Aster Loka
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Chapter 133
🕑 Added 2022-05-07 14:36:59 +0000 UTCThey had a website.
Cassandra showed him her custom-printed shirts for all of them, with the URL printed across the back in bold silver lettering, then showed him the site itself when he asked.
It… looked good. Professional. Utterly unlike the Doom Raiders’ amateur efforts. This looked like it had cost thousands of dollars and a professional designer. The sleek header managed to incorporate representative iconography while remaining clean, the content was well laid-out, including cross-links and videos.
She’d included everything from a pre-order link for the upcoming Essential Guide to Surviving the Demon Apocalypse - Magic Powers and How To Use Them books, to printable PDFs of her pamphlet design, to a private trade forum for exchanging dungeon treasures.
They had accounts on several different video sites.
Cassandra had both posted full length interviews with Levi on some sites, and brief clips on others, all carefully curated. He’d posed for enough photos to know she had them, but it was another thing to see them all neatly aligned
“I’m posting one a day to start,” she said. “Though I put three up the first day. Editing is taking more time than anything else. Even the best blur removal can only do so much for the warping.”
Levi squinted at the video thumbnail - he was standing a good distance back, to prevent his aura from harming the computer. “It looks fine to me.”
“There’s a distinct light distortion, even correcting for it to the best of my ability there’s something off about them. But that’s unavoidable.”
Gayle was in charge of the book, which Levi privately thought would be less useful than they thought, but he wasn’t going to dissuade them. Even if they only helped a handful of people survive, it was a good effort that he’d never want to dissuade.
Gordon didn’t manage to master Mana Ping - he didn’t even manage to cast it once - but he did finally make some progress on stamina control.
Not nearly enough to keep up with Levi, running indefinitely, but enough that they could go for an hour or two before he ran out.
Cassandra’s control wasn’t particularly high either, but she waved the problem away. “I’ll be driving. I know you made those backpack things for the ogres, but… it just makes more sense to carry stuff in the car. I’ll meet you all there.”
Irene was probably around the same level as Gordon, but she insisted on riding with Cassandra. “You boys go ahead, this might be my last car trip in my lifetime, so I’m going to make the most of it.”
Gordon, to his credit, didn’t try to weasel out of the run. Peter was downright excited. He’d been practicing his own stamina control, taking to it much quicker than Levi expected. Within a day he was already maintaining a slow draw that would let him keep going for hours. He still outstripped his regen by a little, but a few more levels would solve that problem.
Levi’s minions began to return from their dungeon runs as everyone readied to depart. Ward’s team was first, and he proudly presented Levi with Gordon’s bag and the treasures it contained.
Skarm's team returned an hour or so later, as Levi was helping Cassandra load up her car. Between the two teams, they brought back a decent quantity of items that Levi could either use or trade.
Three health elixirs, which he gave to Irene; three mana, one each for himself, Irene, and Gordon; and two stamina which he held onto for now.
In other items, they brought a single Destruction token, more seeds and powdered gremlin horn which Levi set aside for crafting with later, and one piece of armor.
Copper Helm (Headgear, Standard)
Abilities: (None)
Power stone: N/A
Upgrade Slots: 1
Levi offered it to Peter, and Peter gladly accepted. As an unpowered item, it would use exponentially more mana to activate its special ability once they added a token to the upgrade slot, but from a quick glance its tracing looked to be an offensive one. He didn't want to encourage Peter to go headbutting any monsters, so refrained from mentioning it or activating it just yet. He'd see if it could be modified once he unlocked the crafting system.
He checked over the minions’ stats next, pleased to find that both among those he’d sent and those with Laurence there were a number of level increases. In fact, Centoo, Becca, and Shadevine were the only ones not to level up.
Maggie had reached level 4, making her easily the one with the most gains. Levi split her points evenly, one each to Strength, Psyche, and Spirit; even though Strength only gave 5 health, it increased her regen by 2 and if health was going to always be a relatively low stat for her she’d need all the regen she could get.
Maggie: Level 4 Magma Serpent +
Strength: 1
Health: 155/155
(+4/min)
Psyche: 2
Mana: 130/130
(+6/min)
Spirit: 1
Stamina: 70/70
(+2/min)
Drok, Crackle, and Cen each had one ability point to spend, and Levi put them all into Spirit.
For Drok and Crackle it was a secondary stat, and Cen needed to get his regen up as well. Levi had noticed him remaining at near-zero almost every time he checked on them. If they were going to be traveling a lot - which they were, it was unavoidable if he wanted to make an actual difference - it wasn’t just the humans who needed sufficient stamina for long runs.
Cen: Level 6 Stone Centipede
Strength: 4
Health: 130/130
(+6/min)
Psyche: 0
Mana: 30/30
(+2/min)
Spirit: 2
Stamina: 80/80
(+4/min)
Crackle: Level 3 Rust Scarab +
Strength: 0
Health: 50/50
(+1/min)
Psyche: 2
Mana: 80/80
(+6/min)
Spirit: 1
Stamina: 55/55
(+2/min)
Drok: Level 2 Cave Ogre +
Strength: 1
Health: 200/200
(+6/min)
Psyche: 0
Mana: 20/20
(+1/min)
Spirit: 1
Stamina: 120/120
(+4/min)
Skarm, Two, and Ward had all leveled once, gaining two points each thanks to the gremlin stat point upgrade.
Levi put those all into Strength without hesitation, he’d been leaning a bit strongly into stamina boosting for a while there, time for health to catch up a bit.
Skarm: Level 8 Horned Gremlin
Strength: 7
Health: 85/85
(+9/min)
Psyche: 0
Mana: 0/0
(+2/min)
Spirit: 9
Stamina: 140/140
(+11/min)
Gremlin Two: Level 7 Horned Gremlin
Strength: 5
Health: 75/75
(+7/min)
Psyche: 2
Mana: 6/6
(+3/min)
Spirit: 7
Stamina: 120/120
(+9/min)
Ward: Level 3 Horned Gremlin +
Strength: 3
Health: 180/180
(+8/min)
Psyche: 0
Mana: 0/0
(+1/min)
Spirit: 3
Stamina: 160/160
(+8/min)
A quick review to make sure he hadn't missed anything, and he was ready to go.
He considered reclaiming Elmire from Gordon, but decided against it. Until Gordon brought it up, he was fine with things as they were. And it would give a clear baseline of comparison between someone boosting gremlins specifically and someone not.
Levi double checked his own level, but it remained at 11. He’d been half hoping the different teams being out leveling could push him to 12, but being two entire thresholds above the local dungeons meant it would take a lot more.
He needed to start a dungeon loop that he could level in if he planned to progress much more, but getting word out was more urgent for the moment. He could settle in and grind levels with his family any time, but the biggest impact to the future survival of the planet was going to be getting news out as quickly as possible.
Cassandra and Laurence may know a lot of facts, but Levi was the one best suited to actually teach what they needed to know to the newcomers.
He had a powerful team capable of sufficiently protecting even the most foolhardy of new delvers. There would be dramatically reduced risk of anyone being hurt or dying in their Awakening process so long as Levi and his team were there to accompany them. People trying to awaken on their own would be much more likely to get themselves maimed or lose their lives completely.
He'd done his best to emphasize best practices for safety in all the literature Cassandra had put together - always traveling in large groups, ensuring they equipped themselves properly, etcetera - but there would always be those who thought they were special and could run it solo. Perhaps some of them could, bit in most cases it only resulted in losing perfectly capable fighters before they even had a chance to get started.
He helped load the last few boxes into Drok's shoulder harness, Cassandra's car already filled with boxes and suitcases and bundled up banners she’d had printed. Levi still found it astonishing that she’d assembled so much so quickly. He'd forgotten how easy it was to have things manufactured before the invasion.
Irene was checking Peter's backpack, ensuring he had enough snack bars and that his water bottle was full. Peter assured her he was fine.
“Well, then, I guess we’re ready to go.” Cassandra surveyed the car with boxes clearly visible through the windows, nodding to herself in satisfaction. Then she turned back to Gayle. “Mom? Last chance if you want to come with.”
Gayle shook her head. “I’ve got plenty to do with getting this book ready. You kids have fun.”
Cassandra shrugged as though she had always known the outcome. "Good luck with the typesetting. I hope the new program works out."
"I'll figure it out. I'm not that old." Gayle hugged her daughters, then gave Levi a serious look. "You take good care of my girl, and don't go wandering off again."
"Yes ma'am," Levi answered, relief to be moving on from her house stronger than any ire he may feel at the friction between them. He didn't remember it ever being this bad in the first timeline, but then he'd both avoided her as much as possible and never gone on a weeklong silent streak that time either. His actions directly after the reversion hadn't gone unnoticed or forgotten.
She added her usual admonitions about how they should be raising Peter, which Levi tuned out and Irene nodded along with - or argued against.
Finally, Cassandra clapped her hands and broke things up, when it seemed Irene and Gayle would continue talking past each other for the foreseeable future. “Time to head out, everyone. We're going to be late.”
One final round of hugs, then Gayle stood waving farewell as they finally departed.
Levi didn’t look back as he, Gordon, and Peter led their herd of minions away. If he had his way, he’d not see the place again for a long, long time.
