[NR] Claws, Knuckles, Or Skin - Chapter 441 (Patreon)

Being just a week away from the dungeon however didn’t give Jason much time to solidify his thoughts on the System’s potential control over those who had exceeded it. And to be honest? It didn’t particularly affect him in the first place.

Sure, he was going to look into making it so that Lily stopped gaining stat points from the System. That was just common sense as far as he was concerned. Other than that though, Jason’s goal right now was basically to escape the grasp of the System even earlier than level cap.

Though, as he approaches the dungeon town, he realizes that he hadn’t really been doing much about it. In fact, despite how thoughtless his gardening had been, he had put more work into that than furthering his control of his Internal Energy lines.

Jason hadn’t even tried unraveling the System threads since that one time while living at Peter and Gregor’s. Sure, it felt like the kind of thing to get out of hand if you weren’t careful. Threads tended to fray easily if you started uncoiling them and couldn’t wind them back up. Still, he should have done something!

Though that could once again wait. Not only did Jason have to figure out if his teammates had made it yet, but just by arriving something else popped up to deal with. Back at the start of this journey, Jason had been given a quest.

{Journey to the Dungeon “Invasion from the Deep Sky”

Gregor Grey-Tail, the Enchanter and Illusionist, has heard your plea to plan out a path to the 3rd bottleneck. Through his wisdom, he has agreed to assist and so has laid out a path for your party. While this path may split you apart, the end goal is to bring you together once again to face the challenges in conquering your first real dungeon. Though, for some of you, this path will be tougher than most souls can handle.

Difficulty: 2nd Break(3rd Break-)

Goal: Reach the town built up around the dungeon “Invasion from the Deep Sky” after having followed the path laid out for you by Gregor after having reached the 3rd bottleneck

Rewards: Peak 2nd break weapon that will automatically upgrade to entry level 3rd break if the dungeon “Invasion from the Deep Sky” is used to breakthrough the 3rd bottleneck

Optional Goal: Cap at least one of your stats before conquering the dungeon

Reward: System weapon may be selected from three basic examples}

He couldn’t help but laugh after remembering the quest description. Gregor certainly laid out a decent path, at least for as long as Jason had followed it. Things sort of went sideways. He was thankful that at least he had managed to complete all the goals. How could he tell? The answer was simple enough, there was now a quest reward screen asking him which “weapon” he wanted as his reward.

{Quest Complete: Journey to the Dungeon “Invasion from the Deep Sky

Congratulations! You have completed not only the main goal, but also the option goal!

Rewards: Please choose a weapon

Crystal Claws

Dense Knuckles

Conductive Skin}

As far as Jason was concerned, each of the three looked alright, though they also seemed to be keeping secrets. Crystal claws? Does that mean quartz, diamond, or crystalline metal? It could even technically mean something silly, like salt or sugar.

Not that he was considering the claws or even the knuckles. Both were too restrictive. Dense knuckles? What happens if he wants to elbow someone? At least with the claws it would likely affect his feet, though that would require either going barefoot or, at the very least, sandals. Not that he particularly cared about that as soon enough his feet would be tougher than the shoes.

After all, at the moment his cultivation’s effect, “Energized Flesh”, gave him skin with the toughness of wood. Even more interesting is that Toughness was partly a modifier on top of any natural toughness that the skin might have. After all, Toughness wasn’t only how hard it was to get through a person’s skin, but also how sturdy their internals are. What good would be impenetrable skin if someone could bash you with a club and pulverize your organs?

The only question Jason had about the skin option is whether this would be a replacement like with his bones or an addition like the formation in his lungs. Either would work and so, without further thought, Jason entered the town to search for his teammates. Choosing the weapon could be done one in a more private setting.

An important quality as if it literally replaced his skin, that could create a gruesome sight. Better to be away from the public before he gets arrested for being criminally edgy and disgusting. Though after checking in with the Adventurers Guild he found that they hadn’t arrived yet.

This wasn’t too unexpected as he hadn’t strictly followed the path and ran a bit more than recommended. Well, a lot more than recommended. Though being at the guild meant he could access something quite important at the moment. Their private training rooms. Jason even spent a little bit to get a third break room.

Sure, the System wasn’t likely to make things too explosive. However, Jason was at the third bottleneck and the reward would supposedly upgrade if he breakthroughs with the deep sky dungeon this town was built around. Though that was a little unfair. If the System says the reward will upgrade under a certain condition, it will upgrade. Of course, the System also failed to mention how painful, bloody, or explosive the process may or may not be.

So after handing over a silver, Jason made his way over to the private training rooms. As always, they were exactly where they are in every other guild. Though unlike the last time he had to use the rooms, this time he had to go deeper into the building to get to the higher quality rooms.