Chương 67: Journey (3)

[You have slain Thunderous Jaguar - Level 9] Rowan let out a sigh of relief and dispelled his blade, throwing it to the side and letting it slowly disperse. The beast had been fast, but its toughness was severely lacking, letting him kill it with relative ease. If he were being honest, he'd expected more from the creature. It'd died so easily. Sure, it'd given him some trouble, but that was just because he didn't know how it fought.

Its strange sound attack had been quite powerful, but now that he knew about it, he would be able to avoid it or counter it like he had by using weak mana constructs to block. He supposed it wasn't fair to have such high expectations when he was so many levels above the creature, but it seemed that the bloodspawn had set the bar high; while the regular ones might not have been particularly powerful, they were well-rounded, letting even the lower-level ones put up a fight against him.

He wasn't sure yet, since he would have to face more opponents first, but based on the jaguar's performance, he thought the creatures on the surface might be weaker than those below ground. At that moment, he heard the rest of the group running up behind him.

"Are you alright?"

"What happened?"

"Is that a jaguar?" As he tried to take in the bombardment of questions, Cynthia's voice cut through those of the others.

"What level was it?" Smiling down at her, Rowan laughed. He'd almost forgotten her obsession with levels, but now that she brought it back up, he remembered how she'd been constantly pestering him for his level back in the caves.

"Just level 9," He said.

"It did have special sound powers, though." As he finished speaking, he saw Lucas glaring at him. After he met the man's gaze, though, Lucas turned away. Rowan shook his head. He would have to have a talk with him." Just level 9?" Eren cut in, laughing.

"You're crazy." Rowan frowned.

"Really? But when I first saw you guys fighting the bloodspawn in the caves, I know that at least a few of them were level 8. Level 9 isn't that much higher, is it?"

"No, I suppose it isn't," Eren replied.

"Level 9 beasts aren't exactly rare, but they can be pretty powerful. We can deal with them, but no one says 'just level 9.' Level 9s and 10s are the top of the food chain around here, too. Most creatures don't get above that. I guess you just have a skewed perspective." Nodding, he asked, "But didn't you say that some level 15 beast destroyed the town we're heading to? If most of the creatures here are that weak, where did it come from?

I'll be honest, with the levels of the beasts here, it doesn't even seem like Apocalypse Difficulty anymore." This time, Henry responded.

"We're in a safe zone. Well, it's not really a safe zone, but compared to the rest of the Tutorial, it is.

"Most of this world is deadly, probably comparable to or even more dangerous than the caves you were stuck in. But there are some areas, like the one we're in now, where the threat is lower. Most people live in these places because it's survivable, y'know? I'd say at least ninety percent of them. There are some other areas that are in between the safe zones and the deadlier areas, too.

"But there are definitely high-level creatures in the safer areas. I've seen a few of them myself. But they're rare. Probably just a dozen or two in this entire area. But most of them, like the level 15 beast you're talking about, come from the more dangerous zones. Practically everything living in those areas is at least level 10." This was a safe zone? Rowan supposed that made sense.

And if the truly deadly zones were all as bad or worse than the caves, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go there, at least not so soon after escaping the endless tunnels. The areas in the middle, though, he wouldn't mind checking out. After all, he wanted to… He paused. He wanted to what? What did he want to do? The only real goal he had was to get as strong as possible, but while he certainly wanted to do that, there had to be some kind of plan or other goals that he could actually achieve relatively soon.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. He tried to think further ahead, but the problem was that he didn't know what would happen. And it made him frustrated. As much as he was grateful to the System for granting him an opportunity to break out of his old life, the lack of information from it was frustrating. He had no idea what would happen when the Tutorial ended. He didn't even know what would happen after he left this layer of the Tutorial!

Thinking back to the messages he'd received when he'd first arrived in Apocalypse Difficulty, Rowan remembered it saying something about the Tutorial preparing people for 'The Integrated Expanse', whatever that was. That didn't mean much to him, but the other thing he remembered did. He—and everyone else in his Tutorial—had a maximum of two years to complete each layer. So, with a breath, Rowan found a second goal: to complete the layer quest and leave the first floor. After that, well, he would see what happened.

Looking up, he found the rest of the group staring at him.

"Oh. Sorry," He grimaced.

"Got lost in thought. I'm not really used to being around people yet." While it was true that he was still growing accustomed to being around others after so long in solitude, he would get lost in thought back before the Tutorial, too. He wasn't quite sure why, but he thought it was a mix of his personality and that with his struggles back on Earth, he hadn't had anything to do in his downtime except to just think. To theorize, to plan, to pretend he was someone else, somewhere else.

Realizing he was getting lost in thought again, Rowan looked up just in time to see Henry speak.

"It's alright," The man said, letting out a chuckle.

"Just a bit surprising for you to suddenly disappear into thought for half a minute, y'know?" Half a minute? That wasn't as long as he had thought he'd spent drifting in his own mind, but it wasn't great either. Rowan smiled awkwardly.

"Should we get going?" Henry shook his head.

"No, we'll wait here for a bit. If you don't mind, we're gonna skin the jaguar you killed. Animal hides are valuable, especially those of higher-level creatures, since they're more durable." Happy that the subject had been shifted away from his absent-mindedness, Rowan nodded.

"Be my guest. I don't have any use for it." He paused before continuing.

"I will warn you, though, its hide isn't very durable; it was focused on dexterity, so its defenses were seriously lacking." Henry frowned, but Eren shrugged.

"Even if it's not the most durable, I'm sure that it'll be worth something. Plus, with the damage I've seen you deal, I'm sure the jaguar wasn't as fragile as it seemed." Then, she, the twins, and Lucas, who'd all already put down their boxes, pulled knives from somewhere and made their way over to the dead cat. Henry and Cynthia, however, remained with Rowan,"Do you think they'll need any help?" Rowan asked. The bald man sighed.

"You ever skinned an animal?" Rowan shook his head.

"Then it would probably be better for you not to help. It's not an easy process, you know." Henry laughed.

"That's why I'm not over there helping them; I tried, and just ended up slowing everyone else. I could probably learn, but skinning isn't a vital skill right now, and I have other things to focus on." Nodding, Rowan asked, "Do you know anything about the animals here? Of the whole Tutorial, I mean. Most of the species I've seen seem to be, or at least are related to some kind of creature from Earth."

"I know about as much as you do," Henry said.

"But the one thing I can say is that it's like something that doesn't really understand Earth was trying to simulate it, you know?"

"Kind of?" Rowan tilted his head, trying to figure out what the man meant. The bearded man thought for a moment before elaborating.

"I mean that half the things don't make sense. Like something just saw the animals of Earth, made rough copies of them, and dropped them into here with a bunch of fantasy creatures.

"I know that things have changed, and most of the beasts here could probably survive anywhere on Earth, but it still feels off that there's a Jaguar in the same forest as bears and deer, and right next to them all is a cave full of mushroom zombies and giant ants. Do you understand what I'm saying now?" Rowan nodded. He somewhat understood what the man was saying, but he wasn't sure he agreed. To him, at least, it didn't seem like the world was trying to simulate Earth. The two places were just similar.

He also agreed that it was a bit strange how such different species were all together, but he didn't think there was any reason that they shouldn't be. After all, just like the man had said, with their strength, they could survive in most, if not all, environments back on Earth. To Rowan, it seemed like the man was just trying to make sense of the situation by coming up with a theory that something was trying to simulate Earth.

If he arranged all of the evidence in the right way, he could kind of see it, but he didn't believe that was actually what was happening. He saw no reason to argue with Henry over it, though. After a few more minutes, Eren walked over from the corpse.

"Well, we're pretty much done now, so get ready to head out. And, Rowan?"

"Yeah?"

"You were right. The jaguar's toughness was absolute sh—very bad. Very, very bad.