PenguinKills
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Chapter 82 - Encounter
🕑 Added 2024-07-17 20:07:25 +0000 UTC~~AN~~
I don't know if anyone noticed, but I made a mistake last chapter. Chris should have run off to the east, not west. I have gone back and fixed it but I wanted to clarify that so you won't be confused.
~~
My frantic chase east was unsuccessful. Nothing I came across gave any indication of being the culprit. The pylons held by humans were too weak to pull it off and the monsters didn't show signs of anything abnormal.
They clumped around the fallen pylon and showed no initiative of amassing an army with humans. It was a mystery, a mystery that pissed me off.
I wasn't as angry anymore and the only reason I continued my rampage was because I was already doing it. I had been running for a few hours and I might as well continue. Reach the last pylon on the eastern front just for completion's sake.
The tutorial area was huge and I was only realizing that now. When we first got here it would have taken a person days of travel to go from one end to the other. Now, with stats and skills, it took 8 hours.
To go from one pylon to the adjacent pylon it took me about an hour of sprinting. This was with [Momentum] fully charged and over 600 stat points of strength.
Having that many stat points in agility would have been faster but that wasn't what I had. Strength had a speed of its own though.
I knew that others probably had skills to make them faster than me but I doubted their number exceeded a handful. I was pretty fast and it would take a lot to beat me.
The way the tutorial was set up was mostly a grid. It wasn't a perfect 7x7 grid being that there were 50 pylons, not 49, but it was close. It also wasn't straight lines and perfect squares.
Pylons had a variation to them in their placement which made me zig zag to and fro during my chase. Another annoyance I had to deal with.
Still, my path would soon end and I would have to trek back to camp defeated. Thinking about it pissed me off all over again. Our pylon was on the western side of the northern border so I traversed more than half of the total length in my journey.
It was times like these that I wished for a different skill set. A Ranger's tracking abilities would have come in handy right now.
Coming off [Barbarian's Fury] was a kick to the stomach.
I hadn't left it active for long but the backlash was staggering. I hadn't even used it to fight and it still caused me to feel lethargic and weak. I recovered about an hour later but it was another thing I needed to gain control of.
Letting it activate naturally was stupid.
It was when I was about to turn around that I got another message.
"Turn south. We will find answers there."
I wasn't sure how many messages Abigail could send in a day but I followed her suggestion.
Questions of how she knew that was something I couldn't ask. I didn't have the ability to send messages like she did. I had my suspicions but without confirmation, they would remain suspicions.
Austin's skills related to his explorer profession were something I didn't fully understand. He had been pushing to evolve it recently but I didn't think he had yet. He directed our hunts to new lands in hopes of leveling his profession.
He gained experience from exploring new land and it gained extra if he was the first person to do so.
Exploring outside of the area with pylons was where he gained most of his experience. It was also the most dangerous. Outside of the grid of pylons, the monsters inhabiting the area sharply increased in strength. Which was probably why he gained more experience for exploring it.
The exploration and conquering of the pseudo-dungeon we did earlier must have pushed him over the edge. He must have gotten a good chunk of experience for that. His level 25 skill was one I knew he was looking forward to but he didn't tell me what it was.
I suspected that it was similar to a treasure-seeking skill but would point him in the direction of what he sought.
A perfect skill for an explorer. One I doubted came in G-rank, hence my suspicions about his evolution. This being a newly evolved profession skill was likely.
Given the new direction, I turned south.
It was almost dusk but I didn't care. If there were answers south, I would head south.
Since I wasn't given a distance I had to assume they didn't know. Having a skill that fickle and vague would aggravate me and I was glad I didn't have one like it.
With my course set, there was little for me to do but think. I blazed east for four hours before I was given a new direction and I wasn't sure for how long I would be running south.
I needed to be back before noon and with the sun setting, that was fast approaching. Looking at the timer, I had 16 hours until I needed to be back at camp. Hopefully, with some time to spare so I wouldn't start the wave tired.
With free time to think, I thought back to after beating the wolf. Something about the whole thing aggravated me and I was coming up with reasons why it happened.
The disparity in gains between Austin and me was starkly apparent.
After taking [Frozen Fortitude] I knew I would level slower but after experiencing first hand, I hadn't expected them to be so severe.
Two levels. From fighting what was effectively 3 waves worth of monsters I only gained two levels. Sure, it pushed me over the edge to get another skill but it was brutal compared to Austin's 4.
[Permafrost] was an amazing skill but I couldn't help but be disappointed at the lack of levels.
Gaining 3 extra stat points shouldn't have resulted in Austin gaining double the amount of levels. Plus, the experience required to level up increased every level so he more than doubled what I received.
From the 24 stat points my class gave every level, an additional 3 came from the skills [Body of a Barbarian] and [Frozen Fortitude]. Me gaining what was effectively 12.5% more stat points shouldn't have that big of a consequence.
I came up with two reasons for why. One, the experience required to give me the extra stat points was horribly inefficient. So if one stat point cost an arbitrary 100 experience, the stat points from the skills took 200.
The hit in efficiency was possible but it didn't explain the severity of what happened. Which made me come up with the second reason.
Paying off a loan.
When I acquired the skill I instantly gained almost 100 stat points and that energy had to come from somewhere.
My leading theory was that the experience I gained currently was 'taxed' to pay for the stat points I had already gotten. A sort of back pay for the stats I got upfront when I chose the skill.
While both annoying and unforeseen, it was plausible. And it was temporary. After my 'debt' was paid I would level like normal. Well, normal-ish. I still had to pay extra for the extra stats but it shouldn't be as bad as it was now.
It was unfortunate, but the extra stat points now were worth it. Even if I wouldn't hit E-rank before the end of the tutorial. Every level was a steeper climb and the closer one got to the rank cap was when it was steepest.
Getting 9 levels in the remaining 18 days wasn't going to be possible. To even attempt to reach E-rank before the last wave I would have to kill a tremendous amount of monsters.
If fighting the equivalent of 3 waves of monsters only gave me 2 levels, it would take over 18 waves worth of experience to get me over the threshold to E-rank, and that was being generous.
The experience requirement wasn't linear and it would probably require more than 18 waves. It mostly depended on how much experience decided I 'owed'. Without a way to quantify the length of my reduction, I was left in the dark.
100 stat points worth of essence wouldn't be small.
With nothing else to do but continue trucking along, the time passed quickly. After the sun had set, finding monsters to keep my buff was easier. Nighttime made them bolder and more frequent to find.
Launching javelins through them also gave me something to do while I ran. Running was quite boring and it broke up the monotony of it. Plus, it made me work on my accuracy.
Running full tilt while also trying to hit things accurately was hard. When I began my journey I had to slow down to throw which took time away from running. Now I could hit them without slowing.
Mixing both physical might for power and [Ice Manipulation] for accuracy led to deadly results. Adding my Law into the mix made it a powerful attack.
Targeting larger monsters helped with accuracy. I still wouldn't be able to hit the smaller ones with any degree of success, especially at a distance. Hitting something the size of a giant boar was infinitely easier than hitting something the size of a squirrel.
As I continued south, the environment changed. Up north, the terrain was full of rolling hills and temperate forests, here, it was more humid and filled with jungles.
I much preferred the North.
After gaining an ice affinity it only made my distaste of hotter climates greater. I already didn't like the heat and humidity and that was before I gained ice powers.
It was stuffy and sticky and all around a bad time. How people could live in places like this astounded me. Even the so-called 'dry heat' of places like Arizona was too much. One trip to New Orleans was enough for me to never want to go back.
Where I lived in Ohio wasn't terribly bad but the heart of summer was still an unpleasant time.
As the environment changed, so did the mana. Wood mana was still present but more subdued by nature mana. More forms of life thrived other than just trees which produced it. Wind was less prominent and Earth was harder to find.
Life was a mana type I rarely encountered outside of Healing skills and that jungles produced it shouldn't have been a surprise.
With the canopy of leaves casting shadows constantly, Shadow mana was common. Even the evolved form of it was here too. Places of permanent shadow had a trickle of Darkness mana at their heart.
The difference was great. Comparing it to the icy mountain was like night and day. The ice-capped mountains had one main type with others mostly for flavoring. Here, it was a mixture of multiple.
Life and nature were the winners, but the subtypes were still around.
It was about 4 hours into my journey when something new happened. Well, other than the terrain changing.
After turning south, I stopped rampaging like a wild beast and took the extra second to go around trees instead of through them. My mad dash of rage left me when I realized I wouldn't find my target.
So it was with some surprise that the flora suddenly whipped out at me. Vines and roots from under my feet exploded out of the surroundings before wrapping around my limbs.
The trap sought to restrain me and I couldn't help but chuckle. The stupid plants didn't know what they were in for.
With a mighty heave, leveraging all of my strength, I ripped the roots and vines out of the ground. The amount of effort it took was slightly shocking.
I had a full boost from [Momentum] and my strength was mighty. It should have been a breeze to get out but instead, it took a modicum of effort.
After the first trap, I continued running into more. There was an assortment of effects from more restraining traps to ones meant to kill and incapacitate.
The frequency I ran into them climbed and it was mildly frustrating. After a long trip, the annoyance of running into them fowled my mood further. I already failed at catching the people responsible and the traps were an unwelcome annoyance.
The lethality of the traps was great but they weren't effective on me. I had the stats to muscle through most of them and the others required a slight flaring of my power. Most of the traps used the plants around me and only required a quick freeze to be ineffective.
After a while of shrugging off traps and breaking them, I came upon a massive wall. On it were 4 catapults like we had back at camp all manned and aimed right at me.
The wall had a plethora of people milling about with most aiming something at me. Bows, mage staves, and makeshift ballistae were all trained on my position. Some even had throwables like rocks and javelins.
Walking out of the angry forest and into what was essentially a kill box was jarring.
I hadn't expected such a greeting.
Staring down multiple different forms of death I did what any sensible person would do.
I turned around and went back into the forest.
I wasn't sure how, but the camp knew I was coming and readied their defenses against me. The camp was strong and it had upgrades done to it I didn't know were possible. The split second I got to see it was enough to convince me of its strength.
It had double the amount of siege weapons that we had mixed together with more that looked hand-crafted rather than store-bought.
The wall extended 20 feet in the air, 5 feet higher than ours, and it had a different look to it. The stone exterior was smoothed over and the seams between the bricks weren't there making it look smoothed over.
I could only guess at the runes woven into it and what they would do. The gate itself looked different as well. Ours was a mixture of a wooden door with hints of metal reinforcement.
The gate I had facing me was more metal than wood and had a massive portcullis in front of it. The thick metal making up the grating looked impenetrable. I doubted there weren't runes contained within it as well.
The camp I ran into wasn't just a camp anymore. It was a castle made to withstand any siege. It made me jealous.
It also was the first camp I came across that had the power necessary for the attack on my camp.
If this is what their camp looked like, they held the power to expand out to others. Ours was far away, but that didn't dismiss them as the culprits.
Maybe they were just looking to weaken us before the wave tomorrow and conquer the ashes after we fell to the monsters.
They didn't need to conquer our pylon right away. As long as they did it before the tutorial ended they would get the benefit.
Abigail said I would find answers here, and the strength presented against me was an answer in and of itself. Why else would they ready all of their defenses against me?
They probably knew I was chasing after them and prepared for my arrival. I took a roundabout way of getting here it took longer than if someone knew where to go.
It would have given them enough time to get back here before me and get ready to defend while I was running around clueless.
The anger that had left me came back with a vengeance. Seeing the strength of what I would have to get through was the only reason I didn't turn back and charge at them.
I wasn't sure I would be able to get through.
I still had time before I had to return and I would get my answers.
One way or another.
Comments
Alexander C Hyde
After a long trip, the annoyance of running into them (fouled)fowled my mood further.
Alexander C Hyde
mostly depended on how much experience (was) decided I 'owed'.
Kris Boxall
I hope this gets resolved with clear communication next chapter
