Coop ended up spending the night at the Clumsy Shark. He learned a lot from Maeve.

The baths were magical, literally. They had magical water that maintained its temperature for as long as it was used. Coop’s only complaint was that the tub was basically a large barrel. He either had to tuck in his knees or let his feet hang over the opposite edge.

Coop ended up asking why all the system constructions and furnishings were so archaic. Maeve explained that the buildings weren’t designed by the system at all. The medieval stylings were representative of the more primitive galactic standard than what humanity had developed. The vast majority of the universe was at a much lower technological level when they received mana when compared to humans. She wasn’t sure if this was because humans had more time to develop without mana, or if there was something special about humanity itself. After the introduction of mana, further innovation generally takes a different direction.

Apparently, Jones had been open with sharing all of humanity’s secrets. Maeve had even used what she learned to manipulate Coop into the bath! Jones had taught her human grooming habits, how they sweat, and all sorts of other things, then knowing that humans would be self conscious, she called Coop stinky. Coop felt a little betrayed by Jones.

As an apology and to make things even between them, Maeve shared some things about her own species. Apparently, they were one that tried to hide their alien features to just look generically humanoid. There was sort of a galactic midpoint for alien morphology that would be familiar to most of the factions, and in Coop’s opinion, the standard was suspiciously human.

In Maeve’s case, many societies had felt the echoes of her species’ existence during their pre-mana histories, and most had a negative predisposition toward them as a result. Even humans weren’t an exception. She and Desmond were apparently a type of demon. She promised Coop she wasn’t after his soul, unless he was offering.

Coop still thought she looked like an elf, but he discovered the tail that she kept hidden and the tiny horns hidden underneath her thick bangs and accepted that she was indeed a demon. Add some wings and there wouldn’t be any doubt. He didn’t think being a demon would be any more of a problem than being an alien when it came to humans though.

Maeve also told him about the contracts they used to earn a place in settlements. They had to submit their establishment details to the system and if they were accepted they would be put on standby. If a settlement requested their service they would receive a quest from the system to operate on the new planet. Accepting the quest resulted in their true bodies being held in a protected stasis by the system while a manifestation of themselves was sent to the planet. Their skills were limited, though not so much inside of their domains, and they couldn’t be killed for the duration of the contract as they would simply return to their true bodies instead.

The contract would last until the planet’s assimilation was completed or if they were forced to return early, which could happen if their settlement was conquered or defeated in some other way. If they stayed to the end they would be offered to either return to their true body or vice versa, remaining on the planet.

Many factions participated in the process to try and get a foothold on a new planet without paying for sponsorships, but it was a gamble whether or not it paid off. There was no good way to predict the disposition of whichever faction ended up with control of the settlement or the planet. The safer bet was usually the planetary sponsor, but in Earth’s case that would be less than ideal as the Primal Constructs had no interest in sharing, to a genocidal degree.

Earth wasn’t the first baby planet that Maeve and Desmond had worked on, but they had never arrived so early in the process. Maeve explained that they hadn’t remained on the other planets because Champions tended to be real bastards. Give a random primitive being a bit of authority and they suddenly believe they are entitled to whatever they want. Maeve and Desmond had to remove more than one Champion from their establishment when they overstepped their bounds. The sour relationships generally hurt their business prospects, so they willingly moved on when the contracts expired. If they belonged to a faction they wouldn’t have the independence to move so freely without finding replacements to maintain the establishment.

They were excited about Coop, seeing him as a breath of fresh air compared the inflated egos they had experienced in the past. They attributed his becoming a Champion at all to be a fluke caused by the isolation of the shard. It normally took a certain type of person to take and hold a shard, and Coop wasn’t the type. He had accidentally passed some tests and made an excellent first impression by greeting them properly, treating them with respect, and immediately learning how to pay. Most Champions never paid. Coop appreciated his scavenging profession even more. He could spend five minutes defeating Ancient Defenders and make enough to pay for a week of meals. He guessed other Champions had a harder time.

Coop also learned about the beds. They were stuffed with some kind of mana beast’s wool. It felt like laying on a cloud. He ended up staying the night. When he woke up, the cat-like purring surprised him, until he realized it was Jett. She just let herself in wherever she pleased. For a cat that had never left the inside of her home, she had become quite the explorer. Coop thought he would take her to visit the lighthouse some point soon, the little lighthouse keeper would probably be happy to know her home was repaired.

Another surprise upon waking up was the Well-Rested buff. It increased all stats by a small amount, but also increased experience gained. It was a revelation that there even was experience! Coop wanted to make use of the bonus right away. The only problem was that the buff only lasted a few hours and the nearest monsters didn’t seem to be yielding much experience anymore.

Maeve apparently started her days even earlier than Coop. When he made his way through the main room to start his early morning jog she was already setting tables. They had a quick chat, and even though he was already visiting everyday, she insisted that he promise to come again soon. He would have even without a promise.

Halfway through his warm up he noted Olani’s two grandchildren shadowing him, copying his route around the ramparts. When he stopped to do his stretches, they followed along with youthful enthusiasm. They wanted to know how he summoned weapons. They were disappointed to know they would have to wait to see if their classes would have the same feature. He wondered when they would be able to start getting levels.

After the sunrise, he bade farewell to his young companions and headed to the Ancient Defenders, intent on getting an early start to push his quest as far as possible.

On that first day Coop defeated almost 3,800 Ancient Defenders. His scavenging leveled once and the mana cost of his mistjump reduced by another two mana, bringing it to 40 mana per teleport.

Coop’s most significant gains weren’t so tangible though. It came in his familiarity with his new tactic for the mistjumps. He was seriously becoming scary with how smooth the attacks came out of a teleport. He could imagine an enemy dodging his spear only to be surprised, with no time to react to him swinging the dodged spear from right next to them.

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The main weakness he noticed was that his mistjump was telegraphed by the location of his weapon. It didn’t matter when battling monsters, as they didn’t seem intelligent enough to notice, but a discerning enemy might be able to capitalize on the opening. If it came down to it, and he was fighting something that figured out the trick to his mistjump, he would mix it up by returning his weapon to his hand instead of teleporting. It would make it a lot harder to predict his movements when he may or may not mistjump whenever he was separated from his weapon.

He fought Ancient Defenders until the sun started going down. He also spent a bit of time experimenting with his new mistjump breakthrough while fighting the nocturnal Ancient Prowlers with his glaive. He found that he wasn’t ready to use the teleports against the nimble monsters. He was better off dodging with his footwork and relying on the glaive’s deadly sweeping attacks to defeat them. They just reacted too quickly for Coop to reliably use the mistjumps to reposition mid combat. In the end his experiments only lasted an hour before he had to retire for the night to let his health regenerate. The stacking Vulnerable buff was really nasty.

Coop defeated a bit more than 3,500 Ancient Defenders on the second day of grinding. He received another level to his scavenging, and his teleport cost reduced by one more mana. It was going really well. His long grind sessions were putting his quest progress well beyond his expectations. He thought it would take three or four days, even at his best, but at this rate it would take two and a half.

He had to suppress an errant thought that he would be able to complete many of these quest chains, stacking up the bonus stats. He reminded himself that the Ancient Defenders were probably a special case, and while he might be able to hunt the Ancient Prowlers, he still didn’t think the Primal Kites would be a feasible target. He could only imagine the monster variants becoming more difficult the further he ventured.

After the second day of grinding, he was making his way lazily back to the fort, when a warning bell started ringing. Coop didn’t even know there was a bell. He rushed to the fort and up to the ramparts to figure out what was wrong. One of Olani’s grandchildren was waving for him and pointing over the wall. Coop went to see what the problem was.

“Monsters!” The kid exclaimed, pointing to a group of Ancient Defenders. They were obviously abnormal with the way they moved. Instead of shuffling in place like the normal ones, these moved as a group and were larger than the usual fare. When Coop Identified one he realized it was an entire pack of higher level elites.

[Elite Ancient Defender (Level 10)]

They were walking along the outer edge of the moat, showing obvious interest in getting into the fort. Coop nodded to himself, he knew it was only a matter of time before something attacked the settlement and he believed they could handle this. Had they come because they upgraded the settlement to an Outpost, or was it just a matter of time? If Coop hadn’t lost track of his days, it should be Day 15. As he understood it, things shouldn’t heat up until after Day 30, the date that all Chosen would have to be returned from training and settlement events began. The apocalypse was still in the orientation phase.

Jones and Olani had joined him while he decided what to do. The pack was only seven monsters, but he and Jones had learned the hard way that it was a bad idea to underestimate the elites. But Coop and Jones were both in a completely different dimension, power wise, when compared to their first experiences fighting elite Ancient Defenders. They formed a simple plan.

Coop cast Salvation and Retribution, summoning his ethereal armor and both his spear and shield. Jones prepared to support the battle using his ranged skills from the top of the wall. Olani applied two of her new skills to Coop, drawing complicated runes in the air that burned red and rapidly disappeared. Coop’s damage and defense were each empowered for 10 minutes.

With the buffs applied, Coop threw his spear from the top of the wall in a high arc, over the moat, and above the pack of monsters. He activated his mistjump while the spear was still falling. For a brief moment, Coop was pulled through the fog of the silent and frozen world. When he came out he was dozens of feet above the monsters.

He braced with his shield and prepared a plunging spear attack with the intent of starting the fight with a surprise strike to defeat the first enemy . It reminded him of the last time he and Jones fought an elite together, he had tried an awkward flailing plunging attack with his machete back then to end the fight.

This time, he impaled an unsuspecting elite pinning it to the ground where it quickly evaporated in defeat. He readied his shield and reset his spear before the dust even settled, feeling like he made a superhero’s entrance, as the rest of the pack noticed his dramatic arrival and quickly turned to face him. They had a far faster reaction than the normal monsters.

One of the Ancient Defenders took the initiative and used the pounce skill that had nearly killed Coop in the past. Coop caught it with his shield and easily blocked it. He retaliated by shield bashing the monster then thrusting his spear past his shield. The shield prevented any guard and the tip of his spear impaled the red light inside the monster’s body, defeating it. In the opening exchange, two elites were already eliminated.

An Ancient Defender that had been on the periphery was suddenly slammed by a five foot boulder, throwing the monster into one of its neighbors. Coop utilized the distraction to throw his spear and mistjump to the disabled monsters, finishing one off as he stepped out of the mist giving none of the monsters any time to react. As he repositioned to finish the second disabled monster, a different enemy pounced from his blind side and stabbed Coop in the torso with both extended spiked feet.

At least it tried to stab Coop. It didn’t even pierce his ethereal armor. He actually laughed out loud when he quickly checked his health to see he had lost 14 health and 14 mana from the surprise attack. Between the Runes activated by Olani, his Physical Defense increased by the Body stat, his Mind Over Matter skill’s secondary effect, his massively elevated health pool, and his Salvation skill’s ethereal armor scaling, Coop was nearly impervious to these monsters’ most dangerous physical attacks. His layered defenses were coming along nicely.

He finished the disabled monster and turned to the offender. Three quick spear thrusts empowered by thousands of repetitions broke the monster’s guard and finished it off.

Coop faced the final two Elite Ancient Defenders and before he engaged, one was impaled from an earthen spike shooting out of the ground. As it scrambled to free itself, Coop finished it off with a spear jab through the red light.

The final enemy attacked desperately with each spiked foot, carouseling one after the other, but Coop caught each attack with his shield and arrested its momentum. He shoved it backwards with his shield before tossing his spear toward the monster and mistjumped into a leaping thrust to conclude the fight.

Olani’s grandchildren cheered from the wall. Coop had felt reasonably confident going into the fight, but they had dispatched the pack of monsters far more easily than expected.

Coop lobbed his spear into the fort and mistjumped to the top of the wall before he dismissed his armor and weapons and rejoined the others.

“That went well,” He observed, modestly.

“Quite well. I even got a level.” Jones responded. “But where did they come from? Were they leftovers from the edges of the settlement that were agitated by the upgrade growing the territory?” Jones started forming some theories.

Coop just shrugged and turned to the boys, “Good job spotting them.” Both kids beamed at the simple praise.

With the quick defeat of a group of enemies they all felt that much more comfortable in their settlement. A pack of elites like that would have been formidable if they arrived just a week earlier. Coop and the group left the walls and returned to their business. Coop went to the Tavern to relax and prepare for the next day of grinding. One more day would see him completing his quest once and for all.