Chapter 6: Elite Challenger
Once again, Coop woke up with Jett on his chest, purring. She was a good kitty and he told her so. He had the feeling she already knew it and that she thought he might be a little dim for repeating it. He didn’t mind reminding her anyway.
Today, he and Jones were continuing the hunt for Ancient Defenders. They planned to push to level five in order to unlock their classes. He thought they would be well ahead of the curve and couldn’t wait to see where he would land on the leaderboards. Even if he was behind right now, he knew that properly crafting a build through his class, skills, and attributes would catapult him forward. It wasn’t that he doubted anyone would be more competent than he was, he knew, when the competition was the entire planet, that many exceptional individuals would make their presence known. But he doubted even those people would stay at the top if they were just choosing things on a whim.
This time, Coop had relegated his machete to a sheath on his back in favor of the pole spear. The plan was to seek more efficient kill shots by striking at the creature’s red lights rather than the more arduous process of dismembering the machines. They were slowly making their hunting tactics more efficient. They had also abandoned their pseudo armor cosplays since the bits of armor had proven ineffective for both of them.
Coop and Jones followed the same route as they had the day before and found the mechanical creatures in the same locations. The Ancient Defenders obviously respawned relatively frequently, but Coop hadn’t figured out the timeframe just yet. They had even defeated some of them in the same location multiple times in their circuit yesterday. In Coop’s mind, figuring out the creature’s spawn timings would be the next step in improving their hunts.
They utilized the same tactics they had refined the day before with the addition of Coop going for the eyes with the pointy end of his faux spear. It was devastatingly effective, allowing them to defeat the Ancient Defenders three times as quickly.
Coop tried to distract himself from the notification messages by speeding up their route. Jones could easily keep up thanks to his additional attribute points. He had earned a significant number by leveling up his Archaeology profession during their down time. His profession level had already surpassed his class level. He had saved a few points for the inevitable class, but he had still spent some in Agility and Body, believing they were more universal than the other attributes.
Eventually the anticipation grew too much and Coop started to immediately check every notification that he received, anticipating the level up every time.
He was rudely interrupted by a uniquely large Ancient Defender strolling along the beach. The different behavior and unusual size of this specimen prompted an Identify from both of them.
[Elite Ancient Defender (Level 5)]
They looked at each other and nodded, confirming they were on the same page in deciding that this creature would make a worthy final opponent before unlocking their classes.
Applying the experience they had garnered from defeating so many of this Ancient Defender’s weaker brethren, they approached with the confidence of predators. But this elite immediately behaved contrary to the lesser Ancient Defenders by moving to engage them as soon as it noticed they were advancing toward it. None of the others had shown this level of awareness.
When Jones thrust his rake at the creature it didn’t just raise one of its oversized legs to block, like all the others, but also flung its leg forward as if it wanted to kick the offending attacker away. The extra movement effectively countered Jones’s attack and forced Jones to stumble backwards before Coop had even engaged.