Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Killing the Skeletal Giant Champion once again, Thaden looted the corpse and then walked out to the crystal pedestal which controlled the soon-to-be-created Defensive Fortification.  Smiling at Sadia as he sat down for what felt like the first time in days, he kept one hand on the pedestal as the NEST filled in around him and pushed him upwards.  The difference between his first visit to NEST #18, which was the closest NEST to the gap in the mountain range where The Citadel used to exist, was extensive. 

What used to be mostly plain grey stone tunnels and caves, with just a little bit of what looked like crudely carved gravestones, now contained matte-black stone corridors with flickering torchlight, decrepit spiderwebs, and a faint howling within a constant breeze that was just barely on the edge of his hearing.  The crude gravestones of before were now converted into a full graveyard in a few caves, while others simply had large piles of bones where the Skeletal Giants would hide and attempt to ambush him from.  Overall, it was a huge difference in the overall atmosphere, but Sadia mentioned that this was just the beginning; the general layout of the NEST hadn’t really changed from what it was before, which she claimed would start to alter as time went on.

“Ready to start some experiments?” he asked her.

The squirrel nodded with a smirk.  “The better question is: are you ready for some experiments?  I know that you’ve been chomping at the bit to get started.”

“I definitely am.  It’ll probably be a bit boring at times, but this will give us a good baseline for the future.”  That the next week or so was going to be boring was probably a bit of an understatement, but it was necessary to learn some things.

While he waited, he finally looked at his messages that had accumulated over the last day and a half, as he’d saved them up rather than keep checking them as he subjugated NEST after NEST.  As soon as he opened them, massive amounts of PICK flowed into his Growth gear, pushing them all the way to Level 242; for the amount of monsters above his Level that he killed, it didn’t seem like all that many Levels, but he’d noticed that after Level 200 or so, they came slower and slower – just like his own Levels did.  Still, it was good progress, and he wasn’t going to complain about the extra stats and slight increases in the effects that his solo-focused Growth gear provided.

His trio of Spellcasting Competencies all rose in Level, but nothing had hit the next threshold to earn another Advancement.  Looking at all of the loot he extracted throughout all of his time in the Wildlands, in addition to all of the materials and relatively useless gear that he would be passing along to Corinna, he had a little over 500,000 Gold pieces to contribute towards improving the crafters in the Region.  It was a little less than he was used to acquiring, especially from Intermediate Dungeons where his rewards were multiplied quite a bit by a few Achievements, but it was actually a respectable influx of cash.  Plus, it was almost laughingly easy to acquire, given that the NESTs were relatively straightforward and similar enough right now that he could essentially run in and get out in only a few minutes, compared to the hours it might take for an Intermediate Dungeon. 

More important than PICK, Competencies, and loot, Thaden had picked up two more Achievements.

Congratulations for destroying and subjugating 81 NESTs in the Wildlands!

Achievement received: The Final Frontier III

Bonus reward: +50 to all stats 

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +75 to all stats

Contender World First Achievement: Earn 30% more SP for each subjugated NEST and increase SP accumulation by 8 SP/hr

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Earn 45% more SP for each subjugated NEST and Defensive Kill and increase SP accumulation by 12 SP/hr

Congratulations for solo destroying and subjugating 81 NESTs in the Wildlands!

Achievement received: Impressive But Futile III

Bonus reward: Permanent 40% reduction in SP costs for all Defensive Formation purchases 

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Permanent 60% reduction in SP costs for all Defensive Formation purchases 

Contender World First Achievement: Earn 70% more SP for each subjugated NEST and increase SP accumulation by 30 SP/hr

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Earn 105% more SP for each subjugated NEST and Defensive Kill and increase SP accumulation by 45 SP/hr

Thaden had mapped out a little less than 100 NESTs by that point, and after subjugating 81 of them by himself, he managed to acquire the third stage of The Final Frontier and Impressive But Futile.  He was excited to see if he would get something for eliminating 263 NESTs, but for now, the bonuses to his SP accumulation would be enough for at least his first experiments.  Based on his calculations, he was now receiving 360% more SP from subjugating a NEST and defending it against monsters, and his hourly SP accumulation was all the way up to 106 SP.  If he was correct, then he also had a 145% reduction in SP costs for any purchases – which he somehow doubted that was the case.  Instead, he suspected it was capped just like his Mana Cost reduction, though what the cap was yet, neither he nor Sadia knew.

The question was answered a short time after that, as the NEST completely disappeared and a short wall appeared around the former pit’s perimeter.  

NEST #0018 subjugation complete!

Subjugation Points (SP) [#32599999-E]: 230 SP

Current (SP) Accumulation [#32599999-E]: 106 SP/hr

Purchasable Defensive Fortification Options (Permanent Discount Cost):

Siege Wall Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

Wall Walkways Stage 1 – 5 (1) SP

Steel Gate Stage 1 – 5 (1) SP

Murder Holes Stage 1 – 5 (1) SP

Defensive Spikes Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

Repulsion Barrier Stage 1 – 20 (2) SP

Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

Perimeter Pit Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

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

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

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

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

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

Upgrade Fortification Guardian to Stage 2 – 30 (3) SP

Resurrection Well Stage 1 – 100 (10) SP

Central Keep Stage 1 – 20 (2) SP

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

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

Based on the costs that he saw for all of the defensive options, it appeared as though his discount had capped out at 90%.  That was still incredible, especially given that he received 230 SP instead of just 50 SP for subjugating the NEST; as it was, he could easily purchase at least the first Stage of every option since it would only cost him 31 SP, which even included the Resurrection Well, and likely even the second Stage of everything was within reach – depending on how much they all cost.

“That’s ridiculous,” Sadia said, seeing what Thaden was seeing.  “But I can definitely see how you were confident in creating a Defensive Fortification that could be virtually invulnerable within a few days.”

“Exactly.  Now, let’s see what we can do with my current SP total,” he said, even as the Fortification Guardian materialized behind him.  Without even getting up, as he still wanted to rest his feet a little bit, he started purchasing all of the options available to him at Stage 1.

The Siege Wall he’d seen before was first, as well as the Steel Gate, but he finally saw the Wall Walkways appear on the top of the walls, giving not only a way for people to walk across what was previously tapered on the top, but a stairway was added in one spot that would allow defenders to actually reach the walkways.  The Murder Holes he purchased appeared as 4, 1-foot-wide holes in the wall, with 2 of them on either side of the gate, angled so that someone could cast a spell or release a projectile at whoever was trying to assault the gate itself.  The other 2 were a little higher up above the gate, pointing downwards at an angle, and a pair of stone ledges emerged from the wall near those holes that were just big enough for someone to stand on them so they could cast or send an arrow through the hole at the monsters outside.

Defensive Spikes – which he couldn’t see from where he was sitting, but he saw them later – appeared as sharp, stone projections approximately 6 inches wide and a foot apart that ringed the outside of the entire wall, angled downwards at a 45-degree angle and were positioned 10 feet from the ground.  Below the outside perimeter of the wall was a Perimeter Pit, which was essentially an 8-foot-deep hole surrounding the Fortification, extending 10 feet out from the walls.  Beyond all of these things, just past the pit, was the shimmering wall of the Repulsion Barrier, which he understood helped to reduce the speed and impact of incoming physical and magical projectiles from beyond the barrier to the defenders inside the Fortification.

After these wall and barrier upgrades came the defensive weapons.  On top of the walls near the gate, a stone platform appeared with a simple wood-and-rope ladder leading to it, which held a large ballista with a 6-foot-wide bow, and a stack of glowing bolts that were each 3 feet long and 6 inches wide appeared near it.  The Arcane Ballista was relatively crude-looking, and his first impression of it was that it would fall apart after a few firings, but apparently it was better made than that.  More than that, though, while it wasn’t fixed in position, it only had a field of fire of about 180 degrees at 2 different elevations, with one of them pointing upwards at an angle and the other pointed down at the ground outside the walls.  What that meant was that hitting a monster with it would have to rely on the target hitting that exact elevation that the Ballista covered. 

In other words, it absolutely sucked as a defensive weapon, unless the defender got lucky and the monsters traveled exactly where they could be hit.  It also wasn’t an autonomous weapon, which meant that someone would have to be operating it during the defense of the Fortification, so its usefulness was relatively limited.

The Explosive Catapult was similar in respect to the Ballista, but as it appeared on another stone platform set away from the gate, he saw that it could at least release its payload outside the walls, which were glowing boulders that would explode upon contact with the ground or a monster.  The compact Catapult was about 8 feet long and its arm was only 6 feet, which meant that the glowing boulders weren’t very large – about the size of a basketball – but the tension on the arm could be altered to change the distance the projectile was fired.  It could also be rotated 180 degrees, essentially covering a large arc outside the walls, but there was still a large swath of the outer approach that wasn’t covered.

The last defensive weapon was a Horizontal Cutter Emplacement, which appeared in two places right outside the gates and along the walls.  From what he could observe, two large, spinning steel discs with sharpened edges could be extended 3 feet out from slits in the wall on either side of the gate, which acted as deadly cutting implements.  They weren’t very strong, and it was doubtful they would do much to hurt a Level 400 monster, at least not seriously, though it wasn’t exactly something that could be easily shrugged off, either.  They also weren’t very durable, so they would likely break if they tried spinning into something that was highly resistant to damage.  From what was told, damage to the Fortification or its defensive weapons would slowly regenerate, or SP could be spent to speed up the process.

Apart from the wall and the defenses, five Autonomous Defenders appeared, one of each Class type, and he watched as the Fighter, Scout, Mage, and Control immediately moved to the walkways above the gate and took defensive positions.  The Support Defender, however, stayed down below, out of sight of the gate so that it couldn’t be attacked easily, but also within range of the other Defenders so that it could heal when necessary. 

Behind the walls, and in the middle of the Fortification, a stone building appeared around him and the crystal pedestal.  It was cubical in shape with 30-foot-wide walls and the roof was flat without any sort of decoration.  The Fortification Guardian moved to one side of the Central Keep, opposite the massive opening that led outside, which was 20 feet tall and half that wide, as if it was made for any monsters that might appear to be able to get inside.  Speaking of the Guardian, he saw it glow for a moment as he purchased the Stage 2 upgrade for it, and it rose in Level from 400 to 410.

Fortification Guardian – Support

Defensive Fortification #0018

Level 410

It wasn’t a vast improvement, but it was certainly better than it was before.  However, given that it was basically a poor copy of Thaden, he didn’t think it would be able to put up much of a fight, though killing it would take a little while because it was likely able to keep itself alive with its healing and protective spells.

Lastly, in the corner of the Central Keep, a short stone well approximately 5 feet across was situated on the ground.  A transparent white beam shot out of the well straight upward in a column, stopping a foot or so before it hit the ceiling; there was a strange energy that emanated from the light that seemed both familiar and dangerous.  He resolved to look into it more later, but he still had some SP to spend.

With his hand still on the crystal Fortification controller, he looked at the updated list of options.

Purchasable Defensive Fortification Options (Permanent Discount Cost):

^Upgrade Siege Wall Stage 2 – 30 (3) SP

^Upgrade Wall Walkways Stage 2 – 20 (2) SP

^Upgrade Steel Gate Stage 2 – 20 (2) SP

^Upgrade Murder Holes Stage 2 – 20 (2) SP

^Upgrade Defensive Spikes Stage 2 – 30 (3) SP

^Upgrade Repulsion Barrier Stage 2 – 50 (5) SP

Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

^Upgrade Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 2 – 30 (3) SP

Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

^Upgrade Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 2 – 30 (3) SP

Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

^Upgrade Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 2 – 30 (3) SP

^Upgrade Perimeter Pit Stage 2 – 30 (3) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 2 (Fighter) – 6 (1) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 2 (Mage) – 6 (1) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 2 (Scout) – 6 (1) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 2 (Control) – 6 (1) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 2 (Support) – 6 (1) SP

^Upgrade Fortification Guardian to Stage 3 – 90 (9) SP

^Resurrection Well Stage 2 – 1,000 (100) SP

Central Keep Stage 2 – 50 (5) SP

^Central Keep Stage 2 Required

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

Looking at the costs, he saw that it would cost a total of 149 SP to upgrade everything he had already purchased to Stage 2, other than the Fortification Guardian, which would increase to Stage 3.  The majority of that cost came from the Resurrection Well, which had a base cost of 1,000, and even with his discount it still cost 100 SP – a significant expense.

“Do you know what changes with the Resurrection Well at Stage 2?  Is it worth it?” he asked Sadia, hoping she would have the answer.  He could afford to purchase it, but he’d rather see how far his current SP would go if he ignored Stage 2 of the Well. 

“It has a further range in which the souls will be absorbed, and it speeds the resurrection up from 6 hours to 5 hours.  They are worth it in the long run, especially if you keep upgrading it, but it isn’t worth getting right now.”

That made his decision quite easy. 

The upgrades, as he got up to see what they all looked like before and after, weren’t exactly impressive, but they were noticeable.  The Autonomous Defenders and the Guardian each gained another 10 Levels, which he expected would be the norm for each up upgrade, but the other physical changes in the defenses were more obvious.  The walls grew slightly wider and a little bit taller, and the stone it was constructed of seemed to be a little more durable.  The Steel Gate had thicker bars and where it connected to the wall appeared to be further reinforced.  There were even more Murder Holes, some with more platforms, and the Defensive Spikes along the outside were thicker and appeared more durable, as if they wouldn’t be destroyed within a second or two against a monster – more like 5 or 6 seconds, instead.

The Walkways now had small merlons along the edge to allow those defending from up top to duck behind slightly, though they were only about waist high, so it wasn’t complete coverage.  The Repulsive Barrier out beyond the Perimeter Pit, which now had jagged rocks lining the bottom of it and was about a foot deeper than before, appeared to be more substantial and more visible than before, so he expected it would do a better job than Stage 1. 

As for the defensive weapons, they had morphed into something that looked better constructed, but the main difference was that they had a much better range of movement, meaning they could target monsters better than Stage 1.  He couldn’t tell if they would do any more damage than before, but he suspected that was also the case.  Stage 2 of the Horizontal Cutters had the steel blades becoming thicker and wider, allowing them to take more abuse, as well as being able to extend out a little further from the walls.

The Central Keep gained a second floor, with an internal set of stairs that led up to it.  Inside the new floor were sets of bunkbeds which he counted could hold 50 people, so he assumed that it was supposed to be some sort of barracks for the Contenders stationed there.  There wasn’t much else in the way of comforts, but it was better than having to sleep on the floor with a sleeping bag. 

What was also interesting was that he could also purchase additional defensive weapons and Autonomous Defenders at Stage 1; he didn’t try it now, but he wondered just how many of each he could get before he hit a max – if there even was one.  Eventually, the walls would likely run out of room for any more weapons, but he could imagine thousands of Autonomous Defenders filling up the Fortification – though space would be a bit tight.

For now, though, he simply looked at his options again, seeing that everything went up in cost – as expected – to upgrade them to Stage 3. 

Purchasable Defensive Fortification Options (Permanent Discount Cost):

^Upgrade Siege Wall Stage 3 – 90 (9) SP

^Upgrade Wall Walkways Stage 3 – 60 (6) SP

^Upgrade Steel Gate Stage 3 – 60 (6) SP

^Upgrade Murder Holes Stage 3 – 60 (6) SP

^Upgrade Defensive Spikes Stage 3 – 90 (9) SP

^Upgrade Repulsion Barrier Stage 3 – 150 (15) SP

Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

^Upgrade Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 3 – 90 (9) SP

Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

^Upgrade Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 3 – 90 (9) SP

Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 (1) SP

^Upgrade Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 3 – 90 (9) SP

^Upgrade Perimeter Pit Stage 3 – 90 (9) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 3 (Fighter) – 18 (2) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 3 (Mage) – 18 (2) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 3 (Scout) – 18 (2) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 3 (Control) – 18 (2) SP

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

^Upgrade Autonomous Defender to Stage 3 (Support) – 18 (2) SP

^Upgrade Fortification Guardian to Stage 4 – 270 (27) SP

^Resurrection Well Stage 2 – 1,000 (100) SP

Central Keep Stage 3 – 100 (10) SP

^Central Keep Stage 3 Required

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

When he added up all of the upgrades to Stage 3 (and Stage 4 for the Guardian), other than the Resurrection Well, it only added up to 125 SP; with 150 SP left to spend, at least until his hourly accumulation came in, he didn’t hesitate to upgrade everything but the Well immediately.  As he watched the changes flow over the Defensive Fortification, each element of its defensive properties became sleeker and more deadly than it was before.  It wasn’t enough for a bunch of Level 200 Contenders to face off against a small group of Skeletal Giants, but it might be adequate enough to kill one of them. 

Regardless, the fact that he was able to upgrade everything to Stage 3 immediately upon subjugating the NEST was incredible, and it boded well for the future.  Now, though, came the waiting game as he needed to see what would happen once the hour-long subjugation phase was over and the monsters came back to attack.  It would be good to see exactly how strong they were compared to the defenses – and there were a few more experiments he needed to try out once it got to that point.

In the meantime, while he waited, he turned to his Character Report and started looking into some things that he’d been neglecting while he’d been on the move.  He had some Advancements to pick and some Consumable Stat Stones to spend, after all, and now was as good of a time as any.