The golf course had gone through some changes since the previous time Coop had visited. The fairways were only a little thick, probably displaying even less growth than would have been expected in the pre-mana times, but the grasses that made up the rough were completely out of control. They had grown so tall, they struggled to bear their own weight, leaning their tips out across the sky, above the fairway, more akin to stalks of bamboo than blades of grass. Both edges formed half-tunnels with verdant roofs that didn’t quite reach the middle. The Primal Trackers lounged in the darkened borders or roamed across the open middle, still as densely populated as they had been the first time.
Coop wasn’t physically fighting, but it was struggling with an internal battle. He was trying every mindfulness technique he had ever been made aware of, whether it was focusing on his breathing or stretching. The entire time he had his status open, but he never saw his bonuses fluctuate. He did manage to relieve some of his stress and anxieties. The pressures that slowly built in the back of his mind without him even realizing it were eased as he relaxed in the lush grassy environment as it was being cleared by Charlie’s miniature tornadoes.
The girls worked out their specific tactics and expanded their pulls until they were comfortable moving deeper into the golf course. They carefully made progress, sticking to the early holes while refining their preferences. It turned out to be a good exercise as it really did distract Charlie.
Camila and Charlie made an incredible pair. They were so coordinated, Coop thought they could challenge the apparent telepathic connection he had with his phantasms. Most of the credit needed to go to Camila, who was a natural at anticipating the Aeromancer’s actions and liberally applying her enhanced speediness to be in the right places at the right times. Of course, Charlie providing consistency is what established the groundwork for the Interceptor to work with.
“How do you stay so calm all the time?” Charlie eventually asked Coop as they moved to the next tee boxes, pushing further into increased monster densities as the girls' comfort levels rose.
Coop thought it was a surprising question, considering how he was constantly fighting his nerves, feeling anxieties, agitation, or restlessness, and otherwise struggling with confronting difficult choices. “I’m stressed all the time.” He admitted.
“Really? I thought I had you figured out by now. Aren’t you happy most of the time these days?” Charlie wondered. “You always seem satisfied when you’re around the fort, especially compared to before.”
Coop shrugged. “I am, but remember when you first moved into Ghost Reef?” Charlie nodded as she glanced over at him. “I still feel the same way, that a bunch of different factors came together to give us an opportunity to progress. The shard being on an isolated island with a defensive fort and so many monster variants all combined to give us advantages that we should leverage to help others. Ever since this whole assimilation started I’ve been slowly taking on more responsibilities. Most of the time, I don’t even want them, but I’ll keep doing my best to make at least some positive contributions. That way when people need it, we can help.”
“But how do you know if you’re doing that, making positive contributions?” Charlie questioned, obviously feeling doubt about her own actions and role in defeating the Endless Empire’s Chosen.
“We can only do our best and trust the people around us.” Coop put his hand on her shoulder and she looked back up at him. “If we hadn’t settled things between the Empire, the result would have only been worse in the long run. What you did was to help me, so if there was a mistake, it’s my fault. I’ll try to make up for it in the future.” Charlie just gave him a half-hearted smile.
“But also, if we’re ever considered heroes I get all the credit.” Coop declared. “It’s only fair.” When she smirked at his proposition, he feigned offense. “Hey, at least I’m shouldering the burdens too, I definitely could have shoved those off onto someone else.”
While the girls got on with the next monster pull, Coop stood on the side, like he was their caddy. After a night of experimentation, he put aside Mindbending and summoned a phantasm. When the ghost appeared, the quantity of mists was abnormally high. Usually, they burst out of mists that barely engulfed their bodies and immediately dissipated, but this time, the mists lingered on the ground, spilling out like dry ice had been released by popping an oversized water balloon.
The ghost itself was equipped with a distinctly red wrapped cloth. It covered one shoulder and was cinched by a tight belt at his waist. His head was protected by a blue conical helmet that was ornamented with a gold rim and a single gold drop on the peak. There was way more color in the spearman’s clothes, but he was still transparent enough to see the green grass on the other side of him. Even his skin was a warm tan as opposed to being the typical colorless ghost.
The spearman stood by Coop, observing the golf course as if it was an ancient battlefield. He certainly looked completely out of place at the top of the tee box, but Coop did as well, like he was an extra in a gladiator movie in between scenes. Coop wondered if the substance bonus provided by Acumen had given him a more robust summon and the colors were the indication. After a few seconds, Coop raised his eyebrows in anticipation, waiting for the ghost to burst into another surge of mists. Nothing happened for 10 seconds and Coop started nodding in satisfaction. Substance increased their duration. He suspected that would be the case, but he also expected there to be more to it, since if it was going to increase duration, it probably would have said duration.
Eventually, the phantasmal spearman glanced over at Coop, like he was bored.
“Uh, sorry.” Coop fumbled an apology. “I wanted to see what ‘substance’ did.” The ghost just looked away, still appearing bored, making no effort to communicate while scanning the fairway.
Coop was getting worried. They just stood side by side awkwardly, or at least Coop felt awkward. Should he try having a one-sided conversation? The ghost would probably disappear in the middle of it, and that might even be worse. What if the same summon came back in the future and remembered? Coop’s head snapped toward the ghost as he had another thought. What if he had a permanent summon? How would he get rid of it? The quick movement drew the phantasm’s attention, but it just looked at Coop, nonplussed.
“So, uh. Where are you from?” Coop asked innocently and the phantasm exploded into mists. “Oh, thank goodness.” Coop breathed a dramatic sigh of relief.
It had only been about 45 seconds, but Coop had managed to make it uncomfortable. Charlie’s tornado was ripping apart hundreds of gathered Primal Trackers, making the tall grass whip the blades into knots, and Camila stood protectively near her side. Coop considered the implications of Legacy of the Mist’s change. Almost 1,000 Acumen gave him 45 seconds with a summon. If it had lasted much longer, Coop was going to have trouble considering the differences between a summoned phantasm and a resurrected phantom.
Almost a minute in a battle was basically an eternity. Coop chuckled to himself as he considered his insane stats and that these phantasmal summons matched them point for point. The mana cost of casting Legacy of the Mists was down to 466 as well. Practical Application was making a decent dent in the original cost. With his current mana pool, nearly 20,000, he could summon 42 phantasms at once. Call it 20 to maintain one of his very first personal rules, to always be considerate of his Mind over Matter buffer and keep half of his mana available for supplementing his health.
Coop walked across the fairway to join the girls at the next hole, still coming to terms with what his build was becoming. He could already stand up to an admittedly weak army, but he might end up being able to summon one as well.
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—
Matthew struggled to catch his breath. He tried to slowly count down from ten, just like his therapist taught him, squeezing his eyes shut, but only made it to seven before he lost track of what he was doing. A simple glance over the edge of his hole, at the cracks in the solid glacier, were enough to make him wish he had evacuated with the others.
“I’m such an idiot.” He cried as he slid back down and tried to steady his breathing.
The ice sheet was one and a half miles thick, but the enormous, wyvern-shaped mechanical alien had clawed its way through, all the way to the surface. Matthew imagined that it was ravenous, hibernating underneath for millions of years, and only emerged in order to feast on his bones. He shuddered as he thought he heard the snapping of its jaws.
He dug himself deeper into the snow and shivered, and not because of the ultra-cold temperature. The cold didn’t even bother him anymore. Aside from a constant debilitating debuff and occasionally having to break through a frozen layer of ice that formed on the outside of his clothes, it was fine. His hair broke like icicles until he was mostly bald, but health wise it was okay. It seemed like humans had evolved to better tolerate extremes when the apocalypse came. No, it wasn’t the cold that made him shake. He shuddered at the thought of being torn limb from limb to feed the monster as its metal talons broke him into tiny morsels, breaking his bones and using them like toothpicks.
“Matt! Matt? you okay, man?” Mika’s voice finally brought him out of his cascading panic. The Finnish man shook his arm, reaching into Matthew’s hole to check on him. He was still speaking his native language, but miraculously, or just magically, he was understandable. “Look! It’s dead! Check your notifications!”
Matthew did as he was told. He was just an intern at the research base, and it had only been a month where he was still getting comfortable when mana crashed down on the planet and ripped reality apart. Mika was a senior from some other base that had opted to stay and observe the topics of his research.
[You defeated Field Boss: Primal Beast (Level 85)]
[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]
…
[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]
[You have acquired a new title!]
“What?” Matthew gaped at all the level up messages. He counted them, finally making it past ten in his breathing exercises as he realized he nearly doubled his level in the single battle.
He looked at Mika, who beamed with pride as he obviously leveled at least as many times. Thankfully, neither of the pair had seen much combat since the Emperor and all the Kings arrived. A blessing since the monsters kept getting stronger. Without them, they would have been overwhelmed for sure.
Before the double question mark Field Boss appeared, he had moved closer to investigate the cracking, inadvertently putting himself on the frontline. He should have known better, but it was so unusual for anything to get past the sentinels and breach the perimeter, he never expected to find a threat.
Matthew only managed to use two skills, desperately slinging spells at the monster, for all the good his level 11 abilities could do, as he panicked and dove for cover. The monster was completely unbothered, choosing to charge past, toward the mass of potential victims, but he still received participation credit for the kill.
Matthew fastidiously checked the title, having received some before. One for surviving an extended period in an extreme environment and another for having a single affliction last more than 1,111 hours without falling off. The new title was even bigger than those two.
Dauntless XXVIII - Twenty-Eighth Raid to Defeat a Field Boss.
+30% damage dealt to bosses.
He blinked the frost from his eyeballs and looked back at Mika, wondering what this meant. The man just laughed through his overgrown and snow collecting beard.
“You see what this means?” Mika prompted. The man couldn’t stop trying to teach. “They all received it! I saw it with my own eyes, so many of them leveled at the same time! It practically blinded me! The visibility and the snow be damned!”
Matthew had never seen Mika this exuberant. He was always friendly and cheerful, apparently living up to the regional stereotype of his home, but even his enthusiasm didn’t clarify what he was talking about. His blank look eventually led the man to explain better.
Dragging Matthew out of his emergency hole, Mika cast his hand across the horizon. “Identify one, and tell me its level.”
Matthew obeyed, casting Identify on the nearest, smaller example.
[Chinstrap Penguin (Level 6)]
“Level 6.” Matthew reported.
“Exactly!” Mika confirmed, way too excited about the revelation, in Matthew’s opinion. Matthew’s confused expression caused another response. “Identify another!”
Matthew selected one with an orange plume, and cast Identify.
[Macaroni Penguin (Level 7)]
“Level 7.” Matthew shared, still unsure, but surprised he randomly selected two that were in the process of leveling.
“Yes! Now, do you see?” Mika smiled encouragingly, before he finally stated his conclusion. “The Emperor has his army!”
Matthew unconsciously turned toward the one they called The Emperor. Naturally, it was just another emperor penguin, but it was impossible to lose in the crowd. Most of the penguins were level 0 when identified. Only a tiny portion appeared to have adapted to mana, and all of those were obvious with their mutations and double question marks for levels. They spent all their time protecting the rest, fighting the Primal Beasts in a wide perimeter that allowed the rest of the multi-species mega-colony to remain unharassed. The Emperor was the most prominent example of the special ones, having already grown over forty feet tall.
Mika had trekked across the continent in the first weeks of the apocalypse, abandoning the security of a civilization shard, leaving it to his colleagues in order to follow a pair of large penguin colonies as they migrated toward the South Pole. It was a complete break from the penguin’s normal patterns of behavior and he had to know where they were going. The man just loved penguins.
After he arrived, along with so many other penguin colonies, from every direction, he shared information with the occupants of the research base where Matthew was interning. Nearly the entire remaining population of scientists and researchers opted to evacuate and regroup at the shard. They were led by a pair of scientists who claimed to be Chosen and were desperate to find a settlement. Once Mika revealed that such a migration was possible, the rest went along. The example was set, but Matthew was too scared to leave, especially after the first few days had cut their population in half with monsters revealing themselves to be far more dangerous than the cold.
Now, it was just him and Mika. The two humans and what Mika estimated to be over 10,000,000 penguins of nine different species.
“Come on! I’m going to suggest we head to a civilization shard! We can hunt down more bosses as we go!” Mika tried to pull Matthew completely out of his snow hole.
“How are you going to do that? They’re penguins!” Matthew argued, reminding him of the language barrier.
“They understand! I think. Probably!” Mika answered as he pulled them both toward the Emperor, who sat surrounded by millions of other penguins, not all of which had the decency to be sensibly sized. Some even burned with flames, or hovered slightly off the ground, or shot across the snow on their bellies with speed that should have been illegal.
“We were in the top 30 groups to defeat a Field Boss, that means there are more of them out there! The world needs us!” Mika continued.
“Maybe the world should come here instead?” Matthew flippantly suggested as he reluctantly made his way through the mega-colony, careful not to disturb the wild animals with the ability to kill him with magic powers.
“Hah! That’s a good idea!” Mika agreed. “We’ll have to go convince them! Shouldn’t be too hard. What could be safer than being surrounded by penguins!”
Matthew whimpered, wishing he could dive back into his hole.