Healer Arc 2 -- Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The Branch Leader for the Felith Adventurer’s Coalition worked extremely quickly, so much so that Thaden barely had a chance to catch his breath after his stressful conversation with her.  He had done his best to fake as much confidence as he could during their talk, and at the end, it seemed like he had succeeded in creating a mysterious objective for himself being in the area – which was mostly supplied by Rivella as she offered her own opinions.  The fact that she had seemingly decided that it was the Adversary that had reset him back down to Level 1 and messed with his memories was a blessing in disguise, as it helpfully provided a blanket excuse as to Thaden’s current condition.

Less than an hour after their conversation, he had not only been introduced to a Party of Netherines in need of a Support Class, all of them at Level 5 and right on the cusp of being too high of a Level for him to earn any PICK when they fought monsters, but were currently on the road to a nearby dungeon that had appeared a few weeks before.  Unfortunately, despite searching through the Branch’s available equipment for anything that Thaden might be able to borrow, Rivella had been unable to find anything – which wasn’t too surprising based on being a Support Class and at Level 1.  Even on Tarth, there had been very few items that he’d picked up that would be usable by multiple Class types, let alone at such a low Level.

Instead, he was provided with a sturdy brown robe that had to be cut down to fit him, as it seemed to be originally made for a Netherine, but it didn’t provide anything in terms of stats or other abilities.  It was basically just a cloth robe with a leather belt used to cinch it around his waist, so ordinary that he couldn’t even add his Condensed Adaptable Mimicry Plate to it.  It was thicker and a better quality of clothing than what he’d been essentially wearing since just after he arrived in town, but it wasn’t exactly top of the line or would provide any significant defense. 

He had no weapon, of course, as a Support Class couldn’t wield one, so all he had was the clothes on his back, some leather shoes that were at least comfortable if not exactly a great defense, and a few days’ worth of food in his internal Inventory.  It’ll have to be enough.

“Hurry it up, Human,” Thaden heard demanded of him from the leader of his sudden Party, Warven, who didn’t even bother looking back at him as he spoke.  “We still have at least an hour of travel before we get to the dungeon, and that’s at our rate of speed.”

The derision in the Netherine’s tone was unmistakable, as was the annoyance in the glances back at him from the others.  While Rivella had managed to squeeze him into the Party at the last moment, as they were already going out to the dungeon, that didn’t mean they were happy about it.  Even if he was going along as a Support, which was a Class type that they didn’t already have, it was more than obvious that they weren’t pleased with the situation.

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want you to fall behind and accidentally encounter one of the Razorfoot Boars out here by yourself – they’d slice you up in seconds,” their Party Mage, Unarven, joked.  The others chuckled along with him, as if the thought of him dying was something they wouldn’t be too broken up about if it were to happen.  Clearly, the actual Adventurers in the Coalition weren’t as dedicated to respecting his Badge Rank as those involved in the inner workings of the organization, as they didn’t seem to care that he had a high Rank.  They were more concerned that he would be a liability rather than an asset – for which he couldn’t honestly blame them. 

Sadly, I know how they feel.  There were times on Tarth when I was required to group up with people in a Party or a Raid, and it felt like I was wasting my time with them.  I don’t particularly like being on this side of the situation.

As for the other two Netherines in the Party, Harven and Scarven, they didn’t say anything to him – but they didn’t have to; their opinion of Thaden was clear to see.  It probably didn’t help that all 4 of them were siblings, though they hadn’t been introduced as that to him; instead, he gathered that information based on their easy familiarity with each other, in addition to their naming conventions.  Warven, Unarven, Harven, and Scarven were the typical low-Level Party with a Warven as their Fighter Class, Unarven as their Mage, Harven was their Control, and Scarven was their Scout; they had relatively basic Classes as an Untested Swordsman, Apprentice Water Mage, Novice Trapper, and Stalker Trainee – a good mix of Classes for a Party.

It had been a long time since he’d fought alongside people with non-evolved Classes, and even then, it had been largely Thaden that had actually done all the fighting.  Still, with how handicapped he was in his own abilities, he wasn’t sure how well he’d fit into the Party – especially with how they didn’t actually want him along.  He wasn’t too worried that they would deliberately let him die, however, as they were apparently given a Quest by local Coalition Leader to keep him safe, which was probably the only reason they agreed to suffer his presence.  Thaden also received a Quest, though his was related to the dungeon they were journeying towards.

[Quest Type: DUNGEON MAINTENANCE

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: 3 days

Quest Difficulty: Low-Minimal

Minimum Recommended Level: 3

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: A new dungeon has appeared within range of Felith and needs to be culled!  Visit the Blasted Caves and eliminate at least 100 of the monsters found within its confines

Completion Requirements: Kill 100 monsters in the Blasted Caves Dungeon (Minimal)

Quest Rewards: 2 silver, 5.0 PICK, and 2 Rank Progress up to Copper

Bonus Completion Requirements: Completely clear the Blasted Caves Dungeon (Minimal) and shut it down entirely

Bonus Quest Rewards: All prior rewards in addition to 5 silver, 20.0 PICK, and 5 Rank Progress up to Copper]

When he first saw the rewards for the Quest, he questioned them because the PICK he could receive from completing it was frankly ridiculous.  He was used to gaining hundreds and thousands of PICK from Quests, even at this low of a Level, and for it to only provide 5 PICK was frankly a joke.  It turned out, though, that this was the standard reward, and was he was reminded that Leveling-up took much longer than it had on Tarth.  He thought that was an understatement once he fully understood the uphill battle he would be facing when it came to returning to his previous strength.

What was also different was the Bonus Completion, which revolved around shutting down the dungeon.  When he was on Tarth, the dungeons stuck around and were essentially permanent; they could be cleared, but they didn’t go away.  Here, though, as soon as most dungeons were fully cleared, they would immediately shut down and disappear, ejecting those inside of it back into the world.  There were plenty of dungeons that were a bit more permanent, which apparently happened once they reached a certain persistence threshold, but none of them were around Felith; they typically just investigated and cleared the dungeons that appeared periodically, keeping the Adversary from gaining too much of a hold in the local area.

Some of the aforementioned Razorfoot Boars appeared as they traveled along though the lightly forested areas toward their destination, all of which immediately targeted Thaden as the biggest threat.  Thanks to his Bonus Trait that came with his Fortunate Catastrophe Class, which made every hostile target within 3 miles focus on Thaden, this would continue to happen, but the Netherines in his Party took the unusual phenomenon in stride.

“They must see him as a tasty treat,” Unarven said, even as he sent a solidified bolt of water through the large, Level 4 Boar’s skull, killing it after Warven blocked its initial charge toward Thaden.  It didn’t have much chance against the Party, who treated the sharp-footed beast more like a nuisance than a threat, as they were apparently well-acquainted with handling them.  Once it was dead, he received his first PICK of his new life on Plangea.

You have slain a Razorfoot Boar – Minimal – Level 4!

You have received 0.2 PICK!

Apparently, the minimum amount of PICK anyone could earn from killing a monster, as long as they provided PICK at all, was 0.1 PICK – which was a shock to Thaden after his experience on Tarth.  He’d been told that it would be harder to accumulate enough PICK to Level up, and now the evidence of that was plain to see.  From what he could determine, the Party would normally have gained 2 PICK total from killing the Boar, which was then split 5 ways; that was then reduced even further because the Level of the Boar was lower than the highest Level of the Party members, giving Thaden – and the other Party members – 0.2 PICK when all was said and done.

Except that wasn’t all.  Thaden’s Fortunate Catastrophe Class affected the PICK he and the other members of his Party earned by 30%, with a very small chance (Fortuity/1,000%) that they would be increased by 300%.  He wasn’t expecting the latter to happen all that much, if at all, until his Fortuity stat was boosted to high Levels again, but the 30% increase was still nice.

You have slain a Razorfoot Boar – Minimal – Level 4!

You have received 0.2 PICK!

Fortunate Catastrophe bonus trait activated!

You have received 0.3 PICK!

It wasn’t a huge difference in the PICK he received, but it was the difference between having to kill 500 of those Level 4 Boars without the bonus trait and killing 333 Boars with it in order to get to Level 2 – at least while he was in his Party.  It was possible that he could start raking in a lot of PICK if he was on his own, but for now, he needed others to help do the fighting for him. 

Strangely, none of his Party members even mentioned the extra PICK they earned; either they didn’t notice it, or they didn’t think it was important enough to talk about.  Thaden didn’t say anything about it, either, as he didn’t want to call attention to himself further than he already did as the only Human around the area.

They also extracted some loot from the Boars, which wasn’t much – but it was still more than a full day’s work in the fields. 

Extraction complete!

Loot obtained:

3 Copper coins (total of 15 Copper coins divided among 5 party members)

1 Boarhide Remnant (Common) (total of 5 Boarhide Remnants divided among 5 party members)

Unfortunately, his Inventory was already so full that he couldn’t fit the Boarhide Remnant he received, which was a piece of material he figured was used in crafting, so he had to give it to one of the other Party members to hold for him.  Whether or not he would get it back once they were done was up in the air, as he figured they might keep it as a fee for helping him to Level-up, but he didn’t care all that much; he would much rather have the coins he was receiving from the kills, as it was much more portable.  Of course, if they made a habit of not sharing his loot, he would begin to have an issue with them, but for now, it wasn’t something he had the energy to worry about.

As they traveled over the landscape on their way to the dungeon, Thaden finally had the opportunity to look at something that he’d been putting off since he arrived in this world.  Now that he had a new Class, it was now important to review his Competency Advancements.  Amazingly, all of his hard work in raising his Competencies, which were essentially a measure of how “competent” he was in regards to casting spells, his natural Health regeneration, psychic resiliency, and leadership qualities, had been maintained when he was transferred to Plangea, unlike all of his other Achievements.  This made a huge difference, as his Support and Defensive Spellcasting Competencies were quite a high Level, though they weren’t necessarily as important as ones like his Spiritual Spellcasting and Natural Regeneration Competencies, as those ones were going to be vital to staying alive while he was in his relatively weakened state.

While his Competency Levels had been maintained, the same couldn’t be said for his Advancements, which came at different Competency Level thresholds.  With them all being reset, he had to make some decisions; he’d put them off until now, as he wasn’t sure what would be necessary to properly use his spells, though he’d certainly taken a look at them over the last 6 months in the hope that he might be able to actually cast some of his overpowered spells he had in his spell list.  Unfortunately, while there were some options to change the Mana cost, there weren’t any that would actually allow him to cast anything for a long while. 

First, he looked at his Support Spellcasting Competency options, which was going to be fairly influential, given that he had 9 Advancements to spend.  Each time he spent one of his Advancements, the list would update if their was a higher tier of that particular Advancement, but all of the ones that he’d previous unlocked were represented at the start.

Please select (9) Advancements for your Support Spellcasting Competency:

Faster Healing – All Support spells now have a 66% permanent casting time decrease

Longer Healing – All Support spells now have a 66% permanent duration increase

Stronger Healing – All Support spells now heal or reduce 66% more Health

Group Healing – All multi-target Support spells now have a 66% range increase

Self Healing – All single-target Support spells now heal or reduce 133% more Health

Afterglow – All Support spells now heal an extra 1% of max Health every 5 seconds for 60 seconds

Instant Gratification – All Support spells are now instant-cast, but have triple the Mana Cost

Ready To Go – All spell cooldowns are reduced by 50%

Extracurricular Toys – An additional channeled Support spell can be cast through the use of a focus stone; all existing Mana costs or other limitations that apply to all channeled spells will still apply

Promiscuous Healing – All single-target Support spells with a duration have a 33% chance to spread to an adjacent target within 9 feet every 3 seconds, with a renewed duration

Blessed Virginity – After entering combat, the first spell that you cast upon every target that replenishes Health increases the amount of Health replenished by 369%; after the first healing spell is completed, those targets then receive a 30% reduction in all healing done to them

Delayed Satisfaction – All Support effects and spells cast upon all targets have their activation delayed by 3 seconds, but then have a 900% increase in spell effectiveness once they are active

These could be useful.  Thaden quickly chose Ready To Go, as all spell cooldowns being reduced by 50% was amazing, followed by Extracurricular Toys – which would come in handy later once he was able to cast more than one channeled Support spell again.  With his remaining 7 selections, he chose Afterglow, Stronger Healing, Even Stronger Healing, and Strongest Healing (which eventually became a 300% increase or decrease in Health from Support spells), followed by Faster Healing and Group Healing – so that he could cast his Support spells faster and heal groups of targets for even more.  Since his Fortunate Catastrophe Class allowed him to switch single-target spells to multi-target spells on the fly, it would be much more beneficial to be able to have a bonus that affected multiple targets.

Lastly, and most importantly, he chose Delayed Satisfaction.  It was a bit of a risk, as it would mean not being able to heal something almost instantly, but 3 seconds was a small price to pay for a 900% increase in spell effectiveness.  That increase also wasn’t limited to simply healing spells, but all Support spells; from his experience with spell effectiveness bonuses on Tarth, he had some thoughts on how they would affect the spells he could actually cast at the moment.

Thaden skipped over the Defensive Spellcasting Competency for the moment, as he couldn’t cast any of those spells at the moment; instead, he jumped into his Natural Regeneration Competency, of which he had 4 Advancements to choose from.

Please select (4) Advancements for your Natural Regeneration Competency:

Quicker Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration is now 50% faster

Firmer Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration now toughens the skin, reducing further damage by 25% for 30 seconds

Deeper Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration now heals major injuries at double the normal regeneration rate

Rougher Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration is 75% slower, but max Health is temporarily increased by 33% for 10 minutes after being fully healed

Softer Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration is 75% faster, but max Health is temporarily decreased by 33% for 10 minutes after being fully healed

Goes Both Ways – Mana can now be exchanged for Health at a 2 to 1 ratio, and Health can now be instantaneously exchanged for Mana at a 2 to 1 ratio; the exchange happens at the rate of 1 second per 10 Health or Mana exchanged; normal Health and Mana regeneration are unaffected

Onanistic Override – While solo, Natural Health regeneration speed is doubled, but is halved while in a party

The Little Death – Natural Health regeneration is increased by 333% for 10 minutes after being resurrected

Pain Is Pleasure – Natural Health regeneration rate is increased by 3% for each consecutive incidence of damage to Health within 30 seconds, with the time resetting at each damaging incident (max 300%)

The choices here were even easier, as he needed something that would keep him alive if any monsters managed to reach him.  Goes Both Ways was a no-brainer, as it was essentially a free self-heal since he had unlimited Mana, and then he went all-in on Firmer Regeneration, eventually getting Even Firmer Regeneration and then Firmest Regeneration.  At its final version, every time he was harmed and his Natural Regeneration was forced to kick in, his skin would be tough enough to reduce all further damage by 75% for 30 seconds.  All of the other options could be useful, but since he didn’t really have another good way to prevent damage until he had more Mana, the 75% damage reduction was the best he could do.

The only other Competency he had a chance to look at before they arrived at the dungeon, as he was trying to do it while running and out of breath half the time, was his Spiritual Spellcasting Competency, as it was important for his new Class.  Amazingly, he had 7 selections in which to strengthen his spellcasting.

Please select (7) Advancements for your Spiritual Spellcasting Competency:

Spiritual Domination – All influential Spiritual spells now have a 30% chance of success increase

Spiritual Connection – All successful Spiritual spells now have a 50% efficiency increase

Tantric Meditation – All Spiritual spells now have no Casting Time, but will have a triple the Cooldown

Karmic Balance – All Spiritual spells now have no Cooldown, but will have triple the Casting Time

Soul Mates – All battles of spiritual will against targets are successful, but the Mana Cost for all Spiritual spells are tripled 

Haunted Nemesis – When a battle of spiritual will fails, any backlash upon caster is negated and is transferred to the target of the spell

Spiritual Incubus – All single target Spiritual spells, when their duration is allowed to expire naturally, have a chance based on Fortuity/1,000 to consume a portion of the spiritual will of the target, permanently increasing the caster’s Personality stat while the target will suffer a temporary loss in Personality that will recover over time; this consuming effect cannot affect caster

Sadistic Group Play – All of your multiple-target Reserved spells now damage every target within range of the spell for a total of 10% of their maximum Health, before healing them for the same exact amount 5 seconds later; this effect repeats every 5 seconds; your damage and healing bonuses do not influence Sadistic Group Play effects

Ghosted Relationship – When a Spiritual spell is successfully cast upon a hostile target and then they leave the range of any of your spells, the hostile target will receive a spiritual backlash that will leave them more vulnerable to all forms of damage, increasing the damage they take by 30% for 9 minutes

When he had been on Tarth, Mana hadn’t been a problem, so tripling the cost of all Spiritual spells with the Soul Mates Advancement wasn’t an issue; now, though, he couldn’t really afford to triple the cost of anything.  Instead, he used one of his Advancement selections to pick up Spiritual Domination, which increased his success rate by 30%; once he chose that, the option to pick Greater Spiritual Domination and then Ultimate Spiritual Domination was given to him, which brought the increase of success rate up to 80%.   

He followed that up by selecting Haunted Nemesis, which would help negate any backlash that might occur from his spells.  Next, he picked up Karmic Balance, as having no Cooldown at all was incredible, even if it required triple the Casting Time for his spiritual spells; most of his available spells were instant-cast now, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, and for those that weren’t instant-cast, they would still be affected by the 50% reduction from his Support Spellcasting Advancement Ready To Go. 

With 2 more selections, he picked Spiritual Connection for the 50% spell efficiency increase, which he knew was important, and then with his last selection, Thaden picked Sadistic Group Play.  While his bonuses didn’t affect how much damage and healing the Advancement did, he saw that it affected every target within range of his multiple target Reserved spells, which included himself; it was a way to damage himself to trigger his Natural Regeneration Advancement, Firmest Regeneration, which would then protect him from additional damage.  Having a 75% damage reduction practically all the time was preferable to being completely vulnerable.

By the time he finished looking at all of those Advancements, they arrived at their destination.  As he focused back on the world around him, he looked past his tall Party of tiger-demons to see a distortion in the air that led to a tunnel entrance in the side of a 50-foot-tall hill in between two copses of trees.  He psyched himself up, ready to try out his new spells now that he had some of his Advancements picked out; before he was completely ready, Warven led their Party ahead, and soon enough he had disappeared through the distortion, followed by the others.  Sucking in a deep breath, he stopped a foot away from the entrance, before he took that final step and entered what his Quest told him was the Blasted Caves Dungeon.