[NR] Chapter 361 - Adding To The Stew (Patreon)

With the hindbear dead next to his campfire, Jason has no problems processing it. Though, to be honest, he is quite far from being able to take it for all it is worth. Just the hide itself would be worth a decent bit but is way too cumbersome to handle so instead he focuses on distinct features. For this particular hindbear, that meant three incisors as one had been knocked out at some point in the past and the side claws, which were significantly bigger than the rest.

Not that Jason particularly cares about them, either. While the owlcelot parts from before were interesting, this hindbear had been just a normal beast with nothing special. So while he kept the parts all together when put in with the rest. He had been doing that for all the claws and such.

While not quite as aggressive as it could be in some stories, the idea that pieces from the same animal would synergize with each other was very much a thing. Sure, Jason could probably just sell them all in bulk but he suspected that sets would be worth more. Though he does make a mental note to expand his knowledge of what to grab from the monsters he meets. That and maybe invest in some kind of spatial or compression storage.

Loot squared away, Jason sits back and looks over at Lily. It wasn’t the easiest thing to notice, but he suspects she had managed to learn some form of movement technique. She had moved around on the hindbear much too easily. He had only expected her to hang on while clawing up the hindbear’s back.

Instead, she goes and skitters around to the front before, in a show of gravity defiance, stretches out across the front of the neck as if she was stretching on flat ground. Though the one thing Jason tries to not be is a fool. So while he could try and interrogate her about it or force her to repeat the act, he instead settles back.

Lily is still quite young, no matter what her levels or species rank might say. This was likely just another ability like her Energy charged fur and trying to force it would just cause trouble. At best, the stress might block the normal development of the skill.

Not that Jason has any clue of what skill she has at the moment. As noted, Lily is still young and so hasn’t quite figured out how to share her status with him. Though Jason isn’t pushing her too hard on that. He would rather her not be able to do it than share it with someone she shouldn’t.

So in the end Jason can only sigh and hope she continues to develop the skill. After all, while he has an idea of how to duplicate such an ability with an example to work off of, it would be a lot easier. That and having the ability to walk on walls would make things all the safer for Lily.

Jason sighs again and puts his pot back on the fire. He still had breakfast to finish and there wasn’t likely another hindbear quite close enough to bother him. Not that he has much choice on the matter. While Lily had already had a decent meal of leafy greens, Jason hadn’t had a single bite to eat.

Though seeing as there is such a convenient source of protein nearby, the boring potato stew gains an extra source of protein. Jason admittedly doesn’t have quite the spice loadout to make the most of the new ingredient, but the morning meal still manages to be elevated over the usual.

Now with breakfast and the camp packed away Jason heads deeper into hindbear territory. Though the rest of his day ends up being a disappointment. While yes, he does meet a handful more of the beasts; they aren’t really worth it.

He doesn’t know quite what he was expecting, but the same fight over and over wasn’t it. One of the latter fights even went exactly the same way as his breakfast brawl. Whatever else might be up with the hindbears, they are truly just beasts in the end. Not even on the level of rabbits, though Jason suspects that has more to do with their backing. After all, last he had heard there wasn’t some bear head honcho to keep them in line.

Jason does have to admit in the end that the fights have their own charm. While it isn’t what he is looking for in a fight, nevermind the constant drip of Agility, others would probably enjoy being able to perfect a routine against an enemy. Sure, the hindbears aren’t acting like low-level bots by any stretch of the imagination.

They truly seem to be acting like bears. The problem is that the System has taken whatever hesitancy that might be there when it comes to starting a fight and mostly removed it. Most of the large carnivores seemed to suffer from this problem in fact. See a person? Attack a person!

It seemed to be just that simple. Sure, the smarter critters knew what was up and wouldn’t attack out of the blue. Problem was, what was considered smarter was exactly the kind of critters that Jason wanted to fight. In fact, if Jason had to rank the owlcelot against one of the hindbears he had been fighting? It wouldn’t even be a competition. The owlcelot was the hands-down winner.

For some players, this might be hard to accept. After all, the hindbears seemed to naturally end up between level 14 to 17. Not only does this mean that even on the low end they match Jason’s level, but they also have a fair number of levels on them.

In the end, though, there is only so much a bear can do compared to a monster that was fully capable of using a power skill. While being able to use a wind blade doesn’t require the owlcelot to have more of a mind. Those sort of advancements tend to come hand in hand.