Unchosen Champion-Chapter 326: Bronze Rank Party

When Coop was fully immersed in his various spectral manifestations, the proximity his class had with the Undead was never more obvious. An ominous, supernatural fog that seemed to have a mind of its own, filling a specific cavern of an already dark and menacing cave system set a heavy atmosphere. It seemed threatening, penetrating even his normal obliviousness, and that was before any intruders were impacted by the disorienting effects inherent in the Mind-based skill.

Then, Coop, decked out in ethereal gladiator armor like the specter of some warrior forgotten by the sands of time after being unceremoniously killed in an ancient arena, simply appeared, with no proffered warning, from a swirl of ghostly mists within the fog, completely silent. The wispy domain went undisturbed, as if to accommodate his tenebrific presence in the gloom, but his armor caught the dim illumination as he shifted his weight, his movement demonstrating his readiness to the trained eye. Even the way he carried himself hinted at the deadliness of becoming his enemy. A hundred million instances of combat left a subtle mark on every action he took, from the way he stood to the way his eyes moved.

If anyone was unprepared for meeting the Revenant of Ghost Reef, it had to have been like being confronted by an evil wraith, hungry for revenge. For once, Coop leaned into the menacing ambiance, highlighting the danger of being in his presence by keeping his expression dispassionate rather than familiar. Normally, this was the moment that he provided a friendly greeting, waving with as disarming a smile as he could manage in order to try and make his potential new friends comfortable.

The curious strangers all flinched as he caught them by surprise, but the pair that were carrying mana-torches held onto the light sources with some amount of discipline that seemed commendable. Coop eyed each of them from just beyond the edge of his Fog of War, letting the silence linger just a moment longer before speaking.

“Can I help you?” Coop ventured after concluding they wouldn’t jump straight to combat, merely asking a simple question instead of greetings to maintain some of the weight of his presence behind him. He slowly stepped completely into the light and propped both hammers up, one elongated stem on each of his bare shoulders, as he investigated the party that had interloped on his hunting ground.

A quick inspection of their auras revealed that they were all members of the Lighthouse with levels around 150. He raised an eyebrow as it had occurred to him that they could have been under the impression he was weak given the current nearly one hundred level disparity between himself and each member of their group. That would be a deadly mistake to make, for them, but he let his fog drift across his armor, just in case, adjusting his grip to draw their attention to his weapons and remind himself of the real measure of his power in his Mind stat.

“Oh, it’s you.” One acknowledged with a relieved laugh, finally breaking the tension Coop had built while the others grumbled about the fright he had given them. “Hey, that’s the Champion, you guys. Show some respect.” He added, knocking one of them on the back of the arm as they complained, trying to get the rest of his party into shape.

“We’ve all heard so many stories, it’s pretty exciting to meet you in the flesh.” He directed at Coop, unperturbed as if the menacing aura was a part of the lore surrounding their Champion. ”Sorry about them.” He gestured toward his mates. “They’re just antsy about our quest.”

“What’s the matter?” Coop asked, still unsure about their purpose.

He had only been in the caverns for a total of 10 or 15 minutes, so he doubted anyone had missed him that much. They couldn’t have been looking for him specifically, and if any of his companions needed him, they would have sent an actual messenger wraith. He was still well within the confines of Ghost Reef’s territory. If they had a quest, it shouldn’t have anything to do with him.

Initially, he had been wary of bandits as the scenario reminded him of the early days when every encounter was a potential combat situation. A lone individual off in the dark would have been a good target for a mugging, especially in the chaos of the initial assimilation, but that didn’t seem to be the case this time around. They hadn’t followed him into the caves while he was distracted by the skybox in the central chamber, but instead had stumbled into him as they went on their own way.

Coop frowned as he wondered if he had been outside of the sanctuary of Ghost Reef for a bit too long. It had been a long time since he had to be so pessimistic about meeting strange humans, and that was especially true within the territory of his settlement. The phantoms were all capped out at nearly level 5,000, so the level of security was unparalleled, even compared to before the assimilation. He relaxed a bit as he concluded he had let his imagination get the better of him through no fault of his current company.

“We’re on our way to complete a mission for the Adventurer Guild and some guy back there warned us that a low level adventurer had gone off on his own, so we were keeping a lookout.” The leader explained innocently. “We tried to tell him that Mick and Joanna: those are the phantom sentries on duty right now: wouldn’t just let anyone wander out, but he wouldn’t listen, and insisted that someone might be in trouble.”

“Oh.” Coop mumbled, feeling a bit embarrassed as he realized he had been the one causing a scene.

“We didn’t recognize your domain, so we weren’t sure if it was safe to enter.” The leader continued, seemingly just happy to be there. “That’s why we were loitering around in the dark.”

“Ah, it’s safe, just a bit of fog.” Coop muttered. He hadn’t realized it might actually get that busy around his once sparsely populated settlement. “Even if it gets really thick, the Standard Issue Armor is supposed to have some countermeasures built into the helmet.”

One of them tapped their equipment to give it a shot and Coop stepped aside, giving the whole party a chance to move on. “Sorry about that.”

“Not a problem, Champion.” The leader seemed genuine enough. “I’m Moe, by the way. We’re the Metal Eagles party. Currently aiming for a Bronze Rank promotion with the Adventurer Guild so that we can get permission to enter the top layer of the Coral Forest.” He elaborated as he presented his friends. “I don’t suppose I could entice you to join us temporarily. We’ll split the reward evenly: 1,500 credits for us and 1,500 credits for you. Seeing you in action would be worth the cut and it would still be a decent day’s work.” He continued, hushing the grumbling from one of the torch bearers.

“Nah, that’s alright.” Coop chuckled. “But out of curiosity, what is the mission like?” Coop asked, letting his interest bubble up.

“We gotta defeat 250 Ruin Excavators of level 70 or above.” Moe explained, presenting quite a bit of pride at taking on the challenge.

Coop raised his eyebrows, wondering if there would be a punchline. “That’s it?” He finally asked, barely suppressing his incredulity. There were more than 500 Ruin Excavators in his Fog of War, though he wasn’t sure of all their levels. Was the Adventurer Guild just giving away credits?

“They’re one of the trickier enemies, so the rewards tend to be higher for less kills.” Moe explained, unaffected by Coop’s surprise.

“Huh.” Coop acknowledged the truth of his statement, agreeing that they were a bigger pain than most. “How do you keep track?” Coop questioned. He couldn’t imagine the honor system being applied, but that’s what came to mind first.

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“The quest just ticks up?” Moe ventured, unsure of exactly what Coop was asking. “The Adventurer Guild uses the faction to give us an official quest. I can even share it with you.” He added, seeming excited about the chance of roping him in.

“Sure, let me see.” Coop responded and Moe’s focus broke as he interacted with his display. Shortly afterwards, Coop had a notice in his display.

[You have a new quest!]

The notification popped up, and sure enough, when he checked his status, he had a quest that needed him to defeat 250 Ruin Excavators of level 70 or above.

“Well look at that. Cool.” Coop muttered, impressed with the incorporation of the system and faction. “So if I get a kill, will it count for all of you as well?” He sought clarification. “Like some kind of communal assignment?”

“Yep! As many people can join the mission as we want, but the end reward won’t change when we turn it into the guild, so it makes sense to keep participation limited to avoid diluting the prize.”

“Alright.” Coop nodded. Now that he had the quest in his status he couldn’t just ignore it. “Guess I’ll help out.”

“Hang on,” One of the other party members interrupted. “You’re only level 57.” He looked at the party leader. “He’s only level 57. How’s he gonna help? Seems like he’d just get in the way, doesn’t it?”

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“Heh.” Coop couldn’t help but be amused, though he didn’t want to brag by correcting the guy’s presumption.

“Dude, have you never heard of the Unchosen Champion?” One of the other party members questioned, giving an expression of pure bewilderment.

“Of course I’ve heard, but those are just stories, right?” The skeptical member continued, seeming slightly apologetic toward Coop, but rightfully disbelieving what he had heard as simple rumors.

“Those stories barely paint the whole picture.” Moe insisted while the other party member agreed. “Guy is a true veteran.”

“What stories?” Coop wondered, but they just laughed like it wasn’t really their place to share with the person who had lived through them.

“The ‘Siegebreaker’ play is my favorite.” The party member that had tested the fog eventually offered after deactivating her helmet..

“The heck is that?” Coop questioned with a chuckle.

“It’s about how you single-handedly defeated the world's first Siege Boss.” She explained. “The actor that plays you does an excellent job.”

“What the…” Coop muttered, as he came to the realization they really were serious.

“Theater Thursdays are the best.” They concluded, leaving Coop further perplexed.

He had no idea what day of the week it was, or even if they still applied given the perceptible changes to Earth. That there was a theater in Ghost Reef was also a surprise, though he imagined actors getting profession experience somehow, it hadn’t even occurred to him that such activities were going on. It was like a tiny sample of the confusion the aliens felt when they looked at humanity as a whole. How did they have the time for such extracurriculars: the assimilation was the apocalypse, wasn’t it?

Coop shook his head at himself, wondering if he needed to buy a calendar for the lighthouse. He felt a little bad about his earlier suspicions toward the so-called Metal Eagles, but he recognized that he had simply lost some of his own naivete over time. Mostly, he was too innocent for his own good, but he supposed he had grown a bit more as the days went on. He wondered if that was a bit sad actually, but he took solace that Ghost Reef was hanging onto its status as a safe haven that would defy the heavens, even with an influx of strangers. Besides, so long as he continued gathering his strength, he could afford to be a bit innocent sometimes.

With his participation eventually agreed upon, he ended up asking what their strategy to defeat the Ruin Excavators actually was, and they willingly explained, hoping to determine a way for him to get in on the action. Using a blade, they sketched the different phases of their tactics, revealing a step-by-step process to follow.

They had a complicated method that required careful baits and retreating if they didn’t pull exactly the right combination of monsters. By the end of the explanation, Coop was honestly a bit lost, so he offered to demonstrate his own strategy. They hesitantly agreed, worried about backing him up without a thorough overview of his tactics beforehand, though half of the party members were just excited to see him in action. He insisted that the rest could just observe.

Coop melted back into his lingering domain, and baited the entire rest of the monster spawns within the chamber through a series of flickering teleports. The Primal Constructs launched themselves from their nests, crashing into nothing as he had already moved on, but the action goaded the rest of their companions to join in on the commotion. After a short period of setup, the cavern had become a mess of bewildered monsters, having wasted their primary advantage on chasing a ghost. They milled through the fog, aggressively searching for their target, though the nearest potential enemies were safely beyond the entrance to the cave.

Then, with the help of Vaporform, Coop began to reappear among the multitude of monsters. He pummeled the swarm of Ruin Excavators with his dual hammers while completely avoiding their tail blasts and claw strikes. Each crashing slam whirled through the foggy air, drawing painterly streaks of glowing aquamarine before a burst of dark mana smoke erupted from the annihilated targets.

Rather than attempt to properly engage his unpracticed offhand, Coop smashed both hammers down simultaneously, double striking every time he left the safety of his mists. He was effectively doubling his target acquisition, though he wasn’t exactly doubling his speed. It was still quite a bit faster than wielding a single hammer on the armored foes.

In slightly less than 10 minutes, Coop had defeated over 500 monsters and completed the quest in the process. Truthfully, he had barely broken a sweat, and he was still updating the specific strategies he would use on this particular variant, but with the cavern clear, he could take a moment to reflect on how it went. He wasn’t completely satisfied with the speed that he triggered the monsters, but his Haunted title had already helped adjust how his offhand could better mirror his mainhand. He’d have to experiment with different ways of attracting the Excavators’ attention, but it was a decent start that showed quite a bit of promise for his initial gearing choice.

When he returned to the presence of his temporary companions, Moe was encouraging the rest of his party, pointing out that they too could get that strong if only they had the same dedication to practice. He was making them commit to training with Ledwidge twice as much and joining the ranks of the top parties as soon as possible. Most of the parties Coop heard them mention had names like the Secret Lotus, the Circle of Obsidian, and other fantastical descriptors, but others just sounded incidental. The Seraphin was literally just Charlie’s family name, and the Gardening Club was almost certainly the original herbalists of Ghost Reef. Still, the top was occupied by Shane’s party and Gibson’s party, neither of which had a specific name.

Coop broke up the motivational discussion to see if he lived up to the rumors. “So? What do you think?” He asked.

“I don’t think the theater is capable of the special effects necessary to do your ‘thwip’ ‘thwip’ stuff.” Moe concluded. “It’s like a more controlled phantom-step, but that you can linger in the fog is what makes it unique.”

Coop let them praise him for just two more sentences before it grew to be too much and he started to feel embarrassed. In the end he insisted on returning to his hunt.

They left him with a series of apologies and expressions of gratitude, promising to repay the favor, and though they offered to let him keep the entire quest reward, he firmly declined. He had received more credits from Scavenging the kills than he would have received anyway, and ranking up through the Adventurer Guild didn’t seem like something he should worry about at this point, though he thought it was cool such a progression system had been created.

Once Moe and the Metal Eagles were gone, Coop moved through the left tunnel into the darkness, seeking the next chamber to really start his grind.