Unchosen Champion-Chapter 358: The Omega II

Coop and Lyriel moved across the frozen landscapes full of vigor. They didn’t need to vocalize their mutual agreement to avoid wallowing in the bone-chilling climate, instead racing as if they could outrun the cold. While it wasn’t a contest they seemed capable of outright winning, the exertion helped temporarily stave off the debuffs that accumulated in the extreme environment.

Lyriel may not have been as fast as Coop, but without any obstacles inhibiting her motion, she was plenty capable. She drove forward, leaning into her momentum with enough haste to leave a physical trail despite never letting her feet touch the packed snow. Coop, on the other hand, flickered between the monochromatic world of mists and the monochromatic world of reality, making his spear into a harbinger of the Revenant. He exploded from the mists and plowed forward with his own strength, periodically resetting before he launched the missile ahead. Together, they set a pace that was sufficient to get the job done before either of them froze.

The conditions of the continent were so poor, Coop wouldn’t have been comfortable sending his spear much further into the obscured distance to speed them up. He was already pushing the limits of his perception, and since they were in firmly secured enemy territory, he thought it best to avoid being too reckless, no matter what the eponymous Reckless title represented for his last foray into a Fallen Zone.

After hundreds of miles, Coop concluded that they must have been on solid ground, though it was just the same blanket of snow covering sheets of ice as before. The main difference was in the less uniform surface. The wind was unable to knock down the occasional jutting feature, and soon jagged mountains rose from the frozen landscape. Coop even spotted rare dark stone surfaces contrasting with the grays where the underlying stone was exposed, mostly on the leeward sides of the more precipitous features.

Mika had offhandedly mentioned the potential for 20 million square miles of sea ice surrounding the continent, so Coop had no idea what to expect after leaving the ship. Based on the researcher’s guidance, Coop suspected that they had been veering on and off the Antarctic Peninsula before finally climbing the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. For what it was worth, for a location that he had been warned was known for shedding state-sized icebergs, it was frozen solid. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

It was shortly afterwards that Coop also started finding the local Primal Constructs, mostly trapped within the top layers of ice, either embedded into the ground or completely swallowed by snow. It seemed like the end result of letting the environmental debuffs stack up for too long was a crowd control that was significantly more potent than Coop had imagined. He had imagined a temporary stun, but for the Primal Constructs who had succumbed to the cold, it appeared to be permanent, or at least would last until the conditions changed. Whether Antarctica would ever be warm enough to free them was a question he couldn’t answer.

Coop put the first invader out of its misery, gaining a free level for practically nothing. As long as he could avoid sharing the same fate, it seemed like hunting in Antarctica would be extraordinarily straightforward. The real challenge was certainly in contending with the cold.

Somehow, after the first kill, finding the monsters immediately became easier. It was like his instincts were somehow understanding imagined alien tendencies, so once he found one, he had a better idea for discovering the next. The Primal Constructs had grown familiar to the point of predictability.

He could also better determine where to strike them to inflict the most efficient damage with a mere glance, as if his subconscious measured their exact anatomy after destroying so many previous iterations of the alien manifestations. Rather than spotting weak points as obvious as the glowing eyes that he relied on in the past, it was more like he could tell how to avoid causing unnecessary destruction that would compromise specific parts of the metallic creatures while still fully defeating them. It felt like he had gone a step beyond simply hunting to a level of comprehension regarding his targets that nudged into actual expertise.

He briefly wondered if it was his Haunted title reaching yet another threshold, but it wasn’t exactly the same, lacking the mental reward for proper execution of techniques. The instinctive recognition wasn’t related to his technique so much as it was a result of expertly deciphering his targets after incalculable amounts of practice.

Coop mostly just went with the flow as was his habit when it came to mana-related developments, happy that this one seemed advantageous. Maybe he had just reached the nirvana of a dominant hunter. He had destroyed enough of the invaders to have earned something from all the practical experience.

The Primal Beasts that had barely laid claim to the empty wasteland seemed vaguely like metallic salamanders, with four limbs that were splayed out so that they had a lower profile than other equally sized invaders. Rather than grippy fingertips they had blades that might have been dangerous had they not been frozen solid. Unfortunately for them, their low profiles meant their entire bodies would have been buried by snow, even if they weren’t already frozen. They might have been good at climbing rocky edifices but they had been sent to a frozen wilderness.

Coop struck deliberately, earning himself uncommon materials with every kill. The extra precision didn’t even have a marginal effect on his rate of forward progress, though his enthusiasm sent him zig zagging across the ice. Lyriel maintained her speed, following the shortest possible track to their destination.

It seemed like the solidified troops were meant to be the vanguard that spread the Fallen Zone’s territory, though they were significantly less impressive than the swarms of Elites that pressed through the maze of defenses back at Neptune’s Bridge. The natural conditions had actually proven to be too much of a challenge for the aliens, eventually resulting in the statuesque ice sculptures that Coop wrecked.

Coop continued to hunt, winding back and forth while defeating what were essentially target dummies trapped within ice cubes. Lyriel hovered behind him while taking careful note of the flows of mana, essentially moving near her top speed while he flickered across the landscape with even greater pace. It was a bit unsporting for Coop, but he doubted the monsters would have provided any solace if the circumstances were reversed.

He acquired yet another Slayer title before they had reached the core of the Fallen Zone, but the cold had him skipping over the notifications right up until the end. When it was done, he finally stopped to scan the messages. That’s when he realized what was going on with his perception of the normal enemies. He had completed the profession quest that had lingered in his status for ages. Fortune Seeker was finally finished and its completion combined with his previous Trophy Hunter quest to elevate his profession to another, long awaited stage.

After millions upon millions of defeated monsters, Coop had finally reached Expert Scavenging. The new rank made him wonder how the heck Balor, Erasimus Doomthread, and Garod the Blacksmith had become Grandmasters in their respective professions. It seemed like reaching the ultimate ranks for a profession would actually take thousands of years, no matter what it was.

In any case, the reward for completing the Fortune Seeker quest appeared to be rather valuable. Instead of any further developed instinct, as he had assumed, he was better understanding his prey as he hunted them through Scavenging. The profession was identifying which parts were potentially valuable and passively directing him to collect more resources. If he made sure to avoid striking the parts of his foes that could become materials, he was practically guaranteed to generate an item.

The result made him wonder about how the system bent to accommodate his activities. Like his class, path, and skill options, it felt like he had compelled Scavenging to recognize his comportment, where he practically ignored the aspect of the profession designed to discover treasures in favor of generating resources through grinding. The system had long since demonstrated that it would twist itself to have them fit into its constraints before the Eradication Protocol forced it to give up. Not that he would complain. The end result was a more personalized set of abilities that matched with what he practiced.

Coop was already collecting enough high-level, exotic, and rare resources to almost single-handedly provide for his entire settlement. Others also maintained the settlement’s supply of lower ranked items, but when it came to Legendary and Unique materials there was no one gathering as much as he was. With Fortune Seeker complete and his grinding habits well-established, Coop might be able to single-handedly supply the growing settlement at all levels of rarity.

Lyriel finally caught up to him as he was giggling to himself about the riches he would gather. It had been a while since he really appreciated Scavenging, but he seriously thought it was the best. He was so happy how he had picked a profession that was able to fit into his habits instead of something that would have split his attention, dragging him away from the grind. The galactic community considered his choice bottom tier, but it was perfect for a human like Coop.

“I am glad you are having fun in this appalling environment, but you should engage your mana sight. The next enemies aren’t so sleepy.” Lyriel cut in.

Coop absently slid the Soul Shroud bandana over his eyes, and was first confronted by a cyclone of the oppressive black and red mana of the Fallen Zone, slowly rotating above the icy continent. It was as if the domain of the Primal Constructs was bleeding into the other planes, isolating itself against all other flavors of mana. He and Lyriel were definitely getting closer to the center.

Upon closer inspection of the ground ahead of them, he easily spotted several lanky predators far in the distance. Though they had the same energy signature as the background, black and red, they practically didn’t exist in the monochromatic world of the mists nor the abyss that his senses overcharged, and the absence made them seem like stop motion figures cut out from the world then placed back onto their original positions. Their outlines were more distinct than they should have been, almost like they were backlit with darklight that leaked across planes.

They moved as if they were able to withstand the cold, carefully tiptoeing across the ice, slightly hunched forward, leaving no other hints of their presence, but Coop could see how they manipulated mana around their forms and allowed it to flow through their permeable bodies. He stretched Presence of Mind to see exactly what they were, though he was already feeling excited about how much his senses had improved, building upon his profession advancement such that he wasn’t sure he even needed to pull the system’s information from its aura. Still, he was eager for confirmation.

[Elite Primal Insurgent (Level 455)]

[(Agility)]

[Minion of the Primal Constructs]

“Ah hah! Look at that….” Coop exclaimed, excited to properly detect one of those stealth suckers that led him around Appalachia for days. “We’re getting close, huh?” He observed absently as he loaded up another spear.

Lyriel didn’t respond, though he thought he might have detected how his enthusiasm was marginally entertaining to her. He launched his weapon at the unsuspecting enemy with a smile on his face, delivering the invader’s doom with celebratory cheer, like someone who absolutely loved their job even if society didn’t necessarily approve.

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This time around, he didn’t need to let the Insurgents bait him to the core of the Fallen Zone. With the Soul Shroud equipped, he could see exactly where to go. The Fallen Zone was a massive swirl of mana with an obvious center. He would just have to be careful about overusing his overcharged mana senses, though he could just have Lyriel point him in the right direction if he got off track chasing down enemies.

Coop would have his revenge on the Primal Insurgents. He leapt into their midst before they even knew he was near, cleaving their shiny, smoky glass bodies before they had a chance to start stalking him. Lyriel trailed behind, seemingly content with observing as Coop flickered across the darkened snow and ice, no matter what the opponents became. The Primal Constructs just weren’t on her radar the way the forces of mana would be. The dynamic transformed her into a sort of chaperone to Coop’s field trip. It was basically the opposite of how she had treated him when she first joined the Lighthouse. It seemed he had proven himself in her eyes.

—

They continued on their journey, the Avatar of the System and the Unchosen Champion, crossing over canyons of jagged ice where the wind wound through, rivers of shattered ice that barely flowed, sheets of smooth ice with even more wind, fissures of broken ice that seemed to stretch forever, fields of frozen ice surrounded by icy mountains, and more and more ice. As long as there were Primal Constructs, Coop kept going. He was unbothered by the weight of the domain, maintaining his confidence with the knowledge that he had been able to conquer a Fallen Zone once before. If he had been capable then, he couldn’t imagine why he wouldn’t be able to do it again. It didn’t matter if it would be difficult, he would push forward on behalf of Ghost Reef.

When they finally approached the core, it might have been days, but it had basically been somewhere between twilight and night the entire time. It was clear that the boss of the domain would be hidden in the gaping crevice, backed by eroded mountains, that marked the center of the murky mana storm spreading across the continent. Coop didn’t hesitate before stepping forward, but his companion forced him to stop.

Lyriel grabbed onto Coop’s frost covered arm before he just jumped straight into the lair with the hope of waking up the slumbering boss. The enormous snow covered cavern near what seemed like the ruins of a relatively large human shelter was the perfect location for a Region Boss. He was just thinking about getting the fight over with so they could go back and get warm, but she had something to say first.

“Wait, Coop…” She urged, having turned her aura off to speak to him a bit more personally, making it clear that she didn’t just want to coordinate strategies before starting the fight.

“What’s wrong?” He wondered, detecting the anxiety in her voice, despite the lack of eye contact created by her runed blindfold.

“There’s something I must confess…” She continued, still hesitating while gripping his limb. She seemed genuinely worried, which freaked Coop out a bit when he considered her relative power level. He wondered if she had detected something dangerous.

She took a breath before continuing. “The truth is that I demanded to come with you because I have never fought an Icon of Mana and thought it would be a necessary experience, but now that we are here, I am unsure if it is such a good idea.”

Coop blinked for a second, then shook his head like he had been struck in the forehead while comprehending her words. “Wait. What do you mean you have never fought an Icon? Didn’t you have to?” He wondered, confused how it would be possible to survive the Eradication Protocol without fighting the enemies that were at the center of the process.

“I told you, my people, they protected me until the end.” She admitted, sadly, almost like it was painful to bring it up. “I am the only survivor of my species because of their sacrifice.”

Coop paused while he tried to understand what she was saying. “The Avatar of the System never fought an Icon of Mana?” Coop slowly repeated while she nodded, struggling to wrap his head around her words, but also being careful to keep his voice neutral to avoid disparaging her experience.

She was the closest thing to an expert on the Icons of Mana, recognizing dozens of unique individuals, and had provided almost all of the information they based their understanding on, but somehow, Coop had more practical experience with the creatures. Back when he and his advisors had estimated that she was almost entirely shrouded in exaggeration after her first visit, he had never expected her to reveal such a lack of experience. She was operating almost entirely on second-hand information.

“Aren’t you extremely high level?” Coop clarified, finding it impossible for even that to be hyperbole. She was both extraordinarily powerful, but also sheltered.

She made a sound that clearly meant that her power level was neither here nor there. “I told you, your assimilation has been an extreme outlier. Field Bosses and Siege Bosses, even Region Bosses generating extraordinarily early, levels accumulating too quickly; normally…” She trailed off, like she didn’t want to give Coop any more bad news.

Lyriel sighed before letting the words out. “None of this should be happening until decades have gone by, if not a century. Imagine where your fellow humans would be if you had more than another 100 years to keep growing. Imagine where you would be if all of humanity united within a global capital to provide you with the maximum amount of experience that entire time. The Eradication Protocol shouldn’t even be a consideration while you continue to progress, but Earth is clearly different.” She continued before pausing.

She seemed to also be working through her feelings. When she spoke again, she sounded more like the original Avatar of the System from the end of the Siege Event rather than the Lyriel he had gotten to know. “Defeating an Icon is… unrealistic.”

Even Coop, simple as he was, could see that she was dealing with some of her own baggage. It didn’t take a genius to imagine the survivor’s guilt that would come with being the last of an entire species. He was completely sure that she was so far beyond the scale of Earth’s assimilation that she would be able to instantly defeat any of the Icons of Mana he had already contended with, but he supposed trauma wasn’t necessarily rational like that.

He shrugged. “Well, I’ve killed a few, so don’t worry about it so much.” Coop concluded, deciding to let his advisors get more details from her with more appropriate timing. “No need to overthink things. You’re the one that told me they were basically the infant versions anyway, lacking the mana concentrations to reach their full potential before the Protocol properly starts.”

“I don’t know if that would hold true now.” She stated with a glance at the mana in the atmosphere. “I don’t even know if that was completely true when I explained away your unusual success. It was merely conjecture. I think the first time, I simply suspected you and your people were mistaken and my senses were failing me. The second time made less sense, but to open a window so early… How else could it be understood? To defeat the undefeated? That’s why I bet so heavily on this planet.” She rambled, clearly feeling a mix of regret, concern, and doubt.

Coop just shook his head before interrupting her. “Just stay back if one actually spawns, alright? You can get some shots in while I show you they can be defeated.” He wasn’t going to let her doubts lessen the confidence he felt. Stacking Slayer titles had him riding a high that he intended to continue all the way to the end.

She still hesitated before nodding, clearly not entirely accepting his words, but finally letting him step forward thanks to his self-assuredness. Once he was free of her grip, his spear snapped into place, held in his right hand within loose fingers.

Only a minute later, the ground rumbled as the titanic torso of the hidden boss of the Fallen Zone finally rose up, covered in snow, larger than a mountain itself, with its head hidden in the frozen fog of clouds. Once again, its bottom half was hidden beneath the surface, covered in ice, but just its top half was enough to stretch into the murky turbulence above. The rectangular red eyes glowed through the blowing snow and clouds, adding to the intensity of the atmosphere. Before it raised its arms and prepared to slam the ground, Coop identified its aura and composed himself, anticipating a repeat of the battle on the shore of the Mississippi Sea.

[Region Boss: Omega Construct (Level 520)]

[The Last]

[Manifestation of the Primal Constructs]

“Nice.” He observed, happy with how things ended up going full circle after his level reset. His level was pretty close to what it had been by the end of the fighting, and the boss was proportionally higher, but that was perfectly fine. Coop’s stats were another story: one that he was excited to share with the invaders.

“The last time I fought one of these guys, it took me a week to get through its minions.” He called over his shoulder, letting Lyriel know that there would be time before she had to face what seemed like her greatest fear. “Think of it as a warmup.” He suggested, though he wondered if she would zap it out of existence to shove them forward a bit.

Coop took a deep breath, feeling the icy chill enter his lungs as he braced his torso and drew his arm back, fingers clenching tighter on the already heavy spear in his hand. He jogged forward, gathering all the power he could muster into his opening throw, already knowing that it wouldn’t be enough if the first encounter with a Region Boss was anything to go by. Instead, he saw it as a challenging shout, a metaphorical glove across the face, meant to let this boss know what it was in for.

When the timing was right, Coop slammed his foot onto the ice, forming a crater of snow that revealed a thousand cracks had formed beneath the pressure of his stomp while his body stretched. Then, he whipped forward, launching the missile with more than just the totality of his Strength, but also with the additions of his other bonus stats shifting through Mindbender. The tension in his muscles transferred to the spear with an explosion of force, empowered by every kill and every quest that he had accumulated during the assimilation. He put a little extra emotion into it on behalf of Lyriel and her lost people, thinking it was only fair that their memories were represented.

The snow on the ground within 20 yards of his position gathered up and was drawn behind the spear, rushing forward in a desperate attempt to fill the massive vacuum created in the missile’s draft. Shockwaves appeared like cones of snow in the wind further ahead, then were also dragged in the wake of the throw. The echoes of the sonic booms bouncing off the mountains were delayed until after the ethereal missile blasted toward the center of the giant target and the minor avalanches that followed were lost in the reverberations.

50,000 points of Strength propelled his opening strike forward, transforming a simple throw into a proper rocket launch. Even the broader shape of the wind shifted, chasing behind the projectile as if it was dragging the world’s atmosphere along with it, at least for a moment.

Coop anticipated either the reinforced forearm of the Region Boss to block or for the armor of his target’s skull to hold out, but the dinging sound of its bell being rung would be satisfying enough. He was already preparing to resummon another spear, adding his shield, and calling upon the mists to form an army, hoping the phantasms could sustain themselves in the cold, but to his surprise, the Omega Construct’s predatory features exploded into shrapnel.

The spear kept charging forward, dragging snow, ice, and metal, while the titan’s lifeless body jerked backwards, smashing onto the upper edge of its cavern, and collapsed with enough gravity to start an earthquake. The giant body began to disintegrate while enormous blocks of ice sheared off the edges of its cavern and crashed against the sides before falling into the darkness. Coop was flashbanged by a sudden onslaught of unexpected levels just as his eyes widened in surprise.

The Region Boss’s hold on the domain of mana was released in an instant, and the murk immediately began to disperse from the air. It crashed into the snow and ice, spilling out, revealing natural fluid dynamics before disappearing in waves. Mana practically rained from the sky, finally thinning to the point that they could clearly see red-colored stars in the darkened sky.

“Hah?” Coop choked out as he tilted his head up to observe the unfamiliar constellations, appearing crystal clear through the planetary shield, just after the chaotic cascade of snow and metal calmed.

He and Lyriel both just stood like the ice sculptures of regular Primal Construct variants, frozen in shock in Coop’s case, but Lyriel in anticipation, as the domain collapsed all around them. They just observed for what ended up being several minutes as the intensity of the region diminished, replaced by the relative calm cold of the south pole. Lyriel seemed like a bundle of nerves, unready to be released, while Coop had all the battle-hype still surging through his veins.

He eventually resummoned his spear, absently going through the motions that he had anticipated would lead to a long drawn out fight with countless lesser bosses and Insurgent minions. The mana that had formed the domain seemed to just scatter into the winds, spreading across the icy continent without being collected by a waiting Icon of Mana or any other force, for that matter.

Coop and Lyriel finally shared a look that might have formed several question marks over their heads until Coop did his best to put a cap on what they had just experienced.

“Sorry?” He tentatively apologized, though he had done nothing wrong except get stronger relative to the invaders.