JaceVAmor
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Chapter 215: Reset
🕑 Added 2024-03-27 15:11:01 +0000 UTCAfter Coop received an eighth rank of the Slayer title while escorting Sierra to Corozal, he reflected on the gains he made during the expedition in the Yucatan. The level 175 threshold had been broken relatively early, when he defeated the Avatar of Huracan and claimed Vaporform. At the time, he felt like he was gaining levels rapidly, but since then, he had only been advancing at a pace of approximately one level per day. One level per day may have been a reasonable baseline when ignoring all other factors, but Coop deservedly had elevated expectations surrounding his own personal progress, especially when repeatedly confronting boss battles and their equivalent challenges.
Looking at his levels in isolation, Coop wasn’t particularly happy with his rate of growth any longer. In fact, as far as he could remember, the last few weeks had somehow been the slowest he had gone since the first days of the assimilation. The first half had only been slow relative to his normally steep progress, but after the encounter with an Icon of Mana, he was starting to feel his levels really lagging. It certainly wasn’t a good sign that he needed to recall the period of time before he had defeated a single monster, had received no experience, and the struggle was based around figuring out what was happening to the world, to find an advantageous comparison to his current rate of progress.
Meanwhile, during the last few weeks, Coop felt like he had been busier than ever. Only the Siege Event compared to the constant boss battles he was engaging in. Coop sighed to himself as he recalled the absolute decadence of having monsters come to him rather than vice versa. If only he could make the Cult of Chakyum do the same. Even if the experience gained from the cultists wasn’t up to snuff, at least the challenge would be straightforward.
Sure, there had been two forced breaks in returning to Ghost Reef and then refusing to leave Sierra behind, but neither was truly a complete departure in his experience gains. When he went back to Ghost Reef to get healed by Madison and upgrade the settlement, he had also gained a level reclearing the boss of the first level of the Mana Well, and treading water in the sea had come immediately after defeating the High Priestess and then transitioned into completing another Slayer title. Neither had been periods of inaction.
He had longer bouts of idleness in between grinds back on Ghost Reef, when the settlement was at a stage that he could help set things up, but his gains had never slipped to the point that his pace was comparable to the time before his very first grind. Coop often relied on his instinct rather than exact calculations when gauging his efficiency, and in this case, his instinct was telling him that something was off. The downtime didn’t fully account for what he felt was a shortchanging of his gains.
As Coop’s feet crunched on dried palm fronds, half-buried in soft white sand, his phantasms deleted any Ruin Nebulas caught in the edge of the miles wide Fog of War, and he was free to ponder the topic of experience gains as if he was on a casual stroll. In his trail, a handful of vaguely tame iguanas followed along in short bursts of speed, but they stayed far behind, barely nipping at the edges of his fog.
Sierra’s breathing had finally steadied once they got out of the water and she had been in a deep sleep ever since. He did his best to leave her well-earned rest undisturbed, but it seemed like she would maintain her slumber even if he tripped and dropped her. In any case, Coop made sure he wouldn’t trip while he checked his status.
[Status]
HP - 16940/16940
MP - 15804/31380
Class - Revenant (Level 191)
Profession - Scavenger (Level 151)
Affinity - Spectral
Race - Human (Rank 1)
Faction - None
Strength - 125 (+3138)
Agility - 125 (+1569)
Body - 125 (+1569)
Mind - 2615 (+523)
Intelligence - 125 (+3138)
Acumen - 125 (+1569)
Unallocated - 0
Titles - Champion IV, Haunted, Ethereal, Reaper, Slayer VIII, Dauntless, Stacked, Defiant, Siegebreaker, Mindbender
Skills (Active) - Invocation, Presence of Mind, Fog of War, Vaporform
Skills (Passive) - Mind Over Matter, Adamance, Practical Application, Arcane Comprehension, Clarity of Purpose
Quests - Fortune Seeker (19/50), Upgrade City to Metropolis
Basic Credits - 5,010,811
Coop grunted as he took a moment to assess his level. Looking back, defeating the level 449 High Priestess had yielded just two levels. Even if he considered sharing the experience with Sierra, it seemed way too low. The Priestess had been more than 250 levels ahead of him! The Mushroom King, the Avatar of Huracan, and the Voice of Kukulkan had been similarly unrewarding, but he had ignored the inkling that something was off, lacking knowledge of the many possible variables put into play with their rapidly earned levels and the system’s unknown scaling. His suspicions had been lingering in the back of his mind since the start.
The Icon of Mana, 300 levels below the cultists, had awarded comparable levels upon its defeat. In the past, humans had always given far more experience than expected, especially compared to monsters. It was to the point that Coop had immediately been worried that others would take advantage of the fact that humans were so rewarding, seeking out conflict in order to gain levels faster than by merely defeating monsters. He fully expected humans to be on the level of higher tiered bosses of similar level in terms of experience.
The loose guidelines he intuitively assigned to experience had held true until arriving in the Yucatan. Coop accepted that he wouldn’t continue to gain enormous amounts of experience upon defeating opponents that were significantly lower level than him, but if they were higher level, he saw no reason why they shouldn’t be rewarding.
However, for some reason, the High Priests of the Cult of Chakyum seemed like a special case. Coop hadn’t latched onto the possibility of shenanigans, dismissing his suspicions by attributing the strangeness that lingered in the back of his mind to their belated leveling and strategic storage of experience. For all he knew, the inflated number of levels they displayed were a thinly held veil that didn’t accurately reflect the truth. The mystery surrounding their tactics had compounded with the fact that Coop was highly leveled himself. It was possible that he was simply leveling at a reduced pace due to passing some other thresholds that mandated he gain more experience to make the same progress as before.
His thought process had been enough to explain away the suspicions of his subconscious until he compared the gains made from defeating a High Priest with Primal Constructs or Icons of Mana. That’s when he could see they were completely out of whack. Monsters that were hundreds of levels lower than the Priests appeared to be granting him similar amounts of experience. Defeating them back to back had masked the obvious discrepancy. Coop felt a frown painting itself on his face as he considered the possibility that he was being scammed by the Cult.
Coop had only gained a handful of class levels since the last time he checked, but he had added slightly more profession levels. He figured he could use about 10 more Slayer grinds to even out his two sources of base attributes. He shrugged with only his right shoulder, not jostling Sierra on the left, and wondered why not make his goal 100 more Slayer grinds to try and catch up with the profession masters of Corozal. Being able to turn his brain off and find efficient cycles on different monsters would be a welcome vacation from fighting other humans and wrestling with whatever mischief they were into.
While Coop tried to imagine a future time when he could squeeze in another vacation, doubting that it would ever come, his mists snuck up on some hidden warriors, expertly camouflaged among large palms. They were a pair from the Crossroads, now operating as sentries to protect Corozal. He couldn’t help but be impressed by the patience they were displaying. It took another half an hour before he reached the pair and they never took their eyes off the trees. He could never be a suitable sentry.
“Sup.” Coop greeted them as he approached, causing them to flinch. They hadn’t realized he knew they were there. They probably assumed his lack of stealth was in part due to his ignorance of their presence.
“Stop! That’s close enough!” One of them shouted as they both rose with their weapons ready, eyeing the apparent body he carried over his shoulder. However, Sierra’s timely snores dispelled any assumptions that she was actually dead.
Coop listened, interpreting the order to stop more as a warning than a threat. He had only gone to them because of his healthy fear of snare traps around the Outpost. If he wasn’t mistjumping straight into the town center, he thought he should be cautious whenever he returned.
“Oh!” the one who hadn’t spoken perked up, then nudged his companion and lowered his voice. “It’s the Champion.” He quietly whispered under his breath, but they were in Coop’s Fog of War. Coop smiled to himself: there were no secrets in the mists.
Coop ignored the confusion, pretending not to have noticed. “Could you show me the way back to town? I don’t want to trigger any traps.”
The two exchanged a rapid series of expressions that Coop interpreted for himself. The first sentry wasn’t immediately convinced of the second’s identification, believing at best, Coop was a latecomer intending to join the Jaguar Sun and they should retrieve someone to confirm his identity. He leveled an unsure squint at his partner, but the second insisted with both of his eyebrows, then angled his head toward what must have been a trap. He was pointing out that even if Coop wasn’t the Champion, the fact that he knew of the traps must have meant he belonged in the town in some fashion already. The first scrunched his nose as he weighed their responsibilities, but the second had already had enough.
“Sure, we can do that.” The second agreed, putting an end to their silent momentary discussion. “It’s a bit of a mess, though.” He warned rather vaguely.
“Really?” Coop was worried. “What happened?”
“They figure it was a rogue wave, though the fisherman insists it was an attack.” The second sentry began as they both led the way. “Whatever it was, it swamped the entire town, even dragged a few buildings back into the sea. Took all of us working together to clear out the debris.”
“Ah…” Coop remembered the tidal wave that the High Priestess had created when he first noticed her attack on Corozal. For some reason, he felt slightly responsible.
He followed the pair a short distance before they arrived at the edge of town. The sentries hadn’t exaggerated. The town was a mess. Dry seaweed stuck to the outside of buildings, several feet above the ground where it marked the high water line, and other flotsam had been swept to the sides of the road creating clear paths down the middle. It wasn’t anything the locals couldn’t handle, and apparently a few of the profession masters had taken the wave as an opportunity to make obvious improvements to the previously incognito town. The pier and the sea wall were both getting makeovers that would make it clear the place was in business.
Coop hadn’t been able to tell anyone occupied Corozal when he first arrived in Belize, and that had been at least partially by design. However, the local residents were abandoning their stealth with the addition of the Mana Pylon and the establishment of proper settlement territory. Combining the slowly growing safe territory with the augmentation of the population with the warriors of the Crossroads and they were shifting their attitude toward the world. As long as the Jaguar Sun didn’t get wiped out, Corozal shouldn’t become a priority for the Cult of Chakyum and they would also be in a much more advantageous position against the Primal Constructs.
Safely beyond the exterior traps, Coop waved his slightly confused escort off and went straight to the center of the town. He made his way to the residents’ typical gathering point, in what was once an open cafeteria. Firstly, he wanted the Mender to take a look at Sierra. The building was located in the middle of one of the blocks that bordered the park in the center of town, though the park was kind of a building on its own with the barricade and Pylon parked inside.
Juan was the first to spot him, calling out a greeting as he approached. “There you are! What did you do to the Quetzal girl?” He frowned at Coop’s charge before he ignored any chance for the Champion to answer by turning toward the town center. “‘Nando! Get out here! ‘Nando!” He shouted.
Coop stood there confused for a moment before Juan explained. “He didn’t believe me that a Resplendent Quetzal warned me of the wave and a High Priest.” He looked past Coop and his eyebrows rose slightly. “Hey, did you bring dinner too?”
Coop glanced over his right shoulder and spotted the squad of green iguanas that had been trailing behind. “What?” He looked at Juan like he was nuts. “You wanna eat those?”
Juan put his hands out noncommittally. “I mean, I prefer fish.” He proclaimed.
Coop frowned at the thought before he responded. “No, leave ‘em alone. They’re tame. Think of them as more residents.”
Coop sighed. Even when he wasn’t trying, he was better at recruiting animals than humans to his settlements. The iguanas seemed happy with the arrival at a destination, and a few slowly made their way up to the top of walls to start sunbathing before the light faded, some investigated the small piles of seaweed lining the shoreline while the rest skimmed the edge of the forest toward the coastal parks. He guessed they would make themselves at home. Juan didn’t pay them any more mind, letting Coop stick to what must have seemed to be an odd decision.
Despite the town’s increased population, word spread like wildfire among the old geezers that Coop was back, mostly thanks to Juan. It was almost like they had their own internal phone tree so that none of them would be left out. The entire assortment of profession masters gathered together at the Mender’s place to update Coop on the Outpost, but mostly because they wanted to hear any news he brought straight from the horse’s mouth. Comparatively, his own allies from Ghost Reef were slower in joining them.
Coop kept things simple, letting them know that another pair of High Priests were dead, starting with Kukulkan before explaining how Sierra had come to be injured in the second fight. He wanted to send Sierra back to Ghost Reef to be treated by Madison, but according to them, the Corozal ferry had recently left the town, and therefore, Sierra would have to wait a bit. Coop knew how the time would add up. A few days there, a few days back, a few days recovering: he expected Sierra to be out of commission for the rest of the conflict. She might as well stay in Ghost Reef until after the settlement event. The Mender could keep the Jaguar Warrior comfortable while she waited for transport.
The ferry had also left a message from Jones assuring Coop that he could take his time. They were already making preparations for the settlement event and he wouldn’t need to worry. Honestly, the message made Coop worry more. He intended to finish with the Yucatan with time to spare before the event began.
When Coop asked for an update on what had happened in Corozal while he was gone, both before and after the Priestess assaulted the town, he actually had to quiet the residents down and pick one of them to talk at a time.
Juliana had led the army due west, planning on approaching the Gulf Coast of Mexico before angling south to circle the Yucatan settlement counter clockwise. Messengers had brought the news that Tzultacaj’s group was following the same motion heading southeast from Chiapas toward the Pacific Coast of Guatemala where they would also circle the settlement. Both groups were planning on rapidly tightening their circuit with the plan to begin a coordinated attack at the same time when they met in the middle. Any Priests left outside were meant for Coop to hunt down.
They were opting to leave potential stragglers as a trade off for destroying the central power of the Cult. If they couldn’t eliminate their enemies completely, they hoped that they would at least be weakened enough to no longer be as much of a threat to the region, but the plan relied on Coop’s continued diligence.
Between Dan’s mana reading, and Amanda’s navigation skills, Coop was assured that they could definitely succeed in tracking down Priests, though at the moment, they were simply finding empty hideouts. However, Coop had information he wanted to share with the Jaguar Sun. He was sure it was too late to take advantage of the fact that the Cult was unaware of the uprising’s reorganization, but Sierra’s message that the Cult was grouping in their settlement was more pertinent than ever.
Instead of having his scouts continue to search targets for him to pursue, he would have them direct his next mistjumps to where they expected either of the Jaguar Sun’s armies to be. While they promised him they could follow their trails and track them down, Coop was unwilling to wait for them to escort him across the jungle. Failing his ability to meet up with the Jaguars, he wanted to know exactly where the settlement’s civilization shard was located. During the oncoming conflict, Coop was confident that the best location for him would be right in the center.
Comments
Nyroe
So do the xp requirements for each level reset? Similarly to how one's build options shrink and broaden at regular intervals?
bcd051
I foresee some grinding soonish
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