Unchosen Champion

The settlement had been successfully upgraded and was officially named Ghost Reef. Judging by the leaderboards, they were in excellent shape.

They had also welcomed their first three residents who had arrived on nothing more than a raft. If it wasn’t for mana, they would have been dehydrated and starving. Instead a nice bath and a quick meal was enough to get them back into shape. As he approached his refined hunting route to begin his grind, he wondered what the limitations of mana would be.

Coop was primed to grind Ancient Defenders. It was early in the afternoon and the sun was shining bright. He began his familiar hunting cycle, killing the monsters with minimal resistance, and he concentrated on the accuracy of his spear throws and the timing of his teleports.

The mysterious pleasant feelings whenever he properly executed techniques continued, even while fighting the weak monsters with his most proficient weapon. He wondered if he was being conditioned to enjoy battle by some outside power. He had to admit it was also possible he had just never discovered a passion for martial combat, but that wouldn’t explain how he subconsciously recognized when his technique was correct.

The repetition of his actions had helped him refine his technique quite a bit. When he remembered his clumsy attacks from only a week earlier he could only feel encouraged by his progress, and yet, there was still so much he could improve. It took a lot more practice and experience to properly develop skill with a weapon. Despite the good feelings he had while fighting, he couldn’t forget he was essentially a very enthusiastic amateur.

He thought it might be a good idea to add one of the weapon training facilities to the settlement for some proper instruction, but he also needed to get some housing for the trio as well as future laborers. He could provide facilities for Olani’s selected profession, alchemy, and he wondered if Jones’s Archaeology would benefit from anything. There was also the more urgent task of finding a way to the spectral relic, which might require some other ship building related construction. He’d also have to save a larger amount for the settlement upgrade itself, with the requirement increased to 25,000 basic credits.

His primary source of income were the credits he received from scavenging, but the demands seemed to be escalating faster than his income. He probably needed to investigate some ways to leverage the settlement itself into making credits. They wouldn’t be able to establish trade routes, at least in the foreseeable future, but the Tavern had already shown him a way to add a passive income. If the population was higher, it would probably be a lot easier to bring a business plan together.

As he went round and round, he noticed Jones and Olani defeating Ancient Defenders together near the fort. It looked like Jones was providing some power leveling to unlock her class and affinity. Olani was wielding the trusty rake instead of her driftwood staff. She gently poked the monsters before Jones blasted them with stone spikes, boulders, or rock bullets. It had been a while since he Identified Jones, so he checked his progress.

[Human (Level 12)]

Coop was surprised, he had assumed that Jones was concentrating on his profession entirely. Jones spent his days helping Balor with the fort. He never saw Jones fighting, and yet he had made some pretty impressive progress.

Jones was actually unable to grind the same way that Coop had been, he was pretty severely limited by mana. He killed the monsters with devastating rock attacks, but he had to stop to regenerate constantly. The spells were just too expensive to maintain at a steady rate. He must have been popping out of the fort periodically to defeat a dozen enemies before returning to some other task while his mana regenerated. It made Coop appreciate his own skill choices all the more when thinking about such limitations.

He figured that most people wouldn’t be able to grind at the same pace he did, since they would be utilizing active skills to defeat the monsters. They would be a lot more limited by cooldowns and mana. He had just barely realized focusing on his basic attacks rather than active skills was a possibility when he was selecting his skills and now it appeared that would be the key to his success.

It was another wrinkle in Coop’s internal debate about the efficiency of grinding monsters compared to hunting down more dangerous ones when trying to level. Then again, if Coop became strong enough, he would eventually graduate to grinding the more dangerous monsters.

In the meantime, he continued to practice his spear throws and teleportation. He no longer felt any dizziness from the jumps and was able to act as soon as he returned to the tangible world. In fact, his timing had improved to such an extent, he was able to begin an attack before the teleport even completed. It was all in his hand position. The teleport moved him so that the spear would be in his hand, so if he held his arm straight out he would appear an arm’s length from the spear. He just had to remember that he was the one moving, not the spear, so if he put himself in an awkward position he would have to be ready to compensate.

He still wasn’t able to teleport to initiate every encounter, his mana couldn’t keep up with the cost. His mana pool continued to increase, allowing him to squeeze more jumps into his rotation and the teleport cost had been reduced to 42 mana, but the progress in reducing the cost was slow. Practical Application seemed to require thousands of repetitions before it would provide its mana reduction bonus. But even though the cost reduction combined with his larger mana pool displayed a tangible increase in his hunting efficiency, there was plenty of room for improvement. He predicted that his mana pool would grow from his constant investment into his Mind stat to such an extent, even a full 50 mana cost would become negligible.

He practiced anticipating the position of the spear and coordinating the location of his extended arm so that when he reappeared he would already be in an attack motion, further speeding up his reactions. At one point he accidentally made the jump slightly early and actually caught the spear inches above the sand. He defeated the monster and paused, realizing he had just made another major discovery.

All of his mistjumps had used a stationary spear as his target, but why did he have to wait? He could catch the spear anywhere in its path. He quickly started experimenting. The results were incredible, adding an entire dimension to his attack range. He could throw the spear above the monsters and time his mistjump so that it completed as the spear flew directly over, then bring the spear down in a plunging attack with the help of gravity.

He could essentially play catch with himself. The trick was challenging, requiring precise timing as well as conscious positioning of his main hand. The teleports weren’t instantaneous, so he had to anticipate the velocity of the spear and activate his mistjump at precisely the right moment, slightly before he actually wanted to arrive. He discovered that finding the right hand position to catch the spear and attack in a fluid motion was helped by imagining that he was actually throwing the spear to a second version of himself. Imagining the second person ready to catch the spear, he was able to imitate the position as he teleported. As long as he timed it correctly he could execute a fluid attack.

Coop realized that he might even be able to implement this method while using other, non throwable weapons. Instead of a proper throw, using the destination as an anchor for his teleport, he could toss a sword a shorter distance to effectively reposition. Of course, he would still be catching a sword, so it would take practice. There was a lot more room for creativity with this new discovery. Coop’s initial assessment of his Ethereal title was that it would simply prevent him from being disarmed. He thought resummoning a thrown weapon was already pushing the limits, then he discovered the game changer that he could use it to teleport. Was even that only scratching the surface? He kept practicing as evening approached and his quest approached completion.

After a bit less than five hours of meditative grinding, repeatedly testing his new technique, he reached his goal. He checked his recent notifications.

[You defeated Ancient Defender (Level 2)]

[+6 Basic Credits]

[Defeat Ancient Defenders IV (4999/5000)]

[You defeated Ancient Defender (Level 3)]

[+4 Basic Credits]

[Quest Complete! Defeat Ancient Defenders IV]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[You have a new quest!]

Coop had still held a tiny sliver of hope that the fourth quest would be the last in the chain, but he was disappointed to find there was another. Thankfully, his worst fears weren’t realized and the requirements hadn’t multiplied by forty times, instead breaking from the pattern completely. Coop was even more convinced that this would be the last stage.

[Defeat Ancient Defenders V (0/11111)]

Even though it could have been worse, it was still a daunting challenge. He had already been pushing himself to complete the previous 5,000 Ancient Defenders. He thanked his lucky stars the new requirement wasn’t 200,000. Coop put his unspent attribute points from reaching level 22 into Mind and kept hunting while he contemplated the new number. He summoned his sword to try some teleports with a non throwable weapon, jogging through the sand to each monster.

Coop had questions about the system’s number choices. He had thought it was just a coincidence before, but having to kill 11,111 was too blatant to overlook. The apocalypse began on 11/11, it was a bit after 11:00 AM, but now Coop thought it must have been 11:11. The settlement upgrade required 11 days of holding the camp and Earth was protected by a mana shield for 111 years. What’s the deal?

As he tossed his sword over an Ancient Defender, then caught it above his own head, behind the monster, and slammed it down, defeating the creature in a smooth combination, he wondered if the entity behind the system was sending messages. Maybe there was meaning behind the numbers, or maybe it was just being cute. He’d probably need more information to make heads or tails of it.

Killing 11,111 monsters was a lot, but at the rate he went with his spear he could do it in four days, maybe even three, without interrupting his current routine. Coop couldn’t kid himself, of course he was going to do it. +100 to his Mind stat was too huge to pass up, especially when he was only a few days of grinding away. Basic Credits would also be a major motivator, he had too many settlement upgrades in mind and his best way to earn credits was grinding.

The biggest negative to continuing to grind the Ancient Defenders was that he hadn’t received any class levels directly from them in quite a while. He had still leveled from completing the quest, and he had supplemented his daily hunts with the nightly Ancient Prowler grinds. The Ancient Prowlers were still giving him levels at least. He was 20 levels above the Ancient Defenders at this point, it seemed reasonable that they weren’t giving him the same amount of experience as they were before.

Ever since he added the teleports to his rotation, the decrease in running through the sand meant he wasn’t being exhausted at even a fraction of the same rate as when he ran the whole time. His improved stats also played a major part in his increased stamina. At this point he was pretty sure he would be able to grind for a dozen hours before really needing a break. When he thought about it, the progress boggled his mind. His stamina was improving at an insane rate.

After another sword toss, he teleported behind the monster, caught the weapon with it cocked over his shoulder, and sliced the Ancient Defender into two halves. He switched back to his spear to pick up the pace. The reduced travel times when being able to properly throw the spear and immediately engage targets was too good to pass up.

An hour later, Coop got a welcomed notification.

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

He may not get much class experience from killing the Ancient Defenders, but he still got Scavenging levels. His class level was 22 and his profession level was now 13. It would be nice to have them closer. When he was identified by other people, they would see his class level, so he believed the profession level was pure bonus stats and he wanted it to be higher. It seemed like Coop was putting way more emphasis on attribute points than even the system did, otherwise Identify would show the profession level in addition to the class level. Maybe Jones was correct when he believed skills were meant to be the defining characteristic of combat ability.

Coop kept grinding until the sun started to go down. He figured he had gotten a good start on the final leg of his Ancient Defender grind. Checking his quest progress, he dismissed his ethereal armor and headed to the Tavern.

[Defeat Ancient Defenders V (712/11111)]

Coop had killed just over 2,000 Ancient Defenders and he had only started the grind in the afternoon. He thought three more days would be enough, tonight he would skip the Ancient Prowlers in preparation of some long days of grinding.

When he entered the Clumsy Shark, Maeve cheerfully greeted him with a genuine smile. Coop returned the greeting and joined Balor and his tower of mugs at the bar.

“Hey, Balor! How are the repairs going?” Coop asked the dwarf-like stone elemental.

“I still can’t believe this fort was built without mana, it makes no sense. I’m making progress, but there’s so much to reinforce… I haven’t even started on the repairs.” Balor complained.

“Would general laborers help?” Coop wondered, planning to use the settlement quest reward to ease Balor’s burden.

“Aye, but no more than three. There’s a limitation on my workshop until your settlement upgrades a few more times. I’d be able to start working on the bridge pretty soon with three laborers working for me.” Balor responded confidently.

Coop nodded at that, “You want to greet them now?”

“Let’s do that. I can get ‘em ready right away.” Balor said, standing up while tapping his finger on the bar to pay.

Coop followed Balor to the civilization shard where Coop purchased a three story apartment building that had 12 units. He placed it on the outer circle, where Jones intended the residential areas to go. Coop was a little worried that being near the fort wall would be unsafe, but Jones insisted it was the best location as they would be away from the heaviest traffic in the central areas. Shopkeepers like Balor and the tavern keepers lived inside their own buildings anyway.

The variations of the apartment buildings were based on style. Coop selected one that matched the colors of the stones in the fort, and watched it build itself. There would be enough room behind it to provide a shared green space even after more buildings filled up the block. When it was completed he recruited three laborers who would be joining Olani and her grandchildren in the apartment building. After a few seconds, they appeared next to the shard as if they had been beamed in. They were all definitely aliens.

One of them was basically a 7 foot tall beaver, another was a blueish, hairless humanoid that maybe could be confused for a human with weird contacts, and the other was a 5 foot tall insect that stood upright with wings folded on its back. Balor immediately got their attention, explained what they would be doing and that he was their foreman while Coop was the Champion of the settlement. They all nodded in understanding and gave a slight bow to Coop, who returned the gesture. Balor had the situation under control, so Coop let him show them to their new homes with orders to report to the stonemason at dawn.

Coop went back to the Tavern to hang out with Maeve. When he arrived she came around from her position behind the bar and sauntered up to Coop.

She poked him in the chest. “You. stink.” She stated, punctuating each word with another poke of her finger. “How about that bath?” She offered, a little stubbornly.

Coop held her finger to prevent more pokes, “I don’t stink, you’re imagining things.” He denied, believing it was true thanks to the changes that mana wrought.

“You do!” She affirmed, her raised eyebrows and slight grin making Coop nervous.

Coop stepped back, away from her “Do I really?” He asked, now worried that he had overestimated how much mana had changed.

She nodded, bouncing her blonde locks, “You smell like raw mana, like you’ve been hunting monsters and running through their smoke all day.” She put her hands on her hips, “So, the bath?” She insisted.

“Oh…” Coop had no idea what mana smelled like, but he was relieved that’s all it was. “Well, I’ll take the bath, but not because you think I stink. Tonight, I’m celebrating the settlement’s upgrade and getting ready for the next goals.”

Maeve lunged forward and snagged one of Coop’s arms, pulling him toward the stairs. “Perfect!” She exclaimed. “Come on, my Champion, I can show you the rest of our amenities!”

Coop didn’t understand her impatience, but he let her pull him along. She had only been on Earth for less than four days so far.