Chapter 126: Low Tide (Patreon)

Coop’s heavy spear blasted into the ground with a muted thump that vibrated across the sea. The water level had gone down with the tide, leaving the surface just below knee height as the day wound down. Even during low tide, his spear impacts were streamlined enough to slice straight through the surface with barely any splash, leaving the collision insulated by the surrounding shallow water.

He continued to experiment as he attacked the monsters, making some discoveries, but nothing that would hasten his grind. If he adjusted the arc so that the spear didn’t come straight down, and increased the rotation on the shaft of his spear by dragging his fingertips as he released the weapon, he could make the landing more destructive, but neither would help the efficiency of his hunt. Small adjustments hadn’t revealed any new, hidden tricks just yet.

Despite grinding for hours, Coop hadn’t actually seen a single Primal Kite. Every single one had been destroyed before coming out of its dormant state, sniped by his arcing spears before they had any idea they were being targeted. Sure, it was a bit unfair, but they deserved what they got, as far as Coop was concerned. It wasn’t like the Primal Constructs would have played fair if the shoe was on the other foot.

“8.2” “8.7” The judges declared firmly, not leaving any room for dispute. A pretty middling score, considering he was over a thousand repetitions into his grind.

“Come on, that was a perfect splash.” Coop argued as he resummoned his spear and threw it again. A little gamesmanship with the umpires was worth a try. The scores may have been meaningless, but his latent competitiveness still demanded he aim for better. The grind demanded that he wasted no time between throws, so he argued while he took his next shot.

“The sound wasn’t right.” Camila explained her expert reasoning. “We’re looking for a thunk instead of a thump for maximum points.”

“The arc was too fat.” Charlie added dismissively as if she was a professional. “Needs to be more up and down.” She moved her hand through the ocean air to demonstrate the shape she was looking for.

“That’s true too, you need to get under it more, Coop.” Camila concurred, lifting her faux aviator sunglasses, crafted by the artisans of Ghost Reef, up above her eyes to get a better look for herself.

The next spear throw landed with a more condensed thump, but even Coop didn’t hear a thunk. It had been roughly 20 seconds since the previous barrage. Coop had slowly cut down on the flight time, seeking a sweet spot, but the variable distances meant that his attacks fluctuated with a pretty wide margin considering the total amount of time each throw took. The shortest flights were closer to 10 seconds, and if he got frustrated enough to use more Strength, he could extend it upwards of a minute or two.

“9.1” “9.3” The judges announced. He smiled at Charlie. The mousy park ranger was reliably more generous with her scores.

Camila and Charlie had joined him as the tide receded, bringing a pair of lounge chairs and perching themselves nearby. They claimed the highest point of the sandbar and sunned themselves while Coop chained his spear throws one after the other.

At first, they had come to investigate what he was doing. The fog was visible from the fort and left the sentries a bit confused. Evidently, Coop’s domain was covering more than one square mile, and with the aid of Presence of Mind, he was able to hit anywhere inside that area with disconcerting precision. The only time he had any off-target throws was when he was testing the limits of the arcs. It turned out the Kites were dug in pretty deep, flattening themselves beneath a significant layer of sand, with their tentacles coiled and ready to spring from beneath them, almost as if they were trying to stay dry beneath the ocean.

If Coop’s spear didn’t come from straight above, he tended to miss, with no reasonable way to accurately predict how deep the monsters actually were. As long as the spear came from straight above the streaming bubbles, he would be on target. A more destructive throw, with high rotation, or even the pressurized weapons, could penetrate their burrows from an angle, but he either lost range or time with either strategy, meaning neither was feasible for his purpose.

“7.8” “8.5” Coop couldn’t argue with their assessment. His last spear throw had been a distant one, so the hang time was definitely too long.

The girls were taking a break from grinding monsters themselves, but both were chasing their first Slayer titles with the Ancient Defenders. They each had ways of defeating masses of the monsters at once, but waiting for the respawns and their skills actually resulted in a slower grind than Coop had experienced when he cycled through tight circuits of the monsters. So, they were taking the marathon in chunks, working their way toward the final stage a thousand monsters at a time.

He had expected them to go through the chains much faster than he had at the start of the assimilation, but the limitations were still with the respawn times. They waited longer periods and they ended up with a slower overall speed as a result. The situation would be far more in their favor if there were more of the monsters in the first place, but on Ghost Reef the monsters only had so much territory for themselves. Even the monsters that weren’t physically limited by space, like the Primal Trackers and the Ruin Excavators, were still limited by respawns. It seemed like they only came from a single spawn area, then spread out if given the opportunity to do so, rather than just spawning wherever they claimed.

Coop suspected that a Hive would have resulted in more spawn area if it was allowed to evolve further. It was a scenario he would keep an eye out for whenever he was away from his own territory. They wouldn’t allow any advanced monster formations to grow within Ghost Reef, but in the unclaimed territory, he fully expected challenges to be escalating. He didn’t shy away from the thought, or the fact that it excited him.

Coop approved of the girls pacing themselves, but he couldn’t help but feel for their situation. It would drive him nuts if every single grind was like the one in the mana well. He’d completely spoiled himself with sustained grinds from the start. Anything less than a steady destruction of opponents would just frustrate him. The Kites were barely on the satisfying side of his speed.

“9.0” “9.1” The judges decided as Coop blasted another distant Kite with a long hang time, but with more of a thunk than a thump.

Sunset was coming, and it promised to be a spectacular one. Pink streaks were already spreading along the soaring clouds, giving them a wispy cotton candy style that made Coop want to wave his hands through them. He probably could satisfy his whim, throwing his spear into the sky and mistjumping, but he stayed on task.

“How much longer are you gonna go?” Camila asked as the trio watched another arcing spear ascend toward the cotton candy clouds.

Coop had been at it for nearly seven hours. He checked his recent progress before he answered.

[You defeated Primal Kite (Level 15)]

[+13 Basic Credits]

[+1 Charged Metallic Scale (Uncommon)]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Defeat Primal Kites IV (808/5000)]

…

[You defeated Primal Kite (Level 16)]

[+15 Basic Credits]

[Defeat Primal Kites IV (1018/5000)]

Coop had been slowly shaving off the seconds with each throw, but there was only so much he could do. The total time for each kill had been reduced by more than 50% on average, but that still meant he was only defeating around three monsters per minute, maybe four with some ideal target selection. Those were rookie numbers that he hadn’t been forced to endure since his earliest grind sessions. In this case, he thought was being limited by the strength of gravity.

“I’ll probably go for at least another 2 or 3 hours.” Coop decided with a shrug. That would put him in range of completing the fourth stage of the Slayer quest chain after two more similar sessions. At least he could hunt these monsters day or night, relying on his skill synergies for perception.

At this rate it might take him another week to get through the final stage as well, but he wasn’t in a rush. If he was, he could hunt through the morning, and cut the total time in half, then he could add nights to shorten it even further. If he was really pushed, he figured he could spend around four more days on the sandbar and get it all done, which wasn’t bad, even compared to more ideal grinds. Even the most frustrating of enemies, with as many variables stacked against his grind as the Kites had, couldn’t slow him down by a truly significant degree. The girls would take weeks more to defeat the ideal enemy in the Ancient Defenders, and both of them were significantly faster than most others who were making their way through the chains. Coop’s speed remained on another level despite the growth that everyone else was experiencing.

Camila and Charlie looked at each other and communicated silently as they made their own plans. “We’ll call it a day once the sun goes down. Can’t keep judging if we can’t see the spears anymore.” Camila declared as she stretched her arms above her head and they watched another spear fly.

“8.7” “8.9” The two announced diligently after the spear throw defeated another distant monster.

Coop nodded and another spear whistled into the air. “I’ll probably call it an early night tonight. I think we’ll be doing the blood curse ritual to heal Jones tomorrow and I want to be as ready as I can be.”

“Oh! That’s great news!” Charlie was palpably relieved. He suspected she was at least as anxious as he was to have Jones back up and about, having known him for years longer than Coop.

“I hope it goes well.” Coop confessed. He was concerned about exactly why he would be needed. Madison had given him the impression he would need to fight something at the end of the ritual.

“I’m sure it will!” Charlie reassured him. “I can’t wait to show Jones around the fort again.”

“Do you think he’ll be mad about the damage?” Coop asked a bit timidly. The fort’s walls were still in the process of being repaired and it was looking like it would take a while given the extra care they were giving to the old structure. Only one of the breaches in the southern wall had scaffolding across the skeleton of each floor with a small portion actively being repaired to the misery of Balor.

Charlie chuckled at Coop’s concern. “He might be a little annoyed. He always grumbled about the lack of maintenance before, but I’m sure he’ll understand that we’ve been doing our best. He might be happy to see so many people available for him to conscript into upkeep.”

“Hmm.” Coop thought about it. “Maybe I should have a museum constructed ahead of time, just in case we need to get on his good side and avoid too much work.” It wasn’t like he was lacking the funds to purchase more services.

“Hah, maybe.” Charlie didn’t disagree, though he suspected she would be immune to any of Jones’s admonitions. No one could stay mad at the adorable Aeromancer.

“I guess we’ll see how it goes.” Coop put the matter aside for the moment, concentrating on slaying as many Primal Kites as he could.

Eventually, Coop was silhouetted by the sunset as it bloomed in full force. The sun slowly sank below the horizon creating a dramatic last scene before ceding the sky to the night. It cast a fiery glow leaving the soaring clouds painted with color, from deep reds and oranges to the soft pinks and purples that had reminded Coop of cotton candy earlier. The water reflected the sky through the thin layer of mists, scattering the colors in a way that made it seem like the trio were standing inside the sunset more than just observing it.

Coop paused his grind as the sun sank further beneath the horizon, and the colors intensified even while the sky above them darkened to deep purples and eventually night chased away the light.

“Beautiful...” Camila whispered quietly, as if she didn’t want to disturb the sunset with her voice.

Ghost Reef always had amazing sunsets, but this was one of the best. Coop waited as the lingering colors faded before he resummoned his spear and got back to it. The short break was at least as good as a full night’s rest in terms of morale.

The girls watched his fading silhouette for a few more minutes before they headed back to the fort to enjoy the rest of their night among the other residents. Coop only planned to hunt another 500 Primal Kites before he called it a day, so he kept up the grind.

As he repeatedly launched his spear, he realized that his mana pool was full. The drain from maintaining Fog of War had been reduced such that his natural regeneration combined with his Reaper title to recover more than he spent. Without the sun pressuring his domain, its upkeep had been decreased to negligible amounts. Coop used some of his excess to cast Legacy of the Mists, hoping to continue his progress with Practical Application.

A phantasm landed in the shallows with a splash that disturbed the tranquil water, but left the fog completely calm. After a brief moment of failed target acquisition, it turned to face Coop with a vaguely unfulfilled expression. The ghost was a lean man, rippling with coiled muscles ready to unfurl, with a spear that was nothing more than a sharpened stick, a leather loincloth, and a pelt draped over his back like a hood that could have only belonged to a saber-toothed tiger judging by the teeth around his neck. Coop felt like apologizing for wasting his time, but the phantasm disappeared before he found the words.

Coop threw his spear and while it flew, considered if he should be moving around his domain and using Legacy of the Mists to supplement his kills. Without mistjumps to help his mobility, it would be even slower than his previous speeds, but it would add a kill every few minutes. Over the course of an entire grind session, it would add up to be a non negligible amount.

When the thunk echoed across the water, he resummoned his spear and threw it again, this time at a particularly distant enemy. The high arc would certainly take closer to 40 seconds before it crashed into his target. He cast Legacy again, this time with the arbitrary thought of a spearman impaling the nearest Primal Kite even though it was well out of range, still not ready to commit to jogging through the water while throwing his spear at other targets.

A hundred yards away, a sudden splash of cascading water and sand grabbed his focus and he received a kill notification before his spear had even landed. He quickly glanced side to side, looking for the phantasm before he realized what he had just done. Presence of Mind gave him all the clues he needed, despite Fog of War only occupying a layer that was an inch thick. The phantasm had been summoned all the way in the distance and made short work of the Primal Kite that Coop had let himself wistfully target.

His spear landed with a disappointingly deep thump, destroying another Kite, and he resummoned his spear, pausing to look at it while his mind raced to explain what had happened. Instinctively, he knew it was another synergy between his skills. Presence of Mind allowed him further micromanagement of his Fog of War and Legacy of the Mists skills and Fog of War gave him an anchor point for the phantasms that bypassed the restriction that they be near himself, allowing him to summon anywhere in the domain.

“Damn…” Coop muttered to himself as he wrapped his head around the potential applications.

His range was already insane when he relied on throwing his spear with all of his prodigious Strength, but it was still a physical projectile based attack that had its own limitations and counters. The phantasms leapt out of the mists, dealing magic damage instead of physical. Basically, the counters for each attack wouldn’t work on the other. It wasn’t like throwing his spear and shield simultaneously in order to try to overwhelm his targets. He could force them into a dynamic defense that he had a hard time imagining would be feasible, if he caught them in Fog of War.

The only challenge he could immediately see was that Fog of War itself was essentially a static field with its own issues to overcome. It was significantly more robust with his Intelligence stat growing to absurd levels, but it still barely moved and would need to balance surprise with speed.

Coop threw his spear at another distant target, then picked an adjacent Primal Kite and cast Legacy of the Mists. The phantasm defeated its target in a single second while his spear continued to soar into the night sky.