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Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 31
🕑 Added 2025-01-28 22:41:00 +0000 UTCChapter 31
It didn’t take long to reach the first group of Ogres rampaging across the land after he had changed out his gear, as Thaden had only gone a half-mile from the destroyed town before he set himself down. The group he saw moving across the gently rolling hills was almost identical in composition as the one that he’d just killed; the biggest difference was that they weren’t currently in the middle of tearing down walls and buildings, eating people as they went. This allowed him to land approximately 500 feet ahead of their projected path and change out his Cloak for his Simple Cape of the Healer, fully completing his ensemble of Growth items, before he began the process of casting his spells.
“This definitely takes a lot longer,” Sadia remarked as she did the same thing.
Thaden nodded, completely agreeing. He had noticed how accustomed he had become to being able to cast his spells so quickly thanks to his 95% casting time and cooldown decrease granted by his Lucky Vagabond set and other accessories – though he did still have some permanent effects that still helped. Despite those few permanent bonuses granted to him through his Class and Achievements, there was still a noticeable difference between the two equipment sets; as such, it took nearly 30 seconds to ensure he had everything properly set up to boost his max Health, absorb Health from damage done, leach Health from targets, protect himself from getting hurt, and enhance his healing and Defensive spells.
His spells also weren’t anywhere near as potent as before, especially when he had to forgo things like Recovery State, which would normally reserve approximately 80% of his Mana pool, but which was reduced to 60% because of permanent Mana cost reductions, as that would eat too much into his pool to be viable. Some of his most powerful spells required a lot of Mana to cast, and he wasn’t prepared to miss out on casting them just to have that spell active.
Thankfully, the two of them, along with an Incarnation of Protection, were more than ready for when the Ogres finally arrived. The staggered front line of Warriors and Berserkers saw them and charged, passing into the range of their Leach spells – and they didn’t die immediately. Instead, their Health steadily dropped over the next few seconds as Thaden and Sadia cast every kind of healing spell they could on themselves, randomly targeting the incoming monsters.
Frankly, it was a little frightening how close the ones that lasted the longest got, as one of the running berserkers actually fell dead in mid-stride and slid toward Thaden, stopping only a few feet away. It was such a change in his usual dominance of the battlefield that it was slightly worrying, but in the end, none of the Warriors or Berserkers even had the chance to hit him.
The Magi, who brought up the rear of the group along with the Chieftain, were a little more tricky. They stayed far from him as they rocketed spells in his direction, but they were no match for Thaden and Sadia’s speed. With over 10,000 in his Celerity stat even without his currently stronger equipment, the two of them were easily able to dodge the magical projectiles as they raced toward the Magi keeping their distance. The spell-slinging Ogres even attempted to retreat to keep out of range, but they didn’t have even a tenth of Thaden’s speed, so it was a simple matter of hunting them down and killing them before they could flee very far.
The Ogre Chieftain, on the other hand, was something different. Even as their Leach spells started slowly eating away at its Health, they had to dodge the remarkably fast swings of its battleaxe, which seemed to send out a blade of sharp air with each swing that could reach hundreds of feet away. In addition, after the Chieftain had taken damage equal to about 25% of its Health, it pulled up a dead Magi next to it and bit into the deceased Ogre in an act of cannibalism, giving it a Health regeneration that outpaced the damage the Leaches they had going were doing.
Thaden nearly swapped in his Denial of Healing spell, which would remove the Health regeneration it was experiencing, but then he thought of something.
The Ogre Chieftain was only Level 415. Sure, its Perceived Level was 540, but if he was correct, that only really affected how strong they were as they were perceived by the System in terms of PICK rewards and other requirements. Just like how Level Compression wasn’t affected by the Perceived Level of his enemies, but their base Levels, so too was another weapon in his arsenal not similarly influenced. Or so he hoped.
He’d just never really had a reason to use it like this, as everything other challenge he’d faced had been overcome by simply pumping more power into his spells one way or another. Either that, or they were already 60 Levels or more above his own.
“You want some regeneration? I’ll give you some Regeneration,” he murmured – and did just that.
Hundreds of times a second, Thaden cast Exceptional Regeneration on the Ogre Chieftain; at first, he began to worry that he was wrong, that his 1% chance to kill something with a single-target spell actually was influenced by Perceived Level, as nothing happened. However, after 3 seconds, while in mid-swing of its axe, the Chieftain suddenly keeled over and collapsed with a crashing thud as it hit the ground.
“Well, I guess that works, too,” Sadia said with amusement, having seen what he’d done. “Not as reliable, of course, but in a pinch…”
“Exactly. Hold on, let me check my message feed and then we have to keep moving.”
He was excited to see what would happen with his Growth items now that he had finally used them in a place where his accumulation didn’t suffer, such as with an over-Leveled Party in a weak dungeon. Expecting an almost identical influx of PICK compared to what he had felt just a short time ago in the destroyed town, Thaden felt a lot more PICK flow into him as soon as he opened his feed; thankfully, this time it was redirected to his equipment or else he might have run into a problem with being full. As it flowed into his items, they seemed to heat up uncomfortably against his skin, as he realized the PICK absorption was probably a lot more than they might normally encounter, but fortunately they didn’t seem harmed by it.
On the contrary – they improved from the sudden influx of the energy they needed to grow.
As the improving process completed and the heat generated by his items dissipated, he was about to quickly look at what changes had been made to his items, but he caught sight of something in his feed that raised his eyebrows – and gave him an idea of why there had been so much more PICK sent to his items.
“Huh. Wasn’t expecting that,” he said, before he directed Sadia’s attention to the flurry of Achievements he had inadvertently earned.
Congratulations for solo-slaying 1 monster at or above Level 300 while wearing no equipment or with equipment with a Level Restriction no greater than Level 1!
Achievement received: Was This A Dare? I
Bonus reward: 90,000 PICK
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: 135,000 PICK
Unkillable I Achievement activated!
Bonus reward: 270,000 PICK
Contender World First Achievement: +2% to all Resistances, +2% Damage dealt increase, +2% Damage mitigation increase
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: +3% to all Resistances, +3% Damage dealt increase, +3% Damage mitigation increase
Congratulations for solo-slaying 9 monsters at or above Level 300 while wearing no equipment or with equipment with a Level Restriction no greater than Level 1!
Achievement received: Was This A Dare? II
Bonus reward: 180,000 PICK
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: 270,000 PICK
Unkillable I Achievement activated!
Bonus reward: 540,000 PICK
Contender World First Achievement: +6% to all Resistances, +6% Damage dealt increase, +6% Damage mitigation increase
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: +9% to all Resistances, +9% Damage dealt increase, +9% Damage mitigation increase
Congratulations for solo-slaying 27 monsters at or above Level 300 while wearing no equipment or with equipment with a Level Restriction no greater than Level 1!
Achievement received: Was This A Dare? III
Bonus reward: 360,000 PICK
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: 540,000 PICK
Unkillable I Achievement activated!
Bonus reward: 1,080,000 PICK
Contender World First Achievement: +12% to all Resistances, +12% Damage dealt increase, +12% Damage mitigation increase
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: +18% to all Resistances, +18% Damage dealt increase, +18% Damage mitigation increase
Congratulations for solo-slaying 81 monsters at or above Level 300 while wearing no equipment or with equipment with a Level Restriction no greater than Level 1!
Achievement received: Was This A Dare? IV
Bonus reward: 720,000 PICK
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: 1,080,000 PICK
Unkillable I Achievement activated!
Bonus reward: 2,160,000 PICK
Contender World First Achievement: +24% to all Resistances, +24% Damage dealt increase, +24% Damage mitigation increase
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: +36% to all Resistances, +36% Damage dealt increase, +36% Damage mitigation increase
Congratulations for solo-slaying 243 monsters at or above Level 300 while wearing no equipment or with equipment with a Level Restriction no greater than Level 1!
Achievement received: Enough! You Proved Your Point!
Bonus reward: 1,440,000 PICK
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: 2,160,000 PICK
Unkillable I Achievement activated!
Bonus reward: 4,320,000 PICK
Contender World First Achievement: +48% to all Resistances, +48% Damage dealt increase, +48% Damage mitigation increase
Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!
Bonus reward: +72% to all Resistances, +72% Damage dealt increase, +72% Damage mitigation increase
“Whoa. I had no idea that was even an Achievement,” Sadia said. “Of course, only those with a deathwish or as a dare would think to essentially be naked when fighting a Level 300 or above monster alone. Or they’re you, of course,” she added with a chuckle.
“True,” he said with a smile, even as he looked at the bonuses he just received.
Not only did he get millions more PICK than he was expecting from the unexpected Achievements, but he also received some permanent bonuses. When it was added all up, he obtained a total of a 138% increase to all of his Resistances, which included his Physical and Magical Resistances provided by his equipment as well as ones like Shadow or Heat Resistance, as well an increase to the damage he dealt and the damage mitigation his spells provided.
Definitely an unexpected boon.
Realizing that he was staring blankly at his message feed as he took it all in, he quickly equipped his Wyvern’s Flight cloak and shot into the air, forlornly looking at all the Ogre corpses down below that he was leaving behind. If I get a chance, I’ll come back and loot them when they’re all dead. He didn’t have any more time to waste, as he felt he’d already spent too much time with this last group of Ogres, both during combat and afterwards – which was why he didn’t check on his Growth items until he was already airborne, with Sadia keeping a lookout for more.
He looked down at his Simple Robe of the Healer before he pulled up the information on it, noticing for the first time that it had changed from its former color to a deep red, a massive change from before. Not only that, but its name had changed – and he was of two minds over the switch.
Crimson Robe of the Lonely Annihilator
Rarity: Artifact
Imprinted User Restriction: #32599999-E
Level Restriction: 119
Physical Damage Resistance: 42
Magical Damage Resistance: 125
Durability: Indestructible
Special Properties: Growth
+33 Physicality
+48 Celerity
+51 Mentality
-17 Personality
+12 Fortuity
+21% increase in Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting caster
+21% reduction in Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting others
+9% increase in damage done to all hostile targets while solo
+0.01% decrease in all spell Mana cost, cooldowns, and casting times for each consecutive target killed within 30 seconds of each other (Max Override to 99.0%); this bonus will only reset when no further targets are killed within 30 seconds
Amazingly, just the one battle had seen his Growth items increase in Level from 1 all the way to 119. When he looked at the stat bonuses, he was thoroughly surprised to see Physicality being a major one, as barely anything he’d worn before provided Physicality – other than some random accessories that could be worn by more than just Support Classes. Because of the Physicality being a major component of the bonuses, Celerity and Mentality weren’t as high as he expected, but that was fine with him because they weren’t as important to him.
Fortuity also got a bump, which he supposed was due to the way the 1% chance had killed the Chieftain, though that wasn’t necessarily dictated by Fortuity. It also was likely because of some of his Advancements and spells that relied on the stat to activate, which he was fairly certain happened at least a few times through the battle.
And then there was a hit to his Personality stat – which he’d somewhat expected given the fact that this was a set meant for soloing monsters. It wasn’t that big of a deal, at least by itself, but when applied his AMPs to the items, the reduction in his Personality added up to over 1,100 in the end. He was still more than alright in that aspect of his development, as he had around 4,500 in the stat even after it was reduced by his equipment, but he could only assume that the decrease would grow as the Growth items Leveled-up. It was only a slight concern, however, as whenever he had to interact with other people, he would’ve theoretically switched his equipment by that point, so that hit to his Personality would go away.
As far as the bonuses went, he had also somewhat expected – and received bonuses to – a 21% increase in his spell effectiveness when he targeted himself, as well as a reduction of the same when targeting others; as he would be wearing this while he was solo, this drawback didn’t really affect him all that much. The 9% increase of damage done to all hostile targets while he was solo was also nice to have, especially since it was included on all of his equipment and would be multiplied by his AMPs.
A quick check of his Bonuses Breakdown sheet put the increase/reduction of spell effectiveness at an incredible 1,365%, which was already starting to outstrip his Lucky Vagabond set when it came to that, and the damage increase was at 585% with his new solo-focused Growth equipment. Unfortunately, this equipment couldn’t yet compare to the Vagabond set in terms of reducing Mana costs, cooldowns, and casting times – which was a slight disappointment.
Instead of a blanket reduction of all costs, cooldowns, and casting times, there was a 0.01% reduction in everything for each consecutive target he killed within 30 seconds, with the timer resetting whenever something else was killed. That meant that he wouldn’t start with all of those bonuses, but against a horde of monsters striving to kill him, that reduction would quickly increase until it hit its maximum. This was where the bonus somewhat redeemed itself rather than as a blanket reduction, as the maximum reduction of 95% was apparently overridden by his Growth equipment; with a new maximum of 99%, there would practically no cost, cooldowns, or casting times for any of his spells. The extra 4% may not sound like a lot, but when a spell with a 30-second cooldown was reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.3 seconds, it made a big difference. He still wouldn’t be able to spam a spell like that, but it would be pretty darn close.
In addition, with every piece of his equipment containing this bonus and adding his AMPs on top of that, what was normally a 0.01% decrease in Mana costs, etc. was now 0.65%. That meant it would take a little over 150 monsters killed consecutively within 30 seconds to reach his maximum 99% decrease, but there rarely were any fights he got into while solo that didn’t have many more monsters than that, so he didn’t have any issue with that.
The only thing he didn’t have a way to deal with, as far as specific bonuses toward, were Bosses and powerful Adversarial entities. The 99% reduction would be hard to maintain moving from one section of a dungeon to where a boss was located, and lately when he’d been helping eliminate the Adversary’s dungeon infiltrators, they had typically been kept separate from the rest of the monsters. It wasn’t a big deal, of course, as there were bonuses to his spell effectiveness that were already going to be enormously helpful – but there was always room for improvement!
“We’ve got more down below! They’re just now starting to reduce that town’s wall to rubble!”
Thaden cleared out of everything he had been looking at, pleased at how well his solo-focused Growth items were doing. He knew that they wouldn’t always jump up that quickly in Level, as this initial batch of PICK had largely come from Achievements, but that was more than acceptable; from what he understood, the more he fought with them in different battles, the more they would refine themselves to his fighting style and make changes that would be beneficial. Good things could come quickly, but great things took time.
As he landed behind the assaulting Ogre army, Thaden switched out his flying cloak for his cape and began preparations for wiping out the enemy alongside his squirrel companion. It was time for the – at least according to the name on his new gear – “Lonely Annihilator” to tear into these Ogres before they knew what hit them.
Comments
Chloe
Booo I'd rather he didn't take.such hits to personality. Needs that 10k to all stats achievement which prevents any from dropping below 10k. Tyftc
Jonathan Brooks
It's definitely a hassle right now as he's switching between things, but once he Levels them up enough, he likely won't have to switch them too much.
Jonathan Brooks
Very true -- I may end up changing the phrasing there
Tyler Bridwell
Can Thaden only wear one ring? I could have sworn he wore a ring on each hand in earlier books? I expected, because he had so many artifact items, for similar pieces to merge together into one full set. And they'd link with Sadia if he had at least one plate attached. Allowing him to change their appearance the same way he can change Sadia's appearance. She'd be able to redo the bonuses, based on the same type of point system used for crafting. With negative traits adding additional points. He'd unlock new types of bonuses based on his actions. And might even, once they reached a high enough level, unlock the ability to add mana abilities similar to his flying cape (perhaps by the artifacts eating another piece of equipment with a Bonus, Set Bonus, or Ability it doesn't already have). Allowing him to still feel excited about finding new legendaries. Just feels like such a hassle to have to juggle 3 different sets and switch AMP plates around, and worry about adding bonuses which aren't useful because he does something different.
Tyler Bridwell
Why would he need to swap in Denial of Healing when he had almost enough for everything before his latest rewards added 140 more from just the Endless Challenge?
Jonathan Brooks
The original Level 1 version is still called that, and the Party-based version hasn't yet hit a threshold that would change its name. Is that what you're asking?
Jonathan Brooks
Thank you! I'll get that fixed :)
John_Lasko
The Lonely Annihilator sounds epic! (Especially as a class name wink wink nudge nudge)
TjStorm
this, as everything other challenge he’d faced this, as every other challenge he’d faced
Andrei
Uh, was the armor version still called "Simple Robe Of The Healer"?
Andrei
"Enough! You proved your point!" 🤣🤣🤣
Matt Grayson
So satisfying!
