Unchosen Champion

Coop found himself in the ruined living room of Charlie’s childhood home with some strangers. The girls had left him with this Mr. Gibson to arrange the transport of all the people Charlie’s father had already organized. Charlie’s goal had been to gather her family and friends, but honestly, Coop had expected maybe five people total. He wanted to recruit more, keeping an eye out for anyone that might have some expertise with curses, but Charlie and her father seemed keen on bringing everyone they knew.

Coop thought it was a good thing they had brought the Eye of the Storm. They could probably squeeze a thousand people onto the huge ship if they needed to. He hoped it wouldn’t be that many though. Ghost Reef may have just received an influx of phantoms, but the number of human residents was still really low.

“So what’s your deal?” Coop asked the middle-aged man before he inspected him for the second time. Coop had been distracted by the Empire’s Chosen when he initially checked the group’s auras and Mr. Gibson was kind of a forgettable looking guy. Coop thought he seemed like the kind of guy you might find as the head of some kind of small administrative body, like the point person for a condo building or the head of a co-op. The kind of guy that kept track of lots of details.

[Human (Level 20)]

[Argent (Body)]

[Chosen of the Allies of Genesis]

“You could say I’m sort of the representative for the people Emmanuel had collected. That’s Charlotte’s father. Oh! You can just call me Gibson, Mr…” Gibson introduced himself and gave Coop an opportunity to introduce himself.

“Oh, sorry, I probably shouldn’t say exactly who I am…” Coop realized he needed to come up with an alias. “But I am representing another settlement. We came to pick up Charlie’s friends and family.”

“That’s perfect! We really didn’t want to resort to joining the Empire’s settlement. We were hoping to travel together and take our chances at a different one. Where’s your place? I can start gathering everybody.” Gibson started.

Coop stopped him. “Hang on, there buddy. How many people are we talking about?”

Gibson paused, doing a mental headcount. “I’ve been organizing them by household, so I don’t know exactly how many are willing to go, but including the children and elderly I’d guess there’s close to 50 people.”

Coop didn’t think that was too bad. “Alright, I’ve got two conditions for anyone that wants to come. First, they’ll need to take professions and level up to contribute to the settlement itself. We don’t have millions of residents, so we don’t have the capacity to absorb freeloaders.” Gibson nodded firmly, accepting the condition. “Second, anyone that has a faction looking to dominate the planet is going to need to defect. Especially if they joined the Endless Empire.” Gibson nodded again.

“I’ll make sure everyone knows the expectations. A few might decide to take their chances here, hoping to just coast through the assimilation, but I don’t think it will be a problem for most. Where should we meet, Mr… uh Representative.” Gibson responded.

“Can you gather at Crane Point?” Coop wondered if he’d need to escort them too.

Gibson nodded confidently. “We can get there. The monsters are weaker in that direction and if we move as a group we’ll be able to handle any packs.” Gibson confirmed.

“I’ll drop by in a couple days, but we won’t be leaving without Charlie and Camila, so just hold tight once you get there.” Coop warned. These people were putting a lot of faith in him with very little assurance. The situation of the city continued to seem disagreeable and Emmanuel must have had a lot of credibility to get this whole group started.

Gibson nodded again, “It’s now or never for us. We know it. We’ll be waiting at Crane Point. I’ll start getting the word out.”

Coop watched as the well-dressed man went to the rest of his party, excluding the Empire’s spy, and explained the situation. It seemed like the spy would be ostracized. Coop didn’t care either way. Most of his residents were previously Chosen of the Endless Empire already.

These were the people they were meant to pick up, just Charlie’s parents were missing, so he wasn’t that worried about a double cross. The Eye of the Storm would safely stay offshore until he arrived anyway. The worst case scenario would be to have the Empire mobilize their army to stop them, but he couldn’t imagine a group of 50 people escaping the city would be worth that level of attention. He was certain larger numbers of people had come and gone already.

Not getting involved any further, he left them to get organized and headed to Peacock Park.

It was only three blocks back to the large park where he was planning on grinding for the next 25 hours. The park itself had open fields that were larger than all of Ghost Reef’s islands combined. Baseball diamonds, soccer fields, and even some football fields with full sized field goals made up the bulk of the park, but there was also a number of bike paths and picnic tables underneath large trees.

It was absolutely stuffed with the Primal Trackers that would be his hunting targets. Coop summoned his glaive, dismissing his ethereal shield and sword. He planned to cleave through large numbers of these monsters in an effort to speed through the quests.

Before he started he reviewed his previous notifications from the very first pack he defeated.

[You defeated Primal Tracker (Level 21)]

[+17 Basic Credits]

[+1 Blight Fang (Uncommon)]

[Quest Complete! Defeat Primal Trackers I]

[You have a new quest!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Defeat Primal Trackers II (0/25)]

Coop didn’t bother engaging with the first pack of monsters at the edge of the park. He had a more aggressive plan. The highest level Primal Trackers seemed to be level 30, and they all ranged between 20 and 30. Some of the packs near the interior had a single elite leading them, but for the most part they were all just normal monsters. Coop was going to get the attention of a massive crowd and get himself into constant combat. He wouldn’t need to worry about efficiently traveling from monster to monster if he attracted all of the monsters first.

The wolf-like pack monsters were weaker than the zombies he had fought on the oil platform, with much fewer elites to bolster their numbers. Compared to the Ancient Prowlers, they were slower and not as tricky even though the Prowlers were lower level. The Vulnerable debuff had made the Prowlers significantly more dangerous. The closest equivalent he had fought would have to be the pairs of Ancient Defenders back on his beach. The Primal Trackers were only slightly more equipped than the most basic monsters he had fought.

The Primal Trackers had their own debuff that he had discovered in his first fight. It was called Tracker’s Blight. It lasted for an hour and the duration was refreshed if he took damage while the affliction remained on him. The consequence of the debuff was reducing natural health regeneration to zero and allowing the Trackers to follow the scent of the afflicted.

Coop naturally countered the negative health regeneration with the effect of his Reaper title. Every kill would allow him to recover 2% of the defeated enemy’s total health; he didn’t rely on his natural regeneration anymore. Plus, he wanted the Trackers to come to him anyway, so if the debuff attracted more, that was just a bonus.

He jogged straight through the perimeter of the park through the scattered trees and into the central fields. He got the attention of dozens of packs before he settled near a tall grove of oak trees. It would be his designated kill zone.

The monsters filtered to him, not leaving their packs since they lacked the blind aggression of other monsters like the agility based zombies. Their caution didn’t help them much, in fact it only helped Coop maximize the devastating length of his glaive. Coop set himself up for an elongated engagement against hundreds of the monsters.

Coop felt like he entered a heightened state while he was in combat. It was like being in the zone. His movement was almost entirely instinctual, and every swing rewarded him with satisfaction that perfected his technique. He imagined watching himself from above, cleaving monsters one after the other as they lunged into his blade, or failed to retreat far enough to avoid his swings. An empty sphere with an eight foot radius centered on Coop was established. Any monster that entered didn’t last more than a few seconds before it was defeated. If Coop shifted in any direction the sphere would reform only after he had defeated a dozen more of the Trackers who were too slow to escape.

Coop spent an hour mowing through the monsters. At first it didn’t appear like he was making any progress at all, the horde of Primal Trackers was so thick that one or two packs being defeated hardly made an impression. But Coop was relentless and the monsters were not limitless.

If Coop didn’t have any responsibilities he would be happy to just stay home in Ghost Reef and grind monsters. He had been traveling quite a bit for someone who was trapped on an isolated island during the apocalypse, but it had been worth it so far. It was good that he was here to help his friends, and it would be rewarding for him personally as well.

As the monsters thinned out he got more aggressive, pressing the attack while the Trackers did their best to scatter around him like a school of fish retreating from a shark. It only took a few more cycles for his glaive to finish off the last few packs. He could hear his heart beat in his ears, but he wasn’t tired yet.

One hour of slaughtering the invaders had resulted in several notifications that Coop finally checked after defeating the final pack.

[You defeated Primal Tracker (Level 28)]

[+22 Basic Credits]

[Quest Complete! Defeat Primal Trackers II]

[You have a new quest!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

…

[You defeated Primal Tracker (Level 23)]

[+14 Basic Credits]

[Quest Complete! Defeat Primal Trackers III]

[You have a new quest!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

…

[You defeated Primal Tracker (Level 25)]

[+16 Basic Credits]

[+1 Blight Fang (Uncommon)]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Defeat Primal Trackers IV (135/5000)]

Coop had already defeated a bit more than 400 of the monsters. That was some solid progress, but there would be a period of downtime while he gathered another group. It wasn’t like he could extrapolate the number to figure out how long it would take him to finish this quest chain. He also couldn’t guarantee that each group would be the same size or that they would take the same amount of time to defeat. There were a lot more variables at play than during his previous grinds where his primary limitation had become travel time. Either way, he just needed to push forward.

He noted that the Primal Trackers didn’t respawn the same way as the monsters back home. It seemed like these monsters roamed much further from their spawn points, so the ones that he had defeated may have respawned somewhere else. A large chunk of Peacock park was now completely free from monsters. Coop wasn’t sure if he would need to worry about running out of enemies to fight, but in the worst case he would need to start tracking the Trackers until he found their respawning grounds.

Before Coop started another looping jog to get the attention of more monsters something fell out of the nearest oak tree. Coop spun, ready to fight, but pulled back when he realized it was a little girl. She was at least a few years younger than Olani’s grandkids.

She beamed at him, “Wow mister! That was so cool! Thanks for saving me!”

She didn’t bother brushing the dirt off of her knees and by the look of her she had been in the tree for a while. Her white sundress was stained from the bark and her blonde hair was tangled and unwashed with a few sticks and leaves caught in the strands. Coop looked up into the tree with suspicion, making sure there was no one else up there. He didn’t see any.

Coop kneeled down, “Where’d you come from?” he asked.

She pointed up into the tree’s canopy like it was obvious. “I’m not s’posed to talk to strangers.” She added firmly.

“That’s a good policy.” Coop confirmed. “Do you know where your parents are?”

She nodded vigorously, throwing at least one twig from her hair.

Coop continued with the one sided questioning. “Can you get back to them?”

She shook her head before breaking her rule about talking to strangers again. “They’re dead.” She stated matter-of-factly. Coop frowned, not really equipped to properly handle this situation before she continued. “I know where my brothers are! They’re prob’ly mad that I went to practice my sneaking without asking. I should go back.”

“You sure? Should I go with you?” Coop asked the little girl as if she should be making decisions like that herself.

She paused and put a finger on her cheek like a thinking caricature. “Hmmm… No, you should stay here. They might get mad if I bring a stranger to the hiding place.” Coop could practically see the lightbulb above her head when she raised her finger into the air. “Oh! I know! I’m Elizabeth, but my brothers call me Elly! Who are you?”

“I’m Coop.” Coop gave away his identity, not willing to lie to the little girl.

“Now we’re not strangers!” Elly concluded. “But I still can’t bring you to the hiding place without permission.”

Coop nodded admiring the kid’s logic. “Nice to meet you Elly. How old are your brothers?”

“Iunno. Old... Like you!”

Coop pretended not to be hurt by the little girl calling him old. “Can you tell them that Coop invited you and your brothers to Crane Point?” Coop asked, hoping his name on the leaderboards would be enough of an advertisement to bring the family to safety.

“Yup, but you can’t look. Close your eyes and count to 100 so I can sneak away.” Elly commanded.

Coop played along, sitting down with a crunch of leaves and counting with his eyes closed, but then she demanded he count out loud so that she could hear him, so he started over. Once she started running he opened an eye to make sure she was safe.

He watched her run through the section that he cleared out before she crossed the street and made a beeline into one of the three story buildings that lined the main road. He was going to follow her, but she seemed to know exactly where she was going. He felt guilty, but decided to trust her to make it back to her brothers safely.

Still, the next group of monsters that he fought was in the direction she had gone. He was going to clear out the park to make the area safer for anyone else that was still out there, starting with the side nearest to Elly’s route.

Coop kept up his hunt, fighting hundreds of the Primal Trackers at a time with his glaive. His health was steadily capped out thanks to his defensive layers reducing any damage he took to a minimum, and every kill recovering far more than he lost. His mana was also constantly full, taking tiny amounts of chip damage every once in a while, but regenerated naturally even without the help of his ‘on kill’ recovery.

The sun had gone down and the open fields looked like isolated islands of moonlight in between the shadowed bike paths. Peacock Park was nearly cleared of monsters when Coop received another level up notification. Surprisingly, it wasn’t from completing the next stage of the quest. The monsters were still high enough to also level him up as he defeated them.

His strategy of mass pulling the monsters wouldn’t work any more, as he had thinned their numbers too much. He had to hunt individual packs that were still roaming into the fields, but hadn’t found their spawn points. His progress was slowing down, but admittedly it had been extremely fast when he could gather them by the hundreds.

He checked his notifications one more time as he moved to the opposite end of the park.

[You defeated Elite Primal Tracker (Level 30)]

[+244 Basic Credits]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

…

[You defeated Primal Tracker (Level 28)]

[+19 Basic Credits]

[+1 Blight Fang (Uncommon)]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Defeat Primal Trackers IV (2890/5000)]

Coop’s progress had been amazing so far, but he still had a long way to go. He was a little worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep up his grind in Peacock Park, but he wouldn’t be able to leave until he met back up with Camila and Charlie. He would be able to keep a steady pace for the rest of the night at least.