HC:Pacifist | Ch. 161 - Growth Set (Patreon)

After gaining his first contaminated NPC minion, Julio targeted Horace’s poker buddies. The old saying was true: birds of a feather flock together. They all were old men with evil alignments.  He and Horace lay in ambush and waited for the NPCs to visit the old man. The debuff worked its wonders in crippling them, and, one by one, they were brought to the alien fold. Once he had a team of five, he began roaming the woods around town, looking for more prey.

He hit a setback when he tried jumping a strong lumberjack working alone in the woods. Julio failed to consider that most lumberjacks in this town had a righteous alignment and were healthy and strong. The debuff did nothing against him, and he fought back valiantly. His team of old, withered men didn’t stand a chance. He had to sacrifice half of his team to get away.

His luck turned around when he ran into the local monsters. He was delighted to find he could also contaminate them. The only sad thing was that they weren’t considered NPCs for the event and didn’t give him any event tickets. Even so, they were a quick way to bolster his fighting force. After half an hour, he had easily formed a squad of contaminated wolves. He returned to the same spot where he’d found the healthy lumberjack chopping down a tree and swarmed the NPC with wolves. Regardless of how strong the young lumberjack was, he couldn’t handle being attacked by so many enemies and eventually succumbed.

Things became easier once he had such a powerful NPC on his side. He formed an army with the powerful lumberjack as the spearhead, the old men on the flanks, and the wolves as cannon fodder. He soon hit the first milestone of the event.

Congratulations! You’ve contaminated 10 NPCs. You bring glory to the hive!

2,000,000 XP and 10x[Event Tickets].

Event store unlocked.

A new icon formed in Julio’s vision, and he could finally see, with his own eyes, all the different rewards of the event. His goal was to buy a silver alien invasion set. For that, he needed 100 tickets.

He went on targeting lone NPCs working on the forest's edge. Once he secured a battalion with five strong lumberjacks on his side, he moved on to bigger prey and started attacking lumberjack NPCs working in pairs.

Before storming the timber town, he still wanted to amass more power. That’s when he ran into another player with the same idea, who was coming into town to farm event tickets. When Julio spotted his competitor, he used his NPC army to eradicate him. Pressed for time, Julio had to make a move sooner than he would have liked.

Julio watched as his army of contaminated NPCs stormed house after house. He had chosen a time of day when the stronger NPCs in the timber town set out to work in the lumber mill or the surrounding forest so he could attack the weaker NPCs that stayed behind. One by one, the lumberjacks’ relatives, children, and elderly were turned to the aliens’ side.

Eventually, a siren rang, warning the lumberjacks to come back to town. Their bulky figures and gleaming axes were a force to be reckoned with, but they were too late. Those they had to fight were their family members and friends. The lumberjacks tried to hold his army off without using deadly force, which gave Julio the edge. As the battle dragged on, his army grew more numerous while the lumberjacks became severely outnumbered.

After thirty minutes, all the lumberjacks in town had been converted. Julio had managed to contaminate 142 NPCs and had climbed several levels as he crossed the different event thresholds. He now had 111 event tickets, more than enough to buy a silver set. But things didn’t need to stop there. He would lead his NPC army and attack the next village!

“Everyone, gather up!” he screamed to his army. All the NPCs converged to the center of the town. “We’ll attack the next timber town to increase our numbers.” The contaminated NPCs became restless and started searching their surroundings, like gazelles sensing an incoming lion attack. Julio followed their gaze but found nothing. He felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Was it because of the strain of battle? Or had the temperature increased? It had been a normal, mild spring day, but now it felt like a hot summer day. What was going on?

Pillar of Fire!

Fireball!

Scorching Blaze!

Flashy skills engulfed his NPC army. Some of the hivies had still been recovering their hp and instantly collapsed to the ground. “Spread out! Spread out!” Before the NPCs could recover, several warriors riding horses ran in from the opposite side and charged his contaminated NPCs!

“Attack! Respond! Disperse!” Julio furiously sent commands to his troops to try to save his army. He would leave 50 of them behind and make a run for it with the rest. Before he could retreat, a shadow coalesced into the form of a player right in front of him. A rogue! Her daggers shone green and one-shot him.

Julio respawned in a nearby graveyard dazed. It had all happened so fast! He couldn’t even react. He hurriedly checked his notifications.

Contaminated Lumberjack Elmwood has been killed.

Contaminated Mrs. Marie has been killed.

He gulped. After much effort, his army of contaminated NPCs was all dropping like flies. He checked his inventory and sighed in relief. He opened the event store and selected his bounty.

Would you like to exchange 100 event tickets for the [Alien Invasion Silver Set]? [Y/N]

He accepted and equipped it immediately. He checked all the elegant curves and sleek design and smirked. Even though they had found him, he had managed to reach his goal first. When he died, he dropped 10% of his event tickets, but it was still enough to buy the silver alien set.

*

Taran took a nap in the corner of the tent. His snoring was so loud that the glass cases in the museum section of the tent all vibrated. The noise pollution had caused a fair amount of complaining when Ogre first got him, but everyone in the guild had gotten used to it and could tune it out.

Ogre was busy looking at himself in the mirror. How he loved this set. In his opinion, the [Human Defenders Gold Set] was much more stylish than the corresponding alien one. The [Alien Invasion Set] was made of sleek, thin purple metal, giving it a beastly style. The [Human Defender Set], on the other hand, was a golden piece of art. The armor was engraved with intricate patterns, and the filled chip slots shone like gemstones.

Human Defender Gold Set, Lvl. 4

Description: An issued armor set made from a unique alloy that melds with the host and enhances their strength.

Effects:

This six-piece set comprises a helmet, chest, pants, gloves, shoes, and a cape. You can only use them all together as one piece.

+54 to your highest stat;

+41 to your second-highest stat;

+30 to your third-highest stat;

+22% damage reduction;

+20% status resistance;

+214 of whatever you have the most of, HP or EP;

[HR100]; [HP200]; [HP200]; [HP200]; [IHSE].

This is a growth set. The more XP you gain while wearing it, the stronger it becomes. This equipment is bound to its user.

Requirements: Lvl. 50, [Fight Off the Aliens].

HR100 (Chip)

Description: The circuits stimulate the natural regeneration of the human body, speeding up your recovery.

Effects:  +100 hp regen per minute.

HP200 (Chip)

Description: These chips emit a sequence of sound waves that is good for your body and increases your resilience.

Effects: +200HP.

IHSE (Chip)

Description: The Iron Heart Special Edition chips were almost all eliminated in the rain of fire due to how sensitive its is. How lucky of you to find one.

Effects:

+200HP;

+60 regen per minute;

+4 strength.

The best part about it was all the chip slots. Due to Ogre’s hidden class, he needed as much hp as possible, but there were only so many passive skills and equipment he could use. Once he tapped out those two resources, he next looked for chips that granted hp bonuses. Unfortunately, his [Ancient Tree Set] could only fit two chip slots.

The alien invasion set was weaker than the stats granted by his previous equipment. But it did have more chip slots. Thanks to that, he had gained a considerable boost to his hp. Another fantastic feature of this armor was how it grew. They had discovered recently that it leveled up particularly fast when hunting contaminated NPCs or players who chose the alien side.

Even though it wasn’t as powerful as the [Ancient Tree Set] in terms of stats, it was getting there. If he kept this up, this set would become as powerful as his old one, with the added benefit of offering more chip slots.

Ogre was camped near one of the juiciest slices of the pie he had split up with the Krakens. He and one of his battalions all patiently waited near a farming town. They had already received notices that quests with the local NPCs had been canceled, signaling the arrival of players from the alien side. According to his rogue spies’ latest report, they would finish contaminating all NPCs in the next hour.

Ogre used his time to look at his cool set in the mirror and check on how his guild’s troops were doing. Ogre felt much more comfortable on the battlefield than in his guild’s tent. Thankfully, his staff was very talented, and he didn’t need to bother too much with the details and management of the guild.

He observed the map that showed the alien forces' progress. Seeing that not much had changed, he opened the chat they had created for this event. He didn’t need to issue orders but enjoyed seeing the exchanges between the captains and the guild’s strategists.

“We have just cleaned up Timber Village. We’ve collected six black eggs,” came the report.

“Make sure there are no contaminated NPCs nearby so that the town can begin generating new NPCs. In the meantime, head over to Sawtown. The hivies are nearly finished converting the NPCs there.”

“Roger that.”

Ogre smirked. BlueFire sure was ruthless. To come up with this bait-and-bleed tactic and share it with the other guilds showed how big the grudge he was carrying for what happened in the Forest Fortress was.

He looked at the total number of black eggs his guild had collected and smirked. They had a few hundred of them by now. All they needed was a way to gain sensitivity to the light affinity, and they could become even more powerful.

“Sir. The town has finished converting.”

“Coming. Gather the squad.”

Ogre stood up and grabbed the broadsword from the scabbard in his back. “Taran! Wake up! Time to hunt.”

The bear, hearing that his master was about to go to battle, jolted to attention and came to Ogre’s side. 

“It’s time to harvest another crop of hivies!”

*

As Roth left the vault, he checked his inventory. In it, he found the dark egg, which was the focus of his next quest. A few lines below it in his inventory window was the precious copper green egg, the seed of his future pet colony. 

Roth ignored both and grabbed a different item, though. It was a small box made of metal. As Roth opened the case, the magnetic needle spun briefly before stopping while pointing at the northwest. That’s where the Table was and where he needed to start heading.

It was time to head toward the teleportation tree. For some reason that eluded him, the tree wasn’t situated in the city's center, but, on the contrary, it was near the edge. He strolled past the tireless ant workers who kept the city as vibrant and busy as ever. As Roth walked, he studied the world map. He had no idea where the “Table” was. But having a general direction to walk toward was better than nothing.

Roth suspected it was probably in Green Country or Rock Canyon. His logic was simple. This quest was connected to the [Rise of the Hive King] event. Therefore, it made some sense that this quest wouldn’t lead him too far away from where the action was happening. The Sky Islands were East of where he was. That ruled that region out. That made it so the most likely location would be Green Country or Rock Canyon.

Saphira was Northeast, and it wasn’t affected by the events yet. His plan was to teleport to that city and then see if the compass was pointing further northeast or if it was pointing back to the southwest. He scratched his head. He wasn’t even sure if the treeant teleportation system was connected to the human’s one.

As he drew farther from the colony's center and pondered his next move, he got a series of notifications.

Ch. 160 - Tickets

INDEX

Ch. 162 - Such a Good Porter