Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Thaden reread through the notification one more time to ensure he didn’t miss anything, before he stepped forward to open up his reward.

The Mines of Khanordun Endless Onslaught Challenge – Intermediate Maximal – Completed!

Calculating results… calculating… calculating… results calculated!

The Mines of Khanordun Endless Onslaught Challenge – Intermediate Maximal – Monster Value Breakdown:

Monster Value 1 – 5,350 eliminated X 1 = 5,350

Monster Value 2 – 5,200 eliminated X 2 = 10,400

Monster Value 3 – 5,050 eliminated X 3 = 15,150

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Monster Value 1,996 – 100 eliminated X 1,996 = 199,600

Monster Value 1,998 – 61 eliminated X 1,998 = 121,878

Monster Value 2,000 – 0 eliminated

Total Monster Value – 3,482,780,342

Total Monster Value Tier Classification: SSS++

Monster Value Tier Reward Breakdown:

Tier F (Total Monster Value 1-50,000): 50 gold pieces for each Raid Party member

Tier E (Total Monster Value 50,001-150,000): 200 gold pieces for each Raid Party member

Tier D (Total Monster Value 150,001-250,000): 500 gold pieces and 1 Rare, Class-specific Equipment for each Raid Party member

Tier C (Total Monster Value 250,001-350,000): 1,000 gold pieces and 1 Epic, Class-specific Equipment for each Raid Party member

Tier B (Total Monster Value 350,001-450,000): 2,500 gold pieces and 3 Epic, Class-specific Equipment for each Raid Party member

Tier A (Total Monster Value 450,001-500,000): 10,000 gold pieces and a full 6-piece set of Rare, Class-specific Equipment for each Raid Party member

Tier S (Total Monster Value 500,001-600,000): 50,000 gold pieces and 2 Legendary, Class-specific Equipment and 1 Legendary, Class-specific Accessory for each Raid Party member

Tier SS (Total Monster Value 600,001-700,000): 200,000 gold pieces and a full 6-piece set of Epic, Class-specific Equipment and 2 Epic, Class-specific Accessories for each Raid Party member

Tier SSS (Total Monster Value 700,001+): 500,000 gold pieces and a full 6-piece set of Legendary, Class-specific Equipment and 2 Legendary, Class-specific Accessories for each Raid Party member

Tier SSS+ (For every 50,000 Total Monster Value past 750,000 up to 1,000,000): (20) Consumable Free Stat Stones and 1 Legendary, Class-specific Accessory for each Raid Party member

Tier SSS++ (For every 100,000 Total Monster Value past 1,000,001): (100) Consumable Free Stat Stones for each Raid Party Member

Distributing rewards… ERROR: Reward limit reached… adjusting reward payout with compensation… rewards listing updated!

Current rewards due to each Raid Party member:

1 – 6-piece set of Artifact, Class-specific Equipment (Reward Limit compensation)

7 – Artifact, Class-specific Accessories (Reward Limit compensation)

5,000 (Reward Limit) – Consumable Free Stat Stones

40 – Access Slots (Reward Limit compensation)

Rewards distributed!

Reviewing the notification didn’t take that long, especially since the majority of it appeared relatively similar to the reward structure of the Undead Horde Siege Challenge.  The biggest difference was the breakdown of the score, which was entirely tallied up by Monster Value instead of other factors such as town damage, surviving citizens, and time of completion.  Looking at the different tiers, he could only assume that for a “normal” Raid Party within the Level recommendation, a Total Monster Value of 400,000 to 500,000 was about average, with anything past that being extraordinary – and the rewards accounted for that.

Of course, the Tier breakdown didn’t exactly account for someone accumulating a total over 3 billion.  He wasn’t sure if it was that high due to him being solo or just because he managed to reach a monster with a Level at 1,000, but it far exceeded the Tier structure’s compensation in the form of rewards. 

That wasn’t to say that there wasn’t anything for the overachievers out there; some Consumable Free Stat Stones and Legendary Accessories weren’t anything to scoff at, after all.  But it appeared as though Thaden had hit the limit of what the dungeon could actually provide; otherwise, he might have ended up with millions of Consumable Free Stat Stones.

Not that he would’ve complained if that had happened, of course.

Instead, as compensation for not being able to give him something like 3.4 million Stat Stones and only allowing him 5,000, he ended up obtaining another 40 Access Slots (which were always useful), as well as upgrading the Equipment and Accessories he received from Legendary to Artifact – the same Rarity as his Adaptable Mimicry Plates.

That gear, alone, was worth the pain and incredible Level Compression he’d experienced during the Challenge.  He would’ve given up all the Stat Stones and Access Slots in exchange for that kind of reward if he had been forced to choose; fortunately, he didn’t have to make a choice because he was getting it all.  

More than that, his Achievements and even one of his Class traits would come into play and increase his rewards; Army Of One I would triple his rewards, while Omenic Drifter would increase them by 50%.

Unfortunately, when he went to open up his reward chest, it turned out that not everything was affected by his bonuses.  While he received 140 Access Slots instead of only 40, 1,750,000 gold pieces instead of 500,000, and 35 total Artifact-Rarity items that he was eager to look through, he still only received 5,000 Consumable Free Stat Stones in total. 

“I’ve never heard of a ‘Reward Limit’ before,” Sadia said when he asked her about it, “but I can only assume since there was an ERROR, it’s a hard limit that can’t be overwritten by any Achievements or other bonuses.”

It was disappointing, of course, but in the end, it wasn’t as important as the other things that he’d obtained.  With the bonus to his Access Slots, he was now looking at 220 in total – which was more than enough to handle almost all of his spells.  There were some that he would likely never use, such as Lifelink and Wardlink, so the lack of those available to him didn’t bother him, and he immediately slotted in pretty much everything else he could.  When he was done, his Slots – which had been fairly organized before this – were now a little chaotic, but that was something he could deal with until he took the time to clean it up; access to pretty much all of his spells all the time was worth it, especially if he was going to be visiting more dungeons in the future that cut off his ability to change out his spells.

He held off on spending his Stat Stones for now, as he wanted to see what his new items would do for him first.  He debated waiting until he left the dungeon to look at them, but he didn’t feel like pulling them all out in front of the other Aelveen; he didn’t think they would try to steal them or anything, but he thought he would feel somewhat uncomfortable flashing his new stuff around when they were stuck wearing some sub-par equipment due to their better stuff being utterly destroyed in the last dungeon.  Of course, if he was wearing it, they would still see it, but he didn’t have to advertise that he’d just gotten some new, awesome equipment by deliberately pulling it out of his Inventory and showing it off.

Though, there was something he would wait on, which was to check his message feed.  He could feel that it was practically bursting at the seams by this point, as he hadn’t checked it after The Badlands dungeon, so there was likely a lot waiting for him; he didn’t want to be temporarily incapacitated around the Aelveen if it turned out to be too much for him to easily handle, and he certainly didn’t want to collapse in the middle of the dungeon.

Therefore, moving on to his new Artifact Equipment and Accessories, of which he’d received 21 of the former and 24 of the latter, he started pulling them out one-by-one.

“Uh, Sadia?  What’s with this stuff?  It’s practically worthless,” he complained, highly disappointed by each item he took out of his Inventory.  It was all worse than what he would’ve worn when he was Level 10.

“Here let me look,” she said, as she peered at the first description of the robe he received.  Sadia only glanced at it before her eyes appeared even more like they were going to fall out of her skull, and she started hyperventilating.  “Thaden, do you know what you have there?” she practically squeaked out the question.

“Some worthless junk?” he responded curtly, annoyed and pissed-off that the dungeon had screwed him over.

The giant squirrel shook her head with an exasperated sigh at his response.  “No, you—aargh!  Just read the entire description before you come to any ill-informed conclusions.”

Confused, but still feeling somewhat angry at being tricked, he did as she asked.

Simple Robe of the Healer

Rarity: Artifact

Imprinted User Restriction: #32599999-E

Level Restriction: 1

Physical Damage Resistance: 1

Magical Damage Resistance: 3

Durability: Indestructible

Special Properties: Growth

+2 Celerity

+5 Mentality

He looked at it again, reconfirming in his mind that it was absolute garbage.  Then he looked closer, this time noticing that it was imprinted to him similarly to his AMPs, and that its Level Restriction was only 1 – meaning that he could use it pretty much any time.  Not that I want to, of course.  He also noticed that there was no Class Restriction, but since it was something that only he could use, he supposed it didn’t matter.  But it wasn’t until he saw a new category under the description that his interest was piqued.

“What is a ‘Growth’ Special Property?” he asked quickly, hoping that it meant the same as it did in some of the games he’d played in the past.  A quick look at the rest of his items, all of which were similar in their relatively trash stats, revealed that every single one of them had this same Special Property. 

“That, my dear Thaden, is why none of this is ‘worthless junk’,” she informed him, bouncing up and down on her feet in excitement.  “The Growth property means that these will grow stronger over time as they essentially Level-up, and while they starts out fairly pathetic, by the time they reach the same Level as your current Lucky Vagabond set, they’ll be significantly more powerful.  In addition, they also adapt to you, taking into account the way you fight, the spells you cast, and then evaluates your current and future stats and needs.  The bonuses it develops are designed to suit what you need more than just some random increases, so everything it provides will be beneficial.”

He was becoming more and more excited as she described the Growth potential of his new items, as it somewhat matched what he’d seen in some video games.  There was just one question he needed answered, though.

“How do I get it to that point?”

At that, Sadia stopped bouncing.  “Well, uh, that’s the only bad part.  You have to be wearing it as you fight, and it will absorb a portion of the PICK you earn – which you can mentally adjust – to essentially Level-up.”

“That’s not really going to work for me; losing the bonuses on my current equipment would hurt.  Can’t I use the PICK I’m going to be getting for all the monsters I’ve just killed?”

She shook her head.  “Unfortunately, no.”  She took a second to think before she explained.  “Think of these pieces of equipment as extremely young living beings, where they can only grow and adapt due to exposure to the world around them.  If they were simply kept in a sterile, featureless room and pumped full of the sustenance they need to grow stronger, they would have no idea of where to improve themselves.  In other words, even if you could throw all the PICK you just received into them, they would simply grow in Level without any added stats or bonus increases.”

“Well then, can I just wear them one at a time to Level them up a bit before switching them out, thereby still maintaining the benefits of my previous equipment?”

Sadia thought about it for a moment before shaking her head.  “Technically, yes; but you would end up losing out on any set bonuses that would certainly develop if you were to be wearing them all together,” she explained.  “In addition, because of your other equipment, you could give them a false reflection of what is needed for them to provide you; for instance, if your equipment already covers most if not all of your Mentality stat needs, then it might never develop any additional bonuses to it.  Leveling them up in isolation, while possible, would pretty much ruin them.”

“All or nothing, huh?”  She nodded.  “Well, I’ll have to think about when the best time to use these will be, then.  I don’t think heading into a dungeon with a powerful Adversarial monster would be a smart play with my all of my equipment essentially at Level 1.”  The more he thought about it, he started to develop some plans on how to Level his new items up while minimizing his risk, and his Stat Stones would play a big part in that; nevertheless, it wasn’t going to happen just yet.

For now, he needed to leave the dungeon and see how the Aelveen were getting on after some time to rest and recover.  He was sure they were chomping at the bit to get back to the eradication of any entities related to the Adversary, but after his experience toward the end of this Challenge, he was feeling fairly tired himself.  His mind was a lot clearer and calmer now, and while this dungeon wasn’t exactly relaxing, it felt good not having to deal with the Wardens for a short while, at least.

But if they were ready to kill some powerful monsters, he thought he could keep going for at least another few hours before he needed some rest.  At that point, he would suck it up and take the Aelveen to Darkwood Vale, as he wanted not only to sleep in a comfortable room and review his message feed, but to check in with Corinna and the Guild while dropping off some investment gold and unloading his still relatively full Inventory.

As he walked out of the dungeon exit, which was conveniently located near where he stopped after receiving the notification of his results, Thaden was immediately confronted by two Wardens, Tac and Fer, and he was immediately on guard.  However, one look at their shocked faces when he emerged told him they weren’t there to fight; instead, they seemed to be either shocked that he came out of the dungeon alive, or they knew something about what he’d done inside there.

“Hello.  Did you need something?” he asked, as politely as he could.  His social tolerance limit had somewhat regenerated during his stay in the dungeon, so he figured he might as well try to work with the Aelveen rather than beat them over the head in an effort to get them to do what needed to be done without argument.

“N-No, we were, uh, just wondering if you would be done soon, that’s all,” Fer said nervously.

Thaden narrowed his eyes, wondering what she was hiding, but his vision was pulled past her when he saw something up in the air coming toward them.  It didn’t take him long to determine that it was three figures flying in their direction, and even at a distance, he could tell that they were Charee.  As they flew a little closer, he could see that they were all Level 567 – just like the Aelveen around him.

“Friends of yours?” he asked suspiciously.  The shock on their faces as they turned around somewhat reassured him that they hadn’t surreptitiously called in reinforcements to try and take him down, but he wasn’t going to let down his guard.  “Let’s just see what they want, shall we?”