[NR] Not Delvers - Chapter 621 (Patreon)

In the end, it took Jason four more days before his pack was full. Well, his pack had been full on the second day, now it was both full and had nowhere else to strap things on to the outside. It is amazing what north of a hundred points of Strength will do for a person.

His final haul came in at six level 26, two level 27, and a single level 30 earthshaker moles. Though if he had been willing to ditch the skeletons, he could have fit more. It was just that those needed to be either secured with a lot of straps or kept in the backpack. Good thing the skulls were easy to keep hanging on the outside or it would have fit even less.

As it was, Jason figures he could source all the materials he needs. Not that he did not have enough before, but now he wouldn’t be scraping the bottom of the barrel and completely out of gold. Which would have been a problem irl as he needed it to pay for his enhanced pod services that were keeping his body in shape. Though he was tempted for a moment to drop the loot off at the clearing and go out for another round of hunting.

That was quickly tamped down, though. He had things that needed done and the quicker it happened, the better. They had been in the clearing for a few months at this point and it felt unprotected, mostly because it is. Jason hadn’t set up any defensive measures as of yet. This is mostly because in the Deep Wilds, any mundane walls and such might as well not be there.

Of course, as a hunting camp, their clearing is pretty good. When you get down to it, they could likely all leave it for a week or more at a time and expect to come back to not much having changed. Well, so long as they aren’t leaving anything that smells interesting lying around.

Which is handy as once he got back to the clearing, Jason found his fellow party members champing at the bit to leave. They had gone a bit stir crazy, which is fair enough. Until this point, the longest they had stayed in one place was with the Gray-Tails and even then, they were exploring an entire city and not just sitting around. Sure, they got some practice with their less combat focused skills while waiting, but there is a reason adventurers are known as wanderers. 

If you just wanted to sit in one place and grind a dungeon or something, you’d be a delver. Which, sure, also signed up under the adventurers guild and didn’t have an official designation as such, but it was recognized as a thing. Jason didn’t count as a delver, but he was also more used to sitting in one place and slowly improving. While he had never done the years-long closed door stuff, going multiple days without leaving his room to focus on cultivation was not out of the ordinary.

Now, Jason hadn’t originally planned on bringing them into town with him, but seeing them it felt rude not to offer. An offer which Rosha and Courtney took up right away. Though they were quite disappointed when the trip was uneventful.

To be expected as the settlement had recently driven off another giant beast and cleared the forest. While the actual terrain tended to be more stable than anywhere else within the Deep Wilds, the monsters and beasts still managed to cycle through. Not that the area didn’t shift, just that it all tended to be thematically appropriate as well as slower to do so.

The settlement hadn’t changed on them, though. Made with giant logs with vitality, they could repair any damage if you threw enough tree healing magic at it. Of course, if half a log broke off or something similarly as serious, it would be easier to replace. The only problem there being that it wouldn’t be quicker. Sure, if they had such a log on hand, quick as could be. They didn’t though and there weren’t exactly any giants around this area anymore. Either cut down or had managed to shift away before their doom.

The trio’s return to the settlement happened with little fanfare. Though they were recognized. Not many were out homesteading ahead of the front line settlements despite the benefits. It could be quite dangerous.

Their clearing was likely the safest homestead along the entire line, except maybe the very edges. While many were avoiding the area because of the giant beasts, it was actually the key to how little the clearing was attacked. Those giant beasts would whelm up a force and direct it at the settlement.

As compared to other regions, this actually left a number of safe spaces. Other settlements would deal with waves of beasts and monsters coming from all angles. Which would be safer for the settlement, but much more dangerous for any homesteaders. After all, if you pick a suitable spot like the group’s clearing, the primary threats don’t even come near them. With beast tides, though, the entire forest is swamped with them and lacking any calm areas to settle.

Most people didn’t see it that way, though. Instead, they focus on the fact that if a giant beast did decide to go through their homestead; it was gone. And if they were there at the time? So would they be.

Thus, most homesteads ended up more like mini-forts with multiple parties sharing them. All in the hope of eventually selling their share of the land to a proper farmer or some such. It wasn’t the biggest payout, but level and skill growth from taking the time to do so could be massive for any local or even travellers.

Though it was always a balancing act. Not only did having too many people mean the eventual payout was lowered, but the Deep Wilds seemed to have opinions on such things. If you tried to claim an area through numbers alone, it would challenge you in kind. This seemed to be more of a reaction to having too many foreign beings in place, as it clearly didn’t affect the large civilizations that exist within the Deep Wilds.