was scratched. So when the black lines pulsed out from the new wounds, and she locked up, she fell back through the barrier.

She was caught by Leanne and Laura and pulled the rest of the way through so her feet wouldn’t be attacked as well.

Kaylee was already muttering concerned recriminations—like a young mother who caught her child running in the grocery store—even as she helped settle the woman to the ground.

A moment later, golden mana pulsed through Brianne’s body, and she gasped in a breath. “Paralysis removed. Maintaining health…”

Then, they all waited. Less than a minute later, it was obvious that the black was pulling back, lessening.

Less than two minutes later, it was gone for good.

When the last traces vanished, Brianne let out a long sigh, grinning broadly. “I did it! I resisted.” Her eyes briefly went unfocused, likely looking at a notification. She let out an oddly deep giggle before covering her mouth. “Sorry. Apparently, my class can help purify such things, at least from me. I’ll have to advance or evolve the spell to allow me to do so with others.”

Alex frowned. “How do you know that?”

“After I finished driving the plague out, I got a notification. I’ll be much faster in the future.” She stood up, practically bouncing. “My self-healing spell advanced to include a purification aspect.”

Alex blinked. “That’s fantastic! Well done.”

“Thank you.” She was beaming with excitement.

Kaylee nodded. “Alright. Let’s go get some food. Then, we’ll send the first group out. Will you all be ready?”

Everyone nodded.

“Good. Then, let the level grinding begin!”

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