Unchosen Champion-Chapter 328: Phase One Complete

Coop slowly emerged from the sweeping darkness that filled the larger monster-infested caverns, over 100 layers beneath Ghost Reef. The monsters were well under control after experiencing a grind session with the Champion, but his formidable presence maintained a frightful atmosphere for the underground hollows.

A haze of abyssal mana made it seem like the shadows were clinging to his form as he stepped forward. If anyone witnessed his current appearance, he might have seemed like a glowy-eyed evil spirit originating from the Earthly depths, born from black smoke and ghostly vapors, but the satisfied smile on his face contrasted such an assessment. His satisfaction was unmistakable, though there was no audience to share it with.

He took a deep breath and stretched his shoulders, his half-lidded eyes only partially focused in the darkness. He had let his increasingly comfortable mana-sight and Presence of Mind substitute for his regular senses in the harsh environment of pitch darkness, using the unique setting to train in more ways than one. The dim glow from his irises were barely perceptible, but anyone that looked close enough would detect the small evolution that had aided him in adapting to the subterranean habitats so comfortably.

He was pretty tired, but he wouldn’t say he was exhausted in the way that some of his more demanding adventures had made him. Physically, he was in peak shape. The mental fatigue that was slowly building as he spent day after day in the maze of caves surrounding the chasm was also well-managed, but even with regular breaks, it was impossible to completely resist the psychological drain. Reaching a milestone in his levels was a welcome salve that took some weight off his shoulders.

He had plenty of motivation to keep going, whether it came from a sense of duty, desperation, or competition, but repeating the same actions over and over, hour after hour, day after day, eventually took a toll, even on him. The days and nights spent in the darkness had started to bleed together. Technically, he had changed settings multiple times, briefly visiting a wide variety of developments on the way, but the majority of his time was spent in dark caves. All of the underground had been formed by the same geological forces when mana activated, and as a result, he was hard-pressed to notice many significant differences from one day to the next. The redundancy of the monsters he was deliberately hunting didn’t help.

The Ruin Excavators were essentially the same, no matter where he fought them. Giving them 25, 50, or 100 more levels increased their stats, but not their habits. They still ambushed and swarmed, utilizing their abilities with slightly more Agility or Strength, applying debuffs that were marginally more potent if compared to a constant baseline. But even that was a stretch, hardly perceptible relative to his own gains within the same span. With each level, Coop was growing distinctly stronger, and the monsters couldn’t compare even if given twice as many levels per iteration. Doubling his stat gains and then multiplying them across his status was simply unfair.

Ruin Excavators, like most of the Primal Construct variants, were a simple puzzle that had already been solved. Each pack was a bit like doing a 10 piece jigsaw puzzle: not particularly complicated: and moving to the next group was like taking it apart and doing it over again. It was still satisfying to complete, and placing each piece provided a certain gratification with the tactile response and physical exertion, but some variety would have been nice, even if it was just a different piece of art or some variance in the number of segments.

Coop chuckled at the thought, wondering if maybe he should feel embarrassed about finding a puzzle for babies entertaining, but he wasn’t ashamed at all. His happiness wasn’t conditional on outside judgments.

But there was a limit to such spartan amusement, even for Coop. To make matters worse, there were new frontiers, unexplored caves, and alternative monster variants just on the edge of his expansive monster rotations. If he wandered just a bit off course, he was almost guaranteed to find something new and unfamiliar. His desire to explore fought to distract him, and he only avoided going off course by remembering that the mana well was next.

The edges of the underground complex, expanding from the chasm and its pearlescent chambers, had only been explored in a few select places, where intrepid adventurers had made a point to uncover if there was an end at all. That meant that if Coop was so inclined, he could have gone on an expedition to discover new rock features, different alien variants, and even pioneering native life, but he already had a mission. Unfortunately, it would be a bit longer before he could allow himself such distractions.

Coop was well-suited for putting himself into a hyper-focused mindset while grinding, where his consciousness was zeroed in on the kind of micro adjustments necessary for iterating on the same basic tasks as he sought an impossible level of efficiency. Such intensive concentration wasn’t for everyone.

However, his simple but persistent pursuit toward maximization of his actions was, like experience gains, subject to diminishing returns. He wasn’t even shaving off fractions of seconds any more. If anything, when it came to Ruin Excavators, he had stopped making progress toward improving his efficiency days prior. Even optimizing his routes through the caves had started to blend between the days, with the environments exhibiting similar characteristics that carried throughout the depths. Instead, he had merely been fighting to avoid slipping backwards and losing milliseconds as small amounts of fatigue or distraction threatened to interfere with his concentration and therefore his grind. Comfort and intensity were poor bedfellows.

If only he could remove the deadlines from his self-improvement project, he might have the most productive post-mana hobby of all time. He felt like the additional pressure created by the deadlines was the enemy of his satisfaction. It was as though he wasn’t allowed to just be content with a smooth grind. He had to keep pushing in order to not only win the race to 500, but also prove that modifying Depths of Madness with Quantum Insanity and resetting his level to 0 was the correct choice. He had to become stronger than he would have been if he fought through the penalty and continued from where he left off after conquering the Fallen Zone.

Of course, every time he hit a new level and applied 10 attribute points to his Mind stat, his confidence in Quantum Insanity was reinforced. There was no way he would underperform when he was gaining stats at such an accelerated rate. But even if he made satisfactory improvements, he still had the Eradication Protocol to contend with. The threat was always there, lingering in the back of his mind, applying pressure that manifested into anxiety which transformed into fatigue. He chased it away with progress, but then questioned if it was enough.

Shaking his head at himself, he stepped into the dim light, leaving his abyssal haze to blend with the mists, and approached the scattered mana torches that lined one of the passageways. They would lead him back toward civilization. Not just any civilization, he reminded himself, but the one that he had helped build and was growing like crazy. He could certainly feel a bit of pride toward Ghost Reef. His hard work had earned a bit of a respite.

His skin reflected the low light, slicked with sweat, the damp air, and misty vapors. The remnants of Fog of War lingered in his wake, the last wisps dissipating as he skipped across the jagged rock floor, avoiding cracks and gaps that led deeper. He dismissed his weapons when he finally landed on the smoothed pathway managed by the residents and phantoms.

Coop marched through the rugged caves, eventually passing carved chambers and fledgling lichen farms, lit by mana crystals, feeling better and better as he went. He was beyond satisfied with his progress so far, and though he wasn’t even halfway to the first finish line, it was only a matter of time. He checked his status, feeling stronger, faster, and tougher than ever before.

[Status]

HP - 36890/36890

MP - 121995/142560

Class - Revenant (Level 200)

Profession - Scavenging (Level 415)

Affinity - Spectral, Abyssal

Race - Human (Icon)

Faction - The Lighthouse

Strength - 125 (+7128)

Agility - 125 (+3564)

Body - 125 (+3564)

Mind - 5280 (+1848)

Intelligence - 125 (+7128)

Acumen - 125 (+3564)

Unallocated - 0

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

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Skills (Active) - Mistwalking

Skills (Passive) - Depths of Madness

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

Basic Credits - 40,566,827

Coop sucked air between his teeth, somehow still caught by surprise as he acknowledged his absurd mana pool. “142,000… What in the world?” He mumbled to himself.

That was just a ridiculous amount, and given his thoughts on what the system was representing with its calculations, it was difficult to wrap his head around. They were all creatures of mana after it activated on the planet, but he was becoming more and more attuned in ways that seemed like no one fully understood.

Coop couldn’t help but ask himself if there was a limit to their capacity to access mana. A brief contemplation as he strolled through the dimly lit passageways led him to conclude that if there was, it would be astronomically high.

They had limited knowledge as to what mana actually was, but they had been operating under the presumption that it really was a physical thing bonded on an atomic level to all matter. If that interpretation was close to accurate, and a single point of mana represented an individually activated mana particle, then he couldn’t imagine how high the numbers could actually go. How many atoms were in the human body? Were they even limited to their own cells? Coop wondered what else would be impacted by the physical existence of mana. Was that why experience gains worked the way it did? Could it be influenced by physical forces? Was that why geography seemed to create mana-rich and mana-poor locations that the invaders sought and avoided? Could it be contaminated? Was it the contaminant, spreading as it accumulated in different environments?

He shuddered as he felt a dam break in his mind, releasing too many questions all at once that he simply didn’t have the bandwidth to address. There were too many unknown variables to even begin considering what were essentially existential questions for the galactic community. For Coop, all that mattered was that he continued to progress, and clearly, he was moving forward in leaps and bounds. He only needed to look at his mana pool to confirm that much.

The reason why he was calling it a day so early was that he had reached level 200. He was high enough level to leave the variants that he had already slayed for their quests behind. The first phase was done and the top level of the Coral Forest Mana Well was within his grasp as he firmly entered their window of levels. He eagerly anticipated another inevitable boost as the unique elite mana creatures provided another avenue of growth.

The limits of normal monsters became more and more obvious as he jumped through tiers of experience. He had gone from gaining easily over 30 levels per day in the optimal setting, to struggling to reach beyond 15. Fighting the same monsters in the same environment while sliding the window forward had given him a chance to eliminate many other variables outside of relative level, but he was still feeling the pressure to push more and more to meet the same thresholds as he and his opponents reached higher points.

Entering the mana well would have his enemies move up a rank, maintaining Elite status instead of just being normal monsters, so he expected them to represent a nice boost in experience gains per kill. If only there was a way to have a boss rush, a scenario like when the Region Boss of the Fallen Zone had thrown so many Field Bosses into the fray, then he could face opponents even further in status and gain that much more experience with each enemy defeated. Unfortunately, it seemed like Elites would be the highest rank available to defeat en masse.

He had successfully avoided any new Slayer titles on the way, and he was one step closer to finally granting himself permission to seek them out. The only mission left was the second phase of his plan, where he sought as much quick experience gains as he could from the mana well. It would certainly be a massive jump toward his first goal in reaching level 500 before anyone else.

He had to recognize the insane increase in his profession levels as well. Finally digging into a proper grind on regular variants had provided an absolute bonanza of material loot and small credit rewards. Scavenging was absolutely exploding as a result. If there was one downside to entering the mana well, it was that his profession gains would take a backseat. He almost didn’t want to give up the current ratio that had appeared in his status, but he reminded himself that it was only a temporary routine. Once he was actually hitting up the Slayer quests, his profession would be suitably rewarded once again.

The real show stopper in his status were his attributes, naturally. He had already surpassed his previous high point when he had eclipsed level 500 after fighting the first Region Boss. In fact, he was officially stronger in every aspect when compared to before his level was reset by Quantum Insanity. His class level hadn’t recovered, but that didn’t matter aside from dictating the level of his grind targets and his placement on the leaderboards.

“So far, so good.” Coop concluded, feeling like the first phase of his rebuild was coming to a successful close.

He dismissed his status, then paused, his step hesitating, as if he subconsciously realized he had missed something after going through his standard routine. He reopened his status in the next second. One word on an oft ignored line had caught his eye. ‘Upgrade City to Metropolis (Complete).’

“Well, damn.” Coop muttered, caught by surprise after missing the notification among hundreds of thousands of other messages while he defeated monsters. “Guess I better turn that in.” He concluded.

Somehow, the settlement upgrade quest that had seemed the most impossible had ended up requiring the least amount of work to complete. At least it had been easy for him. He was sure Marcus and the other advisors to Ghost Reef had been toiling away while recruiting ever since the Underlayer Event was wrapped up. Coop couldn’t help but shake his head as the settlement itself developed alongside him.

The upgrade quest lacked a bonus objective and most of the previous rewards seemed to have been designed to help establish a proper settlement in the future. Coop wondered if the later stages would be less rewarding simply by virtue of the system assuming that the civilization shard was already well founded. Still, every little bit helped.

He shrugged to himself as he remembered that he would also get an upgrade to his Champion title at the very least. The quest completion was practically free, so he wouldn’t complain, though rather than taking no effort, it was more like he was able to harvest from the personal expenditures he had committed in the earlier stages of the assimilation.

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Beyond the personal benefit, the settlement would expand further and they would be less restricted by the shard’s mana limits as those would increase as well. Other than that, the only other tangible benefit he could think of was that the phantoms would have their maximum level increased yet again, though it had been so long that he checked up on them he actually had no idea what their current limit was and whether they had already reached it.

He’d really spent a lot of time away, focused on external threats and conditioning himself to be ready for more. Unfortunately, it seemed like neither the assimilation nor mana had any intention of giving him a break.

It was fine. He nodded to himself, as he curled his wrist while clenching his fist, feeling the tension build in his forearm, like a small reminder of the rewarding self-improvements that he was currently receiving for his diligence. He checked the leaderboards to see how his competition was doing.

Day 194

Charlie Seraphin (Level 350) Camila Alvarez (Level 340) Platinum (Level 338) Imara (Level 327) Sila Tupua (Level 325) Gibson (Level 320) Sefu (Level 318) Shane Peters (Level 315) Toby Jackman (Level 314) Azizi (Level 313)154,829,252. Coop (Level 200)

While Charlie had managed to gain a steady two levels per day, despite her advanced level, all those who were participating in the clean up of the remnants in the Fallen Zone had received three or more. He knew the residents of Ghost Reef were contending with significant diminishing returns, or were forced to hunt in untouched locations further afield from the settlement, but they were still putting up respectable numbers. It was the rest that were a moderate surprise.

Coop grunted to himself, feeling like he more or less expected select individuals to accelerate their experience gains by approximately so much, but he hadn’t really believed that so many were capable. There weren’t just a few people blasting ahead, but actually hundreds just in the top 1000. The top end of the leaderboards was shifting, and they were even progressing faster than anyone from Ghost Reef, though most of them had lots of ground to cover to catch up with the steady growth of his residents.

Still, he had to admit to being impressed, but then again, when he looked at his own progress, his confidence was reinforced. He had been grinding for almost 10 days, and had gained roughly 20 levels a day since then. Of course, the fact that he had level appropriate enemies to focus on was a big part of his speed, and he had finally surpassed the level that regular variants would be expected to reach without other factors influencing their growth. That meant from here on out, grinding normal monsters would slow down as the gap between his and their levels increased.

Of course, that’s why he had planned to seek out alternatives. The next time he hunted regular monsters, it would be in pursuit of the levels granted from completing each step of the Slayer quest chains rather than experience from defeating his targets. And before that, he could still claim more levels in the Coral Forest as their accelerated growth and increased rank would widen the window for him to take advantage of their experience.

His rank had already surpassed half of the remaining humans, which matched their expectations. It seemed like the residents of Ghost Reef boasted a higher floor than the rest of the world and if he were to make a guess based on his own progress, he would say that they were roughly 100 levels higher than the rest.

Coop hummed, wondering if his new leveling route ended up being successful enough, maybe they could encourage more people to follow it. It was something he would keep in mind as he climbed his way back into the top of the leaderboards.