Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 23

Chapter 23

As he should’ve expected, the mind-bending effects of the Mind Absorbers were so insidious that the Guild Leader of Guilded Glory didn’t – or, possibly, couldn’t – believe him.

“That’s impossible; we would’ve seen them!” she vehemently declared for the fifth time in a row, using the exact same words as she dismissed his claims entirely.

He was getting exasperated now.  “I think that’s the whole point, Rachel.  They’re invisible to you because they’re messing with your mind.”

While she still didn’t believe him, she tried another tactic even as the Raid Party continued to fight against the Mindbender Wisps – and their illusionary appearances.  “That’s just not possible, Thaden.  If that was the case, then why wouldn’t our notifications tell us about these ‘Wisps’ when we kill them?”

That was, strangely, a good point.  Checking his own notifications, he looked at the last couple in his list of slain monsters. 

You have slain a Deadly Mutated Dreadwing – Intermediate Minimal – Level 166 (Perceived Level 216)!

You have received 3 PICK!

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

You have received 6 PICK!

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

You have received: 18 PICK!

You have slain an Essence Sucker – Intermediate Minimal – Level 166 (Perceived Level 216)!

You have received 3 PICK!

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

You have received 6 PICK!

Army Of One I Achievement activated!

You have received: 18 PICK!

The notifications seemed normal enough, with the breakdown of the bonuses attached to the PICK received – which wasn’t a whole lot, considering that he was in a full Raid Party.  He knew that everyone else would receive about a third of the PICK that he did based on his detrimental reduction of PICK received due to his Class, but it still wasn’t too bad. 

But the most important detail was that they actually said that he – or in this case, his party – had slain a Deadly Mutated Dreadwing and an Essence Sucker.  Looking back toward the beginning of the notifications for this dungeon, all of the “monster slain” notifications said the same, even the ones that had been killed before he had figured out what was going on with the Mindbender Wisps.  In other words, there was no sign that the System knew that these Wisps actually existed.

Or it was deliberately hiding them from everybody for some reason.  He wasn’t sure what option was worse.

“Huh,” he said, thoroughly confused now.  While Sadia continued to cast healing and protection spells over the Raid Party, Thaden tried to think of another way to convince the Guild Leader that everything they were looking at was a lie. 

“I’m not sure why the System isn’t telling us that we’re killing these Mindbender Wisps,” he began, and she appeared vindicated by his admission, “but I swear to you that it’s true.  Remember all of those things I told you that I could do that you found hard to believe, but it turned out that I was telling the truth?  This is just another one of those—”

There was a brief flash of something that came over Rachel’s face as he was talking, as if there was a split-second when he thought he was getting through to her, but a simultaneous pulse coming from the worm-like Mind Absorbers wiped it away.  Her face and tone was softer than it had been since she vehemently denied what he was saying.  “This is nothing like that, Thaden.  Trust us, we know what we’re doing here, as we’ve been attempting this dungeon for weeks now.  Your nerves are probably getting the best of you, with the completion of your Evolution Assignment on the line; I can only imagine how important this is to you, and you’re looking for any excuse to be more useful than you already are, so that you can ensure we succeed.”  The harshness slipped back into her voice as she added, “Just do your job, and stop trying to create other problems where there are none.”

“But—”  A look from the Guild Leader was all he needed to shut up, as he instinctively knew that he wasn’t going to get through to her.

“Sadia, you believe me, don’t you?” he asked, moving away from Rachel.

The giant squirrel nodded.  “Of course I do, Thaden.  Unfortunately, I can’t back up your vision of these Mindbender Wisps, and even your memories only display these other monsters that the Contenders are fighting.  And with the notifications from the System not giving any substantial proof…”  She trailed off, looking pained at not being able to offer him any other encouragement than she already had.

So, not only is the System being altered, but so are my memories?  How is that possible?  Unless… I’m the one being messed with?  Is the Guild Leader right, and it’s me that is imagining all of this?

No.  He wasn’t imagining things.  The Mind Absorbers did exist, and he was about to prove it. 

Stepping out of the formation of Supports, as battle still ranged around the perimeter of the stone platform, he approached the nearest Mind Absorber worm thing and tried to figure out how to hurt and ultimately kill it.  His normal methods of killing monsters either had them attacking him and thereby inflict reflected damage upon them, or by using his Leach combination to absolutely devastate everything around him.  The latter wasn’t a smart idea to try right now because it could end up killing some of his Party if he wasn’t careful; the former might be possible if the Absorbers actually attacked him.

Therefore, he walked up to the nearest worm monster and kicked it as hard as he could.  With his over 5,000 Physicality, his blow would normally be strong enough to crush rocks, but to the Absorber, all it felt like he did was kick a pillow as it folded around his attack, seemingly unharmed.  He was about to try attacking it again, possibly by trying an old trick he’d used before by attempting to hold a heavy weapon in his Inventory and letting it fall to the platform, crushing the monster under its weight, but he stopped when he felt a hundred pairs of eyes upon him.

Looking up, his Raid Party had completely stopped defending against the Mindbender Wisps and were staring at him with a blank intensity that unnerved him.  A simple glance at them conveyed the desire to attack him if he did something like that again, so he slowly backed away from the worm on the platform.  The only one that didn’t stare at him was Sadia, who was shaking her squirrel head as if trying to shake out some crazy thoughts – though that was far from the creepiest part of the whole situation.

Not only were the Contenders all looking at him as if daring him to try that again, the flying Wisps had also stopped moving; while they didn’t have faces in their natural forms, he could practically feel the weight of their attention upon him.  The platform continued to descend while everything else was basically frozen, staring at Thaden, so he took a few steps back and stood amongst the Support Classes again.  Only when he returned to his original position that time seemed to start again, with the Raid Party turning back to the incoming Wisps attacking them in their different forms that the Solitary Shaman could no longer see.  Everything progressed as it was as if Thaden hadn’t done anything; to them it apparently hadn’t.

Are they being mind-controlled?  If they are, why didn’t they die weeks ago when they found this dungeon?  If I was a dungeon and was able to control the minds of the people who came to invade me, I certainly wouldn’t let them go.

Wait…  “Hey, Rachel?” he asked hesitatingly at first before gaining more confidence when she seemed curious about whatever Thaden wanted to ask.  “How did you say you found this dungeon again?  And are there any other Guilds who have delved through it?”

She didn’t hesitate to tell him.  “One of our exploratory scouts discovered this place when we were looking for the Anchor Dungeons, but it was inaccessible at the time.  Once Developmental Phase 3 began, however, it seemed to open up and had an Intermediate dungeon available.  We’ve managed to keep it a secret for now, plus there are few Raid Parties around our Level looking for more dungeons to delve, so that’s why we’ve been determined to complete it.  We want the World First Achievement for completing it, as it’s sure to be significant.”

So, they’re the only ones that know about it?  What about the Adventurer Coalition?  Wouldn’t the information about this place be available to everyone?

Their determination to obtain the World First Achievement makes sense, as I know for a fact that they can have some nice bonuses, but this is getting stranger by the second.  I was wondering why there hadn’t been any other Guild Raid Parties outside of the entrance, though I put it down to the fact that it was a higher minimum Level than many of the others around the area.  But what if that isn’t the reason?

Thanking the Guild Leader for her answer, he whispered to Sadia, “I think we have a problem.”

“Problem with what?” she asked, while she continued to cast spells on the front line of Contenders.  A quick look at them showed that they barely needed it, as they weren’t being hurt all that much, but Sadia was nevertheless focused on casting on them as quickly as possible.

“There’s something seriously wrong with this dungeon.  Do you remember when I, uh, kicked the—”

The few Support and Mages around him suddenly stiffened and turned to look at him, their creepy vacant eyes promising pain if he kept speaking.  Thaden snapped his mouth shut immediately.  It wasn’t that he was afraid of them if they were to attack him, because he could easily defend himself, but he didn’t want to have to kill them.  The possibility of leaving his Evolution Assignment uncompleted because he was forced to defend himself from his own Raid Party was too great if he started something like that.

So, he shut up.

He briefly thought about using his Aura of Sleep to put everyone on the platform to sleep, or even his Pacification Aura, but those were only temporary and could cause more harm than good if they didn’t affect the Wisps.  If it didn’t, then the Contenders would be nearly helpless if the monsters would have free rein among them for a while, which could cause some deaths, as well.

I can always hit the lever to bring us back up and get out of here, but I’m hesitant to do that when I’m so close….

It would be the safer route to do that, of course, and he nearly rushed over to do just that, but decided against it after a few seconds of indecision.  It was undoubtedly greedy of himself to let the highest-Level members of Guilded Glory continue to be influenced by the monsters of this dungeon, but he was so close to evolving his Class that greed won out over practicality.

Therefore, he continued shutting up, preventing any more words from coming out of his mouth.  Meanwhile, he used the time as they continued their descent into the darkness below to decipher a means to get them all out of this mess.  Unfortunately, even his slightest movements out of place or any indication that he was about to speak got him a few vacant-eyed glances, making him hesitant to try anything.

Let’s just get through this and then don’t think about it afterwards.  Descend to the bottom, kill the boss, complete my Evolution Assignment, pick up the loot, and then get the fuck out of here in that order.  The sooner we’re done with this, the better.

The further they descended, the more Thaden could tell that the monsters the Raid Party were fighting were actually quite weak.  Not just weak for their Level, or because they were more mind-focused than being strong fighters, but also because the Guild had absolutely no problems tearing through them without any issues or concerns.  They looked like they were working hard to fight their illusionary foes but very little – if any – damage actually got through to them. 

In fact, the only real concern, even as they passed through a much large pocket and fought what was supposedly a powerful Mini-Boss – which was only a single Mindbender Wisp that gave off the illusion of a much larger monster – was that the number of Mind Absorbers on the platform continued to climb.  As a result, the “The Drain” increased, but it was easily countered by Regeneration and Rejuvenation.

Hours passed as they continued descending, with Thaden seeing nothing but Mindbender Wisps and Mind Absorbers, though both his Raid Party and the notifications told him that they were actually fighting something quite different.  If he hadn’t thought that there was something wrong with the dungeon by that point, especially with the mental influence the Wisps and Absorbers had on his Party, then the fact that there were only two types of monsters in the entire dungeon would’ve set off alarm bells.  Every dungeon he’d been in, even those designed for a Level 5 Contender, had more than two types of monsters; the sight of the Wisps masquerading even as Mini Bosses was more than odd – it was downright impossible.

Trapped in the indecision on whether to stop this now by returning them to surface, killing his Party if they decided to turn on him while he killed the Absorbers, and leaving everything alone and just leaving the situation to resolve itself however it would, he discovered that his Party was now fighting the third Mini Boss – and was nearly done killing the Wisp inside of its invisible (to him) form. 

It's now or never.  What do I do?

As he continued to debate with himself, the choice was taken from him as they descended a little further – and the chains holding the platform suddenly snapped at every single anchor point simultaneously.  A half-second later, the entire platform dropped into freefall, though it didn’t last long.  With an eardrum-shattering crash, it slammed into the bottom of the nearly bottomless pit, cracking the stone under his feet.  Nearly everyone fell as a result of the drop, though Thaden, Sadia, and a few of the Scouts were able to keep their feet.  As such, he was able to see that the Mind Absorbers, which had previously blanketed the open space of the platform and had been sucking away hundreds of Health and Mana every second from those on board, scurried away with frightening speed, disappearing into the darkness that permeated the space around them.

It was at that point that Thaden noticed three things.  First, “The Drain” was gone as soon as all of the Mind Absorbers left.  Second, the platform had fallen into a very large space, completely at odds with the long shaft and pockets that they had fought within before.  Looking around him and trying to peer outside the range of the illumination that the few remaining light orbs that managed to survive that long provided, he got the sense that the space they’d fallen into was huge – much larger than any other space he’d seen in a dungeon thus far.  Of course, he couldn’t verify that because he couldn’t see past a hundred feet or so past the platform, but he trusted his instincts.

Lastly, he heard Rachel shout, “Assault Waves!”, before going silent.  Thaden waited for the messages in his vision indicating that Wave 1 was coming, and a countdown to that effect, but nothing happened.  Glancing at the Guild Leader, and then everyone else – including Sadia – he saw them standing in place, their weapons at the ready or hands lifted in anticipation of casting spells… but none of them moved. 

But that didn’t mean nothing was happening.  The Health of the front line of Contenders fluctuated, showing that they were getting hurt and Regeneration was working to heal them, though he saw absolutely nothing actually attacking them. 

With Sadia frozen in the same state as the others, he decided that it was time to bring her back into his equipment.  With a mental thought, he pulled the giant squirrel back into the Plates, and a second later she disappeared and he could sense her inside of them.

“What are you doing?!  They’re going to die if we don’t work together to—"

Thaden could feel her surprise as she cut herself off.

“Thaden?  Why is everyone standing still?  Where did the monsters go?”

Thaden sighed in exasperation, berating himself for not doing this earlier.  Apparently, being back inside of his equipment and not having a physical form gave her a bit of clarity of mind. 

“That’s exactly what I want to know.”