[NR] Chapter 362 - Lily Is Actually Kind Of Strong (Patreon)

Suffice it to say, despite how threatening the hindbears might seem, they very much aren’t. At least not for Jason. So it is a good thing that he doesn’t intend to personally use them for training.

Sure, the first couple fights had netted him a few ability points, but that wasn’t likely to hold out. Those points came more from experiencing a new situation than any actual difficulty on his part. Instead, the hindbears made a perfect sparring partner for Lily and so Jason decided to leave them all to her as much as possible. With that in mind, Jason takes the time to set up System notifications to tell him about her growth while he cleans up.

And with breakfast over, Lily soon gets her chance. While the forest isn’t packed to the gills with hindbears, if only because they would soon have thinned themselves out. Hindbears are quite a big thicker on the ground here than would be natural

At least than what would be natural, if it wasn’t for the massive infestation of boarfu. The name being a simple portmanteau of boar and tofu, yet at the same time being neither. Their shape isn’t even all that boar-like except for the relative size and two tusk shaped growths on what might generously be called the front. Though their name gets the point across decently and prepares you for what to expect.

While the boarfu are in actuality, a form of fungus powered by a diffuse Qi field, they have the texture of tofu and taste almost like pork. Not exactly a strange thing as even irl there is a mushroom that tastes shockingly similar to bacon. Either way, right in front of the two is a hindbear chowing down on a boarfu, presenting the perfect chance for Lily to try a stealthy approach.

Lily, well, Lily isn’t quite certain how to do that. However, she is more than happy to try. This mostly involves hopping along quietly towards the hindbear. A hindbear that clearly knows she is there after only a few hops. Good thing the big ol’ bear isn’t exactly worried about a rabbit that doesn’t feel all that powerful.

After all, Lily might be close in level to the thing but the predator-prey relationship would normally keep things in a more “natural” balance. This doesn’t work out for the hindbear. Even if you discount the fact that Lily has a title devoted to breaking that balance, her race isn’t a normal one.

So with one final hop, Lily turns into an Energy charged spiked ball of death and brains the hindbear just as it looks up in confusion. In normal circumstances, it would have put up some of a challenge. This was not a normal circumstance as Lily is easily able to send a burst of Energy outwards from her needle sharp fur, piercing through into the hindbears brain and creating quite the mess of it.

That was not a stealth kill. Lily might have managed the assassin’s specialty of one hit one kill through an assassin approved method, it wasn’t what Jason had meant. The System, of course, doesn’t care what Jason thinks and so rewards her for such a stunning achievement.

{Lily: +2 Toughness

Lily: Title Gained: Deceptive Assassin - Increased chance of a killshot against enemies that seriously underestimate you}

Jason, of course is a bit ticked. While the result is nice, especially the improvement to toughness. He doesn’t really want to call what Lily just did an assassination. Sure, if she had purposefully hidden her power and then managed it or even just meant to do that he would be fine. Lily had not meant for that to happen.

Though the wording of the title quickly distracted him. Others might think it caused a strike to do more damage or some such. Jason however had a different idea based on his understanding of how the system affected the body. To be specific, he was thinking about the methods that the System had in place to prevent bosses from suffering a cheap death.

Combine that with the level suppression and Jason suddenly has the motivation to hunt down a few assassinations based titles. The titles really shouldn’t do anything. After all, the System had specifically reached down to nerf his ability to take advantage of such things. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be just so unfair if he had decided to go down the assassin path and everything shrugged off headshots?

So Jason had a hope, a hope that the System wasn’t sapient or in control enough to realize the interaction. Sure, the titles wouldn’t completely remove his penalties, but he was willing to test things. There are just too many martial arts moves that deal with hitting weak points to succeed.

This new plan, of course, temporarily suspends his plans on training Lily. Though it does open up a new path. After all, he clearly needs to teach her at least a little about stealth. That and get her a couple more assassination based titles under her belt.

Good thing the path is just lousy with hindbears to test things on. It takes Jason three of them before he finally succeeds. For each of them, he has Lily sit to the side and watch how he sneaks up on them. Though that isn’t the hard part.

With Jason’s control over his body and planning to make sure the hindbear won’t smell him, he is more than capable of sneaking up on them. The tough part is getting a kill shot when the System is quite insistent that he doesn’t do that anymore. On the third hindbear, it all falls into place.

The third hindbear had set up shop next to a small patch of berry bushes and was just loafing around after having a filling meal of boarfu and berries. Those bushes provided a decent screen for Jason to approach from and the hindbear had lowered its guard. So like a ghost, Jason stealths up next to the vicious predator and with silent easy slips one of his throwing daggers right into its ear as another is plunged through the artery.

Jason makes a swift escape, leaving the one dagger in the ear while blood spurts out wildly as the one from the neck is removed. While not the kindest or quickest kill, the System counts it and summarily awards him a title.

{+1 Strength

Title Earned: Stealthy Assassin - Increased chance of a killshot against enemies that is unaware of you and not on alert}