Unchosen Champion-Chapter 324: Hidden Hegemon

Coop stretched his shoulders as he strolled along one of the beachside pathways that circumnavigated Rock Key. He was letting the footpath guide him away from the overgrown mangrove forest, around the edge of the island, where the open beach transitioned into low dunes. Coconuts had been lined up all along the trail, acting like a miniature retaining wall that kept most of the sand off the custom stepping stones, but the rest was swept by the passing feet of regular phantom patrols and human hunters intent on keeping Ghost Reef safe. Other than individual pioneering trees, no taller than Coop’s chest, he was passing through open land with a clear view of the rest of the island, from the lighthouse to the fort.

At the moment, the air was completely still. Coop’s calm motion was the only real disturbance without any breeze sweeping across the shore and penetrating the interior. The dunegrasses were static patches, almost like they were asleep, waiting for the day to begin, and the stunted trees further inland were patiently waiting for day to break.

Coop triggered the start of the day’s activity with his mere presence. Land crabs waved their larger claws toward him, almost like they were beckoning him over, before rushing into their holes when he incidentally got too close by just following along the path. Roosting birds paused their sleepy preening to watch him go.

It was early enough in the day that the sun hadn’t fully risen beyond the sea on the eastern side of the island. When he glanced up, the sky was a mixture of deep blues and purples, streaked with long wispy clouds of red and pink. The stars were still visible in the darker portions of the sky, though they weren’t nearly as bright and numerous as they had been throughout the night. In only a few more minutes, the last of them would fade and the first light of dawn would shine across the horizon.

The ocean ahead of him mirrored the sky, reflecting the increasing change of colors, its surface shimmering with the subtle glow of the day to come. Only two ghost ships were moving on the western portion of the island, their small wakes establishing the only visible waves anywhere on the horizon, extending what could have been miles behind each. One ship was quietly leaving the port while the other cruised through the main channel to dock in the harbor. Neither used the bells, easily able to coordinate between themselves with sight alone. It seemed like it would be a bit longer before the island was properly awake.

The gentle lapping of the waves on the beaches was too quiet to discern and the palm fronds hung idly in the stillness, but the early birds were starting to break the silence. They chirped and cooed, announcing themselves as they started the day. Coop appreciated the enduring tranquility, catching the last glimpse of it as he ended his second full grind. He had concluded a bit earlier than the previous day, accepting that the level gap he had created between himself and the Serpents and Devourers was growing a bit too large to stick around.

He took a moment to look back, past the mangrove forest, to where the sky was quickly being painted by the colors of a vibrant sunrise, heralding the start of another excellent day. He couldn’t contain the contented smile at being home once again. He missed being able to appreciate fleeting moments like these. He took a deep breath, looking forward to cleaning up, resting a bit, and then doing it all again.

Following along behind him, exiting the wall of undiminished mists that had encased the mangrove forest, were dozens of spear-wielding phantasms. They stepped through the fog bank with confidence, like victorious warriors returning home from battle. A parade of them formed, ever increasing as he had gone a bit overboard with the support of the Eternal Spear city title.

His many lingering manifestations made it seem like it was a shift-change at a major factory. The night shift was done, and they were heading home after a hard day’s work. If not for their ghostly appearances and varied cultural representations, they might have really been mistaken for old-timey coal miners, coated in ethereal dust as they were released for the day. The sabre-tooth tiger pelts, egyptian helmets, and ancient armors gave them away as something completely different.

The ghosts drifted away, returning to the mists one at a time, reflecting the time since their last kills and Coop opened his status to see just how much he had gained once he was the last man on the trail.

[Status]

HP - 21500/21500

MP - 4460/81000

Class - Revenant (Level 57)

Profession - Scavenging (Level 245)

Affinity - Spectral, Abyssal

Race - Human (Icon)

Faction - The Lighthouse

Strength - 125 (+4050)

Agility - 125 (+2025)

Body - 125 (+2025)

Mind - 3000 (+1050)

Intelligence - 125 (+4050)

Acumen - 125 (+2025)

Unallocated - 0

Titles - Champion IV, Haunted, Ethereal, Reaper II, Slayer XI, Dauntless, Defiant, Stalwart, Reckless, Stacked, Valor XXIV, Siegebreaker, Underking, Mindbender, Insane

Skills (Active) - Mistwalking

Skills (Passive) - Depths of Madness

Quests - Fortune Seeker (22/50), Upgrade City to Metropolis

Basic Credits - 19,675,717

“3000.” Coop acknowledged his base Mind stat, always happy to see the numbers going up, and especially satisfied when catching whole numbers as he collected more attributes.

However, his excitement was partially repressed. Only 22 class levels was somehow a disappointment. He supposed it was because he was unfairly comparing it to the ridiculous 35 he had gained in the first day, but he was still sure he could do better. The gain in profession levels had increased, from day to day, going from 19 to 24, in contrast. He felt like that indicated a more successful hunt, at least in terms of raw number of kills.

Obviously, he had lingered in the Mangrove Forest too long. Maybe a half a day would have been sufficient, but once he had Fog of War rolling with hundreds of phantasms from his boosted Legacy of the Mists, it felt wrong to dismiss the domain and move on while he could still squeeze out more progress. In terms of kills, it had been an extremely efficient setup, probably as close to a king of the hill-style grind from the Underlayer as he could ever hope to recreate with the spawns of regular variants on the surface.

He was almost stubborn enough to go back and see exactly how many levels he could force out of that particular leveling zone, like he would conduct a limit test for experience yields. As long as he was gaining more than five levels a day, he was absolutely crushing it, and diminishing returns hadn’t suppressed his growth that much just yet, but he knew that he would be shooting himself in the foot by lingering in one place for too long. He couldn’t tunnel-vision on a single farm area when there were others within his optimal window elsewhere in his territory.

Coop shook his head at himself, identifying the minor misjudgment and expelled it from his thoughts in the future. He wasn’t the same Revenant as he had been when he first explored these hunting areas, desperate for every minor gain to increase his future chances of successful battles. His tendencies needed to better reflect his advancements.

“I need to be more aggressive.” He asserted with the rising sun at his back, already casting long shadows through the twisting mangrove branches across the rest of the island.

The actual number of levels he had gained was enormous, far beyond even his personal hopes and dreams, but that didn’t matter. His goal wasn’t to barely meet some arbitrary total, like 500, and call it a day, nor was it to wring out as much experience from any particular set up as possible. The greed for progression that he harbored deep within his heart demanded that he gain all the levels, not just some of them, and the pressure of the Eradication Protocol demanded that he do it with some measure of efficiency. The competition to reach 500 had given one arbitrary deadline, but becoming as strong as possible over the long term lacked such restrictions. He couldn’t push his limits if he allowed himself to be satisfied by a single route so easily.

Internally, he felt the drive to progress burning. He hadn’t lost his hunger, but he also remembered the key to longevity. A short break and a bit of routine would pay dividends in the long run, and no matter how fast he went, he was focused on long term goals. If he couldn’t defeat fully empowered Icons of Mana, who would care if he was the strongest human, and if he couldn’t stand up to the elders of the galactic community, what would it matter if Ghost Reef rose from the ashes of the Eradication Protocol.

For the third day of his grind, he would head underground. Supposedly, the range of levels that Ruin Excavators provided was much wider than any of the other leveling zones found around Ghost Reef. There were portions of their populations unaffected by the taming effect of shard territory, having existed in the caverns before the civilization shard sufficiently spread its territory to influence them.

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Coop nodded to himself, mission reaffirmed, and focus solidified. He would do his best to maximize the benefits of his downtime, seeking the mental reset that wasn’t always available on extended challenges. He knew that if he didn’t, he would reach a level of exhaustion that hurt his efficiency, just as he had in previous challenges.

When he entered his lighthouse, Sunny perked up, having still been on the verge of waking up. Coop sat down, seeing the perfect opportunity to follow through on his promise, and took a few minutes just rubbing the retriever’s head, scratching behind his ears, and smoothing the fur down his back. He hummed in satisfaction as Sunny enjoyed the attention.

When that was done and they were both pleased, he headed for another shower. Shedding the dried salt, caked on muck, and mana smoke residue from his skin left him feeling fully relaxed.

Lyriel was passed out in his bed, one arm stretched across the empty space while her opposite forearm rested over her eyes. The blindfold was hanging from one of the bedposts. He snorted at the complete vulnerability of the Avatar of the System, protected only by a bedsheet and half folded bed cover. He never imagined she would take him up on the suggestion to try properly resting, but judging by the wheezing, she was in a deep sleep.

Before leaving her alone, he nodded at Palisteon, who was playfully hopping along the headboard. Just the day before, as she questioned how Coop spent his downtime, he had been trying to explain the benefits he saw from napping to Lyriel, regardless of how mana conducted all of the physical processes necessary to keep them going. She had been quick to dismiss his suggestions, skeptical that such a waste of time would be worth indulging. It seemed like he got through to her in the end, or maybe she thought she could experiment in secret. He chuckled to himself, like he caught her hand in the cookie jar.

On his way out of the lighthouse, freshened up and ready to go, he scooped up Jett, who had appeared just outside the front door. He flipped her against his chest, supporting her in his arm like a cradle while scratching her chin with his other hand. She probably wanted to go to bed herself, but Coop wanted to selfishly claim some of her free time as well.

He carried her with him as he crossed the island once more, this time from south to north, in order to visit the fort and have an early breakfast in the tavern before all the workers gathered at the service buildings for another round of resource gathering. Jett didn’t make a single sound of protest, just serenading them both with a low purr that Coop translated as tolerance of his actions. He inspected her aura, out of curiosity, knowing that she was a consistent performer when it came to hunting.

[Awakened Cat (Level 523)]

[Sentinel of Shadows (Agility)]

[Venerated of the Blessed Mau Collective]

[Sharp, Dark, Silent (Hidden Hegemon)]

“You beast.” He muttered, rubbing his thumb from her forehead to her nose, causing her eyes to squeeze shut. “How dare you beat me to 500?” He whispered.

Coop thought it was a good thing the leaderboards didn’t intermingle all of the different species. He was afraid he wasn’t much of a contender if they considered the many animals out there, grinding even harder than he was. He checked his place, knowing he’d have to leave it with whoever was working the tavern.

Day 187

Charlie Seraphin (Level 335) Camila Alvarez (Level 330) Platinum (Level 311) Gibson (Level 309) Imara (Level 307) Buck Cleary (Level 302) Sila Tupua (Level 299) Sefu (Level 296) Emmanuel Seraphin (Level 295) Alex Nova (Level 295)401,836,309. Coop (Level 57)

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He wasn’t exactly sure what to make of his rank. Only something like 30,000,000 people were below his level which made him wonder exactly what the average position would be. If they went by galactic standards, only the highest levels would manage one level per day, but that was a benchmark that was only accurate in the earliest period, one that even Earth had already left behind. Realistically, they should be much lower, but with humans in particular, he had higher expectations.

To him, it made sense that the benchmarks would quickly become useless. There were too many variables between different planets, species, and planetary sponsors to compare them all equally. But given that levels were a roundabout way to measure concentrations of mana and Lyriel suggested they were in a sort of competition to gather as much as possible before the Icons of Mana could use it for themselves, he thought the apparently high average level of humans was a good thing. He hoped that as many people as possible were ahead of the one level per day threshold. Charlie and Camila were still closer to gaining two levels per day than one.

Meanwhile, a handful of the individual powerhouses participating in the subjugation effort around the former Fallen Zone were climbing into the ranks of Ghost Reef residents. At first, it had only been a few who had also spent enough time fighting within the Underlayer to have avoided falling too far behind, but the appearance of Alex Nova represented a change that demonstrated the experience opportunities in the wild untamed lands. At the moment, residents of Ghost Reef were at a minor disadvantage, not having any special event bolstering their levels.

In the past it wouldn’t have been a problem, as their diligent efforts to gain levels wouldn’t have been matched elsewhere, but times had changed, and more humans than ever were chasing the gap that Coop had left at the top. Of course, he was too, and with over 50 levels in two days, it felt like he had a clear shot at making it back to first. His momentum was coming back.

Once he entered the Clumsy Shark, he was happily greeted by Maeve. She noticed his barely suppressed excitement and leaned into him as she guided him to a seat. Gibson and two members of his party welcomed him to their table, as they prepared for their own early start.

“You gonna make a push?” Coop wondered, referring to how Gibson was falling behind Platinum and Imara was gaining on him.

Gibson shook his head. “No. We’re sticking to our normal schedule. We’ll see if others have the legs to keep up with our regular pace.”

“Where are you hunting that you can keep getting steady levels?” Coop wondered.

“We really only have two options if we stay home. Either the Mana Well or exploring new caverns in the underground.” Gibson explained. “Either way, it's a long trip before finding things appropriate for our level.”

Coop raised his eyebrows, surprised that the underground caverns had that many opportunities. “There’s that much stuff down there?” He questioned.

Gibson nodded as he put his drink down. “There’s bound to be a limit, but we haven’t found it yet.”

“What about for me? Any secret spots around level 75?” He asked, drawing an exchange of looks between the experienced party members.

Coop kept Jett in his lap as he ate, receiving guidance from the company as to where they thought he should hunt in the underground specifically. The Adventurer Guild had precise guides, even for the caverns, but they stuck to fully explored locations to avoid putting new recruits in overly dangerous situations. When it came to the caves beyond the pearlescent chambers, there were only a few outlined, covering approximately the same amount of area as the grind zones on the surface for each bracket, but if Ghost Reef’s population was leveling in the darkness of hundreds of layers, there was bound to be more.

Gibson and his party members cooperated with Coop, giving him plenty of information and options. They were the foremost experts in this particular exercise, after all. Gibson had turned the corner in terms of power by tapping into the Light in the same way that Coop used the Mists, and he had learned how to do so as his party explored and tamed the darkness on behalf of the settlement.

“Whenever you reach one of the more open caverns, you’re gonna want to stick to the left most passages.” Gibson reiterated after explaining one of the many options and their top recommendation for his particular level bracket. “That'll keep you circling the central chambers in a wide loop. None of the bigger ones are directly connected to the safe zones. There’s always intermediary zones to use as landmarks.”

The stern lady nodded along before adding her own soft suggestion. “Shouldn’t you take someone along to guide you back when you’re done?” She wondered, thinking of a lifeline for Coop in case he wandered too far, but Gibson shook his head.

“He won’t need it.” Gibson declared. “I know it used to take us two weeks to go all the way around that section, back when we first started clearing the caves, but it’s only a few levels down. I have a feeling our young Champion here will have no issues.”

“You saw him tear through the Kites, right?” The other party member added. “Bet it’s more like that than our sluggish progress.”

Coop shrugged between spoonfuls as they looked to see how he took their input, not particularly worried himself. Unlike the sinkholes he had explored in the Yucatan, he wasn’t worried about getting stuck in Ghost Reef’s territory. If he couldn’t figure out how to navigate his own backyard, he didn’t really have any business exploring the rest of the world.

They had ultimately settled on sending him to a circuit only six levels down from the surface, close enough that teleporters weren’t really necessary, and there were apparently dozens of routes leading back to the main chambers. This was an area where the Ruin Excavators would range from level 50 to 75, but he could either expand his loop or move to a lower location to find slightly different ranges that escalated in predictable segments.

If he went too far away from the central chambers, the monsters would be higher level, but they would also be mixed with some of the other variants that formed nests in the darkness. Coop was still hanging onto the idea of saving his Slayer quests until he had something more like 200 levels under his belt, and probably many more if he could properly dig into the Mana Well.

“What about the darkness?” The other member of Gibson’s party spoke up.

Coop glanced at Gibson, curious what he meant.

“I usually call upon The Light to provide illumination.” The party leader explained. “There is a network of chambers that have been installed with mana-powered lights. That’s where most parties go to hunt, but if you’re covering more ground you might be passing through sections that don’t have such installations.” Gibson frowned as he considered a unique issue for someone like Coop, who was planning on locking down an area that had occupied the entire settlement for a period of time after the Siege Event by himself.

“If that’s all it is, I’ll be fine.” Coop told him not to worry. “I’ve got a bunch of elixirs, but my aura skills are also probably enough by now.” He continued, thinking his mana sight would likely also come into play. If he could detect the Primal Kites with just his eyes, he thought he might be able to do the same for the Ruin Excavators in the darkness.