[NR] System Won't Say - Chapter 739

Rosha sighs, “I know I’m not exactly in the best place to say this, but it’s the richER people who make things so bad. Just having money doesn’t make you evil.”

Courtney, “I don’t think any of us can really say much. Even I would be considered rich. My position is well paid, to say the least.”

Jason, “Yep, though I also agree. What is important isn’t how much, but how much more. Which was honestly one of the things the world is still fighting with. That and actual consequences for decisions.”

With that, the three move over to the communal campfire for lunch.

Rosha, “So, obviously we’ll be doing talent training every morning. What now, though?”

Courtney, “I’ve been thinking and as far as I know, talents don’t actually tell you how much experience they siphon”, she turns to Jason, “Right?”

Jason nods, “I saw nothing in my status.”

Courtney, “Okay, then we should probably do some light hunting to get a feel for things.”

Jason shrugs, “There won’t be any difference yet. No matter how powerful Sustained Effort is, I doubt it uses more than 90% of experience. Which, since talents pull from the unused experience first, is what we need to get over.”

Courtney nods, “But that’s perfect. After all, we really should have checked on this first anyway.”

Rosha interrupts, “Why doesn’t it tell you how much experience it takes?”

Jason shrugs, “I assume it is because the amount is different for everyone and not entirely stable."

Courtney, “What Jason said. Each talent will vary from monster to monster and so the System didn’t bother putting a label on it. Nevermind the fact that it can change. Though the average player or local would be less likely to experience the change. Jason simply happens to be one who will.”

Jason, “Is it because monsters evolve?”

Courtney shrugs, “A little, but also because they have skills and features that modify their bodies. Skeletons with the right skill will have their bones become naturally harder. Certain animals, especially those close to dragons, grow in power with age, even between evolutions. Then there’s you, who is getting rewards from the System that literally switches out body parts and such.”

Rosha, “All I’m hearing is the Systems being lazy.”

Courtney smiles, “It’s also seen as one of those hidden stat mechanics. You know, like how that one monster pet game has Individual and Effort values since the start, but kept them hidden until way later into the series. And even then, you didn’t get them all on the status screen; instead, you had to find the right NPC to ask.”

Rosha, “But how does that even work for this? And why? What use is there to hiding it?”

Courtney, “It is seen as a push your luck kind of thing in the monster battler community from what I can tell. With the idea being that you know about what a certain talent will cost and then try to stack the right ones on a single monster for fun and profit. And there’s also the fact it can be used to level lock a monster.

“After all, bottlenecks aren’t quite the same for monsters. So to assure a monster stays at a certain level you can’t just park it at a bottleneck and not bring it to a dungeon. In fact, figuring out a monster’s bottleneck is seen as a mini-game.

“Anyway, they’ll pack on talents until it’s close, before power-leveling the monster to where they want it. At that point, they can simply keep adding talents until it won’t take anymore. Though even that has a bit of strategy to it. The System will always let you add a talent, so long as you have even a tiny drop of experience coming in. Which means serious battlers will try and get to 99% and then add on a high-cost talent as the capstone.”

Rosha, “How expensive can a talent be?”

Courtney shrugs, “Well, we don’t know how much they take up to begin with. Though there are talents that at the very least, take everything. Of course, since you can always take a talent, no matter how much it costs and how little you have, that could be a simple 100% or maybe they go above 100. No way to tell. Admittedly, there are talents that don’t always take all of a monster’s experience, depending on the monster and their condition.

“One of the popular high-risk, high-reward training strategies is to focus on breeding a specific type of monster that rarely can fit one of those talents with wiggle room. Then keep slapping the talent on them until you find one that still levels. That way, you can make the most of a powerful talent.”

The three fall into silence as they finish up lunch and clean up. Then, as they’re about ready to head out, their plans change.

Jason turns his head, “Do you hear that?”

Rosha cups her rabbit ear and frowns, “I think? How are you hearing it before me, though?”

Jason, “We can go into that later. It sounds like our weekly defense is happening early.”

Courtney, “It isn’t a weekly thing. There just tends to be three to six days between invasions.”

Jason shrugs, “Yeah, about weekly.”

Rosha pulls her bow off her back, “Whatever the case, it seems we won’t need to go searching for trouble.”

Jason rolls his shoulders and places himself between the girls and the noise. “That just makes things easier. Even better, they’re not coming from the side with my farm.”

Courtney sighs, “Yeah, monsters do tend to come for your vegetables.”

Jason, “Herbs. It’s a herb garden. The skill says so.”

Courtney, “You grow weeds and tea.”

Jason, “My skill counts them as herbs, so I’m not going to complain.”

Rosha laughs, “Why are you both arguing about this now? Really coming out of nowhere with that.”

Courtney smiles, “Some people just can’t take a joke.”

Jason laughs, “And you really should have taken one from somewhere besides the discount bin.”