My frantic chase east was unsuccessful. Nothing I ca across gave any indication of being the culprit. The pylons held by humans were too weak to pull it off and the monsters didn't show signs of anything abnormal.
They clumped around the fallen pylon and showed no initiative of amassing an army with humans. It was a mystery, a mystery that pissed off.
I wasn't as angry anymore and the only reason I continued my rampage was because I was already doing it. I had been running for a few hours and I might as well have continued. Reach the last pylon on the eastern front just for completion's sake.
The tutorial area was huge and I was only realizing that now. When we first got here it would have taken a person days of travel to go from one end to the other. Now, with stats and skills, it took 8 hours.
To go from one pylon to the adjacent pylon it took about an hour of sprinting. This was with [Montum(R)] fully charged and over 600 stat points of strength.
Having that many stat points in agility would have been faster but that wasn't what I had. Strength had a speed of its own though.
I knew that others probably had skills to make them faster than but I doubted their number exceeded a handful. I was pretty fast and it would take a lot to beat .
The way the tutorial was set up was mostly a grid. It wasn't a perfect 7x7 grid being that there were 50 pylons, not 49, but it was close. It also wasn't straight lines and perfect squares.
Pylons had a variation to them in their placent which made zig zag to and fro during my chase. Another annoyance I had to deal with.
Still, my path would soon end and I would have to trek back to camp defeated. Thinking about it pissed off all over again. Our pylon was on the western side of the northern border so I traversed more than half of the total length in my journey.
It was tis like these that I wished for a different skill set. A Ranger's tracking abilities would have co in handy right now.
Coming off [Barbarian's Fury(Un)] was a kick to the stomach.
I hadn't left it active for long but the backlash was staggering. I hadn't even used it to fight and it still caused to feel lethargic and weak. I recovered about an hour later but it was another thing I needed to gain control of.
Letting it activate naturally was stupid.
It was when I was about to turn around that I got another ssage.
"Turn south. We will find answers there."
I wasn't sure how many ssages Abigail could send in a day but I followed her suggestion.
Questions of how she knew that was sothing I couldn't ask. I didn't have the ability to send ssages like she did. I had my suspicions but without confirmation, they would remain suspicions.
Austin's skills related to his explorer profession were sothing I didn't fully understand. He had been pushing to evolve it recently but I didn't think he had yet. He directed our hunts to new lands in hopes of leveling his profession.
He gained experience from exploring new land and it gained extra if he was the first person to do so.
Exploring outside of the area with pylons was where he gained most of his experience. It was also the most dangerous. Outside of the grid of pylons, the monsters inhabiting the area sharply increased in strength. Which was probably why he gained more experience for exploring it.
The exploration and conquering of the pseudo-dungeon we did earlier must have pushed him over the edge. He must have gotten a good chunk of experience for that. His level 25 skill was one I knew he was looking forward to but he didn't tell what it was.
I suspected that it was similar to a treasure-seeking skill but would point him in the direction of what he sought.
A perfect skill for an explorer. One I doubted ca in G-rank, hence my suspicions about his evolution. This being a newly evolved profession skill was likely.
Given the new direction, I turned south.
It was almost dusk but I didn't care. If there were answers south, I would head south.
Since I wasn't given a distance I had to assu they didn't know. Having a skill that fickle and vague would aggravate and I was glad I didn't have one like it.
With my course set, there was little for to do but think. I blazed east for four hours before I was given a new direction and I wasn't sure for how long I would be running south.
I needed to be back before noon and with the sun setting, that was fast approaching. Looking at the tir, I had 16 hours until I needed to be back at camp. Hopefully, with so ti to spare so I wouldn't start the wave tired.
With free ti to think, I thought back to after beating the wolf. Sothing about the whole thing aggravated and I was coming up with reasons why it happened.
The disparity in gains between Austin and was starkly apparent.
After taking [Frozen Fortitude(Un)] I knew I would level slower but after experiencing first hand, I hadn't expected them to be so severe.
Two levels. From fighting what was effectively 3 waves worth of monsters I only gained two levels. Sure, it pushed over the edge to get another skill but it was brutal compared to Austin's 4.
[Permafrost(Un)] was an amazing skill but I couldn't help but be disappointed at the lack of levels.
Gaining 3 extra stat points shouldn't have resulted in Austin gaining double the amount of levels. Plus, the experience required to level up increased every level so he more than doubled what I received.
From the 24 stat points my class gave every level, an additional 3 ca from the skills [Body of a Barbarian(Un)] and [Frozen Fortitude(Un)]. gaining what was effectively 12.5% more stat points shouldn't have that big of a consequence.
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I ca up with two reasons for why. One, the experience required to give the extra stat points was horribly inefficient. So if one stat point cost an arbitrary 100 experience, the stat points from the skills took 200.
The hit in efficiency was possible but it didn't explain the severity of what happened. Which made co up with the second reason.
Paying off a loan.
When I acquired the skill I instantly gained almost 100 stat points and that energy had to co from sowhere.
My leading theory was that the experience I gained currently was 'taxed' to pay for the stat points I had already gotten. A sort of back pay for the stats I got upfront when I chose the skill.
While both annoying and unforeseen, it was plausible. And it was temporary. After my 'debt' was paid I would level like normal. Well, normal-ish. I still had to pay extra for the extra stats but it shouldn't be as bad as it was now.
It was unfortunate, but the extra stat points now were worth it. Even if I wouldn't hit E-rank before the end of the tutorial. Every level was a steeper climb and the closer one got to the rank cap was when it was steepest.
Getting 9 levels in the remaining 18 days wasn't going to be possible. To even attempt to reach E-rank before the last wave, I would have to kill a trendous amount of monsters.
If fighting the equivalent of 3 waves of monsters only gave 2 levels, it would take over 18 waves worth of experience to get over the threshold to E-rank, and that was being generous.
The experience requirent wasn't linear and it would probably require more than 18 waves. It mostly depended on how much experience it decided I 'owed'. Without a way to quantify the extent of my reduction, I was left in the dark.
100 stat points worth of essence wouldn't be small.
With nothing else to do but continue trucking along, the ti passed quickly. After the sun had set, finding monsters to keep my buff was easier. Nightti made them bolder and more frequent to find.
Launching javelins through them also gave sothing to do while I ran. Running was quite boring and it broke up the monotony of it. Plus, it made work on my accuracy.
Running full tilt while also trying to hit things accurately was hard. When I began my journey I had to slow down to throw which took ti away from running. Now I could hit them without slowing.
Mixing both physical might for power and [Ice Manipulation] for accuracy led to deadly results. Adding my Law into the mix made it a powerful attack.
Targeting larger monsters helped with accuracy. I still wouldn't be able to hit the smaller ones with any degree of success, especially at a distance. Hitting sothing the size of a giant boar was infinitely easier than hitting sothing the size of a squirrel.
As I continued south, the environnt changed. Up north, the terrain was full of rolling hills and temperate forests, here, it was more humid and filled with jungles.
I much preferred the North.
After gaining an ice affinity it only made my distaste of hotter climates greater. I already didn't like the heat and humidity and that was before I gained ice powers.
It was stuffy and sticky and all around a bad ti. How people could live in places like this astounded . Even the so-called 'dry heat' of places like Arizona was too much. One trip to New Orleans was enough for to never want to go back.
Where I lived in Ohio wasn't terribly bad but the heart of sumr was still an unpleasant ti.
As the environnt changed, so did the mana. Wood mana was still present but more subdued by Nature mana. More forms of life thrived other than just trees which produced it. Wind was less prominent and Earth was harder to find.
Life was a mana type I rarely encountered outside of Healing skills and that jungles produced it shouldn't have been a surprise.
With the canopy of leaves casting shadows constantly, Shadow mana was common. Even the evolved form of it was here too. Places of permanent shadow had a trickle of Darkness mana at their heart.
The difference was great. Comparing it to the icy mountain was like night and day. The ice-capped mountains had one main type with others mostly for flavoring. Here, it was a mixture of multiple.
Life and Nature were the clear winners, but the subtypes were still around.
It was about 4 hours into my journey when sothing new happened. Well, other than the terrain changing.
After turning south, I stopped rampaging like a wild beast and took the extra second to go around trees instead of through them. My mad dash of rage left when I realized I wouldn't find my target.
So it was with so surprise that the flora suddenly whipped out at . Vines and roots from under my feet exploded out of the surroundings before wrapping around my limbs.
The trap sought to restrain and I couldn't help but chuckle. The stupid plants didn't know what they were in for.
With a mighty heave, leveraging all of my strength, I ripped the roots and vines out of the ground. The amount of effort it took was slightly shocking.
I had a full boost from [Montum(R)] and my strength was mighty. It should have been a breeze to get out but instead, it took a modicum of effort.
After the first trap, I continued running into more. There was an assortnt of effects from more restraining traps to ones ant to kill and incapacitate.
The frequency I ran into them climbed and it was becoming mildly frustrating. After a long trip, the annoyance of running into them fowled my mood further. I already failed at catching the people responsible and the traps were an unwelco annoyance.
The lethality of the traps was great but they weren't effective on . I had the stats to muscle through most of them and the others required a slight flaring of my power. Most of the traps used the plants around and only required a quick freeze to be ineffective. Plants didn't handle ice very well.
After a while of shrugging off traps and breaking them, I broke out of the untad jungle into a clearing with a massive wall. On it were 4 catapults like we had back at camp all manned and aid right at .
The wall had a plethora of people milling about with most aiming sothing at . Bows, mage staves, and makeshift ballistae were all trained on my position. So even had throwables like rocks and javelins.
Walking out of the angry forest and into what was essentially a kill box was jarring and unexpected. I got into a lull during my hours long trip and it took my mind a second to catch up to the sight in front of .
I hadn't expected such a greeting.
Staring down multiple different forms of death, I did what any sensible person would do.
I turned around and went back into the forest.
I wasn't sure how, but the camp knew I was coming and readied their defenses against . The camp was strong and it had upgrades done to it I didn't know were possible. The split second I got to see it was enough to convince of its strength.
It had double the amount of siege weapons that we had mixed together with more that looked hand-crafted rather than store-bought.
The wall extended 20 feet in the air, 5 feet higher than ours, and it had a different look to it. The stone exterior was smoothed over and the seams between the bricks weren't there making it look like one giant rock face.
I could only guess at the runes woven into it and what they would do. The gate itself looked different as well. Ours was a mixture of a wooden door with hints of tal reinforcent.
The gate I had facing was more tal than wood and had a massive iron portcullis in front of it. The thick tal making up the grating looked impenetrable. I doubted there weren't runes contained within it as well.
The camp I ran into wasn't just a camp anymore. It was a castle made to withstand any siege. It made jealous.
It also was the first camp I ca across that had the power necessary for the attack on my camp.
If this is what their camp looked like, they held the power to expand out to others. Ours was far away, but that didn't dismiss them as the culprits.
Maybe they were just looking to weaken us before the wave tomorrow and conquer the ashes after we fell to the monsters.
They didn't need to conquer our pylon right away. As long as they did it before the tutorial ended they would get the benefit.
Abigail said I would find answers here, and the strength presented against was an answer in it of itself. Why else would they ready all of their defenses against ?
They probably knew I was chasing after them and prepared for my arrival. The roundabout way of getting here I took made the trip longer than if soone knew where to go straight back.
It would have given them enough ti to get back here before and get ready to defend while I was running around clueless.
The anger that had left ca back with a vengeance. Seeing the strength of what I would have to get through was the only reason I didn't turn back and charge at them.
I wasn't sure I would be able to get through.
I still had ti before I had to return and I would get my answers.
One way,
or another.
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