[NR] Chapter 368 - An Annoying Event (Patreon)

Back on the ground a good distance away Jason is taking some time to rub his arms. Not exactly his usual workout routine and his arms weren’t shy about informing him of that fact. Then the pain vanished as his cultivation’s ability, Untainted Core, kicked in.

Though Jason almost wishes it hadn’t. Stuff like broken bones went away cleanly because all that needed done was putting things back together. The pain from a good workout, however, couldn’t just be magiced away, at least not if you wanted to grow from it, and grow he did.

{+7 Strength

+1 Agility}

With that, his Strength now matched his Agility. Well, it matched his capped Agility. While Agility had been growing slower while capped, it still was going up as the one point showed. The problem is the System was limiting his body, a feeling he was quite familiar with.

When he had started in NeoRealm, he felt like he was trying to move through syrup. Of course, that got solved quickly enough when he started cultivating and one of the technique’s abilities was Body/Mind Unification. An ability that “mysteriously” had vanished last time he had shifted his cultivation more towards his truth.

Jason was fine with that. Even the loss of the health regen ability was fine by him. What he had gained was more than worth it. Self Contained and Material Body both had so much more potential and came from within.

With a shake of his head, Jason refocuses. The distraction had lasted long enough that the full body ache had gone away and so he was ready to continue. The only problem being that he wasn’t certain exactly where he was.

After a quick climb back into the trees, Jason still didn’t see the road, which was worrying. No matter how far he had traveled it shouldn’t have vanished. This led him to believe an unlikely but unfortunately easy to believe event might have occurred.

His guess was easy enough to test. All it took was a small rock, a decent throwing arm, and a will to pierce the heavens. That last one wasn’t a serious requirement, but did involve the test. A simple enough thing, throw the rock straight up. If it didn’t hit anything, then either you’re too weak or things were normal.

If instead the rock hits the sky like it did when Jason tried it, then you’re in an event space. Jason sighs as he turns back around, no running from the coyotes and snakes now. Event spaces could be compared to instanced dungeons in a way.

The catch is that they popped up randomly, could have as many or few people as the System desires, and the moment one becomes empty it vanishes. Jason’s guess is that the System thought his running from a fight he could take was worth messing with him. That or it wanted to mess with him in the first place and used this as an excuse.

Jason puts those thoughts aside as much sooner than it should have taken, he ends up back near the fight. He doesn’t even bother rolling his eyes at this. The System would have let him run for forever and a day yet it would have still only taken him a few moments to get back. Not that he was going to just walk right into the fight as if he hadn’t left.

With how the System likes to work, all the enemies should be back alive and facing off against each other. There might even be some extra support with the System having predicted what would have shown up. Now, he didn’t have to kill everything in the event, there should be some kind of goal. Then the System dings at him.

{Event Space: Beat The Bosses

After running from a fight, you’ve found yourself back at square one. Fight your way out however you see fit.

Difficulty: 2nd Break+

Goal: Kill the leaders

Rewards: Two Undamaged skins, Leaving the event alive}

Jason rubs the bridge of his nose. This was about what he expected, though the subpar rewards would be annoying. Sure, no matter how much he damaged the bosses, he would be getting undamaged skins from them. The problem with that is they won’t be leaving anything else behind, just the skins. No claws, teeth, or venom sacs. It also leaves him with a couple of heavy skins to deal with as well. At least there should be a small town not too far down the road, even if he does have to skip one of the minor danger zones to get there quicker.

Then Jason spots the two sides and the monsters that should be the two bosses. Because, of course, it would want him to fight a titan python and a trickster coyote. The python shouldn’t have even been in the area! The only answer was the System must have cheated in some way.

While it was limited by its programming, that doesn’t mean the System hasn’t developed work arounds. Not that it matters for the moment, the only way out now was to kill the two of them as the other monsters are clearly following their orders. Jason, however, wasn’t going to dance to the System’s tune. Though Jason does admit to himself that since he just got the assassin title, the System likely included it in its calculations.

The trick was that Jason didn’t plan to use it in a more classic sense. Sure, it would be easy to sneak attack the python, but the “trickster” in the coyote’s name isn’t there for nothing. It would spot him trying to play his tricks from a mile away. A serious problem as the coyote basically has to be the first to die.

A titan python will be tough to beat, but if a certain coyote took advantage of things that quickly rounded up to being impossible. The python, on the other hand, isn’t going to be attempting any kind of interference. Even though both Jason and the coyote are its enemies, the snake is much more likely to try and catch whoever survives.