[NR] Why Peter Won't Be Sticking Around - Chapter 728

Peter leans forward, elbows on his legs as the fire crackles in front of him. “Well, you certainly faced some of the more repugnant beings to claim your little piece of land. I’m a little surprised that this close to the edge, the System even allowed such elements to show up. Then again, given the undead menace you just helped the settlement handle, it seems a lot more is being allowed to go down here than normal.”

Jason shrugs, “Clearly something is happening here. And while it is a bit egotistical, at least part of that ‘something’ is being done because of our presence. Sure, the larger trend isn’t going to change because of us, but someone has decided to take what is happening and make it tougher on us. And not in a friendly way.”

Courtney, “Now, I’ve looked into things, and I doubt the waves we had to clear for this clearing were overly messed with. I don’t know about the System being able to stop or allow certain elements, so I’ll go with your judge. However, the undead we faced here and those that attacked the settlement were from different groups. They were too dissimilar.”

Peter nods, “Certainly. Those you cleared to claim your land used undead beasts and corpsecrafted their more humanoid members. Which is completely different from whatever attacked the settlement as they used humanoid undead throughout and focused on the rarer evolutions of undead over changing the base ones.

“They aren’t contradictory outlooks. However, once a group of undead begin working in one fashion or another, they don’t change unless forced by outside circumstances.”

Jason shrugs, “The tool used doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that someone locked us in the settlement.”

Peter, “And it wasn’t the System. You would have gotten a message if that had been the case. While the System doesn’t really care too much about the kind of situations, it puts locals and travellers in. When actively meddling, it will at least tell you.”

Courtney sighs, “I knew that, you know? It’s simply that such information means we have been directly and personally targeted by someone of high enough level and strength to act in a way one might mistake for the System.”

Peter laughs, “Yeah, you three managed to stumble into another high-level mess it seems. Given Andrew, me, and now this? I wouldn’t be surprised if you had some sort of curse to draw our attention to you!

“Not that you wouldn’t have met people like us? Just not so many or in a way that we bother remembering you or interfering. Though I guess we need to add a mysterious fourth in and I suspect they’re the highest level.”

Jason sighs, “Don’t forget my teacher. She had to be pretty high up there in levels as well.”

Peter shrugs, “But we don’t really know how interested she would be in you going forward. That’s a pretty unique skill, sure, but that doesn’t mean they’ll keep an eye on you. Still, I guess it is fair to include them in the list of strangely high-level individuals who personally know you guys.”

Rosha, “Okay, you three have hashed out what you need to for Andrew and your own curiosity. What now? I mean, there isn’t much here right now and I’d figure you’d want to get back to your time off?”

Peter shrugs, “I’m basically not counting this. Besides, I choose how much rest I take between trips. Not like I work for someone else. Though even if I did, at my level the restrictions around how you work tends to be loose enough so as to not matter. At least, not as long as you keep others informed.”

Rosha, “That’s cool to know and all, but doesn’t answer my question.”

Peter rubs the back of his neck. “Well, I likely won’t be sticking around all that long. Mainly because the local kingdom doesn’t want me to.

“Don’t get me wrong! I’m not banned or anything. They, uh, just don’t want me messing with the situation here overly much. And yeah, I can’t blame them. Chances are I’d end up hunting the gigantic monsters that attack places around here. It sounds like a fun challenge, after all.

“And I wouldn’t be the first to do so, which is why they know that isn’t a good idea. If the giant beast doesn’t leave of their own accord, their entourage of regular beasts don’t leave either. Which sure, they can handle, it just makes things a lot tougher to do so. And that is ignoring the theory they have that killing one of those giant beasts actually results in stronger beasts coming around in the future.”

Rosha, “Yeah, I can see why they wouldn’t want you sticking around right now. Though I have to ask. What if killing the giant beasts is part of what needs to be done to claim this area? Like, we had to beat wave after wave of monsters to claim our clearing. Why would a bigger effort be different?”

Courtney smiles at her, “While you aren’t wrong, the Deep Wilds doesn’t require you to kill anything to claim land. Though that will always be how the System presents it. You just have to in some way, overcome the challenge. Whether that is killing them dead or simply blocking them from getting into your place.”

Peter laughs, “Yep, though it should be noted that the non-lethal method is always slower because there isn’t a clear ‘end’ to the challenge. After all, what if a month after you drove off an undead horde, it ends up circling back around and taking you by surprise and succeeding in wiping you off your land?

“Besides that, the Deep Wilds will tend to keep sending the same challenge over and over when you don’t definitively beat it. Like, on, I don’t know, a bunch of giant beasts you keep refusing to kill. It is simply that slow and steady so the best way to handle things on the scale of a kingdom annexing more land from the Deep Wilds.

“They have trained their people to handle this situation. The settlements are set up to defend against it. So what happens if after beating too many of the giant beasts, suddenly some even stronger monsters that instead of being super big, are super small, show up? That would almost certainly be the end of these settlements.”