Chapter 69: Chapter 68 – Tired Jackalope

Another night passed by and Jason is able to set out again. Yesterday’s chase was exciting but in the end not the kind of fight he was looking for. In fact, it has filtered through to him that there won’t be a good fight until he leaves the Wasteland. While the level range of the monsters hasn’t changed the balance between the top and bottom end has. Jogging across the barren landscape Jason can only avoid most monsters he sees while thinking to himself.

“Everything is out of my range. Sure I can beat up on the few low level monsters but even those now have a high level defender lurking nearby. This is interesting to observe of course. While not helping me level being able to witness, the effect adventurers have on an ecosystem is cool. My guess is that even the locals see this area as being best for a certain level range. Parties might come through this area once every week or so and clear out anything in that range or lower. In response, the high level monsters guard the young even if the actual goal is to kill any distracted adventurers. This in turns gives the low levels monsters enough leeway to grow in level. They get killed next time a party comes through and only the strongest, smartest, or luckiest survive to the higher levels. This balancing act will continue until the Wasteland recedes from the area. Players like me likely only spend a little time here and disrupt it. However the locals probably spend years at this location if they don’t have some sort of background. After all only a rare few know a method of coming back from the dead at this level.”

And on and on he ponders. All the while he sets a distance eating pace as the day continues onward. His new levels in Desolate Traversal once again boosting his travel speed and cutting another day off his journey. An occasional creature will chase him but they all give up. While he isn’t the fastest none of the monsters here are focused on chasing down their prey. Even with their higher levels Jason still receives a small trickle of experience for escaping.

The night comes and while Jason cultivates a certain Jackalope is working double time. With the way things are looking Jason will reach the town within only a few more days. The fairies that hang around the Jackalope are having the time of their lives. Back and forth it has to go traveling many multiples of the distances Jason has gone in less than half the time. All throughout the fairies hang on to its antlers screaming in excitement. Normally no matter how much they prod the Jackalope he tends to just lie around. Now though they get a taste of its power and speed. Luckily for the Jackalope these fairies are only the lowest of fae and will soon forget or else it wouldn’t get another peaceful day in its life. As with most fae touched creatures, great potential but the Jackalope would much rather play around.

The day dawns and off Jason goes. Behind him the Jackalope gets to lie down and sleep. Not that this will last long enough for it because once again the day passes peacefully for Jason. In fact, this cycle continues until Jason is a couple days out from town. The Jakalope is now thoroughly tired and quite ornery. Though a small bit of luck goes its way. A couple hours after noon Jason runs into another group of people.

Jason seeing them not that far ahead slows down and approaches with caution. Once the group of five are close enough so they do not need to yell he greets them, “Heyo, haven’t seen anyone for a while. How close are we to Wasteland’s Edge?”

After the greeting both sides stop and the group confers with themselves. Then a lionman in full plate responds, “Our group took 4 days to get here but judging by your speed you can cut that in half. Now our group doesn’t want any nonsense. Our scout doesn’t feel any pressure from you so either you can hand us our butts or you used that speed of yours to stay out of trouble. I don’t care which it is but we would be grateful if you filled us in on what we can expect to see.”

With an assurance from Jason that he doesn’t want to start anything they all sit down and share what they have seen. News of the electric beast especially riles up the group. The last team through had seen a few electric herbivores but it seems the monster has since evolved into its current much more threatening form. Jason on the other hand is disappointed in what he hears. Any monsters he could fight got culled by the group as they passed through.

With nothing else to say Jason and the group continue on their separate ways. The lionman’s team seems like they want to try their hands at some of the higher level monsters and Jason wants to sleep in a bed again. It isn’t until just before he slips into his cultivation that he realizes they never shared their names. He isn’t even certain if they were players or locals. Not that he cares about such distinctions but still. Normally something comes up that would tip a person off. Not just for the players either. Most locals are quite capable of pointing out who is a player. Especially at the lower levels. Now in the higher level dimensions this isn’t quite the case anymore. Though to be fair at that point anyone there will have lived most of their mental age in NeoRealm. You don’t get through the higher level bottlenecks without having devoted much of your life to the game. Those players can only thank their lucky stars that in-game and irl money is the same. While Jason’s current VR pod and internet connection is good enough for the moment it takes a lot more at that stage. Some of the highest level players even buy special pods built right into the physical servers for the game. Even high level crafters and gathers needs this because the smallest imperfection or mistake will ruin the highest level of ingredients and materials.