Unchosen Champion-Chapter 292: Inquisitor of the Deep

Coop thought that it was about time to wrap things up in the Underlayer. Sure, there were still officially three weeks remaining in the duration of the event, but the Primal Constructs simply weren’t up to the task of maintaining their invasion, and not just because of his personal growth. Several other forces of humans had proven they were capable of stemming the tide against their would-be alien conquerors as well.

Many of those that managed to access the Underlayer had entered the underground prepared to grapple with whatever challenges they faced, already hardened by their experiences during the assimilation. They contended with the escalation in power allowed by the system and defeated the pinnacle of strength for the invaders in the enormous Prime Construct Siege Bosses. Most of the human armies were well on their way to securing their objectives with or without the contributions of the Champion of Ghost Reef, and if they weren’t, they were considering other ways of maximizing their survival.

While Coop had individually sought to rise against the invaders and prove that Earth would be an independent planet that didn’t need outside factions, it turned out that the rest of humanity had something to say on the matter as well. All across the world, people were maintaining pockets of resistance, refusing to be defeated.

Coop’s efforts may not have been the main factor in their ultimate success, but he had become the catalyst for avoiding any unnecessary sacrifice specifically demanded by the Underlayer Event. Calculating exactly how many people survived to fight another day due to his efforts would be a difficult, if not impossible, task. Plenty of those who had entered the Underlayer were able to avoid the open-field battles in the dirt, and even more people would be safer afterwards, when their settlements wouldn’t have to contend with fortified Constructs within their territory.

The largest collections of people who were gathering within tamed civilization shard territory and forming alliances were the most obvious, but smaller groups were almost certainly making their stands in the wild as well. They also benefited from the timely prevention of more Primal Construct development on the surface.

Coop’s efforts had undoubtedly resulted in worthy results for the broader coalition of ‘team humanity.’ Whether or not it was entirely recognized by all of the beneficiaries was up in the air, but as far as he was concerned, that was barely a secondary goal.

His personal progression, on the other hand, spoke for itself.

[Status]

HP - 28875/28875

MP - 55250/55250

Class - Revenant (Level 462)

Profession - Scavenging (Level 181)

Affinity - Spectral, Abyssal

Race - Human (Rank 1)

Faction - The Lighthouse

Strength - 125 (+5525)

Agility - 125 (+2762)

Body - 125 (+2762)

Mind - 4420 (+1105)

Intelligence - 125 (+5525)

Acumen - 125 (+2762)

Unallocated - 0

Titles - Champion IV, Haunted, Ethereal, Reaper II, Slayer XI, Dauntless, Stacked, Defiant, Siegebreaker, Mindbender, Valor XXIV, Dedicated, Dynamo

Skills (Active) - Mistwalking

Skills (Passive) - Mind Over Matter, Adamance, Practical Application, Arcane Comprehension, Clarity of Purpose, Reverence (Rank 9)

Quests - Fortune Seeker (22/50), Upgrade City to Metropolis

Basic Credits - 15,111,836

His stat totals, class level, and resource pools were practically unrecognizable compared to what they were at the start of the Underlayer Event. The amount of experience he had gained was truly astounding. Coop paused in between mistjumps to shake his head at his level in particular.

It was Day 149. There was no point in considering standard leveling curves anymore. The main race was against the full activation of mana anyway.

He looked up, imagining integrated members of the galactic community looking down through the vaporous underground sky. Would they start to feel nervous at some point? The assimilation was meant to last another 40,000 days. He chuckled at the notion before continuing his journey.

He wasn’t sure what he really expected when he decided to try and save the world, but considering the sheer number of kills he had accumulated across almost 300 control points, he thought he’d contributed quite a bit, and he had gained over 200 levels to show for it.

Since there was no loot to be found in the Underlayer, the only other change had been to the ranks of Reverence he had gathered over time. Previously, Rank 8 had designated him a ‘Fanatic of the Deep Dweller’ and Rank 9 upgraded his position to ‘Inquisitor of the Deep.’

Every rank had a cultish feel, calling him a Supplicant or a Hound of the Deep Dweller, making it seem as though his Dedication skill ups were the work of obsession toward Sethrak. However, being designated Inquisitor was the first time it seemed to be recognizing his own autonomy. All the other ranks had been representative of increasingly fervent allegiance.

Coop hummed at the change. Maybe he was turning a corner with his connection to the Abyss. Surely, whatever it was culminating into would be revealed in one or two more ranks. The dedications couldn’t just level up forever.

“Right?” He asked himself, actually a bit unsure.

Coop put his doubts aside, confident that something had to happen, though he was a little scared that if nothing happened at Rank 10 or 11 he really would be caught in a trap. The question he chose to focus on was where the path he was forging would take him. At this point it felt like as long as he was a Revenant and a Mistwalker, he couldn’t go wrong.

He had already grown accustomed to the dark wisps of Abyssal mana that accompanied his familiar skills, but once they had reached approximately 50% of his manifestations, around Rank 6 of Reverence, they stopped increasing. The forces of Spectral mana and Abyssal had found an equilibrium where they were balanced against each other.

It was a pretty minor aesthetic change, all things considered. The dark wisps lended his haunting presence an additional depth, adding an inscrutable darkness to the ethereal mists, but ultimately he was the same ghostly gladiator when fully equipped. He figured diversification of his damage profile wouldn’t be a bad thing, considering passive defenses, and the same went for his own protection, but the Primal Constructs weren’t opponents that demanded that level of scrutiny. Certainly, the Path of the Abyss had more to it than the presence of a raw affinity, but he had yet to penetrate the surface.

All he could do was keep going. Of course, putting his head down and grinding it out was what he was going to do anyway, so his plans didn’t change. He teleported to his spear, catching and sighing to himself as he stepped forward, exiting the mists as smoothly as the phantasms that lived in the world of mana. He unconsciously sounded like an overworked salaryman, going through the motions.

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Coop had been pushing a thought into the back of his mind, but as the end of his journey through the Underlayer approached, it bubbled back up to the surface, more insistent than ever.

He was tired.

The promise of the ultimate grind had kept him going, fueling his hunger for progression, but the end was in sight and he just wanted to lay down in the shade of a palm tree and listen to the waves while he slept. Optional or not, he was ready for a break.

He shook it off, launching his spear into the distance with a grunt. “Let’s finish strong.” He muttered to himself as he watched the missile blast through the Underlayer. He still had a couple more continents to visit, even if they only had a few more settlements with active invasions.

Coop flickered through the plains, reappearing through bursts of mists as he caught the flying spear and landed in the dirt. He was firmly back on the treadmill, stuck with his own thoughts. He was traveling across what promised to be the longest and most boring leg of his journey so far.

Unlike the previous unexplored sections of the world, there would be fewer chances to grind and progress in this section, though the region seemed like it would be less lonely than normal. Even after he had crossed miles of empty dirt, he was continuing to find the roaming cavalry bands of the Grand Horde as they finished off the weakest invasions in the event, or foot soldier sentries diligently protecting already captured control points.

The problem for Coop was that they had already destroyed all of the Primal Constructs. Just about every settlement in Asia was secured by the gigantic nomadic army that roamed across the continent on the surface. They had entered the Underlayer with a massive show of force, exercising that strength before he arrived. The settlements that weren’t cleared by the Grand Horde were apparently far away. Unfortunately, Coop had a long journey ahead of him.

He gazed forward with weary acceptance as the path extended into the distance, far beyond the horizon. No matter what, he couldn’t be too annoyed about the complete lack of action. Every settlement in the region had a Challenge Assessment of x1. That meant that even if there were monsters for him to destroy, they would have barely whet his appetite. All together, they might have accounted for one or two more levels. Thankfully, the few shards they hadn’t cleared were the largest settlements on the planet, so Coop had something to look forward to once he reached the independent shards in Vietnam, Korea, and after he moved on, to Japan.

“A light at the end of the tunnel.” Coop comforted himself with the thought.

He left his meeting with the Great Khan of the Grand Horde with mixed feelings. Coop had intended to make a name for himself and Ghost Reef within the Underlayer, using the event to lay the foundation for his diplomats to make inroads with whoever he met, but when it came to the Grand Horde, he never had the opportunity.

Poor Marcus would have way more work than he ever dreamed of, since Coop was circumnavigating the entire globe. Coop shook his head, amused by the idea. Even with Coop’s unrefined manner, he had opened doors across the world for his Viceroy and the other diplomats.

But before he had even met the largest force in Asia, they were ready to join him and support his causes. While it was mostly a blessing, Coop couldn’t help but feel like it was too easy. So instead of inviting them to join the Lighthouse immediately, for the first time since he started recruiting, he tried to dissuade some potential allies a bit. Instead, he suggested that the Great Khan join the big continental meeting in the Heartland first.

It wasn’t that he would bar them from joining the human faction, it was just that he felt more comfortable giving his advisors a chance to fulfill their roles before taking such a major action. While the Great Khan had put on a masterclass of diplomatic courtesy, Coop was too straightforward to be coaxed in such subtle ways. He was still primarily thinking about his island, his companions, and his levels.

In this case, Coop expected Arthur and his rogues to delve into the structure of the Grand Horde and make sure nothing was amiss. Coop had no real reason to be suspicious after enjoying the friendly meeting, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

One of his main sources of concern was the regional conflict that was occurring between the Grand Horde and the Abundant Grasp. He needed to know more about the dynamics on the surface, outside of the underground, and his Intelligence Advisor would be perfect to analyze the situation.

By allowing the Grand Horde into Ghost Reef, Coop was effectively putting himself in opposition to a group he had never met and knew nothing but rumors about. It was a step more sudden than fighting against the Chosen of the Endless Empire in their civil war since he had no personal experience with anyone involved in the conflict that existed in South Asia.

The alien faction of the Abundant Grasp, whose Chosen had successfully formed a foothold on Earth through a similar early strategy to that of the Endless Empire, had never made contact with Ghost Reef. They hadn’t proven to be a threat to his island. Coop didn’t like the idea of putting all of his weight on one side of a conflict prematurely. He might capsize the boat without realizing what he was doing, ultimately making the situation worse.

The Great Khan had expressed his interest in moving the entire Grand Horde to Ghost Reef, which, ignoring the logistical issues, was also a bit sudden. One tea date, no matter how much courtesy was involved, wasn’t enough to convince Coop to move in together.

He had to consider the power vacuum that would suddenly exist across Asia. Who would fill it? Other than the Primal Constructs, there was only one option; the Abundant Grasp. Would he be making another formidable enemy? Removing the Grand Horde from Asia would grant the Chosen of another alien faction massive amounts of territory and potentially over 100 additional civilization shards. Honestly, that much presence might put the Abundant Grasp on par with the Primal Constructs in terms of control over the planet. One alien faction claiming any portion of Earth was already too much, in his mind.

Still he didn’t want to just annihilate them before getting more information. Coop had no inclination to work with any factions within the galactic community, but he believed it was possible for any Chosen to be redeemable. His experiences had led him to understand that, most of the time, individuals were influenced by larger groups, and were naturally more concerned about their immediate survival rather than the battle for Earth itself.

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t have the chance to meet any representatives of the Abundant Grasp any time soon, as they hadn’t entered the Underlayer at all. Everything he knew about them came from the Great Khan and testimonials from individuals that had left their territories in favor of joining the Horde. The Warlord didn’t have anything positive to say about them, and neither did the soldiers. Still, Coop saw it as asking the lion about the hyena.

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When tasked with describing the Abundant Grasp, the Khan painted a picture of fortified settlements built upon a strictly stratified community. Joining the faction was restricted only to those they deemed truly worthy, as becoming an Initiate member elevated anyone who held the designation into the uppermost layer of their fledgling society.

Everyone else within their territory was denied access to the safety of their settlements, instead forced to work or fight for the chance to become true residents. Achievements would effectively grant them citizenship, and to Coop’s surprise, despite outnumbering the Chosen thousands of times over, the people went along with this restrictive system.

Coop hated it. The whole stratification was antithetical to his own beliefs and the principles that Ghost Reef was built upon. It definitely sounded bad, but this was all information coming from the people they were at war with.

The alien sponsors of the Abundant Grasp had given their Chosen specific instructions that revealed them to be a slightly less zealous faction than many of the others Coop had dealt with before. While they blitzed across portions of South Asia in the early days, claiming as many civilizations shards as possible, they didn’t continue expanding with the goal of world domination after the first settlement event. Instead, the claimed settlements were bracing for the long haul.

The Abundant Grasp was apparently satisfied with taking as big a piece of the pie as possible, rather than demanding the entire plate. That seemed more reasonable to Coop, not that he would allow any factions other than his own to exist on the planet in the long run. Maybe their members could be negotiated with, at least. The question was how much the faction had influenced the humans and how much human influence had bled into their actions.

The Great Khan had given him a lot to think about, and unfortunately, not a lot else to do. The Grand Horde had two expressly defined goals and both had been accomplished with plenty of time to spare.

Maintaining the security of their vast Empire by defeating the Primal Construct invaders that assaulted their own shards was their first mission because protecting the supply lines represented in each of their settlements was a top priority. Obviously, the task had gone well. If it hadn’t, Coop would be having more fun instead of being stuck glumly traveling through a barren underground.

Seeing how easily they could defeat the smaller invasions, they swept through the Abundant Grasp’s objectives as well. In doing so, they denied their regional rivals some valuable experience and claimed it for themselves, but they also made it so Coop had to go all the way to Vietnam before he could see any opponents to fight.

The other mission of the Grand Horde was to have the Great Khan meet with the Champion of the Unchosen. Once they caught wind of his exact location, after he was discovered by Wangmo Thaye, they spared no effort in forcing a meeting. It seemed like every member of the enormous empire was prepared to get involved in making sure their Great Khan’s wishes were made possible. Their thought process was that if their leader wanted to meet Coop, then they would meet.

And now, with both missions accomplished, their neighbors were left waiting. Rather than providing aid themselves, Coop had taken on the task, openly volunteering to take care of the rest. He expected that relieving Can Gio, Gangcheon, and Shinjuku Gardens would be the last bits of action before he took a well-earned rest.