[NR] All Pain, No (Stat) Gains - Chapter 749

Rosha tilts her head to the side, rabbit ears flopping over, “Why wouldn’t the faith-based classes work on your DR? If deities can break through, why wouldn’t those empowered by them be able to?”

Jason shrugs, “Oh, I’m sure there are some that can manage it. However, think about it. Even those who go on about channeling the power do their deities, how many are just casting from their Mana pool? Oh sure, the spells are divinely inspired!

“There’s a reason a cleric’s spell list is whatever spells they know to pray for by name and whether their deity deigns to grant them the spell that day. Hells and Hades, sometimes a deity will even grant a divine caster unknown or unique spells to cast for special quests and whatnot.”

Courtney, “I’m pretty certain that divine casters, which is the more proper name for them as there aren’t actual classes, use divine power.”

Jason shrugs, “Oh, yeah, they do have their miracles. Divine intervention channeled through the caster to allow the god a direct effect on the world. It’s simply that those instances are rare and called miracles for a reason.

“NeoRealm has a balanced pantheon from what I’ve heard and the ‘balance’ there is for a reason. An ‘evil’ deity might be perfectly willing to channel a burst of death through their cleric who has snuck into some rival deity’s main temple. Except none of the other deities are going to allow that.

“Maybe there isn’t anything physically stopping them from doing it? But you don’t end up a deity and survive till now if you don’t play by the rules. Well, that and the fact I’m sure the System would have something to say about such a display.”

Courtney, “So, you’re hoping that there is something stopping the deities from reaching out and touching you?”

Jason shrugs, “Well, we sort of all are? Like, I might have a specific weakness related to them now. Though I might not, we haven’t confirmed it. But ignoring that, it is like silver and werewolves. Yes, the classic silver bullet will kill a werewolf. It will also kill a normal person. Which is the same with miracles. If a deity can just freely reach out and touch us? We’re dead. Period. End of story.”

Rosha, “You sound a bit pessimistic. Do you have some sort of reason? Like, it feels as if you doubt ever being able to beat them.”

Jason, “Remember, I’ve actually met one of them. You don’t get to speak in that language unless you’re something More. I would never prescribe something to them, but there are two explanations for their existence within NeoRealm.”

Courtney, “Are you sure she was a deity? I’ve tried to look up ‘Starlight’ and there doesn’t seem to be a deity matching the name, description, or portfolio.”

Jason nods, “Pretty sure. She is at least close enough to count for my guess. Though with her specifically, she probably handles enough behind-the-scenes stuff that the System doesn’t allow her to have a following. You don’t want the admin to be biased.”

Courtney, “Fair enough. Now, what are your guesses?”

Jason, “First is that they aren’t in NeoRealm. They’re powerful beings from outside that the System is either allowing a presence or can’t stop from projecting.”

Rosha whistles, “That second part sounds like it would really piss off the System!”

Jason smirks, “Which is why I’d guess the first option. Though the second part isn’t my second guess. That would be that the deities were originally level-capped beings who the System offered even more power.

“They’re stronger than someone at level 499 should be and yet they seem to exist within the System? Well, that is easy to explain if they aren’t actually that powerful, but rather borrowing said power.

“Not only would they be unable to use said power willy-nilly. Thus why the more evil of them aren’t magically bombing their enemies. And of course, they can’t leave System space. Either they’d lose the power or the fact the power is the System makes it impossible on the face of it. Also, if they ever act up, the System can threaten to take away their power.

“Anyway, now that my skin is tough enough, I can move on to the muscles. Though I wonder how that will change my stat gain?”

Rosha, “Speaking of stat gain, how are you doing after the weeks of suffering?”

Jason laughs, “Big ol’ goose egg! Part of aiming for the talents is that the training goes towards the talents and not the stats.”

Rosha sticks her tongue out in disgust. “That’s nasty! Trying to hold a good man down.”

Courtney shakes her head, “This is actually seen as a feature. A positive one at that.”

Rosha frowns, “How is not training your stats a good thing?”

Courtney shrugs, “The people heavily into training monsters have found that certain things are easier to do at certain stat totals. For instance, training a scaled monster so that it develops flexible scales is a lot easier if you do so while their toughness is low.

“Which when a talent might be needed to properly develop the flexible scales? Well, making it so that training the talent doesn’t increase the toughness stat is quite handy. Also, there are player-created tournaments and challenges with stat limits and such.”

Rosha gestures at Jason, “But it isn’t exactly going to help people?”

Jason laughs, “Nothing is free. And speaking of which, we should probably check my current XP gain. Would suck to lock my level.”

Rosha waves his worries off, “Eh, you’d figure out a way to gain power. If anything, you already have experience handling, well, experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if you managed to figure out a way to siphon some of the XP away from the talents.”

Jason shrugs, “I can’t deny that I would try something like that. Though it might be easier to try and reject the most recent talent before it is fully integrated into my body.

“Anyway, let’s go and kill some monsters. Even if I should be fine, it would be some welcome stress relief.”