[NR] The Same Level - Chapter 661

Jason snaps out a kick to the right, slamming the dwarf’s shield back. All the while he has to bend his waist to the side to avoid the enemies’ back row thrusting their spears at the same time to catch him.

With him thrown off balance, the other defender goes in for a shield thrust to knock Jason over.

Jason windmills his hand up under the shield and the enemy is thrown off balance as they certainly didn’t expect to be pulled. Though Jason doesn’t follow up on this, instead using the chance to recover his own balance. Except with this maneuver, the four enemies finally notice something isn’t right.

Both of the spear wielders turn back towards where their mage friends should be. Except, of course, Courtney has already spirited them away into the shadows. Then a pop drags their attention upward where a small ball of darkness is dissipating.

Jason surges forward at the signal. Left foot stomps the ground. Right foot rises up and comes down on the left shield with a wood snapping crash. His war stomp bursting through the wood, though the shield’s metal bracing keeps the attack from really doing damage.

Just how Jason wanted it. With his foot planted in the remains of the shield, he gives a heavy shove as he crosses his arms behind his head. 

The enemy in front of him is goes sprawling as the guy behind him takes a swing with his mace. However, Jason’s arms take the blow with an odd, boneless give. Then he drops to the ground.

Just on time to dodge the two spear wielder’s attacks as they return to the fight.

From the ground, Jason sweeps a leg out and drops the person with the broken shield. And with a quick roll, he ends up under the shield of the guy behind him.

That guy tries to drive the point of his shield into Jason’s chest.

Jason catches it with crossed hands and then pulls his hands apart. The unexpected rotation throws the guy off and while he doesn’t drop the shield, what with it being strapped to his arm. It gives Jason the opening he needs to wrap an arm around his leg.

Legs drawn up to his body and Jason kicks up into the guy’s gut, dropping him back.

Jason then rolls onto his side, only to see the spear wielders and the other shield guy captured by Courtney. Her darkness magic muffled any attempts to warn. “Huh, I guess that means the fight is over.” And he turns over and grabs the guy he tripped in an arm lock.

Courtney sighs, “Why didn’t you end it quicker? Sure, we didn’t want to kill them, but you didn’t have to keep them this healthy.”

Jason, “With you around, I could afford to play with them. They’re obviously not the main force of whoever this is. I don’t even think these guys have reached level 25 yet.”

Courtney rolls her eyes, “No, they should be about the same level as us. Though I do agree that they’re not likely the main force. Most people don’t try to homestead the Deep Wilds at our level. They’re likely hanger-ons that were sent out to gather some easy food.”

Jason, “Welp, guess all we can do is signal the town to come pick up these idiots.”

Courtney nods, “At least we don’t have to drag them back to town. Let me send up the signal.” And she spends a minute charging a spell.

After that minute, she sends a head sized ball of darkness high up into the air where it bursts into three clouds of darkness that strobe between complete opacity and simple shadows. “There, they should send out enough people to handle about 15 people. So yeah, we might need to handle one of them ourselves, but that isn’t the worst outcome.”

Jason sighs, “And now we wait to see if the people that sent these idiots come along to ‘solve’ things.”

Courtney, “If they do show up, I give it even odds on whether they just nuke us from a distance or actually try to save their mooks.”

Jason, “If these guys really are our level, calling them mooks makes me feel like we’re insulting ourselves.”

Courtney shrugs, “Mooks can be of any level. It just represents someone who is being treated as part of a group’s basic members.”

With that, they fell into silence. Well, silent besides the groaning of their prisoners. And Courtney sighing. She would have preferred to wait with Rosha, but she was taking care of the laborers and neither side could really move their charges.

Good thing it didn’t take long for a group of guards to show up and take charge of the thieves. And with that, they regroup with Rosha and head back to town as well.

On the way, Courtney shakes her head, “This isn’t the end of things.”

Jason shrugs, “At least we’ll know who we’re facing.”

Rosha, “Do we want to face them? Like, this first time could be argued as ignorance. Once we do know who it is, they’ll feel all privileged and expect us to give way.”

Jason snorts, “They’ll have more than enough troubles for them to try and get revenge on us. Besides, who knows how long we’ll be here? Sure, chances are things will come to a head soon. However, we can’t be sure of that and soon will depend on these fields for food as well.”

Courtney sighs, “We really don’t have a choice. Maybe if we could get out of the barrier, things would be different. We can’t and so that’s that. I do not want to experience death by starving.”

Rosha, “That would be unpleasant, no matter how much the System might fill the feeling of stuff like that.”

Jason, “Well, I guess we better go and talk to Siegfried. They’ll probably get everything they need from those players, especially the laborers. Still, they’ll want our opinions on the whole mess.”

Courtney nods, “This is a little more serious than was expected. It was supposed to be a small group, but that clearly isn’t the case. I don’t even think there should be a homestead with more people than the group we captured. Must be from an unreported group that thinks they can take on a kingdom.”