[NR] All The HP - Chapter 532 (Patreon)

Time passes and the team reaches Settlement 306, though they don’t even get to see inside at first. Suffice it to say, the settlement was less than happy to see the three show up there as they certainly didn’t have room for anyone else. There had been an attack just the previous day, where a giant snake had attempted to sneak into the compound.

The settlement managed to respond in time. Though only because they built their walls to be a little over three stories high. In a normal location, such a tall wall might be hard to construct, but since this was near the Deep Wilds, they sourced some nearby trees. And in this case, tall enough means over double their height because more than half of each log is buried underground. Half to hold up better against a monster ramming the wall and half to help against certain tunneling monsters.

In fact, the only reason they let the party in was because a few people had died during the attack. Of course, they wouldn’t let the trio actually stay, but every combat ready person was needed, so adventures staying the night seemed like a good idea. Now, the group hadn’t originally planned to stay in the town as it wasn’t quite time to set up camp.

Except as apparently was the norm, the large beast hadn’t been killed. Not that the settlement hadn’t tried to do just that. Rather, it seems the giant beasts have a ludicrous amount of hp that you need to work through. In fact, some people drinking in the tavern’s bar that the group stayed at had a suspicion. They figured that the beasts were getting an actual multiplier to their hp total, based on their size.

No one could prove that, but it would certainly explain the beast’s ability to survive. This wasn’t even because of natural armor blocking most of the hits. Yeah, the beasts did have that to a degree. Except the settlement had already separated that out. Those giant animals simply had boatloads of health on a scale normally reserved for high-level raid dungeon bosses.

Though along with the bad, the group also managed to hear some good news. Those giant beasts that define the ongoing resistance by this section of the Deep Wilds to being tamed? They only bothered with places defined by the system as a settlement. A classification that thankfully, the trio won’t trip. Three was just too small a number for it.

Not by much, though. It seems the System didn’t want parties to easily dodge the classification and thus six unrelated people living together could classify. And that isn’t just for here. Rather, it covers all of NeoRealm. Though other requirements make it so every camp doesn’t suddenly count.

You need to also cover things such as permanent structures. Which not only covers obvious stuff like log cabins, but also if you keep a tent set up for long enough. Oh, and the ‘s’ there was important. You need multiple structures so if a group can get away with a single house, they end up as a compound of some sort instead of a settlement.

Though depending on the type of compound, that might not be better. If you build a castle, expect to get sieged at some point. Nevermind the fact that after a certain point, compounds also start counting as settlements anyway, it just pushes that point a bit further down the road.

Locals and travellers alike would have assumed such classification were simply the System deciding things on a case-by-case basis, if it wasn’t for the fact it was so repeatable. Build up an area in a certain way with a specific make up of people and it will always end up with the same classification barring any special modifiers you might have missed.

In fact, when Courtney went and checked irl, there was a fan made app to help people judge what certain setups would count as. Though it got a little wonky when trying to handle more mobile settlements such as you would find in a migratory tribe. Not that the System had a problem with doing so, just that the data was a lot harder to come by for the app makers.

In a funny twist, it is just too easy to make “permanent” structures. Why bother with some fancy tent or giant wagon house when all it takes is some earth magic to put up some walls and a roof? The magic made buildings might not last the longest if you don’t put a lot of effort and Mana into them, but they’ll last at least a few days to a week.

Sure, a small group might not have someone capable of that level of magic. Except this isn’t about a party of adventurers. Rather, this is about a tribe and maybe they won’t have a high level earth mage, but a few low-level ones can manage things together. In fact, early on the System had tried to force more “historical” (as in how people saw it portrayed in popular fiction instead of actual history) tribes into existence. That only worked as long as the System was puppeting them and thus not viable.

Though that did bring to light something Courtney and friends were missing. None of them had a supernatural solution to terraforming where they planned to set up shop. In particular, the lack of earth magic was going to make living in the forest particularly hard if they couldn’t find a good clearing. One simple yet incredibly powerful use of the magic is to more easily remove stumps by forcing the roots out of the ground.

While people can grow strong enough that they could, in theory, rip a stump out of the ground as if they were a tractor. That only works for normal trees. Because just as much as people grow stronger, so do trees and even to an extent, the dirt itself. The first floor in the Deep Wilds isn’t something that is going to let you just rip a stump out of the ground.