Unchosen Champion

After arranging the boat trip with Camila and Charlie, Coop warned Jones that he would be absent for a while to complete the optional portion of the settlement quest. Jones promised to hold down the fort, as he had for decades. Coop also said goodbye to the zonked out Jett and told her to keep an eye on Jones while he was gone.

Coop met the girls at the dock. While they were preparing to board the ship another group arrived to join them. Camila confronted the late arrivals and Coop gathered that it was the rest of Camila and Charlie’s party, including the hostile Infiltrator, as well as the Puppeteer from Kevin’s party, and the Honorguard and Outrider couple that he had observed at the tavern earlier in the morning. He inspected the other two from the girls' party.

[Human (Level 26)]

[Shattershot (Intelligence)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Cold]

He was surprised that the caped man with a bow and quiver had a primarily Intelligence build. He never would have guessed just by looking at him. The Shattershot outwardly appeared to be an Agility focused class, but his aura revealed something completely different.

[Human (Level 26)]

[Battlerager (Strength)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

The second was less of a surprise. His sword and armor neatly matched up with the rest of his aura. His gear was a thicker weave than the others and it was plated with dark metal armor. He kind of looked like a helmless samurai, but his sword ruined the effect. His sword was something Coop would have expected to see wielded by a knight.

Coop thought their party of five appeared imbalanced. They had two ranged Intelligence classes with Charlie’s Aeromancer and the Shattershot, two melee Agility classes with Camila’s Interceptor and the Infiltrator, and a melee Strength class in the Battlerager. They didn’t have any tank or a healer. Coop expected the tank and healer to be the backbone of any party in a class based system. Maybe Camila could fill the role of tank by negating damage, and Charlie had what appeared to be a very minor healing ability, but was this really a faction’s idea of a balanced party? Maybe tanks and healers were too much of a rarity to find for every party.

He listened in on the argument that had erupted between Camila and the Shattershot who Coop had realized was the one named Eric. Camila didn’t want to take the last minute arrivals, suspicious of their sudden change of heart. Apparently, they had been against the idea of giving Coop a ride last night, but this morning, they changed their minds. Camila had been happy to go without them, and their abrupt reversal of attitude wasn’t welcomed.

Eric smugly declared that Kevin wisely decided to go along with her plan in an effort to curry favor with their neighbors. There was no reason for them to create any bad blood between new friends. Coop didn’t like the way they looked at him when he said friends. They couldn’t be more disingenuous. Coop didn’t really care for the feeble excuses to come on the trip, as long as they didn’t interfere with his quest. He didn’t mind removing a few from the island anyway, it would be less of a headache for Jones and his other residents if fewer were there. The rest would be stranded without Charlie and the ship.

Coop slid over to Charlie, who had carefully escaped the conversation, to find out more. “What’s up with your party?” He asked, having trouble imagining any teamwork fostering between them.

“It’s always like this.” She huffed. “The faction wanted to keep me and Camila on a short leash because of our affinities. I don’t think these three are really supposed to be our party. They just keep an eye on us for the Empire.” Charlie responded, looking disgusted. “They just want to go because we are.”

Coop let them work it out. Eventually, they all boarded while the party of five that had stayed the night on the boat disembarked. Coop gave them quick directions to the tavern, they seemed to appreciate being relieved from guard duty. The eldest of the group, a bow wielding gentleman, nodded and thanked Coop before they left. Camila remained suspicious of the others’ sudden desire to go along, but Coop just left it alone. He was already the target of plenty of hostile looks without getting into the middle of some internal faction disputes.

Once they were ready, he offered to help Charlie however he could. There wasn’t much for him to do other than keep her company while she operated the ship’s wheel. It wasn’t like he knew how to operate a ship’s rigging. Charlie carefully navigated the channel through the corals and brought them back out to sea. He pointed in the direction of his quest and she formed a steady wind that filled the sails.

Coop watched the island slowly shrink and finally disappear from the rear of the ship. He came to the conclusion that he didn’t like leaving Ghost Reef. It had become more than a temporary home. Hopefully, his time away would be brief.

No one had asked for the details of his quest. Only Camila and Charlie knew it had something to do with upgrading the settlement. For all the rest of the visitors to the island knew, it was them taking the ship on a joyride.

Jones had been the main advocate for waiting to upgrade the settlement until they completed the optional portion. He believed that every early advantage they acquired would pay dividends in the long run. Coop thought he was right, but if Charlie and Camila hadn’t arrived when they did, he would have upgraded the settlement without completing the optional portion. There were too many barriers before they could construct a building that would advance the settlement enough to acquire ships, and he wasn’t going to try the trip on a raft.

Coop had an intensifying anxiety for what would come after the first 30 days had completed. They were already more than halfway to one of the system’s major cutoffs. He was hoping to get the settlement as far along as possible before then.

He watched the ocean as the ship cut through the water. He stayed with Charlie at the helm and they caught up on several different topics. Charlie told him about the day to day activities during her training. Coop was surprised it had been as intense as she described it.

The Empire didn’t let them stop to eat or sleep, it was just wall to wall training programs with purple alien drill instructors that were absolutely obsessed with their God Empress. They even claimed she was the one that established the system, gifting mana to the universe as a gesture of her own insurmountable power. Coop had now heard claims that the system was generated by an ancient AI, the Great Golem, and the God Empress of the Endless Empire. He doubted anyone knew what the truth actually was.

They also talked about the pre-mana times, how Charlie had become a full-time park ranger instead of going to college and how Coop had become a lighthouse keeper of all things.

Charlie had been adorable when she would timidly offer to loan books during her visits, but Coop felt like Camila’s influence had been for the better. Charlie was a lot easier to have a conversation with than he remembered, she didn’t shy away from eye contact and make excuses to leave. He belatedly noticed the blue in her eyes during the moments that her windblown hair was pushed out of her face. It was embarrassing that he didn’t even know what color his friend’s eyes were until then.

The previous difficulty in connecting was at least partially his fault as well, considering how stuck in his own head he had been. He recognized that he was slowly growing more personable himself.

They talked about their families, how Coop was completely unconnected and how that had helped him thrive on the island. He was able to focus on his personal progress while his companions helped him with the settlement development. Charlie on the other hand had worried about her parents, but that worry had driven her to make the best of her training. She had a different motivation for her personal growth, though Coop thought she was just a little too trusting of the Empire’s expertise.

Camila joined their conversation and they spent hours just chatting and telling each other stories. It was like hanging out on a cruise with a couple of friends, a welcome break from the apocalypse. They teased Coop about his battle skirt but he just called them jealous. He offered to build a clothier in his settlement so they could purchase their own when they returned. They could try to match, but they wouldn’t be able to imitate the ghostly wisps of mist that were constantly escaping his own armor.

The trio would have kept at it the entire trip if they hadn’t been suddenly interrupted. The ship lurched to an abrupt stop like they had run aground. It was like being in a low-speed car accident. They landed in a pile against the railing that separated the steering area from the main deck. Coop had caught Charlie underneath him while Camila caught herself on top of Coop.

Camila’s weight suddenly lifted like she had jumped up and Coop helped Charlie up. When he turned to Camila he realized she was being dragged, upside down, by dark green tentacles. One had wrapped around her waist and one leg while another was around her mouth and neck. Her face was frozen in fear and her voice was muffled. Coop quickly summoned his glaive and gave chase. She was reaching toward him desperately as she was lifted into the air toward the main sail’s mast.

Coop leapt off the railing and sailed through the air trying to catch up with Camila. He swung his barely completed glaive above Camila’s frantically struggling form. The blade of the glaive cleanly sliced the entangling tentacles releasing Camila. She started falling toward the main deck, head first, flailing her arms in a futile effort to right herself, still wrapped up in the severed cords. Coop managed to wrap one arm around her hips as he fell alongside her but instead of heroically catching her, they once again landed in a pile. She had her breath knocked out of her lungs, but he had saved her from any serious injury from an even more awkward fall.

Coop lifted her up and glanced to the front of the ship. Most of the passengers were below deck, but the Honorguard had his sword and shield out and was standing back to back with the lady Outrider who was dual wielding daggers. They were frantically swinging their blades, slicing at the attackers whenever they got close. They weren’t causing major damage, but they were still able to keep themselves from being wrapped up.

The tentacles weren’t only trying to grab at the occupants of the ship. They were also wrapping themselves around the wooden railings, the mast, and tangling with the rigging.

Coop belatedly tried identifying one of the tentacles but received no response. It was like identifying the palm trees back on the island. He rushed Camila back up the steps to the quarterdeck where they had left Charlie alone.

Charlie was using her slow moving water blades to cleave the tentacles whenever they appeared over the sides. Coop, seeing the aftermath of several of her water blades all over the deck, realized that they weren’t tentacles at all. They had been ensnared by seaweed.

He encouraged Charlie to get them moving again, wanting to escape the aggressive marine plant’s habitat. He rushed to slice as many of the seaweed blades as he could to get the ship released and allow Charlie’s wind to push them out. He leapt across the ship chopping the grasping blades wherever they had wrapped themselves. His glaive barely felt any resistance each time it dismembered the seaweed.

The Outrider had joined him in removing the seaweed, but she had to hack at the offending leaves several times to get them to break and the Honorguard was forced to watch her back. Still, their combined efforts were winning out.

He felt it when the ship slowly started picking up speed, but the seaweed hadn’t given up. He was swinging his glaive like he was harvesting crops. The aggressive plants weren’t very fast, but there were dozens of blades piling over the sides of the ship. Each one was at least two feet wide and long enough to reach across the entire boat.

Coop was quickly moving around the ship, removing the blades of seaweed that tried to keep them in place. In a way, he was uniquely suited for such a task. It had only been a few minutes, but he could have kept it up for hours. It was a lot like his Ancient Defender hunting sessions, rotating position to cleave through an enemy that barely offered resistance.

As they inched their way forward, the seaweed started to thin out. The last entangling tentacles were wrapped around the rudder and Charlie was forced to add more wind to the sails to tear them away. When they finally escaped, Charlie, Camila, and Coop stood together at the back of the ship watching the ocean behind them churn with angry seaweed blades. Camila turned to Coop and genuinely thanked him with fear still lingering in her voice. Almost being helplessly dragged away had stripped away her stable confidence and really frightened her. Mana had created all sorts of new and unexpected dangers.

The three were still catching their breath when the rest of the mooks that had joined them came out from below deck, demanding to find out what had happened. Coop was understanding Camila and Charlie’s attitudes toward them better and better. They had been completely absent during the desperate fight and still felt like they were slighted by the ones that had saved the ship, actually complaining that the lurching stop had ruined their card game. Coop noted how the Honorguard and Outrider couple kept their distance from the rest.

The Empire’s Chosen had been rude to start with, arrogant afterwards, and now entitled. They weren’t leaving Coop with a good impression. They seemed to believe they were superior to him by virtue of being Chosen when he wasn’t. As far as he was concerned, they should be thanking the rest of them for saving their lives, so he stood his ground and made his position known.

Luckily, they didn’t need to deal with unowed explanations for too long. A massive oil rig appeared over the horizon, hazy with the distance. Once it was noticed everyone stopped and watched as the ship approached it.

They had to go slow because Charlie needed to conserve what remained of her mana after the battle. She needed to regenerate more if they wanted to avoid just colliding with their destination. It still took hours to get closer to the massive offshore oil platform. Sunset would be upon them when they reached the platform.

Coop was shocked at the size of the platform. It was like a miniature city placed on top of four massive legs. Each of the legs that held the city in the air reminded Coop of a nuclear powerplant’s cooling tower. It was elevated so high, they would be able to sail underneath it without worrying about the masts colliding with the bottom of the platform. Coop wasn’t looking forward to climbing the absurd ladders that appeared to be the only available entrance from the water.

The platform itself was chock full of buildings and metal walkways with huge cranes hanging over the edges. Coop was worried it would take days to find the spectral relic wherever it was on the platform.

The whole structure was eerily silent, other than the large swells that crashed against the legs of the platform, there was absolutely no activity. Coop wondered if it had been abandoned before the apocalypse. Judging by what appeared to be the apartments, it must have been able to house hundreds of people at any given time.

Jones was spot on with his prediction that the spectral relic would be on an oil rig, but Coop was having doubts about completing the optional portion of the settlement upgrade quest, now that he saw it. What exactly was he looking for? When he read ‘relic’ he imagined something old and small. Finding something like that in a place as large as this oil platform would be like finding a needle in a haystack. He needed more clues.

Charlie smoothly brought the ship to a stop near one of the legs of the platform. If they wanted to disembark they would have to time a jump with the waves and successfully grab onto the ladder. It was close enough, but it seemed extraordinarily dangerous. The helipad up top was probably the optimal way to arrive. There was no way Coop could use a spear throw and mistjump to get on top of the platform. He would have to be superhuman to be able to throw that far.

He tossed a rope and after just three tries he was able to snag one of the lower rungs of the ladder to keep them from drifting away. He secured the rope as well as he could, but the ship was much too large of a vessel to be held by a mere ladder and some rope. There were some cleats that he could better secure the ropes to, after he was actually on the ladder. Hopefully, the ocean stayed as calm as it was and Charlie could help keep them moored underneath with her wind skills until they were tied off.

Looking into the water between the ship and the ladder, Coop spotted some undesirable wildlife. There were sharks, and scanning the water around the oil rig, he realized there were hundreds of them.