Unchosen Champion-Chapter 315: Hovering and Hiking

It turned out that Coop’s travel speed was quite a bit higher than that of the Avatar of the System. She couldn’t keep up with his ability to completely bypass obstacles, combined with the fact that he consumed no resources while flickering across the landscape.

Coop’s ability to step through the world of mists, shifting himself by way of spectral mana was exceptional, especially when bolstered by his excessive investment into multiplying his stats such that his Strength and Agility were both absurd relative to his supposed power level. Lyriel was immediately frustrated by the vast gulf between expectations of a meager level 0 and the reality of mistjumping.

Coop had met and fought other humans that had similar mobility skills and those experiences had deceived him into thinking that he wasn’t so special. However, according to his new alien companion, it was extraordinary among the broader galactic community. She suggested that most factions would have nurtured him into a powerhouse the way the Endless Empire had supported Charlie and Camila.

Despite the previous encounters with Coop, Lyriel had never actually seen him in action. Each time she visited Earth she interfered with the local mana, preventing him from demonstrating his skills, but it didn’t take long for her to get the picture.

The second time he teleported away from her, after they crossed the Mississippi Sea, just to lean on a tree and wait for her to catch up, was enough for her frustration to boil over. She scolded him like he had escaped a leash and nearly ran into traffic. He struggled to convince her that he wasn’t that helpless.

She was loath to admit that this primitive human had already surpassed one aspect of her capabilities, but it was clear as day that his skill was superior to her ability to hover long distances. Despite mistjumping requiring more physical effort to accomplish, due to Practical Application, he even saved on mana relative to her skills and his stamina allowed him to keep going indefinitely. She couldn’t help but be knocked down a peg.

Lyriel made the executive decision that they would hike together instead. She made it seem like it was a matter of convenience, but after the way she reacted when he left her behind, he knew that she was mostly worried about him being defeated by remnants of the Primal Constructs lingering within the former domain while separated from her. The fact that he had absorbed a penalty and was weakened by the repeated battles with Region Bosses as well as canceling his eldritch evolution left her feeling rather protective of the leader of her newly joined faction. He thought it was surprisingly considerate of the prideful alien, though she seemed completely incapable of actually expressing herself without the lens of haughtiness.

Coop pretended not to notice, playing along with her whims, though he couldn’t help but feel at least a little smug about how he abused his Retribution and Salvation skills. To this day, he wasn’t completely sure whether mistjumping was an intended interaction or just something made possible by the ethereal weapons being protected from disarmament combined with his unique set of starter titles and willingness to experiment.

“No need to gloat, little human.” Lyriel bristled as Coop watched her smoothly glide across the grassy Great Plains, finally closing in on their destination.

Coop raised his eyebrows, the picture of innocence, in response to her unprompted comment. He merely needed to jog to stay by her side.

“I know what you are thinking as clearly as that yellow star rises above your planet.” She added. “A simple creature like you cannot disguise their internal reflections from someone of my stature.” She continued, flicking a finger toward him, drawing a wide smile from Coop.

The more he got to know the so-called Avatar, the more he was able to see through her attitude. She was always good for a pompous reaction that Coop had gradually learned wasn’t entirely real. He imagined that she had played this character for so long it had bled into her normal self. Her disposition wasn’t as bad as she made it seem at first glance and he couldn’t really fault her for some manner of defense mechanism considering the circumstances of her entire existence, but that didn’t mean he’d treat her differently to others.

“It’s Champion Coop to you, my little initiate.” He chided her, causing her to scowl at his correction.

Coop laughed at her reaction toward his insistence that she use his clearly superior title. It wasn’t something he normally would have done, hesitant as he was to pull rank, but he didn’t mind giving her a taste of her own medicine every once in a while. He wasn’t the only resident of Ghost Reef that had never really bought into her posturing, and even now, he looked at her the same way as the other independent contractors that had previously joined the Lighthouse. She would be a comrade-in-arms, with her fate interwoven with humanity’s, but she wouldn’t have joined them without a lack of better options.

She had spent a long time under the guise of the Avatar of the System, a being so enigmatic they had mistaken her for a goddess, and as it turned out, she was genuine royalty before mana wiped out her planet. The last princess of her people had become a simple Initiate to the freshly formed human faction. It was quite a step down, but Coop hoped she would feel as safe and at home as all the other members.

As they traveled, Coop goaded more and more bits of information out of her, chipping away at her guise. He learned exactly what it meant to be an exile to the galactic community, and how having the system and its connection to mana presented during the assimilation only for it to be ripped away was traumatic, to say the least. They had to relearn to walk, essentially, still surviving with mana while being pushed away, using tech that wasn’t even theirs, on a mission that had been passed down to them.

Becoming an Initiate of any faction was quite the step up when compared to her actual lack of standing, though it came with the downside of having to survive not only another assimilation, but an Eradication Protocol as well. It was a situation that would have been devastating for everyone involved if not for Earth already attracting the attention of the Icons of Mana. As it was, the additions of Lyriel and Palisteon had no impact on the destiny of humanity outside of the positive reinforcement they established.

He got the sense that she and her companion must have been extremely desperate to subject themselves to the whole nightmare scenario once again. Lyriel seemed to view Earth as her last stand, where she would accomplish her goal of freeing the universe from the yoke of mana or die trying.

After only a few days with the Avatar, Coop doubted even the atmosphere of Ghost Reef would be able to break through her underlying cynical forlornness, but it wasn’t like he intended to let any of his companions die. Now that she was a member of his faction, it seemed appropriate to extend that courtesy to her as well, no matter her personal strength, ambitions, or death wishes.

Coop, Lyriel, and Palisteon slowly made their way across the American South, from the core of the Fallen Zone until they reached the Midwest, forcing Coop to move at their pace. Ground that he could have covered in a single day ended up taking almost three.

After crossing the Mississippi Sea and setting off on their journey, they crossed what had previously been the Arkansas Valley between the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains, noting the empty ruins of Little Rock after it had been swallowed up by regrowth. The surviving signage describing the trail from beneath a blooming magnolia tree was the only reason Coop didn’t get them lost in the mountains.

While Lyriel dealt with nearby invaders, Coop stumbled upon huge swathes of wild blackberry bushes that had taken over the sunny portions of the town. He shared some of the berries with Lyriel as a small reward for her diligence. Amusingly, she didn’t know what to do with the handful of fruit, eating so low on her priorities it didn’t even occur to her as an option. She made an unpleasant face after Coop convinced her to try them, but Palisteon wiggled with happiness when he had his share.

As they left Arkansas behind, Lyriel carried one of the sweetly scented white magnolia flowers for a long way before letting Palisteon have it as a snack as well, attempting to satisfy the worm-like creature’s freshly ignited passion for eating. It seemed like the petals were at least as tasty as the berries in the mind of the tiny alien.

They cut through Oklahoma, but Coop struggled a bit with actually charting their progress, being completely unfamiliar with the land. At least he was confident they were going in the correct direction.

On the second day, Lyriel stopped them beside the ruins of a crashed airliner, the front half of the fuselage the only part remaining. She was flabbergasted by the broken technology in the cockpit, comparing it to space-age tech that she had only become familiar with after becoming an exile. Coop had to explain how they used airplanes to travel, but she struggled to accept that the hunk of metal had been capable of flight, despite the evidence of the crash landing extending across the ground. Without the use of mana, she couldn’t make sense of it at all.

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It wasn't until they reached what Coop would describe as a painted desert inside Gloss Mountain State Park, where there was a surviving sign indicating their location, that he had any idea where they had ended up. Lyriel halted their progress once again, this time wary of the creatures flying high in the sky. She admitted that natural flight was nearly as rare as Coop’s teleportation.

As they ventured away from the center of the Fallen Zone, they had seen nothing but Primal Constructs at a relatively high density, leading to Lyriel frequently gliding into small battles. It wasn’t until Oklahoma that they spotted scavengers openly occupying the skies, causing Lyriel to fear an assault until Coop explained that they were just vultures.

The fact that they had high levels threw his companion for a loop, despite being aware of canines and felines on the planet. The variety of life was difficult for her to fully accept, but Coop happily started recalling as many animals as he could identify. His descriptions were aided by the occasional presence of cottontails and jackrabbits, or bobcats and coyotes, raccoons, squirrels, armadillos, box turtles, snakes, bats, songbirds, waterfowl, wild turkey, various raptors, and larger species like pronghorn and mule deer. The further they traveled, the more they saw.

Even though the Fallen Zone had been exclusive to the Primal Constructs, the Elite Primal Insurgents had failed to completely eliminate competition with wildlife. The edges of the alien domain were a warzone even in places outside of human strongholds. Lyriel was clearly uncertain, but the evidence was in their levels.

When they spotted a level 640 black bear chewing the throat out of an Elite Primal Construct variant in the distance, Lyriel had them pause their journey, refusing to explain until it was long gone.

“Are you sure you are the principal species?” She had ultimately asked Coop, perplexed by the presence of so many other examples of what could have been planetary luminaries.

Coop could only shrug, only having the ecology of Earth as a guiding example. The diversity was clearly unusual in a broader sense. He wondered if that was part of the reason for the advanced mana concentrations that she had blamed on humans when she spoke with Coop on the shore of the Mississippi Sea. There were far more than just humans calling this planet home.

Eventually, they made it into Kansas. The windswept prairies had more trees than Coop expected, but he was basing his expectations on the Wizard of Oz and random clips of tornadoes he had seen on the internet. They probably weren’t the most thorough sources of information.

Lyriel was like one of those homing pigeons that could read the magnetosphere of the planet, but in her case it was entirely based around mana. As they drew closer to the civilization shard in the Heartland, she was able to triangulate the direction they needed to follow, ensuring that they wouldn’t get lost, as if Coop wasn’t doing a good enough job.

Coop would have just launched himself into the air and searched by sight, though his eyes were still bothering him, even days after the battles had ended. He would have known if he went too far once he ran into the Rocky Mountains, but if someone asked him to describe the geographic differences between Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, he would have struggled. Given the meeting that was occurring, he assumed he would have noticed the large numbers of people congregating around the settlement, but Lyriel simplified his plan.

Traveling as a group was slower than if Coop had been able to really let his spear throws rip, but he enjoyed the company for what it was. Lyriel was a wealth of information and Palisteon was like a kitten, but one of the furless sphynx cats rather than a ball of fluff. He was cute in an alien way.

Unfortunately, it seemed like they would be arriving at the Heartland a bit late. Coop couldn’t blame his new companions entirely, considering the extended period he had spent fighting the Omega Construct. If he had shaved a few days off that battle, they would have been right on time. He figured it would be fine.

When Coop complained about his eyes, after all the rest of his injuries had faded, Lyriel suggested that it wasn’t the damage that altered his vision. He should have healed otherwise. After some explanation for when his symptoms began, she guessed that Coop had actually opened up a better connection with mana during his battle with the Omega Construct in particular, when his affinities fell out of balance. He experienced an ebb and flow that was impossible for those with only a single affinity and had incorporated some of the effects, almost like seeing light for the first time. She was essentially applying the same ability to guide them toward the nearest civilization shard and it was how she could gauge the progress of the planet without any instruments.

In order to demonstrate her theory, she removed her own blindfold and let him look into her eyes. Just as he expected, they were positively enchanting, but that wasn’t the point. She wanted him to recognize the glowing silver and gold flecks in her irises. They were evidence of her own affinities being what she described as overcharged. Lyriel provided a lecture about how mana was truly everywhere, within everything, and everyone.

Of course, Coop already accepted this, as the system was guiding them to use skills and they clearly drew power from within, depending on the ability. How else would he explain his own skills or those of his many companions? If mana was an actual physical element, it tracked that their mana pools were measurements of internal concentrations, or at least he thought so.

It didn’t matter too much to Coop exactly how it all worked. That his messed up vision could become advantageous if he could somehow get it under control before it faded was the kind of information he wanted. For the moment, it just felt like he needed glasses, or that still had a concussion from banging his head against a tree, but Lyriel claimed that she could help him get used to it in the future.

In the meantime, as they traveled together, she demonstrated a small fraction of her abilities by defeating the countless lingering monsters of the Fallen Zone. Much like in the Yucatan, the destruction of the local domain hadn’t wiped out the monsters that contaminated the land. The same Primal Constructs that assaulted Neptune’s Bridge were scattered all across the continent, contending with the local animals and putting pressure on the nearest settlements.

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Lyriel hovered across the ground and generated a shimmering wall of sparkling white, silver pearl, and iridescent gold mana around her person, forming a cylinder of rather terrifying magical force. She poked and jabbed her construct in such a way that each of her actions were empowered by the energy. The monsters were lanced with searing spikes of mana emitted from her pointed fingertips, completely vulnerable to her superior status. She actively guarded their route, preventing Coop from engaging in any combat, like an overprotective older sister.

Lyriel claimed that he needed to fully recuperate, and that Palisteon needed time to acclimate to the planet, but it seemed like even she was overly concerned with his class level. She couldn’t fully understand how his penalty had been actualized, but she was advanced enough to detect that his progression had been manipulated because his power didn’t match his level. She took it upon herself to protect them all, in spite of his protests.

After a short time, even she began to call the formerly calcified domain the Fallen Zone, though that was a purely human term. To her it was merely a region that had been claimed by the planetary sponsor, a purely standard situation during an assimilation. It was a natural development following the transition of hot spots into Infestations, Hives, strongholds, and beyond. If they had a globe, she would have colored each of the territories controlled by a specific faction in different shades. The Primal Constructs would be massive splotches that covered wide sections of the Earth while each of the settlements would be marked as separate individual bubbles.

For anyone watching the progress of Earth’s assimilation, the loss of such a large percentage of the planetary sponsor’s territory would be a source of great confusion. Normally, the sponsor is essentially participating in a massive land grab. They don’t usually get reversed, but Coop had done something unusual by clearing the Constructs out.

Lyriel’s overprotectiveness gave Coop a chance to make his own plans, and he had some ideas for advancing his build in the future, starting with the Ancient Defenders. Previously, his first levels, and in fact, virtually all of those that had followed were simply him grasping at every opportunity as soon as he recognized them. They came in bursts as he pushed himself to rise to the challenges that appeared in the way of Ghost Reef’s survival or progression. It had taken him six months to climb past level 500. It was an excellent result, but he felt he could do better. Far better.

Depths of Madness had brought a level reset, and while he wouldn’t be building in a new direction, he could embrace his experience and knowledge in order to maximize his efficiency far more than he was able during his first iteration. That was part of the reason why Coop didn’t resist Lyriel’s insistence on behaving like his bodyguard. He was saving his first levels for the specific leveling route that had developed around Ghost Reef, among the monsters that he had already completed Slayer quest chains on.

When he had concluded there was nothing he would change about his progression, he wasn’t entirely accurate, because there was one aspect about his leveling that had always bothered him, but had seemed like a step of efficiency that was impossible to ascertain given the demands of the assimilation. Completing a Slayer quest always gave a level. Whether he was level one, one hundred, or one thousand, each stage of the quest chains bumped his class up by one.

In a perfect world, he wouldn’t complete any Slayer quests until there was no other option to gain experience. That way he would avoid the redundancy of premature diminished returns and reach the absolute maximum level available to him within the assimilation. Even if it slowed the whole process down slightly, it would theoretically give him a higher end point.

Of course, that perfect scenario for leveling was still impossible because it ignored the most limiting factor of all: time. The Eradication Protocol and the amount of time it would take to hunt down last minute Slayer quests meant that he couldn’t possibly wait long enough to perfectly maximize his level, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t improve in his first leveling experience. He was envisioning a pure, relentless grind, followed by hunting down new variants of the Primal Constructs.

Lyriel assured him that there were many months yet before she believed the Eradication Protocol would fully activate. That didn’t mean that Icons of Mana would simply wait to arrive, as had been proven several times already, but it did mean that Coop could focus on efficiently gaining his levels, at least in the beginning.

Coop smiled to himself as he wondered just how far he could push his leveling speed, knowing that he could delay the gradual slowdown that had only been prevented through the timing of special events. Could he grind even faster without Siege Events and Fallen Zones bolstering him beyond the natural resistance of increased experience requirements? He thought it might be possible and he couldn’t wait to get back home to get started, but first he had to let some people know that the Fallen Zone was dead.