The Battle and its Spoils

Chapter 65: The Battle and its Spoils

/Do we have power and the system describes it, or is our power solely granted by the system?

It is a question many have pondered over the time Chronagen has existed in the form it has now. Many say, that our power comes purely from the system, citing their evidence in the drops of items that are clearly still attached to a creature's body, such as claws, skin, and tusks. Where else would these come from? Other say the same, naming the astounding amount of Skills one can buy, without expending any personal effort.

And the, others again say that the power truly comes from within, and that the system partially gives it form. The 'drops', as some people have taken to calling them, would be crystallized forms of our own belief, and the belief all of our minda combined funnel into the system. The acquiring of Skills in the shop would only be like us using the power we have gained for some help in understanding the Skills we get.

This would also explain why some Skills are more expensive than others, depending on a person's level, appearance, affinity, talent, and existing Skills that are similar.

Yet, once again, we increase our stats and those Skills with points given by the system, can those truly be said to have been acquired through our own effort?

But then, where else would they come from? A gift by the system? By some strange deity puppeteering us for... what?

Yet, if the system simply explains our status, then why do some travellers report not having had one before?

As one can see, the discussion goes back and forth, around in long loops. Perhaps, the truth is that the answer is not so clear cut. Perhaps, as in all things, there is nuance.

Perhaps, it is both by our own merit, and the helping hand of the system, that we are able to grow and develop, to become the best version of ourselves that we can be./

An anecdote of many, written down by Armeyus the scholar in his "Collection of Thoughts on our World"

- - - - - -

The tide of beasts was long, annoying, loud, headache inducing, and painful. Mercury threw rocks through a tiger's spine, bit down on monkey leg, he found out that the things making high pitched grating noises were damn bats, the ones half the size of humans at that. He also beat those.

The only thing he had less trouble with was bird, since there weren't too many of them, and Elliot kept them at bay. The animals in here were slightly monstrous, but certainly not much worse than what Earth had to service. Seriously, some vulture that projectile vomits the rotten, putrid corpse it just ate? Eugh.

Still, after what seemed like an endless onslaught, and a couple hours of nonstop fighting, the party was spent. José pulled out some food they had in the carriage, and the five of them had a short meal, gobbling some dried meat, and downing a couple bits of water. The worst was yet to come, after all.

He may have gone through camo tigers, giant vampiric bats, murder pandas, jaguars, and a damn alligator, but there was something worse in store.

It was time, eventually, after they had a quick bite and a moment to catch their breath. These excursions were tough, but since they had set up a perimeter, the smell of blood eventually started becoming a deterrent, rather than an attraction for some animals. So at the very least with that things had been manageable.

Still, they were lucky this was a low-level door. These kinds of jungle types usually had enough poisonous insects and spiders to kill an army, so really, not running into any was quite fortunate. Marcel only knew a lesser detoxify spell, general ones were quite hard to find after all, and while Gilah was a competent herbalist, she hadn't done too much research into venom.

In any case, lucky there, but the boss was approaching them. Its steps heavy, Mercury knew that it would not be an easy fight. They were able to gauge what it might be a little while ago, but he had hoped they were wrong. No shot, unfortunately.

As the steps drew nearer, and the floor started to slightly shake, the group got up. Elliot half hid behind the carriage, his staff poking out and ready to fire. Marcel was besides the kid, a slight, shimmering barrier in front of him. It was weak, but then again, barriers weren't easy to conjure up.

Gilah slowly pushed herself off the ground and grabbed the machete tightly. She didn't even know if it would be useful, but it certainly would do more against what was coming up than her fists. Finally, Mercury himself had his bag of rocks beside him, and some individual ammunition prepared in his inventory.

Slowly, the brush in front of them began to split, revealing first two white, giant tusks, high above the ground, and a long grey trunk. After that followed a giant head, that of perhaps the biggest land dwelling animal one could imagine.

The huge bulk of an elephant slowly stepped out from in between the trees, and onto the clearing, its eyes alight with a subtle hue of red. Its tusks were large, sharp, and had a shining white tone to them, like someone went through the trouble of polishing them every day.

"Holy shit..." Mercury muttered, looking on at the thing. As the other bests before, it was a little different from its counterpart that he was used to. The tusks were pointier and less dull, it's skin a little lighter in colour, looking almost like metal, and its trunk was so thick, Mercury thought it might be able to straight up snap someone in half.

For a few seconds, the creature stood there, watching them. It wasn't silent, its breathing loud enough for the entire party to hear very clearly, and forceful enough to even unsettle the terrezays, but it didn't attack them at first sight.

"... Hello?" Elliot carefully asked after a few more moments had passed, slightly confused at the beast's stare. It seemed so furious, yet waiting for something, or perhaps even fighting back against its destructive urges. The influence of the door on its mind was powerful, but Mercury could even imagine it being quite peaceful if it ever got to leave.

Then again, he didn't know for sure.

After about half a minute, of neither party making a move, the elephant smashed the ground with its trunk and loudly trumpeted in anger, taking a step towards the team.

"Why did I agree to this..." Gilah thought, looking up at the beast. Well, she had little choice now. Best to just get to it. "HOOOOOOORRRRAAAAAAA!!!!" she screamed, giving her best combat shout, while rushing at the giant monster in front of her. In response, the elephant quickly turned its head towards her, and its trunk snaked through the air like an uncanny whip.

Gilah couldn't see much except for the grey mass of flesh coming towards her, but staring down death was something she had prepared a little for. Maybe the alcohol was also helping push her fear aside, but it was secondary, that much she was sure of. When the thing was just about to grab her, Gilah quickly slammed her staff into the floor, sending her flying upwards on a jet oh water, before she came flying through the air and crashing down onto the thing while swinging her sword.

Clang!

The elephant raised its head, parrying her swing with its tusk, and launching her back a couple steps.

"Tsk!"

Mercury used the short opportunity given by his friend, or at the very least he tried to. The cat ran up to the elephant's leg, and took the first couple steps to climb it, when he felt the animal's weight shifting and beginning to move.

"RUUUUUNNNNN!!!!"

The elephant had lifted the massive weight of its legs, and began running, now recognizing the party as a source of danger, especially the weird thing that had jumped at it, and thus, it did what big things do best. Run, and tear anything in their way down.

The monster began to stampede towards Gilah, and when the barkeep managed to just get back off the floor, she already saw a grey-ish, house sized beast coming straight for her. In the split second she had, she jumped, curled up into a ball, and hoped to hurl herself out of the way, only barely sliding under one of the elephant's feet with Elliot's help.

"Mitten you bastard!! Why did you drag me into this!"

"Shuuuuut uuuuupppppp!!" Mercury yelled, being shaken up and down heavily by the monster's leg, the momentum almost tearing him off as he held on for dear life, hoping to not be turned into a bunch of cat paste. As soon as his opponent had begun moving, Mercury immediately circulated his mana and expanded his stamina to fill himself, using all of that focus just to stick on the leg as the air was shaken in and out of him.

Marcel looked at the spectacle for a couple of moments, when the elephant turned and began charging towards their carriage, and them as well.

"Dodge!" he yelled, slamming the behind of one terrezay with his wand, before he quickly created two sheets of ice on the floor. Elliot blasted himself and the receptionist horizontally away from the rampaging grey-skin, while Marcel was deeply hoping to make the thing slip, yet his dreams were soon crushed when the elephant's steps simply shattered the ice.

"Get on up there, Mercury, you can do it!" Elliot cheered, shooting his friend a bright smile, and quite frankly, the cat didn't know if he was carefree or straight suicidal. Still, when the elephant ground to a stop, Mercury slowly managed to get himself a couple more steps upwards.

The beast's hide was tough, and getting his claws to even stick took a solid swing. And apparently, the elephant had noticed, because when it stopped, it didn't decide to just charge again, but instead ripped a large branch off a tree using its trunk, and began swatting at Mercury like some kind of strange housefly.

"Not on my watch!" Gilah quickly fired a blast of sand and clay at the elephant's eyes, forcing it to shake its head. Immediately, Mercury used his chance to scale up the remainder of the elephant and arrive on the beast's back.

Then, as any sensible person would do, he stuck his claws deep into the elephant's flesh, took a bucket of rocks from his inventory, and began pelting its back with them. Since Mercury's legs were stuck on the ground, he instead tapped the rocks and activated <Throw> using his tail, forcing the sharp projectiles to dig themselves into the elephant.

As soon as the first stab hit it, the beast roared out loud, trumpeting and huffing loudly, shaking its entire body in an attempt to get Mercury off, but the cat's claws were stuck. Using this moment of distraction, Marcel also fired a couple icicles at the monster, and Gilah herself ran down under it, slicing at the beast's soft belly with her machete and quickly escaping with some help from Elliot.

Blood spilled on the ground and over her clothes in mass, but the woman forced her eyes to stay open, still wary of the heavy thing they were working to beat down. Not too many seconds later, it began to storm off, still trumpeting, and smash its back against a tree, hoping to somehow get the cat off. Mercury genuinely felt bad for hurting such a majestic beast, but he still couldn't stop. This was a door, and this thing would harm people if it got out.

The cat did his best to remain on top of the elephant, rolling around and fixing himself on its back again, always taking his ammunition into his inventory whenever he moved. Gilah kept slashing at its legs, belly and trunk, with Elliot pulling her out of any sticky situations she got into, and Marcel was pelting its softer parts with icicles. It was a cruel fight, but in the end, the monster made for a big target, and the pain in its back distracted it too much to think clearly.

After a couple of minutes, with all of the party's stamina well spent, the elephant collapsed, and fell to the ground with a thud, making the very earth shake one last time.

"Never again!" Gilah yelled, staring at the thing's corpse with horror. "Never!"

"This wasn't fun," Elliot nodded. "Too many animals killed."

"I don't care about the animals! I almost died!"

"Stop whining," Marcel said, spitting onto the floor. "We aren't done yet. José's gotta dismantle the big guy, and we are gonna keep him out of trouble."

"Huh? There's more work to be done?!"

"This is the part that makes it worth," Marcel said. "Now, while we do have to stay wary, we can start dividing up the items. The quest should clear now as well. Everyone keeps their own quest rewards, items from killing blows are split. Everyone fine with that?"

Mercury nodded and quickly gathered up his rocks before rejoining with the rest of his party. It had been a long day, and honestly, all he wanted to do is rest, but work was work. Not like he was unfamiliar with that...

"Fine," Gilah agreed, a little exasperated, before taking another swig of the Black Yinks to calm her nerves. "Bah. Gross."

"Here's what I have," Marcel said, laying his items out. It was a mostly alchemy ingredients, bat's fangs, tiger's claw, snake's skin, and so on. He also had a tiger's skin, perfectly unblemished, as well as one fully finished dagger made from a lion's paw.

"I want the dagger," Elliot immediately said, showing little hesitation.

Gilah instead opted for some alchemy ingredients, while Mercury chose a consumable item, vampiric essence. It would heal him up and give him a temporary lifesteal effect. Marcel himself settled for the pelt, thinking he could probably sell it well enough. After all, the skin was already died in camouflaging tones, so making decent armor out of it should be doable.

Elliot shared his rewards, and Mercury got away with a small necklace, one bearing a row of alligator teeth. It was a little macabre, but increased his strength by 5. As it was understandably valuable, that was it from his side, and instead, the remainder of the items went to Marcel and Gilah. Mercury actually wondered how Elliot would have even gotten kills, but perhaps he gained rewards through some form of support?

When it came to Gilah, Marcel quickly picked out some poison, and Elliot decided to take "moonviper sugar". Mercury got a couple of alchemy ingredients to sell, while Gilah herself insisted on keeping some sort of liquor one of the snakes dropped. It smelled a little funny, but oh well, it was probably drinkable. Probably.

Then, when Mercury shared his own spoils, he decided to keep the vial of elephant blood. No one else was keen on it anyways, as they instead decided to split up the tusks which dropped, and some alligator scales. The cat quickly downed the rather suspicious blood he kept, seeing as it was quite similar to the heart of the great stag, and almost immediately felt revitalised, with both his vitality and dexterity increasing by 4.

In addition to those bonuses, he had also levelled up twice in the fray, the beasts of this jungle giving him quite a bit of exp. He had to smile a little, looking at his growth.

Status:

Mercury Rainfall Starlight

Level: 16 -> 18

Species: Zetraspa

Titles: <Tenacious Genius>, <Forest Usurper>, <Tutorial Completer>

===

Hp: 96/260

Mp: 26/322

Sp: 31/220

===

Strength: 55 -> 57 (+5)

Vitality: 54 -> 57

Dexterity: 45 -> 49 (+1)

Agility: 36 -> 43 (+1)

Intelligence: 53

Wisdom: 59 -> 60 (+2)

Willpower: 64 -> 65

Luck: 22 -> 24

===

Ability points: 34

World points: 8

Skill points: 1260

===

Gold: 863

Beast familiars: 1/2

It was going decently. He certainly had come a long way since he had entered this world. If he was honest, he definitely was quite proud of himself. Sure, he wasn't the most powerful, and not the most quickly growing person in the entire world, but he was making progress, and that was... well, it was a start. Right now, time wasn't the thing he was lacking.

After splitting up the loot, the whole party sat around in silence for a little while. José had dismantled the other beasts between fights, but the elephant was big, and its skin tough, so it took some time.

"Sure glad we brought a porter now, eh?" Marcel asked.

"I am, for sure. Hauling an elephant would be a pain," Mercury agreed. He knew Marcel just wanted some reinforcement for his idea, and the cat wasn't stubborn enough to choose this as a hill to die on. He knew some people who would, and he was capable of learning from their idiocy.

"How's your guys' status looking," Mercury then asked.

"Couple levels," Gilah quickly replied. "My strength is looking better, and so is my wisdom, willpower, and dexterity. Just a little stronger overall. My swordsmanship has levelled up too, which is surprising."

"Two levels for my <Wind Magic>!" Elliot said, wearing a bright smile. "Maybe using it in real time does award more exp?"

"Probably just because you thought it was being useful, kid," Marcel slightly shot him down. "And it definitely was. You saved my hide more times than I can count. Metaphorically, of course, I do a lot of maths on the job."

"We get it, old man," Gilah said. "Now, tell us what you got out of it."

"Eh, smaller increases here and there. Biggest things are probably my <Ice Magic>, <Focus>, <Multitasking>, and willpower. Certainly wasn't worthless, but maybe more effort than I would have liked."

Mercury looked at Marcel for a little while and noticed that his fingers were twitching just slightly. The stress had worn away at him, and it seems he was craving something to deal with it. If Mercury had to compare it to something, it was like a smoker starting to shake when they didn't have a cigarette in a while.

"You smoke?" He then asked.

"Hm? Charr? Used to, but quit it some time ago. Now only very rarely. Maybe once or twice a chap, how could you tell?" Marcel asked, looking at the mopaaw with a bit of curiosity

"Your fingers."

"Ah. Got'cha. Happens sometimes when I'm stressed out, it never really goes away?"

"You want a charr, amigo?" José asked from a little ways over, holding one up between bloodied fingers.

"I just might," Marcel said with a sigh, giving in to the small vice. He lit it with a smidge of fire from the tip of his finger and took a long puff. "Really does calm the nerves."

"Guess so," Mercury said.

Marcel blew out a lungful of smoke, aiming it as far away from Elliot as he could. it was his own thing, after all.

"Well, sh- heck, we made it," Mercury said with a wry smile. "I mean, we did it, we cleaned this place up."

"Aye, you did," José interjected again. "And so did I, chicos." The man wiped his bloodied hands off with some fabric, as he looked at the packaged elephant. He had separated the hide, the meat, the tusks and so on, all stowed away in the carriage. They were lucky it had such a big storage space, because they certainly couldn't have carried all of that back on their own.

"I have never been looking forward to my bed so much," Gilah muttered, as the whole party finally headed off back into town for the night.