Chapter 331: Strange World
“Okay, Coop, you ready for this? Here’s what we got prepared for you.” Derek began, flipping a poster board that had been positioned on a simple stand behind the bar. The front side displayed ‘Derek’s Drinks of the Day (no refunds),’ but turning it around revealed a complicated diagram full of information. Scattered papers broke loose as he dramatically presented the board, but he ignored them as if shedding the excess notes was fully intended.
They were moving forward with the original game plan because someone had spotted the shrimp monsters rushing back up the coral colony, clearly intent on claiming the best spots to bathe in mana. The return of familiar opponents was a relief, and the Adventurers were already preparing to get back to their hunting grounds in order to complete their assigned missions. Meanwhile, Derek decided that was a good enough signal to bring Coop up to speed and have him join in on the taming of the Coral Forest, mostly because it allowed him to avoid any further responsibility while dealing with emergencies.
“Lights!” He shouted at no one in particular, but someone from the guild jogged over to a corner of the shack and pointed a lampshade toward him, providing a small highlight on the surface of the board. For a moment, Coop had no idea how to feel about the mood, but it seemed like Derek was going for a snappy presentation like he was the mastermind behind some kind of heist. It was certainly a choice.
Coop rolled his eyes before he scanned the illustrations on the board, connected with red strings, recognizing just two of half a dozen potential enemies with lines drawn to their three dimensionally represented habitats. They were color-coded and arranged on a chart that was meant to designate the different layers of the Coral Forest like a multi-tiered map coming in from the side. The monsters were further categorized for danger levels and had specific details regarding their attack habits, preferred environments, growth factors, and individual behaviors.
Coop grunted, surprised to find more or less all the information he could have hoped for. If it wasn’t for the mana in the Coral Forest being flushed by the settlement upgrade, the grind would have started immediately just from the details on the board. The new shrimp monsters were exactly in his range. Plus, the deeper variants established clear tiers based on their depth, and would have provided a smooth path all the way to level 500 if all the information was correct. The Adventurer Guild had done good work, establishing and maintaining a route into the depths.
“First of all, for shorthand, we just call ‘em by nicknames.” Derek slapped his finger against the drawing of a familiar shrimp monster as he took control of the presentation. “One That Hunts, regardless if it is of the Feast or of the Hunger are Hunters, the One That Waits we call Crabs, ‘cause Waiters didn’t sound right for such a big scary monster. Then we also have Gulpers, Chompers, Gliders, and Faders.” Derek introduced, tapping his hand against the board with each character, drawing further down the representation of the well as he went. Coop was sure the nicknames could have been better, but it was Derek they were talking about. He was just glad he had put any thought into his role.
“Our original plan was to push the guild members to establish a tamed path through as much of the mana well as possible, both for your sake and theirs to create a few proper zones for you to take over while your level rose.” Derek faced Coop. “We knew your greedy ass would monopolize the hunting areas for a while, so it was the last chance for many people to get some extra experience in before they were forced into an early vacation. But also we wanted to give you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with some of the other variants at their lowest potential level, which as you know, typically, but not always starts equal to the number of days in the assimilation. Some of them seem to get levels in secret before claiming their territory, but they aren’t found until the lower layers. From there you could explore further out to find higher level monsters of the same type.”
“I’m not that greedy.” Coop mumbled, taking issue with the assertion that he didn’t know how to share.
“No questions until the end of the presentation!” Derek cut him off, earning another eyeroll.
“Even you won’t be able to fully suppress the areas we have reached, and we estimate that only 10% of the mana well has been initially explored, let alone mapped. The whole place just keeps revealing more area, and we haven’t found a hint of it ending.” Derek explained.
“Lady Hai Yun brought a bunch of experience with mana wells, having started her leveling journey in one, and also being a major part of the group that conquered the first one, but even she has been surprised by the depth of the Coral Forest. Apparently, the one that she fully explored was only four levels, but we’ve already detected six, maybe seven, and that ain’t the bottom.”
“How can it be that big?” Coop wondered.