Unchosen Champion

The third day of grinding, Coop gained another level of scavenging, and another mana reduction to his teleport, bringing it down to 38 mana per mistjump. After he killed 3,089 Ancient Defenders, he left the dunes and moved to the beach to sit underneath his favorite palm tree and review his gains. He checked his notifications.

[You defeated Ancient Defender (Level 3)]

[+6 Basic Credits]

[Quest Complete! Defeat Ancient Defenders V]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[You have acquired a new title!]

[You have acquired a new title!]

The quest chain was finally complete. He knew about one title, but receiving a second title was a surprise. He checked them both.

Bloodthirsty - The first to defeat 11,111 of any invader.

Recover 1% of defeated enemy health on kill.

Slayer I - Defeated 11,111 of a single invader type.

Adds +100 to the highest stat. Scales with each invader type defeated.

At first, Coop was overjoyed by the unexpected Bloodthirsty title. He was amazed that he was the very first person to complete one of the quest chains. First in the entire world! And it provided health recovery! He was in desperate need of some form of regeneration, as it was currently a major restriction on his hunting sessions.

But recovery on kill was pretty limited, and at 1% it probably wouldn’t amount to very much on an individual basis. This title really only contributed to the specific fighting style that awarded it in the first place, one where he was mass killing enemies. It really didn’t solve his health regeneration problem during individual fights, or between fights. Health regeneration would continue to be a gap in his skillset even with this bonus, especially against challenging enemies.

He also rained on his own parade by considering the existence of a world first title. It obviously meant there would be others. Had the very first Champion received a bonus title as well? The first to get a class? Coop worried he was missing out, despite the incredible gains he just made.

The Slayer title was exactly as Balor had advertised, providing a massive boost to his Mind stat. He intended to scale it even further by completing more quest chains. He checked his status to see the changes.

[Status]

HP - 1700/1700

MP - 1838/3100

Class - Revenant (Level 23)

Profession - Basic Scavenging (Level 16)

Affinity - Spectral

Race - Human (Rank 1)

Faction - None

Strength - 15 (+310)

Agility - 15 (+155)

Body - 15 (+155)

Mind - 310

Intelligence - 15

Acumen - 15

Unallocated - 0

Titles - Champion II, Haunted, Ethereal, Bloodthirsty, Slayer I

Skills (Active) - Identify, Retribution, Salvation

Skills (Passive) - Common Language, Mind Over Matter, Adamance, Practical Application

Quests - Defeat Ancient Prowlers IV (2365/5000), Defeat Primal Kites II (11/25), Upgrade Outpost to Village

Basic Credits - 64,162

Coop took a deep breath and enjoyed the moment. His stats had already been snowballing thanks to the bonuses provided by his passive skills, but adding 100 Mind all at once was an avalanche. These weren’t the stats of a level 23 at all.

He also admired his growing title list and the much cleaner quest list. His credits were coming along, but he wanted to make some expensive purchases next and needed to keep a buffer for the settlement’s upgrade, so he would have to save a bit longer. He was fired up for his next goal. The Ancient Prowlers wouldn’t know what hit them… Starting tomorrow night. Tonight would be for appreciating the leap in power he had just taken.

Coop returned to the fort and checked the leaderboards, Coop was ranked 74,239,965. It was a larger jump than he expected since his progress the last few days had slowed with the level difference between him and the Ancient Defenders diminishing his experience gains.

He had been happy with all of the alternative ways he was progressing aside from leveling, and yet he had still gone up almost 25 million spots. Gaining that many spots despite the Chosen who would be leapfrogging his position everyday was a real surprise. He guessed that he was passing the Chosen who had already returned a week ago and ceased making progress without their faction pushing them. He hoped that was it anyway, the alternative was grim. He didn’t want to think about what could be causing that many casualties. He checked the top 10.

Day 16

The Lich (Level 45)

Banshee (Level 43)

Zombie Lord (Level 36)

Yang Feng (Level 29)

Che Min-Jun (Level 29)

Deacon Burke (Level 29)

Dai Huang (Level 29)

Krisje van Riel (Level 29)

Hai Yun (Level 29)

Mauro Rios (Level 29)

The top 10 was still in flux, with factions’ Chosen jumping onto the leaderboards as they returned. The undead in the lead continued to be bizarre, with Banshee gaining five levels, The Lich gaining one, and Zombie Lord not gaining any levels in the six days since the leaderboards appeared. The only other familiar name was Hai Yun who gained two levels and hung onto the top 10. Coop had gained three levels in the same time period despite turning his attention to completing his quest chain.

He was planning on pushing himself onto the leaderboard after all the Chosen had returned, but at the rate they were progressing right now, he might be able to climb into the top sooner. The levels were so consistent, it seemed like anyone could jump ahead by snagging a few levels from the early invader quest chains. Maybe the ones that appeared on the leaderboards were the ones who returned from their training and immediately completed a few quests.

Coop headed back to the fort to relax for the rest of the evening. He wanted to spend time with his companions in the comfortable atmosphere of the Clumsy Shark.

Maeve warmly welcomed him and invited him to have a seat at the bar. He joined Jones and Balor who were already enjoying themselves, exchanging stories with Desmond. Olani had her grandchildren in a booth, giving them lessons that could only come from the wisdom of age. She didn’t realize Jett was distracting both boys by demanding pets from underneath the table. Even the three laborers were present at their own booth, with the blue humanoid and the beaver-man challenging each other to an unfamiliar card game while the insectoid silently observed, idly moving his translucent wings. The ever present fire in the fireplace glowed with an orange light that danced across the room and reflected off the glassware behind the bar. The pleasant ambience of the tavern was impossible to resist.

Coop couldn’t help but smile to himself. He couldn’t imagine a better way to survive the apocalypse. A tropical island paradise, slowly filling with friendly companions, secure and comfortable inside a magically infused fortress. He was further motivated to gather his strength. They would protect this little haven and invite more people to join them. They still had plenty of room to expand within the courtyard.

The constant threat of increasingly powerful enemies loomed just a tiny bit further away with their recent successes.

Maeve noticed his content expression and nudged his shoulder with her own, smiling to herself. He received a bowl of stew and a mug of ale from Desmond. He savored the meal before joining the conversations of Balor and Jones.

The stone elemental and the archaeologists had become good friends, with Jones helping the stonemason using his class skills, and both sharing an enthusiastic appreciation of the stone fort that they all resided in. As usual, the topic of discussion was the development of the city. They were considering what to do immediately after completing the bridge that would connect the two halves of the fort. Balor wanted to start with reinforcing the walls on the half that hadn’t received any attention. Jones thought it would be better to have Balor lead the laborers in starting the roads before turning their attention to the walls. Coop didn’t mind either way, but Balor thought it was sacrilege to leave the stones of the fort neglected for any longer.

Coop let the pleasant atmosphere wash over him until he retired for the night. He was going to catch up on his own chores the following day. He couldn’t hunt the Ancient Prowlers until night fell, so he was giving himself a free day. He wanted to check the trails and do some of the minor maintenance that he had left behind in the pre-mana times. A bit of normalcy would do him good. Coop figured there was a reason someone invented weekends and he wouldn’t deny their brilliance by not taking the time to decompress from his leveling grind every once in a while.

Coop washed up and went to sleep in one of the fluffy beds offered by Maeve. He went to sleep with a subtle appetite for more leveling slowly building during his break.

The next day, Coop was taking his time, strolling along the trails of the island. He cleared any debris that had accumulated and replaced rocks that had been knocked out of place. The Ancient Defenders silently observed him as he completed minor tasks that reminded him of the times before people had to worry about levels and mana or monsters and aliens.

He visited the burrowing owls that nested in the dunes. He identified a few before finding the one that was gaining levels.

[Burrowing Owl (Level 21)]

The owl’s progress was impressive. Coop hoped he’d keep hanging in there. Hopefully, nothing more dangerous than the local Ancient Defenders would bother them. Coop thought it was interesting that not all of the owls were leveling. The others that he was able to identify were still just regular owls. The special one was successfully keeping them safe.

Coop moved on, walking the beach and leaving a solitary trail of footprints in the undisturbed sand. There weren’t any fresh sea turtle tracks or signs of new nests. The nesting season had ended before the meteors arrived. He hoped the turtles wouldn’t be distressed by the assimilation of mana. Gazing out over the sparkling ocean, he wondered if the Primal Constructs were also in the deep sea.

An osprey dove feet first into the shallow water while he watched, catching an unsuspecting fish before flying toward the mangrove forest with its meal. He wondered if it was even necessary for it to eat with mana in the system. It seemed like birds had been the least affected by the assimilation of mana. He spotted frigate birds, terns, and petrels hunting fish and gliding between the islands. Pelicans seemed unbothered by the Primal Kites as they dove and swam where he knew he would have been ambushed by the monsters. The ever present gulls always made their presence known with their squawks, they were by far the most vocal of the residents. Coop even spotted a pair of anhingas with their wings extended at the edge of the mangrove forest, drying from their time spent swimming in the water.

He figured it was about time he took a peek around the mangroves, so he followed one of the trails past the lighthouse and eastern beach. Approaching the mangroves really put their scale into perspective. The canopy used to only be about 20 feet high, with a thick tangle of roots that combined with wet muck and shallow water to make navigating through the forest near impossible. It was easier to kayak into the forest through one of the many salt water channels that connected an interior shallow lake with the ocean. After mana caused many of the trees to experience wild growth, the canopy now extended upwards of 200 feet. The difficult terrain remained, but Coop could see deep into the forest.

The canopy extended beyond the edges of the biome, causing Coop to walk in the shade before reaching the end of the trail. The shade lowered the temperature, but the increased humidity prevented it from being more comfortable. The air tasted like salt and the thick foliage prevented the ocean breeze from providing relief. Coop summoned his armor. He left his weapon unsummoned, not sure what would be effective in the unique environment against unknown enemies. He was on a scouting side-mission anyway, both hands free might be useful for grabbing branches if he needed to escape.

Coop noted that he would have a much easier time moving through the forest than the pre-mana times. He climbed onto a large root and comfortably stood as if he was standing in the middle of a sidewalk. The roots of the bigger trees were large and stable compared to the ropey unstable, regular-sized roots. They created a sort of midlevel of boardwalks that would allow Coop to skip the mud completely. The overlapping roots would keep him 10 to 20 feet above the water with plenty of mostly open space until reaching the upper canopy. The regular sized mangroves were almost like bushes instead of trees at this midlevel, and the interior of the forest was wide open other than the occasional oversized trunk or thick branch that extended upwards to join the canopy.

He hopped onto a particularly large root and found that it provided an easy walk deeper into the woods. Coop was able to travel by walking along one root and switching to another when the path ended due to the root curving into the shallow water or reconnecting to the trunk of its tree. They criss-crossed at such a frequency that navigating through wasn’t bad after all. He kept a watchful eye out for new threats, feeling like he was exploring a primordial forest that humans had never discovered. He half expected a dinosaur to appear in the distance.

He peeked over the edge of his current root bridge and down through the tangle of smaller roots. The ground layer was inundated with the dark coffee colored salt water. He had no idea how deep it was now. Before mana had changed things it stayed shallow throughout, until reaching the ocean, but now he wasn’t sure if he was willing to test its depth.

As he looked into the water some movement caught his eye. Turning his head to follow the movement, he saw nothing. The sunlight filtering through the mangrove canopy played tricks on his eyes. Something had definitely moved though, he could see the ripples still bouncing off the roots in the water.

He kept watching, imagining anacondas underneath every shadow. He caught more movement in the periphery of his vision and he quickly turned and Identified it.

[Ancient Devourer (Level 25)]

Coop kept his eyes on the monster. It was far enough that he wasn’t worried about it noticing him, but he was still wary. It moved slowly, jerkily shifting along while gripping the branch against its body. To Coop it looked like a large metal snail that was dragging itself along the large roots. The cylindrical shell reflected the light that streamed through the canopy.

Not wanting to risk a scenario like the one he experienced with his first Primal Kites, he decided that this was good enough for his scouting mission. The monster in here was a large jump in levels from any of the ones he had already fought. He backed away, keeping an eye on it just in case.

As Coop returned the way he came something burst out of the water. He barely dodged in time thanks to the enhanced speed provided by his improved Agility. He dove onto his stomach and clung to the wide root bridge while the monster sailed over the bridge and back into the water on the other side. He caught the tail end of whatever had jumped out of the water to attack him and identified it.

[Primal Serpent (Level 23)]

There were anacondas after all. Coop continued his retreat, knowing there were at least two new monster types inside the mangrove forest. He stayed on his toes until he was able to jump off of a root bridge and land back on the sandy ground at the edge of the forest.

He hadn’t gone very deep into the forest, but he had still come out with some valuable information. The two monsters he managed to identify were a significant jump in levels when compared to the monsters he had been fighting previously. But they weren’t too high. Coop felt his greed for stats, dreaming about completing the quest chains for all of the monsters he had found so far.

Besides the Ancient Defenders, he already found that the island had the Ancient Prowlers and Primal Kites which were around levels 10 to 15. Now he could add Ancient Devourers and Primal Serpents which seemed to be leveled in the low 20s. He dared to hope that their levels would remain constant thanks to the influence of the settlement’s territory.

Coop suspected that the island was uniquely diverse. He couldn’t imagine that there were this many monster types in close proximity all over the planet. If there were, he didn’t think the leaderboards would be as tight as they were. Some people would be traveling around and stacking up the easy levels to pull ahead at the start, even if it wouldn’t work out with them holding a lead for the long run.

Coop hadn’t even checked the rest of the islands in the chain yet, and it already seemed like he would have plenty of his own monsters to grind. He wasn’t in any danger of stagnating with his levels using his current strategy of grinding monsters until completing the quest chains.

Unfortunately, it seemed like he couldn’t stay in paradise forever, just grinding monsters and hanging out on the beach and in the tavern. He already had a quest that would temporarily take him away from the settlement. No one had come up with any ideas on how to complete the optional portion to retrieve the spectral relic yet, so he was already leaning toward skipping it. Ignoring the optional part, they were ready to complete the upgrade quest and push the settlement to a village. Then he didn’t have to worry about interrupting his grinding in the foreseeable future. He’d just have to take the occasional day off, like today, to avoid either burning out or losing himself in the routine like he had after losing his parents.

He had one more chore he wanted to complete before he relaxed for the rest of the day. He wanted to return to the lighthouse and clean it up a bit. It had been sitting for two and a half weeks without any occupants. He probably needed to at least give it some dusting.

The lighthouse was as he left it. He gave it a quick cleaning and left the door open to air it out a bit. He opened the sealed hatches and put things away that he had abandoned in his frantic escape during the initial day. Everything was in order before he was finished.

As Coop left the lighthouse, excited to spend more time with his companions around the fort, he heard the warning bell ringing, loud and clear.