[NR] Sand Blast - Chapter 748

Jason groaned as sand blasted against his back. Though he can’t complain. It took a lot of effort to find the sand and transport it to the clearing.

Another blast of sand comes in from the side as Rosha laughs. Her wind magic is able to pick up the sand in the pit and throw it at shocking speeds. Not that she was going full speed at the moment. Jason wants to train his skin, not remove it.

Over to the side, Courtney watches. Though she does think of a question on the second day, “So, why sand? This seems like one of those training montages where you’d instead be sitting under a waterfall. Which I’m sure we could find.”

Jason goes to respond and gets a mouthful of sand. He splutters a bit and covers his mouth with a hand. “Bluh, you did that on purpose.

“Anyway, sand is simply the easiest way to handle it here in the clearing. If we were in a low-level area of NeoRealm proper? A tall waterfall would be quite effective, especially since we don’t have to worry as much about what might be coming down the river. After all, it would suck to lose your life because a tree fell into the river and conk you on the head. Though even a moderately sized branch could do some serious damage.”

Courtney nods, “I guess you would need a spotter at the top of the waterfall.”

Jason grunts as he gets blasted on the solar plexus. “Or just a powerful enough watcher at the bottom. Though I will admit that my only experience with it was a lot more curated. Not that debris didn’t fall on you. Said debris was purposefully added to the water.”

Courtney nods, “That is the most obvious way to increase the challenge. Anyway, how long do you think this will take?”

Jason tenses his back, expecting the coming sand, only for Rosha to force the wind and sand down at the last moment, blasting the back of his legs. “A couple more days? The fact that I’m able to talk instead of focusing on standing means I’ve toughened up. Thank the heavens NeoRealm didn’t feel the need to make this stuff more realistic.

“Can’t have players spending months on something boring and painful like this. Even herbal baths with the best medicinal wines and specialized potions are going to cut the time down to a month, let alone days.”

Courtney shrugs, “You can extend the time. In fact, turning down the pain directly extends how long you need. All while providing inferior results.”

Jason waits as sand blasts his face. “I thought players didn’t do talents? At least not enough for something like that to be confirmed. Not like pets get to adjust their pain meter.”

Courtney, “That was what my information indicated. And for what it’s worth? I wouldn’t say it was wrong.

“I got my new information while visiting the settlement. Seems the locals make use of talents. Sometimes by those who are at a bottleneck and can’t see themselves going farther.

“Though yeah, there are some who use them as a punishment. Conquer another group? Force their leaders to load up on talents which are useless for them and you never have to worry about them getting stronger than you.”

Jason sighs, “Yeah, I guess unless the System specifically prevented that kind of thing, it would be inevitable. Likely under some kind of ‘but we didn’t kill them’ reasoning. Same thing with cultivators and destroying meridians and the dantian. Which isn’t the easiest thing to do? Thankfully. But if you’ve captured someone, yeah, you can manage it with. Though generally more the realm of someone at a much higher realm punishing someone.”

On that sombre note, the conversation dies.

Then, four days later, Jason received his new talent.

{

Talent Acquired

Titan’s Skin - Primal power suffuses your skin like the Titans of old. Your skin is an enigma out of the ancient past, able to resist the world itself.

}

And that sounded Really cool! The effect was much more boring, though. Basically, while his Energy, which was presumably the “primal power” being referred to, was flowing through his skin? Jason received some impressive damage reduction.

The group was certain that there must be some method of bypassing it like how silver works with werewolves. However, people aren’t exactly fighting True Titans and so knowledge of what you need to damage them isn’t exactly a known quantity. Which Courtney pointed out is likely even rarer than it would seem as the titans you can find right now likely aren’t what the System was referring to.

Oh, and the DR was based on negation instead of nullification. Which is very much not the norm! The System usually handles damage reduction through nullification based on damage being done around the same time. So all the damage being done at one point gets added together and then the damage reduction happens. The talent’s DR instead applied individually to each source of damage. Which is quite powerful against anything trying to shred you with saturation tactics.

Rosha wasn’t too surprised about this, unlike the others. “Well, duh, it would work like that. The talent talks about the ‘Titan’s of old’ and ancient times? Mythologically, that means the beings from before the gods. You don’t take down Cronos with buckshot. Though with that in mind, I would be careful against any divine enemies as it is the gods that tend to take the Titans down.”

Courtney nods to the last bit, “Yes, that would make some sense. Not that Titans were technically weak to Divine power. If anything, the religions that dealt with Titans tended to have them as basically just the old gods from before the current gods. Though I guess being able to strike through their own DR against each other wouldn’t be a weakness.”

Jason, “I would actually guess that I won’t have a problem with regular clerics and the like. You know, the faith-based classes.”