Chapter 87: Paths (Patreon)

The Rabid Carriers weren’t as simple as they had first appeared. He expected the Carriers to be easy pickings without the support of other more agile monsters. They moved sluggishly, but with purpose, and when they took damage they weren’t deterred until they were defeated. Coop initially assumed they had nothing else going on outside of hauling the swarm of smaller monsters inside of them, but they had their own abilities that aided them in their function as well.

When the Foul Rippers finally ceased spawning, Coop eagerly left the walls and entered the sandy, cratered battlefield to hunt the Carriers as they slowly crossed the scarred dunes. After he completed his role in defending the vulnerable casters on the battlements from the Rippers he was finally free to be more aggressive. He was enthusiastic about letting loose since he had been holding back in order to fulfill specific roles for the defenders during the previous several waves.

When he found himself excited to leap into the battlefield like some kind of battle junkie he had a momentary flash of concern for his mental state, but he recognized that part of his bloodthirst was from being enthusiastic about unlocking his next skill. He was super close!

Once Coop started to engage with the Carriers, he quickly discovered they weren’t quite so basic. He easily worked around their lobbed ranged attacks and defensive abilities, but they still had one skill he needed to pay attention to. It was a type of self-destruct that launched the harbored Swarmers in all directions. If the monsters were able to burst before he defeated them, the fights ended up being unnecessarily extended. Not only would the Swarmers spread, making it inconvenient at best to track them all down, but the secondary monsters also received buffs that caused them to swell in size with improved stats.

A buffed Swarmer still wasn’t much of a threat on an individual basis, but a hundred of them were an annoyance that made each of the fights take much longer, and Coop was in a hurry to get experience.

The Rabid Carriers were slow, lumbering, grub-like monsters and they arrived in such small numbers that Coop would have been able to clear their respawns in a matter of minutes, but the Swarmers were another matter. They were quick and chaotic, but hardly rewarding. Every Carrier represented more than one fight. The worst case was having a Carrier expel the Swarmers with a self-destruct after receiving critical damage, forcing a hundred individual engagements with erratic Swarmers before he could move on to the next.

As long as Coop managed to defeat the initial Carrier monsters himself, he had a good chance of crushing the mass of Swarmers in just a few heavy swings of his morning star. The result of a Carrier bursting or not was whether he was slamming his morning star three times or a hundred times.

The combination of his morning star and Fog of War provided an effective way in defeating the Rabid Carriers along with the Swarmers that appeared afterwards. His was a rare case that could individually handle both. The rest of the monsters were being dealt with by small coordinated groups that staggered specific abilities. A spike of damage to deal with the defense oriented Carriers, then a barrage to deal with the many Swarmers. This was a wave that invited the group oriented structure that factions developed, and several new parties were hastily formed to add to Shane and Gibson’s previously established groups.

Coop was careful to efficiently defeat the monster packs until he flashed with the light of the level he was waiting for. When he hit level 75 he headed straight back to the fort and left the rest of the monsters to the coordinated defenders.

Coop made his way down the main street, grabbing a biscuit from the table that Vronk had set up outside, and snacked on it as he headed underneath his second favorite palm tree. It was the same one that he had sat under when he originally selected his class, so it felt appropriate for the occasion of selecting his next path. He checked his notifications as he wiped his fingers.

[You defeated Rabid Swarmer (Level 56)]

[+59 Basic Credits]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Skill options available.]

He clapped his hands together and checked his options.

There were three skill choices. Stygian Spirit, Arcane Comprehension, and Veil Piercer. These were all already familiar to him as they had been offered several times before. He grunted at the choices, feeling a little disappointed that there wasn’t anything new and special for starting a path. Coop scanned their descriptions because he wanted to confirm that they were the same as they had been during the previous offerings.

Stygian Spirit was the skill that would convert his mana into a different resource that could consume mana from his targets, Arcane Comprehension was the passive skill that provided bonus Intelligence based on his Mind at a one to one ratio, and Veil Piercer was the point blank area crowd control that applied a terror debuff to his targets. None of the skills offered any new surprises based on their descriptions. They matched what he remembered.

Looking closer, mentally querying the choices, the menu turned out to be just like how Ixia had advised him. The Gardener had sagely prepared him when he made his Fog of War selection.

The paths were actually revealed by name and he received some direct hints about where they would lead or what had caused them to appear. He was finally getting the type of clues he had wished for when selecting individual skills, it had just been reserved for the path choices instead. The only pertinent information he lacked was the length of each path. He still wanted some variety, so ending up on a path that took a thousand levels to narrow before forking again would not be ideal.

The first choice, Stygian Spirit, would put him on the Path of the Undead and would eventually lead to potential undead racial evolutions. It was available to him based on his Reaper title, Spectral affinity, and Revenant class, which were all closely associated with various types of undead.

Arcane Comprehension led to Path of the Mistwalker and was tied to his Haunted title, Retribution and Salvation skills which combined to give him the Ethereal title, and Fog of War. Mistwalker promised to be an evolution of his current archetype through upgrades that would add a new dimension to his skills.

The last option, Veil Piercer, would steer him onto the Path of the Reaver. It was based on his Adamance and Retribution skills, Slayer title, and Revenant class. It was a clear continuation of his current strengths in skirmishing. Durability, Strength, and Brawling would be at the core of the Reaver.

Before Coop decided on anything regarding the paths, he stopped to consider which skill would provide the most for his build in the long term. He felt confident in the foundation that he had established and was now looking to build on top of that base. Though, there were always places to improve, and Coop continued to be greedy with his desires.

Remembering Jett crushing a Field Boss like a bug had him burning for more firepower even though more stats could eventually be a solution. Charlie’s massive area coverage left his basic attacks feeling inadequate and even maximizing his mistjump mobility could only hope to be a high effort and less effective imitation of area damage. Even Marcus’s affliction removal and sustain had Coop imagining how he would fare if he could do the same. Broken bones and torn muscles had restricted him multiple times despite his ‘on kill’ regeneration maintaining his health.

Between the three skill options, the frontrunner had to be Arcane Comprehension. The only thing Arcane Comprehension would definitely do was increase his magic power. Surely, it would be a stepping stone to future spells even if it had no impact on his current attacks. The idea of getting spells was open-ended enough to fill Coop’s imagination with possibilities.

Stygian Spirit was a wild card of a skill. It could be devastating or it could be useless on its own, but he had no idea what else converting his mana to another resource would lead to. In order to decide, he would need to consider the Undead path it put him on more thoroughly.

Veil Piercer, on the other hand, was a pure crowd control ability. Maybe that would yield some interesting synergies that allowed him to fully use his Strength while seeking critical strikes. As long as he kept getting stronger the firepower he wanted would come, but he felt like it would step on the toes of his Fog of War ability.

He needed to look at the paths. Really they were the most important factor in this selection: Undead, Mistwalker, or Reaver.

When it came to the Path of the Undead, the most compelling aspect was in the future racial evolutions. Converting his mana was definitely the first step to converting himself, but Coop had to ask whether that was something he wanted.

There seemed to be a variety of undead. Between the Zombie Lord and his zombies variants, Abithik the lich and the other librarians, and the phantoms of Ghost Reef, he had already met several. They all seemed to have their own racial traits that would be great boons to his fighting style, like the zombie skills that hardened their bones to improve durability, the titles that jumped the Zombie Lord and his Captain into raid boss territory at the start of the assimilation, and the phantom’s unrestricted teleports, but he had an instinctual reluctance to such a fundamental change to what he was.

There were other, less personal concerns as well. What would happen to the phantoms if he truly became undead? Would they become mindless minions with their souls tied to him the way the zombies on the oil rig had turned? Sure, he’d get experience from their combat, but would he be erasing their personalities or free will? He couldn’t do that. He didn’t even want to risk it.

The aliens had told him enough to understand that most of their racial evolutions had been a necessary step in their progression. Balor’s species were actual rocks before they evolved into the stone dwarves through an evolution. He imagined some of the Chosen animals would have opportunities to gain humanoid forms, as that seemed to be the route that most of the aliens had taken, but for Coop it didn’t seem like he needed to change unless he really needed a racial trait.

It seemed like even if he didn’t select the Path of the Undead, his other two options were closely connected with the undead anyway. Between Mistwalker and Reaver, he had an option that would potentially alter his archetype in the former, and an option that would build off his strengths in the latter. A racial evolution might become available in future selections even if he passed on it this time.

When it came to the Path of the Reaver he felt like he was already walking the path with his Revenant class. If he remembered his grid analogy for the path selections, Reaver would be the path that went straight instead of forking left or right. It could be valuable to continue getting skills that played to his current strengths. He was basically guaranteed to get synergistic abilities and there would be more paths in the future if he sought variety, but if anything it felt like a narrowing of his current path instead of something new.

The Revenant class had never felt stifling based on its options due to the flexibility it offered, but if he continued with the Reaver he might just box himself into the pure brawler archetype that had become his foundation. It was based on his Adamance skill and Slayer title which were admittedly fundamental parts of his build, but he already had that foundation. He didn’t need to keep working on it.

That left him with the Path of the Mistwalker. It sure seemed to fit with his reliance on mistjumping, but he got the impression that the ‘mists’ that Mistwalker was referring to had more to do with the dead, ghosts, and the ethereal: the metaphorical mists that existed between the worlds of the living and the dead, where souls and spirits wandered. It was based on the two skills that had given him the Ethereal title and his Haunted title after all.

Even though Mistwalker was based on his Retribution and Salvation skills, which were even more fundamental to his entire build than what the Path of the Reaver concentrated on, he thought adding a new dimension was much closer to what he was looking for. It promised to be an evolution.

Coop thought that settled it for him. It was the one path where he felt no hesitation when he considered the options. He still wished for a proper build planner, but the system seemed flexible enough that as long as he put himself in a good position, valuable synergies would appear.

He selected Arcane Comprehension and began the Path of the Mistwalker.

Coop didn’t feel any smarter with the additional passive skill contributing to his Intelligence. He felt his scalp with his fingertips and didn’t find any surprises, the very action of checking for a bigger brain proving his feeling correct. He checked his status, wanting to confirm the passive skill was working.

[Status]

HP - 6000/6000

MP - 11000/11000

Class - Revenant (Level 75)

Profession - Scavenging (Level 79)

Affinity - Spectral

Race - Human (Rank 1)

Faction - None

Strength - 50 (+1100)

Agility - 50 (+550)

Body - 50 (+550)

Mind - 1100

Intelligence - 50 (+1100)

Acumen - 50

Unallocated - 0

Titles - Champion III, Haunted, Ethereal, Reaper, Slayer III, Dauntless, Stacked

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

Skills (Passive) - Mind Over Matter, Adamance, Practical Application, Arcane Comprehension

Quests - Fortune Seeker (9/50), Trophy Hunter (3/5), Defeat Ancient Devourers II (0/25), Defeat Primal Serpents II (4/25), Defeat Ruin Excavators IV (440/5000), Defeat Primal Kites III (0/250), Upgrade Village to Town

Basic Credits - 1,807,190

Coop couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of his stats. He was certain that he was approaching the range of Field Bosses, especially with his Dauntless title doubling his damage against them. Regular monsters wouldn’t be a threat to him unless they numbered in the thousands, and even then, it would depend on the matchup as proven by several of the previous waves.

Arcane Comprehension had absorbed his Common Language skill, just like how Presence of Mind consumed the basic Identify ability. The Vanquisher title disappeared, which was a surprise, but he guessed that it had been spent like an entry fee for the Path of the Mistwalker. The title's entire purpose was enabling upgrade options, and it seemed like it worked.

His levels continued to progress as the waves rolled on. The end of the Crazed Serpent wave combined with the defeat of Gromokan, the Ancient Devourer Field Boss, really jump-started his progress for the last few waves. They combined with the monsters’ escalation of levels to yield enough experience to continue giving him class levels despite overleveling.

He was happy for the gains since he just wanted to keep leveling and hurry to the next skill choice. For now, he would make do with testing Fog of War, his lone Intelligence based skill, but first he checked the settlement leaderboards.

Siege Event Settlement Scores

1. Ghost Reef - 16,594,591 (x48828125)
2. Shinjuku Garden - 1,376,854 (x125)
3. Silvervalley - 1,270,128 (x25)
4. Yucatan - 1,224,096 (x25)
5. Neon Park - 1,191,743 (x125)
6. Aotearoa New Zealand - 1,122,278 (x125)
7. Loch Bridge - 1,091,967 (x125)
8. Lekawa - 1,077,481 (x25)
9. Wintermeer - 1,061,864 (x125)
10. Nyiragongo - 1,012,639 (x25)

It had been 10 days since he last checked and Ghost Reef’s score was even more absurd than before. The overlapping waves and Field Bosses had really pushed them beyond the realm of any other settlement. It seemed like both the x125 settlements and the x25 settlements had completed two full waves at this point while the x5 settlements only had one wave with scores half what the rest of the settlements had reached.

Coop was surprised that none of the settlements had defeated any Field Bosses. Looking at the remaining settlements, he suspected that every time a Field Boss had spawned, it defeated the shard. There were only 358 settlements left. Empress City was still on the list at rank 311, so they had survived, but he wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t defeated the Blight Howler Field Boss when he visited. Probably nothing good.

Siege Event Individual Scores

1. Coop - 743,843 (+599,620)
2. Charlie Seraphin - 400,044 (+295,835)
3. Shane Peters - 299,943 (+248,932)
4. Hozanek - 244,204 (+202,970)
5. Charon - 232,055 (+217,043)
6. Elder Olani - 230,764 (+175,074)
7. The Siren - 223,823 (+211,824)
8. Camila Alvarez - 204,695 (+133,153)
9. Derek Anderson - 181,741 (+126,630)
10. Buck Cleary - 175,842 (+135,731)

The individual scores were still dominated by residents of Ghost Reef. If anything, the dominance had escalated when compared to the start. Platinum was the only name he was sure wasn’t a member of their settlement and they were just above rank 900 with a score at nearly 75,000.

The waves that Ghost Reef had experienced revealed various strengths among the residents, and there had been quite a few waves. Some individuals, like Buck, really excelled against particular types of enemies; in his case heavily armored ones. The pirates had a better chance to contribute when the fight had been in the water, but they weren’t shy about joining in the fights on land. He thought the biggest surprise was Kayla being on the list, the Sea Witch was apparently another strong casting class that might even rival Charlie’s Aeromancer.

Coop headed back to the front of the fort, reequipping himself with his morning star and ethereal armor on the way. His break had been brief, but he was satisfied. The ninth wave would start soon and he wanted to try Fog of War on the Rabid Carriers before it came.

The support phantoms and wraiths were furiously repairing the moat while a group of melee protected them on the duneside. They were digging all of the rubble from the edges, preparing for the next wave while they had a relative lull in the fighting. Groups of casters dropped dazzling spell sequences on approaching Rabid Carriers from the walls, efficiently controlling the Swarmers before they became a threat.

Coop went further away from the fort before he cast Fog of War. When he finally cast his spell, he didn’t hold back on his mana expenditure, not wanting the ocean breeze to overwhelm the fog’s formation and put it on cooldown. He spent 10,000 mana off the bat, wanting to push his new limits with his massive Intelligence stat and see what the results would be.

The mists that normally coalesced from around his feet and gradually rose from the ground until they slowly formed a thin mist were something completely different this time. Instead of a slow condensation of vapors that accumulated from wisps on the ground, a dense barrier of white fog formed a vortex, swirling around Coop as it climbed into the sky. The base widened like the inverse of one of Charlie’s V-shaped tornadoes and instead of spinning in gusts, the fog billowed like a rolling cloud. A misty peak thrust upwards as a hazy fog mountain formed. Mist piled on top of itself until it spilled outwards in all directions toppling over itself. A tidal wave of mists spread across the dunes.

Coop’s Fog of War extended from the moat across the island to the south, gradually thinning as it reached halfway to the lighthouse, and from the west beach across beyond the dunes and into the scrubland until it nearly reached the mangrove forest to the east. It rolled out beyond the nearest coast into the ocean and spilled into the moat, interrupting the repairs and forcing the defenders backwards lest they be wrapped in the mists. The fog reached high into the sky, filtering the morning sunlight until it seemed like they were looking at the sky on another planet much further away from the sun.

Presence of Mind threatened to completely overwhelm Coop as his ears rang and his physical senses were lost. When he touched his ear and raised his hand in front of his face to see if there was blood he couldn’t see anything through the mass of fog that had settled in. He still knew there was blood thanks to his aura skill.

The tiny clicks of a thousand hermit crabs along the shore echoed in his mind along with the the swishing of palm fronds, the scuttling of Rabid Carriers, and his own delighted giggling.

The effect of Fog of War had really exceeded his expectations. He’d overdone it a bit, but who could have guessed that more than 200 levels worth of stats being applied to a single attribute at once would have made such a dramatic difference?

He’d need to get used to the changes, and there was no time like the present.