Unchosen Champion-Chapter 346: Third Phase

Coop waded through shallow water, blindfolded, but still seeing. He was moving slowly, as if he was carefully choosing each step, overwhelmed by an inundation of detail.

The lighthouse loomed behind him, shining like a massive lantern of ghostly energy. The spectral relic housed in the lightroom was like a barely contained turquoise star when viewed within the monochromatic world of mists. It pulsed and warped its surroundings as it emitted waves of immense energy into the settlement territory. Its center was difficult to look at, shining with such intense power that it felt like staring into a continuous slow motion welding arc, especially when compared to the soothing gradient of gray that was prominently displayed throughout the spectral plane of mists. The thin panels of glass hardly diminished its potency and the splash of unusual color bursting from its core only enhanced the impressive display.

Off to the side, the mana well was even more expressive, erupting with a constant flow of deep purple and bluish black, highlighted by tiny pops of vibrant neon pinks and greens. The energy flowed gradually, as if its staggering size forced it to be nearly still. The plume was constantly climbing high into the sky before drifting toward Ghost Reef’s center, barely influenced by unseen forces as mana interacted with itself. The Coral Forest poured energy into the territory, expelling it like a partially frozen fountain, letting it flood thousands of feet into the air before streaming away.

If Coop hadn’t claimed the domain, he was pretty sure the settlement territory and the mana well would have been clearly distinguished from each other. The entrance was like a sealed membrane that was now allowing energy to freely pass through.

Coop took a moment to direct his attention toward the sky, subconsciously tilting his head to glance upwards, despite the blindfold, in an effort to make sense of everything. The monochromatic world of mists presented depth through an indistinct vaporous fog, making it feel like the whole world was wrapped in a blanket of gossamer froth. The abyssal depths were the opposite, like sinking into the completely open ocean, without any obstructions limiting the sharpness of perception beside the natural nadir of light itself. Both were visible at the same time, not exactly competing, but still distracting from each other.

Outside of the two conduits of energy, the atmosphere itself was a constantly shifting medley of nebulous currents. Even the calm clouds contained visible amounts of concentrated power, like they had been electrified before the breeze carried them over the island. Whether the sky beyond was an endless black abyss, a misty vapor, or a clear blue depended entirely on the whims of his brain and its ability to both distinguish and regroup his perception.

Further back, mana overlayed the fortified walls of Ghost Reef, standing slightly taller and barely thicker than the stone itself. The overlapping layers of actual stone and stone constructs made it seem as if it had all been rebuilt by solid oversized blocks of translucent mana after being reinforced by Balor and Jones. Each block was enormous, with only the borders seeming solid enough to be visible on their own. He felt like it was a crystal fortress on a stone fortress, existing in every plane of mana.

Another jet of what seemed like pure mana energy, a clear white spotlight, disturbed the atmosphere, extending from the civilization shard to the edge of the settlement territory above. It was a pure font of power, slicing to the top of their territory, then bleeding along the perimeter. Ghost Reef was a beacon of activity, and not just because of the many residents. He better understood how Dan the mana scout and Lyriel were both able to isolate shards, even from great distances.

The many ghost ships also had their own flares of aquamarine energy drifting from their sails, blending into the atmosphere like the streams of smoke from a candle extinguished by a swirling breeze. They were camouflaged against the horizon by virtue of matching energies. Even the ocean itself contained energized currents, with the reefs sending waves of cosmic steam toward the surface like hot coals dropped into a freezing meadow, further complicating the landscape. He was seeing too much.

Combined with Presence of Mind, which gave him a panoramic perspective centered on himself, extending a distance based on his own mana level, and Coop honestly felt like he was inhabiting an avatar in a third-person open-world video game. He was fully immersed in the setting, feeling the warm waves as they splashed against his shins, smelling the salt on the breeze as it caressed his skin and cooled his sun-kissed limbs, and each individual grain of sand as they scattered between his toes with each step, all while having his consciousness expanded beyond the single point.

At the same time, he could clearly recognize that it was another beautiful day on Ghost Reef, with the sound of palm fronds rolling in the wind and lazy waves lapping onto the beach. He wasn’t losing anything from enduring the additional stimuli. Everything was simply enhanced and overlaid upon itself.

It was extremely weird. He could ‘see’ the horizon like normal, but he could also sense it through supplementary means, and each revealed a different distance. His vision was simultaneously clouded, obstructed by mana, while being heightened at the same time, so that the information passed to his mind even if light never reached his retinas. It didn’t seem like something he could maintain all the time, like Lyriel, unless he was willing to permanently mute his normal senses.

Coop remembered how Lyriel had suggested his first foray into tapping into his mana sight had been caused by overcharging his affinities. He hadn’t really understood what she meant at the time, but with the help of his new unique item, he better appreciated the assessment. Overcharging sounded right because he could feel that if he pushed too hard, he would burn something out. Whether the strain was on his eyes or his brain, or maybe even his self-identity, he wasn’t exactly sure. He was certainly more in tune with spectral and abyssal energy, that much was for sure.

In a way, he thought it was all sort of a corollary to the power granted by the apparitions when he was possessed through Inheritance of the Mists. Instead of physically tearing apart as he tried to wield excessive power, his senses were being pushed beyond their limits in order to be immersed and perceive the power that was all around them.

The simple act of traveling between islands in his home territory had been transformed into an augmented reality experience that almost felt forbidden. He honestly wasn’t sure if humans were ready to comprehend what he was construing as other dimensions wrapped onto their reality. He certainly wasn’t. His senses had moved beyond a simple expansion of perception. It was something like being able to visualize heat or ultraviolet light while simultaneously maintaining the normal range of sight.

Everything was further complicated by making all of his senses effectively omnidirectional. He still had depth perception when it came to sight and sound, but it was coming from all directions at once. The mere act of walking across the main island, after covering his eyes with the runed blindfold, had left him nauseous enough to take a break on the stoop of his lighthouse.

The strange sensations of essentially losing his sense of self, disconnecting from the anchor that was a normal human perspective, was complicated, to say the least. Coop was actually primed to handle such a test, given his experience with Presence of Mind and Fog of War as early as the first waves of the Siege Event, as well as Lyriel’s helpful guidance tapping into manasight after his bout with the Omega Construct. Even mistjumping had introduced him to the alternative planes that existed in a reality where mana was activated, and Vaporform had further increased his proficiency. Still, he couldn’t handle overcharging his mana sense.

He slid the blindfold down, turning it into a wild rag, embracing the many other benefits of his newest item aside from the deep dive into the mana he currently resonated with. The stat boost by itself was completely absurd, adding something like 3,500 stats to his previous total. If that was all it did, like his first item, it would have been enough. But then, it also passively regenerated his resources when he actually entered alternate planes.

That meant that whenever he activated Vaporform he would gain health and the mana drain would be partially countered with regeneration. It was even possible that Infusion would gain the bonus, basically replacing his wounded limbs and other injuries with mana from the mists and establishing a passive healing factor to his temporarily supplanted injuries. Mistjumping would give him a split second of regeneration that he otherwise never would have received.

He didn’t have any ways to enter the abyssal plane, but he figured it was only a matter of time before he got some new skills that could open up such opportunities. Notably, the bonus didn’t specify that the plane had to be created by himself. Multiple opponents had drawn him into what seemed like abyssal domains or something similar, and it was possible that each time, the bonus would have kicked in, so long as the manifestations were close enough to his actual affinity. If their chart of affinities was close to accurate, his spectral and abyssal affinities were basic flavors for a quarter of the entire chart, from Death to Void, meaning he was particularly versatile.

Coop couldn’t help but giggle at the idea of being dragged into some enemy’s ultimate move, only to steal away their home field advantage when his own passive buffs kicked in. Admittedly, the normal regeneration of health and mana was pretty low, despite seeming to be a percentage of his total, so multiplying it probably wouldn’t be so dramatic, but some was always better than nothing.

For the moment, he just wanted to slowly get used to his new gear, exercising his mind while taking on some easy grinds. The specifics of how he would be advantaged could wait for later. Coop slapped his own cheeks while he approached the shore of the second island, making his shoulders rise as he took several deep breaths and focused up. He hadn’t even gotten started.

When his feet crunched through the dry palm fronds that bordered the interior of the former coconut farm, he entered yet another monster zone that would temporaro;y become his personal hunting area. He was visiting the territory of the Ancient Piercers, the large charging monsters with heavy crowns sharpened to deadly points and a long spiked tail to provide a counterbalance. They were one of the many Primal Construct variants that Coop had saved for later. In this case, he had left them alone after first encountering them on Day 23 when they were already above level 40. The time had finally come for him to revisit a once overwhelmingly powerful enemy.

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Coop grunted to himself, thinking about how the shoe was on the other foot. He hadn’t forgotten about any of the monsters, no matter what they thought. The three variants that had avoided his attention on Ghost Reef’s islands were the equivalent of emergency rations, and it was time for him to eat. The two in the underground would be his targets afterwards, assuming he had enough time.

The Adventurer Guild designated the entire second island as a level 150 hunting zone. Obviously, that shouldn’t have been a problem for Coop, but he slid his blindfold back over his eyes to force himself to adapt. Grinding with his mana senses overcharged would be like a full immersion experience with a foreign language. He would hopefully pick up the basics rather quickly, through necessity.

An ethereal spear snapped into place, pulled directly from the air adjacent to his waiting hand, then his armor did the same, leaving swirls in the monochromatic mists, like pebbles plucked from a still pond. Coop could visually see the aura of the nearest enemy, its weak point glowing like a burning lantern in the mists or xenon headlights in the abyss, long before it had any indication that it was being targeted. The Ancient Piercers made no effort to hide, relying on their size and Strength to intimidate foes while claiming territory. It was an attitude that only worked when they were the biggest and baddest.

Though it wasn’t very sporting of him, Coop launched the spear like a missile at the idle monster. A stream of mists were visible in the wake of his attack, glowing in the plane of mists like a meteor crashing through the atmosphere. A tail of ghostly fumes chased its path, as if it was being propelled by trimethyl borate flames, only visible through his spectral sight. In real life, it was a simple line drive, not quite powerful enough to create sonic booms, but accelerating fast enough to draw loose fronds in a wave as it passed beneath the idle trees.

The monster was caught by surprise when its run on planet earth was abruptly terminated. The manifestation exploded into a cloud of chaotic, depleted smoke, almost like it was a golem that had been created with molded powder, then had the energy banished from its form so that it would crumble to basic elemental dust, at least to Coop’s enhanced vision.

Coop paused for a moment, struggling to visualize the system’s notifications that he had automatically checked with the first kill of a new variant, eventually sliding the blindfold off his eyes and onto his forehead. It seemed like the display provided by the system didn’t play well with overcharged manasight. He blinked a few times before he found what he was looking for.

[You defeated Ancient Piercer (Level 146)]

[+293 Basic Credits]

[+1 Solid Brutal Spike (Uncommon)]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Fortune Seeker (28/50)]

[You have a new quest!]

[Defeat Ancient Piercers I (1/5)]

Coop hummed to himself in satisfaction, finally seeing the precious quest text after what had turned into months of other adventures. Between the Underlayer, the Fallen Zone, the Intercontinental Summit, and the first and second phases of his re-leveling plan, it had been a long time since he allowed himself to challenge new variants of the Primal Constructs. Increasing the 11 Slayer titles he already had was his primary personal goal from here on out. The third phase had officially begun.

With his bandana back over his eyes, he started to map the island, one kill at a time, connecting dots and forming a heat map of enemy spawns. The first few flashing spotlights of pure energy came rapidly, indicating his levels, and pretty soon he was tearing across the small island at a terrifying speed, defeating Ancient Piercers in a cycle that encompassed their entire limited spawning grounds. While he could have increased his rate dramatically in several ways, he opted to keep it simple while he explored the limits of overcharging his manasight. Adding Fog of War and Legacy of the Mists basically would have been cheating against such mismatched opponents.

However, before long, Coop was on his hands and knees in the shallows with the bandana wrapped around his upper arm, staring at his sickly expression in the reflection of the tropical water, thankful that his normal vision had slowly returned. He had broken into a cold sweat and he was waiting for the world to stop spinning after barely an hour and 20 minutes of smooth grinding, then struggled to see even without the Soul Shroud covering his eyes.

“What is this?” He asked, hoping his reflection would respond. “Motion sickness?” He guessed on its behalf.

He splashed his face with the warm salt water, letting himself rest on the sand for a few minutes longer. When the uncomfortable feeling passed, he eased himself back up, and faced the island, briefly wondering what he should do next.

“Go again.” He muttered to himself, swapping the bandana back into a blindfold as he sought another Piercer. It was obvious what the Revenant would do.

He had a boat to catch, but that wasn’t until another full day and a half had passed. Since it wasn’t a regular ferry, they wouldn’t actually leave without him, but he didn’t want to be the reason for any delays. A lot of coordination had gone into phase three of his plan, even more than in the mana well. He also had more targets than just the Ancient Piercers that he intended to visit before leaving, so he decided not to mess around too much.

The quest to slay the Ancient Piercers steadily progressed, even with Coop preemptively taking breaks before he let the mana sickness hit him with the dizziness. He just kept throwing his spear, staying on his toes as he flickered between the skinny coconut palms.

Sunset was fast approaching by the time he finished with the Ancient Piercers. The fifth class level came after the eighth profession level with a dramatic flash that had him pulling his bandana down.

[You defeated Ancient Piercer (Level 148)]

[+273 Basic Credits]

[Quest Complete! Defeat Ancient Piercers V]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Slayer title upgraded!]

“Nice…” He whispered, immensely satisfied with the boost in stats more than anything else. A single Slayer title was the equivalent of 20 levels of raw stats. It was insane how rewarding they were. He nodded to himself as he simply shifted his focus to the next targets, recognizing the enormous leap in progress he had just made, and immediately seeking more, like a true addict.

Coop dismissed his spear, heading toward the next island as he decided that overcharging his sight was something that he should probably save for appropriate moments rather than use all the time. He couldn’t force it much longer than an hour, even after so much practice, without risking what he was calling mana sickness.

The next island was one of the landmasses that Coop barely considered dry land. It was a sandbar that had grown just barely large enough to resist being submerged by high tide. It was too low to sustain any vegetation as a windy day would send salt water waves rolling all the way across. Still, it was home to another hunting area designated by the Adventurer Guild.

Primal Carriers were a variant that the guild had restricted to party hunts. Coop figured he could bend the rules a little, considering his stats amounted to those of an entire party, and if necessary, he could summon a small army of phantasms. He remembered this variant from the Siege Event, as they were the first monsters to introduce minions to their repertoire. Coop’s solution back then was to quickswap to his heavy mace and smash them before they scattered after defeating the initial armored body. He didn’t really have any better ideas, even with his evolved kit, though he thought that maybe he would incorporate a phantasm with each kill.

He covered one eye with the Soul Shroud before he went in to take a peek, and was immediately rewarded with something his regular process normally would have missed. It appeared as if Primal Carriers had a burning furnace within their core, aside from their weak points. It was expelling mana through each of its joints, but in the other planes it was unmistakably churning mana in an unusual way. Normally, Coop would have focused on targeting their weak points if he needed to take any additional precautions at all, then he would have contended with the minion spawns as a secondary stage of each fight.

However, as he targeted the core, he was feeling confident that he could one shot the normally tricky monsters, as if he could break the mana flow like he was disarming a bomb. He let the bandana fall back to his neck as he stepped into the first spear throw, splashing the sand as he engaged. The ethereal missile was almost pinpoint accurate, off by maybe a few centimeters, but it did the job, drilling through the layered outer armor and eliminating the Carrier as it trudged across the sand.

Coop mistjumped as soon as the collision occurred, swapping to his ethereal morning star in anticipation of the additional minions, but the fight was over. He laughed to himself in shock that it had actually worked out.

He spent half the night wondering what other tricks he could uncover with such advanced mana sight. It only took half the time to complete the Primal Carrier Slayer quest when compared to the Ancient Piercers, but a significant portion of the difference could have been attributed to reducing the number of attacks it took him to defeat the normal variants designed to have two stages. The rest of the difference was because of the landscape. There was no cover at all on the low lying sandbar. It became a shooting gallery before he moved on.

The next island was where he found the Ancient Rippers. They lashed out with rigid tongues, attempting to debilitate their prey while they pulled themselves in, prepared to grapple with all four of their ghoulish limbs. In their chosen habitat, they hid in the crowns of palm trees and among the canopies of mangroves.

Unfortunately for them, their camouflage was unable to hide their weak points when Coop peered through the Soul Shroud. The third grind was more like the second, with Coop heavily relying on his unique item to ascertain his targets, but otherwise using his default senses to fight.

He finished a few hours after the sun came back, leaving himself with plenty of time to finish the last few grinds before he left. There was a bit of pep in his step as he returned to the fort with three additional Slayer titles after a full day of pretty casual grinding, and he had time to spare.

He went underground next, accessing the teleportation circle to take him to the unassigned and undeveloped layers beyond 200. There, if he went any distance away from the chasm that connected the settlement to the Underlayer, he would find the last two variants that existed near Ghost Reef. Like the Coral Forest, the depths of the underground had been the premiere hunting grounds for the highest level residents of Ghost Reef. Coop was happy to spend another day in the darkness, chasing down Primal Fiends and Ancient Scuttlers.

The ridiculous diversity of the territory paid off, and Coop ended up with five more Slayer titles in a matter of a day and a half, granting him another surprising jump in pure class levels. More importantly he was stacking up the stats like crazy. He almost couldn’t imagine anything better.