Chapter 318: Birds of a Feather
When Coop manifested from a splash of mists in the center of an empty field outside of the Heartland Settlement, abruptly confronting the massive collection of human warriors, the preparations for battle had already ceased. All of the fiery aggression had been doused by the overwhelming power displayed in response, then the appearance of a familiar Champion, briefly thought to have been dead, extinguished any battlelust that remained. The growing competitiveness was replaced by general confusion.
Marcus noted that Coop arrived with his aura fully unleashed. It sent a wave of subconscious fear through the people present. Marcus recognized the crushing, oppressive atmosphere it created, hinting at an unrelenting, reckless ruthlessness that clashed with the actual personality of the one at its center. The aura alone would have been enough to give any overconfident individuals pause before they sought to steal glory, but the fact that so many of the most prominent warriors were so quick to stand down at the mere appearance of his spear swept any overly ambitious thoughts away. There were enough people present who recognized the signature abilities of Ghost Reef’s Revenant to halt any potential opening strikes. Instead, they questioned what he was doing there and what was with his timing.
Still, Marcus cast his aura inspection skill, Thoughtful Guidance, to gauge the state of the fallen Champion. He sought whatever clarifications he could get as soon as possible.
[Icon of Humanity (Level 0)]
Marcus felt his jaw slacken in surprise, expecting to find only one thing, and not exactly seeing it. It should have said ‘Human.’ Icon was a scary title in their experience.
“Where did that come from?” He muttered under his breath, wondering if the change was what had caused his level to change.
Marcus’s skill only received a single line in response to touching Coop’s aura, but it wasn’t because it was unable to retrieve information due to being insufficiently leveled relative to the target. The fact that it worked as expected was confusing enough by itself, as it confirmed that Coop had actually somehow undone his level, but failing to retrieve any other stats on a low level made no sense.
The lack of any further lines of information meant that every single one of Coop’s stats were higher than his own, which raised a dozen more questions regarding the legitimacy of the level designation. Marcus had no idea how to parse the existence of one line and lack of others, but at least it confirmed that Coop wasn’t weak, despite what his level implied. Apparently, his intimidating aura was more true to his status than anything Marcus’s ability explicitly revealed.
Coop already had his hands held out to discourage any conflict, knowing he needed to calm everyone down before something bad happened. He looked like a lion tamer, shouting ‘Hey, now! Hold on a sec!’ but he was facing well over two million humans, and all had been primed for battle. It seemed easy for something to go wrong.
Where the previous engagements with Primal Constructs from the Fallen Zone had only required small portions of the warriors to be at attention, the ‘unknown’ had drawn them all to arms. They had formed a loosely convex line in preparation for significantly outnumbering their opponents, and Coop ended up in the center of it all.
Marcus reacted first, having already been positioned at the forefront of the combat lines and in the middle of the formation, doing his best to help extinguish the situation . “Coop?” He queried, breaking the tense atmosphere, confirming that it was really him. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain in a minute, just, everyone relax while I calm her down. She’s kinda overprotective.” He spoke quickly, before seeming satisfied that no one would attack and turning away to intercept the still rapidly approaching boss monster.