Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Is this everyone?”

Corinna looked over to see #32599999-E heading toward them, or Thaden as he mentioned the day before that he preferred to be called.  The way his obviously high-Level and high-Rarity set of equipment had a subtle glow about it even in the bright mid-morning light outside of the Darkwood Vale gates.  The way his oval-shaped mask covered his face made him look a little untrustworthy, as she was one that always liked to look prospective clients in the eyes, but at least he had somewhat taken it off the day before.  He knew that he could see through it easily enough when it covered his face, and he wasn’t the only one she’d seen with a similar type of effect, but on someone leading an entire Raid Party, it made him seem a bit unbelievable.

In truth, it wasn’t his outfit that made him unbelievable; instead, it was the claims that he had made that beggared belief.  She couldn’t understand why Rachel had agreed with this foolish endeavor, though she suspected that it had something to do with their prior business relationship.  Regardless of the reasons, she was there to ensure nothing went wrong; while she wanted to believe what he said was the truth, she had installed herself as an observer to validate his claims.  She would step in if it was necessary, but if his assertation that he could clear an Intermediate dungeon by himself was accurate, then she doubted she would have to; if he was lying, she was there to give those joining the Raid Party time to escape before they all died.

“It’s all we’ve got for now.  We had a limited number of those earmarked for transfer to your subsidiary able to arrive by this morning, so you’ll be a little short,” she told their potential meal ticket when he stopped next to her.  Looking over her shoulder at the 87 Contenders they had been able to gather on short notice, she hoped the lower number didn’t persuade him to break the contract they had agreed to the night before. 

Thankfully, it didn’t seem to faze him.  “Works for me.  It’ll be good practice for when there’s a full Raid Party.”

Corinna mentally sighed.  She still couldn’t believe that Thaden hadn’t ever been in a party larger than 5 people, and only a few times at that.  If he was telling the truth about that, as well, though she wasn’t sure why he would lie about something like that.  If it was her looking for a position leading a Raid Party, she would’ve been boasting about her experience with such parties – not admitting a weakness that could disqualify her.  But Thaden was, as her Guildmaster had mentioned, definitely a unique individual; because of that, his admission of inexperience and even ignorance about Intermediate dungeons was somehow expected.  Or if not expected, at least forgiven. 

It was far from the strongest reaction she’d had to the revelations he’d made to them during their meeting, but it was the one that made the least business sense. 

Before Corinna could respond to him or warn him about what he was about to walk into, he was striding toward the congregating members of Guilded Glory as they talked amongst themselves.  Even from where she had been waiting a small distance away from them, she could hear snippets of their conversations.

“…have no idea.  They didn’t tell you why…”

“…makes absolutely no sense.  Where are the healers…”

“…better not be another Sunny Bayou situation; that was utter bull…”

“…so close to Level 150 that I can practically taste it…”

“…entirely too expensive.  I’ve been using this piece of junk since 120…”

“…said we were waiting for the Raid Leader, but I haven’t seen them yet…”

“…is it?  Can’t be Pablo or Sean; they’re both out to the east the last I heard…”

“…they trying to get us killed?  Are they having us run basic dungeons now…”

Thaden walked up to the edge of the group and stopped, before he let the crazy aura she’d encountered yesterday spread out from him like a wave.  She immediately felt it flow into her, and she did her best to calmly look at her Character Report to see the change she knew was there.

Corinna

Exalted Defender

Level – 165 (Perceived Level: 215)

The extra boosts to her Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality weren’t there, as she wasn’t in his party yet, but the strange Perceived Level was still present.  From what he’d mentioned during their meeting, what it essentially did was artificially raise the Level of anyone it affected, which was largely reflected in loot tables and dungeon access.  It didn’t allow them to wear equipment above their Level or give them any extra abilities or spells, only some boosts to their stats once they were in a party with him. 

The Perceived Level also affected monsters, though, which was a little concerning.  While he said that it affected them similarly to the people in his party, she was still worried about facing monsters that were a much higher Level than her – even if it was this “Perceived Level”.

“Thank you all for coming so quickly this morning!” their new Raid Leader announced in a loud voice to the group, who all felt the same aura wash over them at the same time and turned in surprise toward him.  “You’re lucky to have been chosen as the guinea pigs in this little experiment, and I’m looking forward to going through it with you.”

“Yo, dude, who the fuck are you?”

Corinna shook her head at Steven, a Blade Stalker, one of the new—and rude—transfers to Thaden’s Raid Party, but before she could say anything, she was surprised by the inexperienced Raid Leader lifting his hand above his head, pointing right at his nametag.  She wondered for a moment if he was simply indicating that he had joined Guilded Glory, but she sucked in a breath as it changed.

Thaden {Guilded Glory Subsidiary}

Human

Level 189

The previous #32599999-E that had been his name before blipped for a moment before it said Thaden.  Wha—?  How—?

“Let me introduce myself.  I’m your new Raid Leader, Thaden, and I’m here to take you on a unique journey inside of an Intermediate dungeon.  As I mentioned before, this is part of an experimental test to the viability of what I have to offer the Guild, and if it is successful, we will be establishing an as-of-yet unnamed subsidiary Guild within Guilded Glory.  In short, you are all along for the ride while I speedrun you through it, and the objective is to get you PICK and loot as quickly as possible.”

Everyone stood there frozen in place, completely stunned – and Corinna was included.  It wasn’t what he said that shocked them so much; it was the fact that the stranger that had just introduced himself had somehow changed his nametag.  Such a things should be impossible, and yet he had done it.  Glitched, indeed.

“What?  How?  Who are you?” Steven spluttered out, a change from his aggressive attitude from earlier.

Without missing a beat, Thaden answered each of the spluttered questions.  “I can change my name to whatever I want.  How I can do that is a bit more complicated and not something I can share; not because I want to keep it to myself, but because it isn’t something that can be duplicated.  And like I said, I’m Thaden, also known as #32599999-E.  Or, perhaps, you want to call me something else?”  Without moving, the nametag above Thaden’s head began to change as she heard the lightest chuckle coming from behind his mask.

Raid Master T {Guilded Glory Subsidiary}

Human

Level 6969

“Is that easier to remember?  Or is there another designation you prefer?”

“What the—” Steven said, and his astonishment and confusion was echoed by the others when they started murmuring amongst themselves.  “Corinna, who the hell is this fool?” the Blade Stalker finally managed to pull himself together to look at her. 

Despite her own astonishment, she didn’t hesitate to answer.  “He’s been selected to lead this Raid Party with the complete authority of the Guildmaster.  You are to obey his orders as you would any Raid Leader, and I suggest you do so or you could end up dying.  That being said, he has assured us that there should be minimal danger to any of you if you follow his instructions.”

“But his Class—”

“Has already been addressed, Steven.  We are well aware of the limitations of his Class in a Raid Party, and it has been taken into consideration.  If you don’t trust me, then trust that the Guildmaster knows what she’s doing.”

I just hope he’s telling the truth.

There was grumbling from at least half of the assembled Guild members, as they likely had researched Thaden and his unique Class. 

“But where are the healers and CCs?” another member asked, and again before she could answer, Thaden fielded the question.

“They shouldn’t be needed.  If they are, then I’ll be fulfilling both of those roles.”

Disbelief rippled through them all, which she couldn’t blame them for, as she still shared those same doubts.  Unfortunately, Steven decided to go a bit further in his dislike for the situation than he had before.  “I’m not going to waste my time and risk my life for some stupid experiment.  Either you take over as Raid Leader, or I’m out of here.  I trust you, Corrina, not this jackass.”  He was looking at her and deliberately ignoring Thaden, who moved slightly to interrupt his line of sight.

“Steven, is it?  I can understand your reluctance, and I apologize for seeming like I’m being evasive, but the truth of it is, this isn’t something that you can simply be told about and believe that it is true.  It’s something that needs to be witnessed to really understand what I can do for the Guild.”  He sighed heavily and lifted his hands up in helplessness.  “But if you’re willing to forgo potentially thousands of Gold for a couple hours of work, then you’re free to leave.”

“What the hell are you talking about?  A couple of hours?  It takes a lot longer than that to clear an Intermediate dungeon.  Have you even been in one before?  Because it certainly seems like you haven’t.  In fact, with how you can change your nametag, I bet you’re too low of a Level to even go in one; there’s no way you’re at the top of the Rankings for anything,” Steven sneered, and Corinna thought she was going to have to stop some violence from occurring as she saw Thaden tense up. 

Therefore, she was understandably shocked when the Raid Leader abruptly started to laugh, while at the same time his nametag changed back to Thaden at Level 189.  “I assure you, this is my actual name and Level,” he said once he stopped chuckling.  “But you’re also correct in a way, I haven’t been in many Intermediate dungeons yet.  In fact, I’ve only been in one before this.”

Steven folded his arms over his dark leather chestpiece in satisfaction and glanced back at the others around him.  “See, I told you this guy was an imposter—”

“You didn’t let me finish, Steven.”  Faster than she could see him move, Thaden was suddenly in the Blade Stalker’s face, only inches away from him.  Steven flinched back slightly, but he held his ground.  “I may have only been in one Intermediate dungeon, but I also completed it in under an hour.  By myself.”

Steven was silent for a moment before he blurted out, “Bullshit.  I don’t believe you.  And I don’t know how anyone could be suckered into believing in what has to be an obvious lie.”  He looked over Thaden’s shoulder at her, but she just stared back at him as impassively as possible.  Even if she shared some of Steven’s reservations, she was beginning to believe him more and more by the minute.

“Honestly, it really doesn’t matter to me what you believe, Steven.  I’m here to make the Guild and its members a lot of money while providing PICK at the same time, and I can do it with or without you.  Ultimately, it’s your choice in whether to follow me or not; you’re free to leave and lodge a complaint with the good Lieutenant here or the Guildmaster.”  Thaden leaned slightly forward, which made the Blade Stalker bend an equal amount backward.  When he spoke, his voice was low, but she was sure everyone could hear him even 200 feet away.  “But let me make myself very clear, Steven; if you do decide to come with me, you will follow my orders without complaint or question, or else you may jeopardize the safety of the entire Raid.  That goes for everyone accompanying me into one of these dungeons.  Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

It was the first time she’d seen Steven even slightly cowed by someone, and he nodded slowly.  “Crystal, sir.” 

The Raid Leader straightened back up, and held out his hand for a handshake.  When Steven automatically took it, Thaden said, “No need for all the sir nonsense.  Call me Thaden.  Or Raid Master T, if you prefer,” he added with a chuckle.  After shaking Steven’s hand firmly, he backed up and addressed the entire group.  “Anyone have any other questions?  If not, then it’s about time we get this show on the road.”

He waited for a moment, but no one else seemed inclined to ask anything.

“Very well.  Corinna, where were we going again?” he asked, turning to her. 

She was fairly certain he was just asking for show, as they’d already arranged this whole test last night.  “We’re going to The Ranch.  At the speed of our slowest members, it should take us a few hours of running.”

“Nah, not fast enough.  Let’s see if we can do anything about that.”  He turned to the Raid again.  “I’m sending out party invites now; once you’re in my party, you’ll discover that your stats have been boosted – but what I’m particularly interested in is your increase to Celerity.  But that isn’t all; I’m also casting Mana or Health Transformation on all of you, allowing you to boost it even further.  If you haven’t used the spell before, I’ll explain what it does in just a moment.  If you’ve had the pleasure of its benefits before, then you’ll no doubt notice that it’s a bit more powerful than what you’ve likely used before.  In short, it’s at Superior strength, which will allow you to convert your Mana and Health at a much higher rate into Celerity.

“When we’re all done with that, I have a few others to ensure your safety while we run as fast as we can.  If all goes well, my goal is to be at our destination within 20 minutes.”

Only 20 minutes?  I know some Scout Classes that could do it, but I haven’t ever run that fast before.

It seemed as though it wasn’t just his prowess in dungeons that she was going to be surprised at; he had some incredible spells and other effects at his disposal that she’d never even heard of.  Superior strength spells?  I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything past Greater strength.

Surprisingly, even though he ended up casting spells on everyone in the party, he was done in less than a minute.  As Corinna followed his instruction in how to convert a chunk of her high Health pool into Celerity, she felt herself become faster by the second. 

Looking around her as she started running shortly thereafter, moving faster than she ever had before, she couldn’t help but think, I could definitely get used to this.