[NR] Impossible To Tell - Chapter 575 (Patreon)

Whatever the case may be, Jason and friends manage to work their way through the crowd of celebrating locals. And thankfully, the guy they had been dealing with in the settlement wasn’t out celebrating as well. In fact, it looked like he was just as busy as usual.

Courtney steps forward, “I assume the recent shift at least was enough to remove the really nasty monsters?”

The man sighs without looking up, “And left us with some normal nasty monster. I guess you were the guys the settlement’s hero of the hour met? Not that anyone else will know about it. He barely mentioned there being ‘bait’ in his official report. I’m sure that by now it was all down to his supernaturally good tracking skills.”

Jason groans, “Yes, and that was about what I expected from his type. For some reason, most stories they tell end up mostly populated by them doing things and a bunch of background characters cheering them on, if that.”

Rosha nods, “I would honestly rather be forgotten by a guy like him than remembered. No need to end up cast as a fawning fan girl.”

The man nods along, “Or forever the dependable, but weak attendant.”

Courtney, “And never forget the horrors of being someone they’ve decided will be theirs. Or with that guy’s power, their fifth harem member that doesn’t even get a description beyond filling out the numbers and maybe a mention of your hair color if it stands out a little.”

Jason, “You can’t even always depend on them. Try and point a ‘hero’ like that at something, and half the time they end up traipsing halfway across the kingdom, distracted by taking vengeance on some random bandit organization for a pretty thing. Best just avoid them when possible.”

Everyone sighs, as while they definitely have different views of what they mean, it lines up enough that they feel connected through all the nonsense.

The man shakes his head and leans back in his chair. “Anyway, I can confirm that there were other nasty monsters bumping around until the shift that brought in those chimeras. Thank goodness the Deep Wilds tends to be self contained with those sorts and even cleans up after itself more often than not. Though when the shift happened, we did lose a few locals who had been subverted.

“Wish we could have noticed. While not generally possible, sometimes you can fix the problem. Not every such threat eats the victim’s brain or kicks out their soul. So while there isn’t too much hope, at least we could have tried. On the other hand, hey, at least it wasn’t more widespread.

“There are plenty of horror stories about a traveler staying overnight in a border settlement like this, only to wake up the next day to new terrain and an empty settlement. While any kingdom strong enough to attempt, this will have people capable of checking, they don’t always catch such infestations quick enough. Some such things just spread way too quickly.”

Jason shrugged, “That’s just the nature of the beast. Besides, what might seem fast to us, would be a snail’s pace from another’s perspective. With your example, whatever it was, only took one border settlement! An enemy kingdom could take tens of such places in a single day with proper planning. I’m sure that if they invested enough, such things could be stopped completely, it just wouldn’t be worth it. It all comes down to if you’re strong enough.”

The man grimaces, “It hurts to be portrayed as so insignificant, but sometimes the truth hurts. Just as the settlement will easily go on despite those few that went missing, the kingdom, hell, the expansion would go on smoothly even if they lost this entire settlement and then some.

“More dangerous would be if such threats could leave the Deep Wilds or at least stuck around after a shift. Right now, any such corruption is inherently restricted and chances of meeting the same group are near non-existent. Still, it never feels good to have what are basically the ultimate spies traipsing around your home.

“Nevermind the fact that in general the System doesn’t even let us locals talk about such things to you travellers unless you already know. Kind of hard to get help when the most capable of helping can’t be asked.”

Courtney and Jason share a look.

The man, however, ignores this and shrugs. “It’s either lucky sorts, like you or those nearing level cap. Though worse is the fact that whoever is talking has to personally know with some certainty that the other is in the know. No attempting to say various forbidden subjects to test what someone knows. Can’t even test it by writing stuff down since the System unilaterally blurs all such knowledge for you guys.”

Courtney coughs, “Interesting, if dangerous, but we came for another reason and while here decided we should report what we have seen over the last few weeks while out there.”

The man nods, “Fair enough. Did you see anything interesting?”

Jason steps forward first, having the least to say as he stuck to the clearing. After that, both Courtney and Rosha went over their various trips into the Deep Wilds. Once they are done, the man takes a moment to finish writing down a few notes.

Then he nods and looks up from his notebook, “Interesting enough and that berry thing is of course disturbing. Though thankfully those types of hazards tend to be self containing. As for your experience with the compressed biomes? That is actually relatively new, but is a good sign and always nice to have another observer confirm.

“I’d say we have about three to five years before the Deep Wilds is pushed back even further. You’ll probably have to deal with a new settlement at that point, unless you build a road or some such to here. Without a stable connection like that, your clearing will be pushed outward with the expansion of land released from the Deep Wilds.”

Courtney sighs, “Well that’s annoying. Not that we’ll be making a road.”

The man shrugs, “Look on the bright side, you probably won’t have to worry about giant beasts once the expansion happens.”