Chapter 215: Reset
After Coop received an eighth rank of the Slayer title while escorting Sierra to Corozal, he reflected on the gains he made during the expedition in the Yucatan. The level 175 threshold had been broken relatively early, when he defeated the Avatar of Huracan and claimed Vaporform. At the time, he felt like he was gaining levels rapidly, but since then, he had only been advancing at a pace of approximately one level per day. One level per day may have been a reasonable baseline when ignoring all other factors, but Coop deservedly had elevated expectations surrounding his own personal progress, especially when repeatedly confronting boss battles and their equivalent challenges.
Looking at his levels in isolation, Coop wasn’t particularly happy with his rate of growth any longer. In fact, as far as he could remember, the last few weeks had somehow been the slowest he had gone since the first days of the assimilation. The first half had only been slow relative to his normally steep progress, but after the encounter with an Icon of Mana, he was starting to feel his levels really lagging. It certainly wasn’t a good sign that he needed to recall the period of time before he had defeated a single monster, had received no experience, and the struggle was based around figuring out what was happening to the world, to find an advantageous comparison to his current rate of progress.
Meanwhile, during the last few weeks, Coop felt like he had been busier than ever. Only the Siege Event compared to the constant boss battles he was engaging in. Coop sighed to himself as he recalled the absolute decadence of having monsters come to him rather than vice versa. If only he could make the Cult of Chakyum do the same. Even if the experience gained from the cultists wasn’t up to snuff, at least the challenge would be straightforward.
Sure, there had been two forced breaks in returning to Ghost Reef and then refusing to leave Sierra behind, but neither was truly a complete departure in his experience gains. When he went back to Ghost Reef to get healed by Madison and upgrade the settlement, he had also gained a level reclearing the boss of the first level of the Mana Well, and treading water in the sea had come immediately after defeating the High Priestess and then transitioned into completing another Slayer title. Neither had been periods of inaction.
He had longer bouts of idleness in between grinds back on Ghost Reef, when the settlement was at a stage that he could help set things up, but his gains had never slipped to the point that his pace was comparable to the time before his very first grind. Coop often relied on his instinct rather than exact calculations when gauging his efficiency, and in this case, his instinct was telling him that something was off. The downtime didn’t fully account for what he felt was a shortchanging of his gains.
As Coop’s feet crunched on dried palm fronds, half-buried in soft white sand, his phantasms deleted any Ruin Nebulas caught in the edge of the miles wide Fog of War, and he was free to ponder the topic of experience gains as if he was on a casual stroll. In his trail, a handful of vaguely tame iguanas followed along in short bursts of speed, but they stayed far behind, barely nipping at the edges of his fog.
Sierra’s breathing had finally steadied once they got out of the water and she had been in a deep sleep ever since. He did his best to leave her well-earned rest undisturbed, but it seemed like she would maintain her slumber even if he tripped and dropped her. In any case, Coop made sure he wouldn’t trip while he checked his status.
[Status]
HP - 16940/16940
MP - 15804/31380
Class - Revenant (Level 191)
Profession - Scavenger (Level 151)