Unchosen Champion

Coop woke up before dawn with Jett nestled under one arm. He was grateful she let him keep the pillow this time. Coop gently scooted her over before he jumped out of bed. He was filled with motivation this morning. There was only one more day before the leaderboards appeared and he had discovered a new ridiculous skill that he wanted to master as soon as possible.

He washed his face and moved up to the top of the fort for his morning jog and stretching session. He filled his lungs as he admired the sunrise. Despite the changes, Ghost Reef was undeniably still a paradise. The waves of the aquamarine ocean sparkled with reflections of the morning sunlight.

As Coop ate his oatmeal he considered a few things. Now that the plan for his class and build had culminated into the Revenant class he felt like he should start on a new aspirational plan. His personal goal was simple, but vague. His parents had left him with a decent life philosophy to be kind and help others and he would strive to honor that legacy.

He had articulated it to Balor as wanting to survive and to do so by defeating the Primal Constructs, but when he truly considered it, survival wasn’t really the best word to describe his goal. Really, his goal, or his desire, was to win. Of course, survival would be the primary condition, but winning might be a slightly different thing.

He had been slighted by the factions of the universe when none deemed him worthy of a sponsorship offer. As petty as his motivations might be, the Primal Constructs weren’t the only faction that needed defeating. Besides, wouldn’t there be other factions vying for control of the planet at the expense of humanity?

It was too early to start philosophizing on the nature of proxy competition between alien factions within the galactic community. He chuckled as he gave up and returned to what he did know and what he thought should be his aspirational goals.

The leaderboards would become available on Day 10. There were leaderboards for individuals and for settlements. Wouldn’t it be fun for the factionless to be at the top? Coop shook his head, reveling in his general lack of responsibilities beyond his own personal ones. At least he could leverage his gathered strength to offer a helping hand to those who needed it. He might not be truly noble, but he could still do some good.

As he exited the fort to test his new ‘mistjump’ on the familiar Ancient Defenders he kept his train of thought on the leaderboards. They would be the best source of intelligence on the rest of the planet while they were isolated on their island.

The factions’ influence would be limited by time. People would rapidly gain levels while at faction training facilities and boot camps until a maximum of Day 30. Once those boosted people returned, Coop was willing to bet that a significant number of them would not be prepared or dedicated enough for a continued grind. He predicted that many would be lazy about continuing to gain levels, especially if they started with a huge head start.

Coop could play the tortoise to their hares.

He tried to imagine a person being power leveled for a month and then being given a quest to kill thousands of the same mob after being titled ‘Chosen’. He laughed to himself as he drove an ethereal sword through the armored body of an Ancient Defender. He would switch to the spear and start ‘ghostwalking’ once his mana fully recovered from casting Salvation.

Would it be faster to hunt stronger monsters? Coop thought the answer wouldn’t be a clear yes or no. However, he was absolutely certain that constantly hunting stronger monsters would be more dangerous, even deadly. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

He considered what he would find in the Mana Well that was forming a canyon off the coast, or even further at the monstrous mountain. He was sure there would be boss monsters and dungeons. He and Jones had already defeated one elite monster, there must be more somewhere. He expected to challenge them all, in due time.

Balor was convinced that completing the quest chains wasn’t worth it. He said that you could simply gain 20 levels for the equivalent reward in stats, but Coop thought that was a poor comparison. The only people who received quests to defeat invaders were those native to an assimilating planet, so maybe the rest of the universe was underestimating their value. Not to mention, a title that rewarded +100 Mind wasn’t the equivalent of 20 levels of attributes because there was theoretically a maximum level an individual would reach. The title would add the equivalent of 20 levels on top of that limit, and that seemed valuable to Coop.

Additionally, it would make more sense to start grinding the weak monsters while still at a lower level if it was going to be done at all. Returning to kill level two monsters at level 100 really did seem like it would be a waste of time.

Coop was feeling a little more convinced that he would complete at least some of the quest chains, where the monsters presented a favorable matchup at least. He would try to compare his progress to others once the leaderboards came out. It shouldn’t be too difficult to identify the entries that were faction trained as they appeared on the list.

As Coop’s mana fully regenerated, he tentatively decided that he would aspire for top the leaderboards and would pursue that goal by completing the quest chains, adjusting his plans as he measured his progress with comparisons to the faction trained. He also predicted he would need to remain flexible enough to address unexpected threats. One reason Coop didn’t want to venture too far from the fort was for fear that he would be away when some event triggered, like a monster raid.

He realized he was extrapolating a lot of video game expectations onto the real world, but he would rather have expected a sudden raid boss event than be taken completely by surprise. At least he knew some events were coming after Day 30.

With his spear ready he prepared for his first ‘shadowstep.’ It had been roughly an hour waiting for his mana and consideration while killing. According to his quest progress he killed 70 monsters while casually jogging around his prearranged route with the ancient greek short sword that he had never used before. He felt a little more confident with the sword, but he needed something he could throw in order to use his ‘etherport.’

He tossed his spear so that it landed right behind an Ancient Defender and teleported to it. He was hit with a wave of dizziness and nausea after he reappeared, but still ended the fight with two quick thrusts. The monster wasn’t caught off guard and was able to block his first surprise attack. Coop’s Strength was enough to destroy the guarding leg with only one attack though. He threw again and continued to teleport among the monsters and feel horribly sick until his mana dropped below his health pool.

It was after only eight teleports. An inadequate amount for his desire to completely avoid running in the sand. Nevertheless he persisted in his rotation, teleporting when his mana sufficiently recovered. It was roughly every sixth kill that he was able to teleport again. The improved speed meant that he needed to add a single extra monster spawn to his route for them to keep up with their respawning.

The second hour resulted in 95 monster kills. It was a huge improvement to what he had believed was near his maximum efficiency, and yet, he could immediately identify more points to improve. After a teleport he was slow to recover due to the vertigo from the rapid movement, losing him the element of surprise generated by the jump. Also, a bigger mana pool would obviously enable more teleports.

The third hour he only killed 88 monsters, he realized he had artificially inflated his first set when he dumped half his mana on the initial teleports. Still, he could feel the progress that the practice was enabling. The dizziness was not as severe after each jump, as if he was acclimating to the movement. He also had a few notifications worth checking.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Defeat Ancient Defenders IV (531/5000)]

[Quest Complete! Scavenge Defeated Enemies IV]

[You have a new quest!]

[Scavenge Defeated Enemies V (52/1000)]

He was still getting levels just from killing these monsters, and it didn’t seem that slow at all. The constant fighting compared to tracking and hunting a stronger foe might even make it more efficient to grind weaker mobs for levels after all. At least for now while the level gap between himself and the monsters wasn’t too atrocious. The stronger foes would be up next anyway.

His scavenging quest reward gave him another Increased Yield bonus. The previous one had doubled his gains, so he had high hopes for the second bonus.

He put his unallocated attribute points into Mind, bringing his total to 100! It was cause for a celebration, so he started the festivities by killing more monsters. The fighting still gave him a euphoric feeling whenever something went right, so he was happy to continue.

Another hour and he killed 93 more monsters, he attributed the increase to the brief break he took while checking his notifications and the increased stats improving his mana pool.

The Increased Yield bonus from scavenging was actually a 50% bonus this time, still a huge amount. Now he was receiving triple the base amount of Basic Credits for every defeated enemy. It was a welcome bonus based on his current habit of mass killing monsters. All the basic credits were beginning to burn a hole in his pocket. He would have to shop for the settlement soon.

As he began another round he stopped after the first teleport and kill. His mana had only gone down by 49 instead of 50. Coop tested it one more time to make sure he wasn’t mistaken. It was indeed only 49 mana. Coop was confused. He reviewed the Ethereal title, but found no hints. Then he remembered his Agility passive skill, Practical Application. It only added half of his Mind stat to Agility because it had a secondary effect. It claimed that the mana cost of active skills would be reduced with mastery of the skills.

Coop had completely forgotten the secondary effect, already pleased with the Agility gain. This was the first time it had done anything and he was slowly coming around to how ridiculously strong it would get over time. He realized he needed to be spamming all of his skills in order to maximize its growth. At least, unless ‘mastery’ of the skill meant something other than repeatedly using it. It wouldn’t hurt to try summoning different weapons during his off-time to see if the cost was eventually reduced.

Before Coop began again he noticed a creature coming out of the surf, approaching the western beach. He moved closer, crossing the trail that connected the fort with the lighthouse, to get a better look. When he was close enough he Identified it.

[Elite Ancient Defender (Level 6)]

Coop noted it was approaching the beach from the direction of the Mana Well’s chasm. He wondered if that’s where these elites had come from. At the very least, the increase in mana concentration at the well might increase the likelihood of an elite appearing.

He jogged down the undisturbed sandy beach, leaving a trail of fresh footprints and kicked up sand, with his spear ready. When he was within range he threw it at the elite, intending a direct hit rather than setting up a teleport. The creature blocked the line drive but was rocked backwards with a cracked shin guard.

The last time he and Jones had fought an elite was before they even had classes and skills. Coop’s Strength had been multiplied by more than 10 times at this point and the difference was immediately apparent. Their first battle with an elite had resulted in Coop needing almost two full days of recovery.

Returning his spear to his arm, he attacked with a wide, sweeping arc from his maximum spear range. The creature barely managed to block the attack with a different leg as the spear tip threatened from its right flank instead of its front. The force of the collision between spear and guard caused the creature to crumple into the sand on the left side, with the blocking leg hanging uselessly after receiving the brunt of the damage.

Coop wasn’t only stronger now, he was also much faster than he was before. He was able to immediately capitalize on the disorientation of the creature, yanking the spear back and thrusting it into the red light before it had a chance to recover its stance. Both of the legs that would have been in position to block had already been weakened by Coop’s two opening attacks and it had no chance to prevent the deadly blow.

[You defeated Elite Ancient Defender (Level 6)]

[+210 Basic Credits]

[+1 Elite Monster Token]

His gains had never been more apparent than after the utter destruction of a monster that had nearly killed both him and Jones only a few days earlier. Coop adjusted his grip on his ethereal spear and decided it was a decent time for a little break from hunting in favor of some exploration. He needed to know if they should prepare for more monsters coming from the Mana Well. Was it a pit that was already full of elites? Would they spill out and assault the civilization shard within the fort?

Coop waded into the ocean, cautiously peering into the shallows ahead of him, anticipating something like the Primal Kites to ambush him at any moment. He was ready with his shield when water and sand erupted nearby. As the water around him splashed, catching bits of falling sand, he quickly Identified the floating monster.

[Primal Kite (Level 10)]

He was relieved that it wasn’t an elite version. An elite Primal Kite would be a challenge he hoped to save for later. In the meantime, the regular versions in small numbers should be well within his ability now that he could catch them.

The Primal Kite fired an electric blast that Coop blocked with his shield. He threw his spear as close to the creature as he could without threatening a direct hit. He didn’t want the monster to dodge the projectile and end up too far from the spear.

The monster correctly judged that the spear was not a danger and didn’t dodge. Instead it started to charge another tentacle to launch a blast of electricity. Before it finished, Coop appeared adjacent to its flank, with the spear arcing in a full power strike to the floating body.

The creature reacted in time, but could only spin and correct the aim of its still charging energy attack. The side of the spearhead smashed into the monster’s body, cleaving a deep gouge into the metallic creature and shoving it partially back into the water. The change of position forced the charging attack into the water as well, where it fizzled harmlessly, failing to form a bolt at all.

Coop pounced on the chance to defeat the creature, bringing the spear over his head and stabbing it point first into the body twice more before the fight was over. It didn’t seem like the Primal Kites could charge attacks and dodge at the same time.

With a little more practice Coop was confident he could destroy these creatures, but he anticipated the difficulty coming in detecting them before being forced into an engagement. He would also need to be able to teleport even more frequently.

Coop continued wading toward the Mana Well. The water level varied with shallow sandbars reaching only ankle deep with deeper channels carved out by currents that caused Coop’s waist to submerge. Luckily, he only had to fight one more Primal Kite and it wasn’t waiting to ambush him in the deepest portions of his trip.

The chasm turned out to be even further than he anticipated. It was well into the afternoon when Coop arrived at its edge. He had been afraid that the water would be flowing down the wide, circular breach like a waterfall that threatened to carry him down, but the ocean was calm all the way to the edge. He could practically taste the mana in the air as he neared the chasm.

The Mana Well had created a massive canyon, but the water level only rose an inch above a sandy ridge that formed a rim all the way around the perimeter. Healthy corals had propagated all the way around the ridge, forming a reef that should have been much older. Coop was able to safely step onto the sandy ridge to look over the chasm.

It was the most magical scene he had witnessed yet. Coop was enchanted by the wondrous view.

Coop watched as a smooth curtain of seawater cascaded onto ledges of purple and blue corals and split into rivers that continued a journey down layer after layer. Coop had no idea how deep it went, the view to the bottom was obstructed by massive coral ledges that overlapped each other while leaving large gaps between. Smaller, bright colored corals, sea fans, and anemones decorated the edges of the gargantuan coral plates, reaching out into the spaces between the layers. A gentle glow illuminated even the deepest spaces where his sightline went uninterrupted.

Coop realized that he wasn’t gazing into a canyon as much as he was gazing into a small hole that pierced the ceiling of an entire coral forest world. He was relieved to see that the vast area extended underneath the ocean floor away from the fort rather than toward it. This opening was just the top of one edge.

He couldn’t help himself. He forgot his mission to make sure there weren’t elites threatening to spill from the chasm and dropped down to the first ledge, barely 15 feet down, with the burning desire to explore.