Chapter 26: Presence of Mind (Patreon)

Coop finished his first dedicated Ancient Prowler hunt two levels higher than when he started. He had defeated over 3,000 monsters. It was an impressive amount, considering the increased difficulty when compared to the Ancient Defenders.

The fourth stage of the Ancient Prowler quest chain was complete and he had made some progress into the final stage. Viewing his quest, he had already defeated 605 out of 11,111 Ancient Prowlers. It wouldn’t be long before he upgraded his Slayer title for the first time.

Coop was retiring for the night since he had started to collect more Vulnerable debuffs as the hunt went on. After so many hours he was feeling fatigued and started to get a little sloppy, taking damage that he should have been able to avoid. He didn’t need to push all night, so he decided to end his hunt and return to the fort.

He would spend the night in the barracks, away from all of the visitors in the tavern’s lodgings. He took a cold shower before heading to bed. He made sure to rinse himself thoroughly just in case there was mana residue from his battles. Maeve had made him a bit self conscious that people might really be able to smell mana on him.

Jett had already made herself comfortable in his bed. It seemed like she was also avoiding the island’s guests. Coop scooped her up and gently placed her to one side so that he could get under the covers on the other. She didn’t even wake up.

Coop laid on his back and reviewed his many notifications from the night.

[You defeated Ancient Prowler (Level 13)]

[+5 Basic Credits]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

…

[You defeated Ancient Prowler (Level 13)]

[+8 Basic Credits]

[+1 Jagged Metal Tooth (Uncommon)]

[Quest Complete! Defeat Ancient Prowlers IV]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[You have a new quest!]

…

[You defeated Ancient Prowler (Level 11)]

[+6 Basic Credits]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Defeated Ancient Prowlers V (605/11111)]

[Skill options available.]

He had another big decision for himself. Coop allocated all of his points from the two class levels and two profession levels into Mind, pleased to be getting class levels directly from grinding again. He wasn’t sure how long it would last before his level was too high relative to the monsters’, but he would enjoy it while he could.

Coop had reached level 25 and unlocked another skill choice. At this point he probably should listen to the advice that had been given to him about selecting an aura skill, especially if he was going to be increasingly exposed to visitors now that a neighboring settlement had been revealed. But he couldn’t resist checking all of his options.

Browsing through his skill selection, Coop noted that there were several skills he didn’t remember being able to select the first time around. The list was much shorter than it had been the first time around. Roughly half of the skills had disappeared from the list, so there was a risk that if he didn’t take a skill when he saw it, he might not get another opportunity. However, a few of the options he had skipped previously had returned. Even many that he had expected to be locked out of taking, since they were spells and he had gone all in on an attack build, remained options.

Knowing that skills would become unavailable just added another wrinkle to his long term planning, but it appeared to be something out of his control. He would need more information before he could figure out if he could control the direction his future options went. For now, he resolved not to let the risk of losing skills lead him into any premature decisions.

More than half of the active skill options were spells. He looked for the passive skills that would give Intelligence and Acumen based on his Mind attribute and was surprised to find them still available, they seemed like prime candidates for becoming unavailable based on his previous choices. Knowing how valuable the bonuses had been for him, he didn’t want to ignore the ones for the other stats. He read the passive skill for gaining Intelligence. It was called Arcane Comprehension.

“Ghosts remember.”

Arcane Comprehension would add one Intelligence for every point of Mind. It corresponded with the very simple Adamance skill that did the same thing for Strength. He thought it was kind of amusing that the opposites mirrored each other so closely. It would add an insane amount of stats and open up the viability of an entirely new branch of combat skills for him in the future. He wouldn’t take Arcane Comprehension yet, he was just window shopping, so he moved on to the next passive skill, Clarity of Purpose.

“Make deliverance swift.”

Clarity of Purpose was the passive skill that gave Acumen. It added one point of Acumen for every two points of Mind. Similar to his Agility passive, Practical Application, Clarity of Purpose also had a secondary effect. It stated that attacks would ignore a portion of the target’s defenses. Coop couldn’t find anything to indicate it wouldn’t also apply to his Strength based attacks. It seemed like a surprising possible synergy.

Given the preponderance of spell skills being offered to him, Coop thought he would eventually want to invest into both of these passive skills. He was worried they would disappear at some point, but it would still have to be in the very long run. If he could only get a single new skill every 25 levels it would take a long time to establish an entirely new branch of abilities into his build. He was looking at literally 100s of levels into the future. In the meantime, he had more urgent concerns, like finding a regeneration skill and getting an aura skill, or claiming other active utility abilities. He’d have to risk losing the passive skills for now.

Some of the most promising individual active skills would give him area of effect crowd control, create area denial, or add powerful but conditional attacks to his arsenal. His favorite crowd control could briefly freeze enemies in terror within a certain proximity, perfect for an emergency ability that could save his life. The area denial conjured disorienting fog that Coop could use to camouflage himself, basically giving him a limited stealth, something he had wanted since the beginning. The other various attack abilities offered executes and punishments aside from just direct damage. Coop was spoiled with choices, though he didn’t find any promising ways to regenerate his health.

He finally brought his attention to the aura skill. Without a regen option, he thought his aura was currently the most pressing concern that he could address with his skill offerings. It was appropriately called Presence of Mind.

“It's dangerous to be lost in thought. It's even more dangerous to be lost in someone else's.”

The description was simple, which is why Coop had ended up skipping it over the first time around. It stated it would provide Mind-based aura control. That’s it. Without knowing what an aura was, it wasn’t clear what the skill would do at all. Now that Coop knew a little more, he could guess that he would be able to both mask his own aura and use it to get information about other people’s aura. This would make it a much more dynamic aura skill than the ones that Balor had described to him initially. Since it would be based on his Mind stat, he thought his attribute distribution would make it particularly potent.

Feeling like his option might actually be a premium skill compared to just any basic aura skill, Coop went ahead and accepted it. He just wished he could bookmark some of the other skills to prevent them from disappearing, just in case. It would make planning his long term build a lot easier.

Unlike applying attribute points, he didn’t immediately feel any different. Coop was a little disappointed. He was hoping for sudden knowledge to appear in his head. He checked his status to confirm everything was in place.

[Status]

HP - 1524/1800

MP - 3300/3300

Class - Revenant (Level 25)

Profession - Basic Scavenging (Level 18)

Affinity - Spectral

Race - Human (Rank 1)

Faction - None

Strength - 15 (+330)

Agility - 15 (+165)

Body - 15 (+165)

Mind - 330

Intelligence - 15

Acumen - 15

Unallocated - 0

Titles - Champion II, Haunted, Ethereal, Bloodthirsty, Slayer I

Skills (Active) - Retribution, Salvation, Presence of Mind

Skills (Passive) - Common Language, Mind Over Matter, Adamance, Practical Application

Quests - Defeat Ancient Prowlers V (605/11111), Defeat Primal Kites II (11/25), Upgrade Outpost to Village

Basic Credits - 87,466

His Identify skill was missing! Was Identify an aura skill this whole time? He guessed that Presence of Mind had superseded it. Since it was an active skill, he probably just needed to use it the same way he had been using Identify.

Coop tried concentrating on his own aura. He wanted to hide it, he thought about making it disappear, and something clicked in the back of his mind. He could feel that he had suppressed his aura. It felt like he was compressing a stress ball in the palm of his hand. No one would detect anything unless they could overpower his Mind stat, forcing his metaphorical fist open to peek at the compressed aura. He doubted anyone on Earth would even be able to match his Mind stat, forget about anyone overpowering it.

As he let go of his concentration, he was suddenly aware of other auras. There were two within range for him to detect, but only one was close enough to understand. His eyes widened as he looked at the sleeping cat.

[Awakened Cat (Level 34)]

[Sentinel of Shadows (Agility)]

[Venerated of the Blessed Mau Collective]

[Sharp, Dark, Silent (Slayer)]

Coop sat up and reflexively exclaimed, “What?!” Jett only shifted in her sleep as a response to his outburst. He pulled up the individual leaderboards.

Day 18

1. The Lich (Level 45)
2. Banshee (Level 43)
3. Zombie Lord (Level 36)
4. Hai Yun (Level 30)
5. Yang Fen (Level 29)
6. Che Min-Jun (Level 29)
7. Deacon Burke (Level 29)
8. Krisje van Riel (Level 29)
9. Mauro Rios (Level 29)
10. Platinum (Level 29)

Coop frowned in confusion. First of all, Jett was level 34? What the hell? But she wasn’t on the leaderboard. Coop felt dumb for a second when he remembered it was specifically the human leaderboard. The weird undead names had made him forget, but they must still be human even though their identities indicated otherwise.

The leaderboard had barely changed, with Hai Yun gaining a level and someone else disappearing from the number eight spot. He wanted to see Jett’s leaderboard!

He was pretty sure he could see so much information from her aura because his Mind stat was absolutely massive compared to hers. She might not even have an aura skill. Is this why all the aliens had been treating her with so much respect? Was he the only one that didn’t know their cat was an absolute monster? He only ever saw her when she was sleeping or relaxing!

He tried parsing the rest of the information he could glean from her aura. She wasn’t just a cat, but an awakened cat. He had no clue what that meant, but it sounded cool.

He figured Sentinel of Shadows was her class, it was also very cool sounding, and made sense since she had protected the lighthouse for so many years. Agility was her primary attribute, a natural choice for a cat.

Venerated of the Blessed Mau Collective was too much of a mystery for him to work out. Was she sponsored? She was with him even before Jones had returned from his sponsorship, so if she was, they must have made it quick. Coop had to take a moment to come to terms with the idea that even the cats of Earth were sponsored over him. Although in the face of Jett’s progress he had to accept they made a good decision.

Sharp, Dark, and Silent seemed like it was just describing her, it was like an impression he got from her aura. He remembered Balor describing Coop as smelling like the undead, it could have been his mana affinity or his titles.

The final shocker was Slayer. That was his title! She must have completed a quest chain as well! Coop’s world first Bloodthirsty title must have been a close call. It had only been about a day and a half since Coop claimed it himself.

Coop hadn’t felt this confused since the day he witnessed the apocalypse.

He tried concentrating on the other aura, but he couldn’t get any information other than its existence. He was sure it was Jones as he was also in the barracks, just in the next room over through a stone wall. Maybe his skill was limited to a closer range, or it had a line of sight requirement. He eventually fell asleep but only after he stayed up even later, fiddling with his own aura.

In the morning Coop had to remove the purring beast of a cat from his neck before he got out of bed. He went for his morning warmup and took a quick shower before he headed for the tavern. He was going to practice using his new aura skill on everyone he could find.

First, Coop ran into Balor and his three laborers outside of the stonemason’s workshop preparing to return to their ongoing projects. He checked their auras.

[Stonemason (Level ??)]

[Laborer (Level ??)]

[Laborer (Level ??)]

[Laborer (Level ??)]

“Morning young Champion!” Balor called out. “I see you’ve learned something new, keep practicing!” Balor astutely observed. Coop couldn’t get any new information from the aliens’ auras just yet. He wondered if Balor had detected him prodding around within his aura or if he could just tell based on Coop’s own aura.

Inside the tavern, he only found Maeve awake. She was already almost done cleaning the booths. He checked her aura for good measure.

[Tavernkeeper (Level ??)]

Coop guessed he had a ways to go with his skill. He wondered if all of the contracted people were protected by the system or if they were all that much more powerful than he was. Both options seemed equally likely.

“Morning, Maeve.” Coop called out. She gave him an alluring smile as she winked over her shoulder while wiping a table. “Say, what level are you?” Coop asked innocently.

Maeve stopped her cleaning and leaned on the table while raising an eyebrow at Coop. “You shouldn’t ask a lady such questions…” Before Coop could apologize she continued. “But I wouldn’t dream of keeping secrets from you. It’s just that I can’t tell you the exact number, for system reasons.”

Coop had already figured it would be something like that. “Is there a limit to levels?” He tried his luck.

“There’s a limit to motivation.” Maeve responded coyly. “If there’s a maximum level, it isn’t widespread.” She explained, shrugging. “You want breakfast?” Coop nodded as she led him to the bar.

While he ate he imagined old monsters that had been leveling for thousands or even millions of years. The idle thoughts gave him goosebumps. He was glad Earth was protected by the system’s shield. It made him think basing his goals on the leaderboards was quaint given whatever was going on in the rest of the universe.

As the visitors trickled down, he inspected each of their auras while he practiced keeping his own as hidden as possible.

[Human (Level 26)]

[Infiltrator (Agility)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Darkness]

The first one to come down gave Coop a hostile look that seemed uncalled for. He was pretty sure this was one of Charlie’s friends or party members, but Coop imagined his hostility leaked into his aura. Coop couldn’t see as much information as he had with Jett. He guessed it was a difference in aura skills between the two targets. The Infiltrator sat at a table near the center of the room. Coop continued inspecting as more people woke up.

[Human (Level 26)]

[Puppeteer (Mind)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

Coop was surprised that another Mind based class appeared. Apparently, Coop’s stat overwhelmed his target’s because he got almost as much information as when he inspected the previous guy’s aura. The Puppeteer joined the Infiltrator and began quietly chatting.

[Human (Level 25)]

[Honorguard (Body)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Warding]

[Human (Level 25)]

[Outrider (Agility)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

A couple came down together and went to a booth by themselves. He noted that the guy with his stats invested into Body didn’t physically appear special. Coop wouldn’t have been able to guess his main attribute without looking at his aura.

[Human (Level 27)]

[Crusader (Strength)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Tectonic (Captain)]

Kevin the Hammer came down and sat with the Infiltrator and Puppeteer. Kevin’s main attribute was Strength, but once again Coop wouldn’t have been able to guess just by looking at him. Coop thought people investing into Strength would end up looking like The Hulk. He had seen Jones’s physique improve, but now he was thinking there must be some limit to the changes.

He wouldn’t be able to guess a person’s attributes on sight. Coop theorized that the attributes merely pushed people towards an ideal version of their current selves, rather than turning them into hulking beasts. It seemed like everyone would just end up better looking.

Camila and Charlie eventually came down and joined him at the bar. He watched as Kevin’s trio all openly stared at the girls, observing where they were going. The Infiltrator in particular seemed unhappy when Charlie bade Coop good morning without even glancing at the caped soldier.

While Camila and Charlie raved about the beds, he checked them out as well.

[Human (Level 28)]

[Aeromancer (Intelligence)]

[Legend of the Endless Empire]

[Human (Level 28)]

[Interceptor (Agility)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

Coop involuntarily raised his eyes at Charlie being a Legend of the Endless Empire. That seemed like something really special. None of the others were anything but Chosen. Even Camila, who was another elite of the Empire.

“What is it?” Charlie asked after she noticed Coop’s impressed expression.

“Oh, nothing. Just glad you two enjoyed your night.” Coop deflected.

“It really was great! Except for Camila’s snoring, it was perfect.” Charlie proclaimed, happy to share her review. Camila didn’t even flinch, obviously not embarrassed to be accused of snoring in the slightest.

“Don’t act like it kept you up, I had to shake you off me this morning. You were out cold, and we didn’t even have any drinks.” Camila retaliated as she received a bowl from Maeve.

Coop was intrigued, “You shared a room?” He asked curiously. He wondered if the tavern had been fully booked last night. Based on the size of the tavern, he expected them to have at least twice as many rooms compared to the current visitors.

Maeve chimed in with an impish look in her eyes, “They shared a bed and took a bath together…” she said with a demure smile that was far from innocent, emphasized by the raised eyebrow.

“You weren’t exactly shy about making sure we had everything we needed while we soaped each other up, Ms. Maeve.” Camila pointed out, playing along with Maeve’s mischief.

Coop tried to keep up with the implications being thrown around as he realized the combination of Maeve and Camila was dangerous. They fed off of each other’s energy and anyone too close would receive collateral damage. Charlie’s ears were as red as a fire engine as her sleeping arrangements were exposed. She was taking the brunt, this time.

“What can I say? I am an excellent host!” Maeve claimed with a look of absolute confidence.

“You certainly are!” Camila confirmed. The pair bantered together laughing as they shared inside jokes that must have been formed during the night. Coop and Charlie shared a sympathetic look with each other.

After Maeve returned to her duties, Camila got back on task. “So, we figured it would be best to take you on the boat today.” She gestured with a spoon full of stew. “Get it over with as soon as possible, then we can get out of your hair and get things rolling.”

Coop nodded, “I’m ready when you are.”