[NR] Did The System Force It - Chapter 740

Rosha creeps through the foliage. An oddity while still so close to their clearing, her and Courtney having cleaned up the area often enough to be familiar with the space. Except, she wasn’t familiar with This space.

The Deep Wilds had undergone a major shift recently and of course they had to run into it the first time they took Jason out to hunt together. He understood, but Rosha couldn’t help feeling like the sudden change was an affront to her scouting of the area.

Her ears stood up and twitched. Rosha squinted between the foliage, there was something over there. A gesture called the other two up next to her.

Courtney eased a supernatural darkness up from the ground, covering the trio, while the other two readied their weapons.

Once everything is set, they go still, and Rosha’s ears swivel. Two, three, five. Five distinct sources of noise. She taps the other two on their shoulders with three then two fingers and they’re ready.

Jason takes the lead and Rosha follows shortly behind him, the noise of his movement being her cue. The two seem to almost flow through the undergrowth.

Jason stepped through the plant life with precise movements and a deep understanding of his body. Rosha instead moves through the plants, magic bending the greenery around her. Not a spell, but rather a natural effect that had begun to develop the deeper she progressed with her ranger training.

Two different methods bent towards the same goal. A stealthy strike, which despite Jason leading the way, Rosha is the first to administer. Her weapon in spear mode gives that bit of extra reach. Though Jason is not far behind.

They emerge from the undergrowth and magical darkness, the sound they make more akin to a light breeze rustling leaves. A sound easily ignored. Right up until two of the enemies die. One splattering a purple blood that quickly iced over as it splashed out of a nasty neck wound.

These clearly aren’t normal monsters. Then again, when are they ever out here in the Deep Wilds?

Rosha analyzes the beasts in a moment. “Goblin primary with centaur addons. Mana-based ice blood, likely ice armor with minor attack boosts.”

While she analyzed the situation, Jason just kept his momentum and was already on another of the goblinoids that seems to have had their lower body replaced with that of a short goat. Though even with how quickly he advances, Jason’s second target is already proving Rosha right by manifesting plates of Ice.

A shame that the plates seem to need the beast’s hair to anchor on, leaving the lower neck momentarily unprotected. Jason did need to change up the attack, but a simple switch from a punch to a knife hand strike is simple enough. So, even as the monster’s head is fully encased in ice, its legs give out, throat collapses.

The remaining two sadly manage to fully manifest their ice armor. The ice plates extend until they connect up with the rest. All while a supernatural flexibility can be seen in the joints.

Rosha’s spear clinks off the shoulder of her next target. The small bit of ice chipped off by this evaporates while still in the air, and more ice forms to replace what was lost.

Rosha doesn’t let this stop her, as she takes a step back and adjusts her hands to the bottom of the pole. Up and down, the spear bends back over her head with the forces involved.

Crack

The ice over their head then shatters. Dazed, the monster doesn’t even attempt to block or dodge the follow-up swing of the spear. This time it is a horizontal slash that takes the monster’s head off.

Rosha turns to the fifth, and final monster, except it is already dead. Jason had taken out the monster without breaking through the ice. “How’d you manage that? Also, I think we killed them too quickly. I didn’t get to find out if my guess of their ice attacks was correct.”

Jason glances around and doesn’t see anything else. “They’re just unlucky. My blast has a piercing effect.”

Rosha shakes her head, “No, I know that. I mean, why wasn’t the ice damaged?”

Jason, “I guess I should say they are extra unlucky. Thick armor would normally take part of the hit. My blast does not form quite that far past the point of impact.

“Except I think that was mundane ice. At least crafted armor has a defensive intent behind it instead of being a simple sheet of metal. My attack easily passed through the ice armor without interacting with it at all.”

Courtney steps out of the dissipating darkness. “You’re just a terrible matchup for them, I think. In the normal swing of things, people see a magical effect and bring out their anti-magic tilted effects. Then they punch regular ice.”

Rosha nods, “It’s a bit of a trope, but magic piercing effects tend to be fragile when not piercing magic. So, a bunch of mundane ice? Good way to lose an expensive knife.”

Jason, “What about the flexible joints?” 

Courtney, “No clue, but if I had to guess, the ice itself was normal. Rather, those monsters might have had the ability to manipulate ice. So while magic was being used to move it, the magic is only there when moving. It would be like wondering why a pebble isn’t magical after being moved across the room by telekinesis.”

Rosha, “Anyway, we’ve fought a few battles. How does your experience gain feel?”

Jason shrugs, “About normal? Like, that is the expected outcome, nevertheless, I’m not sure if I could pinpoint the exact growth. Besides, the System does everything it can to obfuscate such things. The fact we even get a nice percentage towards the next level is likely forced on the System by the original design of NeoRealm the game.”

Courtney, “At least it is accurate. People have tested that before.”

Jason raises an eyebrow, “Is it accurate? Or was it accurate for those testing it because the System forced it to be accurate for them?”

Courtney shrugs, “You have to trust things at some point.”