“Is he gonna be alright?” Marcus vocalized what the majority of Ghost Reef’s advisors were silently wondering.
“Maybe we started leaning on him too much.” Shane suggested quietly. “Between the Endless Empire and the Sapphire Armada, how many people did he have to kill? We know he was in an uncomfortable spot using his strength like that.” The battle commander fixed his hair as he worried. “If he had ever been fine with killing people, I can guarantee that we would be dead given the circumstances around our arrival.” He looked at Arthur who simply nodded, agreeing with his assessment.
Given Kevin the Hammer’s attempt to take the shard, cursing Jones in the process, Shane’s entire party could have been seen as guilty by association by anyone less generous than Coop, which, realistically, would be just about any other Champion in the world. They were all lucky, in their own ways.
Marcus rubbed his chin. “I bet we could find a therapist among the new residents, maybe get him to talk about it.”
“You guys haven’t been paying attention.” Camila interrupted, sounding a bit frustrating at them for vocalizing their doubts around Coop. “Grinding is basically therapy for Coop, he’ll be fine. Just give him a chance to organize his thoughts.” She suggested. “I’d be more worried if he was moping around again; that’s when we should worry. Instead, he’s working hard to get stronger for all of our sakes. I think he’s shouldering the responsibility really well, considering everything. If anything, he’s grown a lot at this point.”
Charlie frowned as she thought about how the last week had played out. Charlie thought it felt like the assimilation had strapped them all into an unpredictable rollercoaster. Maybe after the last few events Ghost Reef had crested one of the peaks, and was in for more rapid changes. They’d really been having a smooth ride compared to what others appeared to have been experiencing, outside of the siege event, of course. If anything, she agreed with Camila. Coop was keeping everything together far better than she could have. In Empress City, she was the one that had him worried.
In the distance, her mother’s angel wings lit up as she visited one of the camps nearest to where the Ancient Prowlers spawned. Apparently, some of the Sapphire Armada’s soldiers needed to personally discover why the area was restricted at night, but they were strong enough to avoid casualties as long as they disengaged from the monster zone. Madison was healing their injuries.
After the invaders had thrown down their weapons and Coop returned from defeating the Sapphire Armada’s Champion, letting them all know what he thought needed to be done, he had immediately gone off on another grind session. Coop’s Fog of War had engulfed the entirety of the western reef, blanketing the sandbars in a thicker mist than normal. Charlie and Camila wouldn’t have been able to join him to rate his spear throws since their vision wouldn’t extend more than a few feet from within the fog, even if they had the time beyond their own responsibilities. Coop’s intimidating domain spoke to the fact that the Champion was seeking some time alone. If it wasn’t for the occasional spear flying into the sky, they wouldn’t have had any proof that he was even inside.
After the first day, the domain simply dissipated. For a few hours the settlement was in a silent panic because Coop hadn’t returned to the fort and wasn’t in the lighthouse. It wasn’t until the phantoms found the interior of the Mangrove Forest completely engulfed in another massive Fog of War that they figured out he had simply migrated his grind spot to the next logical place. They pieced together that he had completed the Primal Kite’s Slayer quest chain and had moved on to the next set of quests that he had in his sights. That he hadn’t even stopped to eat in the Clumsy Shark in between sessions was yet another peculiar move from the Champion that had the advisors collectively grow more worried.
Charlie scratched Sunny’s ears as she looked around at the others’ faces. They were clearly just as concerned as she was about Coop’s behavior. It wasn’t that it was unusual for him to become immersed in grinding monsters, but the fact that he hadn’t stopped to eat or sleep for multiple days even after multiple grueling battles was atypical. The residents had followed his lead, establishing comfortable routines that provided solace and stability in an unknown future, but now Coop was breaking his own patterns.
After Coop had dropped Hali off, introducing her as the Armada’s leader, and expressed the need to complete multiple tasks at once, necessitating them splitting up, he had marched right off the beach, out into the ocean, and jumped back into combat. He was close enough to step in if the Sapphire Armada’s former army got any ideas, but the fog isolated him while everyone else made their preparations, and really, the fog itself was enough to prevent the soldiers from trying anything. She knew the last minute grinding was Coop’s way of preparing for his own trip, but even she expected him to take some leisure time first. Especially when they considered that he would most likely be kept busy whenever he went on his expedition.
Charlie stood among the ramparts with Marcus, Shane, Arthur, and Camila. Beneath them, the surrendered troops extended along the main trail starting beyond the moat outside the southern gate of the fortress, extending to Coop’s lighthouse and beyond, to the next island. They had set up camps that were observed by pairs of phantoms. Luckily, the outsiders had behaved themselves so far, apparently making an effort to prove they would cooperate in a bid to be given permission to stay. Unfortunately for them, Coop had already decided they wouldn’t be allowed to remain on the island. Coop didn’t make many firm declarations in general. It wasn’t really his leadership style, but the fact that the Sapphire Armada’s people weren’t welcome had been one, and Ghost Reef’s residents respected him enough to go along with just about anything he was that obstinate about.
Coop being that adamant about the defeated soldiers being kicked out of Ghost Reef, despite Marcus’s assurance that they would have the room, especially as the settlement expanded underground, had confused Charlie at first. Coop seemed like the kind of person that would welcome literally anyone, offering a chance to people that others would think undeserving. The fact that he had drawn a line confused her for a while, but she thought she understood where he was coming from after thinking about it.
She had needed reassurance herself, multiple times, about their actions and whether or not they were proper or justified. His argument had always been that they had a responsibility to help people due to the benefits they had been provided by Ghost Reef. He wanted to extend a helping hand to anyone that needed it and thought that gathering strength to create a sanctuary was the way to do it. The Sapphire Armada represented a faction that challenged the principles that had been the source of his resolve.
She decided to speak up, providing her insight to the other advisors. “I think he’s just upset that the Sapphire Armada forced us into a fight. They obviously believe that they need to flee from their settlement and establish themselves elsewhere for their own safety, and Coop always says his goal with Ghost Reef has been to offer sanctuary to people in that exact situation. But they jumped straight to conquest without even bothering to determine if we would help.” She trailed off at the attentive stares from the other advisors.
Camila put her hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “See? Just give him a cha-” Camila’s contribution was interrupted by a flash of yellow light centered on the Mangrove Forest. A blast of lightning had snapped down from the clear sky, striking deep within the mangroves.
Charlie could feel electricity making her skin itch. She wasn’t sure if it was due to her new path making her more in tune to such a phenomenon, but a glance at the others’ reactions provided the answer. They all felt it. An oppressive power had appeared on Ghost Reef, different from anything they had faced before. When she turned to the source of the provocation she was stunned. Even Camila was speechless as they all gazed upon something supernatural.
It was an electric titan. An enormous being constructed out of transparent yellow energy that sparked and crackled as it grew among the gigantic mangroves. The ephemeral shape could almost be called a coincidence, except that the threads of lightning kept reinforcing the outline. Only its torso extended beyond the earth, as if its legs were embedded in the ground, but its head and shoulders were able to clear the tallest trees by a wide margin. As more lightning danced into the sky, the full features of the muscular god became more obvious, traced by channels of plasma that pulsed to life and faded before repeating, creating a stop-motion vision of its movement.
Deep laughter bellowed from the chiseled form of the giant, rolling across the island like thunder. It raised its right arm, revealing a spear in the vague shape of a spiked lightning bolt. The giant jabbed the spear into the sky, warping the air high in the sky beneath the clouds. The tip of the spear ignited in impossibly bright light as the excited laughter continued. Thousands of lightning bolts rained into the Mangrove Forest, all originating from the tip of the spear. The bolts seemed tiny and insignificant compared to the titan, but each one left a crack in the sky, too bright for Charlie’s eyes to follow, as they danced into the mangrove forest. If she didn’t know any better, she would think that the lightning bolts were seeking out targets, hundreds at a time, all across the mangrove habitat. She had to become a conduit before such a thing was possible with her skills.
The barrage unleashed thousands of lightning bolts that were accompanied by the constant laughter that drowned out the warning of the alarm bells and the terrified shrieks of the surrendered Sapphire Armada troops. Those who were nearest to the mangroves fled while the rest huddled together in fear, but the titanic manifestation never wavered in its attention on the mangroves.
Once the lightning storm ceased, the titan flipped his lightning bolt spear and slammed it into the ground at an invisible foe, sending a shockwave that exploded beyond the forest, blasting out into the ocean in one direction and slamming into the fortress in the other, carrying leaves and debris as it moved. The people on the beach were toppled over, blinded by the dust storm that followed. The fort’s walls held strong, though those who stood on the battlements stumbled when the shockwave reached their positions.
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Charlie squeezed her eyes shut to avoid the sand that had been lifted in the air while chasing the shockwave. A series of notifications popped up while she braced herself.
[The Apparition of the Greater Lighting Lord Recognizes You]
[The Apparition of the Greater Lighting Lord Approves of Your Path]
[The Apparition of the Greater Lighting Lord Grants You The Benediction of Lightning]
[You have acquired a new title!]
“Huh?” Charlie muttered.
Charlie checked her titles, keeping her eyes squeezed shut as she was stunned and scared after feeling the awareness of something she didn’t understand. Just what had she gotten the attention of?
The new title was called ‘Favored’ and stated that it was a gift bestowed by the manifestation of a powerful entity. The system described the title as variable, depending on the entity itself. In her case, it claimed that lightning flowed in her veins, granting her better control over one of her main mana affinities.
“Eh?!” Charlie squeaked, still confused, opening her eyes to find the rest of the spectators stunned into silence.
“Was that… Zeus?” Shane asked from his hunched over position, peeking above the ramparts, and breaking the silence that encompassed the island while sounding just as bewildered as Charlie felt.
“Hm.” Arthur grunted as he stared across the dunes, standing straight as he dusted his shoulders off. “Could have been Jupiter just as easily.” He raised an eyebrow, seeming to approve of the display of power. “I wonder what that kid is up to.”
—
Coop stirred himself back to consciousness, dreaming that he tripped and flailing his limbs as if he would fall and needed to catch himself. Instead, he found himself sprawled out on the edge of a large root with both of his legs submerged in the swampy water of the Mangrove Forest, dangling on either side of the limb. He coughed twice and a small puff of smoke escaped his lungs. His ethereal spear remained clenched in one hand, charred as if it had become an overused lightning rod, and his armor had been completely destroyed.
When he sat up, the pressure in his head made him grumble in pain. “Ugh.” He reached up and tenderly rubbed his temples. “How long was I out?” He mumbled to himself, choking on the words as his dry throat stifled his voice.
It had been three or four days of steady grinding. When he saw how close he was to another skill choice after defeating the Sapphire Armada and gaining more than a dozen levels, he became determined to push until he cracked level 150. Completing the Primal Kite Slayer quest chain wouldn’t be enough, but another few levels from defeating Ancient Devourers and Primal Serpents would elevate him across the next threshold. It had become a race against time, as he needed to be ready as soon as possible, given the threats to Ghost Reef that continued to linger elsewhere in the world.
When he received the skill options, his choice had already been made. Coop wanted to take the upgrade to the Salvation skill, Inheritance of the Mists, which would give him the ability to call upon an apparition for aid. Salvation was the other half of his original build, allowing him to summon his ethereal armor, where Retribution was the ability that gave him access to the weapons.
The other upgrade skill, Legacy of the Mists, which was attached to Retribution, had already completely changed the dynamic of his class. No longer was he merely a durable skirmisher, but now he had an entirely new set of capable, magic attacking companions in the phantasms when he incorporated Legacy in combat. The versatility of his build was multiplied by their presence.
The first round of the Mistwalker path had offered 21 skills, which he used to acquire Legacy. The second time, he received 15 choices and he took the Acumen passive skill, Clarity of Purpose, which also added the Mindbender title. This time he had 10 skills to choose from and he upgraded his second original skill. His next few choices would finally be new abilities.
When he used Inheritance of the Mists for the first time, he had nearly been overwhelmed. The phantasms summoned by Legacy of the Mists were clearly simple minions that, at best, represented some weapon master from the past, dug up from collective human history. However, the apparition that haunted Coop when he used Inheritance was a more sophisticated entity, one that was both more powerful and far more autonomous. Upon its formation, it had communicated from within Coop’s mind with joyous exuberance at being manifested into reality, but also with threats and agitation at Coop’s limited development. The Lightning Lord had viewed Coop as weak and had a potent desire to anchor itself into existence.
Coop was bewildered by the experience. With the phantasms, he understood their presence as representative recordings of past warriors, provided by the system. They could have been real people, or at least they were imitations of experts with some historical accuracy. Jones had been able to pick out their eras by assessing their equipment. The fact that mana had been around since the dawn of human history meant that he thought it made sense as a real possibility.
However, the apparition summoned by Inheritance of the Mists had claimed to be a god. Coop thought, rather than a depiction of a real person, Inheritance brought cultural fictions to life. The Greater Lightning Lord was a fitting first experience because Coop could make the easy connection to it being a facsimile of Zeus.
Coop groaned as he sat up and slid his ankles out of the muddy water. While he had expected Salvation’s upgrade to be similarly game changing, when compared to Legacy of the Mists, it had still been completely overwhelming. The Lightning Lord had burned through Coop’s available mana with a single boost ability that increased his size, then went ahead and consumed Coop’s health to power a second skill that chained lightning, as if to prove a point, all while demanding that Coop gather more resources for him or perish. Coop shook his head at the memory of the voice echoing in his head. Checking his status, he truly understood how close he had been to dying, but he really couldn’t help but look forward to what else the skill could do. Hopefully, the next entity would be more gracious. Just in case, he resolved to hold back on further experimentation until he was a bit stronger.
[Status]
HP - 578/13320
MP - 11/25140
Class - Revenant (Level 156)
Profession - Scavenging (Level 112)
Affinity - Spectral
Race - Human (Rank 1)
Faction - None
Strength - 75 (+2514)
Agility - 75 (+1257)
Body - 75 (+1257)
Mind - 2095 (+419)
Intelligence - 75 (+2514)
Acumen - 75 (+1257)
Unallocated - 0
Titles - Champion III, Haunted, Ethereal, Reaper, Slayer VII, Dauntless, Stacked, Defiant, Siegebreaker, Mindbender
Skills (Active) - Invocation, Presence of Mind, Fog of War
Skills (Passive) - Mind Over Matter, Adamance, Practical Application, Arcane Comprehension, Clarity of Purpose
Quests - Fortune Seeker (18/50), Upgrade Town to City
Basic Credits - 3,240,850
Coop shook his head, realizing that the Lightning Lord seemed content to drive Coop to death, as long as he had a chance to flex his presence on reality. He suspected that the skill cut itself off before he actually died, but it still drove him to the edge. Inheritance of the Mists left him in a precarious state, but at least it hadn’t finished him off.
“What a way to go.” Coop chuckled to himself before wincing. It felt like his insides were absolutely cooked.
The cost of Inheritance was extraordinarily high. The skill was clearly meant to be a proper ultimate ability, akin to some of the abilities that only a few of his companion’s had displayed. Madison with her Celestial Chime, Charlie with her Lightning Conduit, and Jett with her Darkness Form. Now Coop had something with properly escalating power. The call to tap into that power was strong, even if it meant he would essentially be leaping off the edge of a building in order to utilize it. He scratched the back of his head as he considered whether or not it might actually be too much for him. Judging by his state, it might be.
In fact, the afflictions Inheritance had applied continued to linger. The first debuff it applied was a stacking affliction that was wryly called ‘Haunted,’ just like his title, except this was a stacking debuff that reserved 1% of his mana pool for each application. Inheritance of the Mists immediately applied 50 stacks when he cast the spell, cutting his mana pool in half with no way to recover it until the skill ran out and the debuffs expired. They had no timer, but would disappear as his mana recovered, effectively putting his mana pool in debt until he had rejuvenated mana with interest. The second debuff was called ‘Delusion,’ and it simply prevented him from casting Inheritance repeatedly.
His stats continued to grow in a monstrous way, especially after gaining so many class levels, 10 profession levels, and completing three more Slayer quest chains: one for each of the Kites, Devourers, and Serpents. Coop giggled to himself now that his Mind stat had eclipsed 2,500 by itself. It was a huge number. The progress was a small salve for the mental sting of the last few battles.
Retribution and Salvation had also combined into a new skill, called Invocation, which provided its own description that Coop thought was suspiciously foreboding. “Call the Void and the Void will call back.” While the skill didn’t necessarily do anything new, all of the features and upgrades of the previous skills were included. His ethereal weapons and armor appeared to work the same way, except he had even more freedom from some of the earlier restrictions that had guided his progression in the first place. He would certainly have more toys to play with in the future as even his baseline skills continued to evolve.
Before Coop returned to his feet, he was surprised by Jett jumping onto his shoulder, careful not to use her nails while balancing against the side of his head. Coop couldn’t believe that she had gone into the Mangrove Forest on her own. It was definitely not her favorite environment.
“Alright, I’m going.” Coop agreed. “First a shower, then I’m gonna sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll visit everyone and head out on another adventure.” Coop scratched Jett’s face. “Are you gonna miss me?” He cooed as he followed the root path back toward the dunes.