P-System Log

Huh. It worked. That seems to be the answer to a lot of my problems at the moment, not gonna lie. I'll have to figure the actual details of it out over time, since I'm probably doing everything horribly inefficiently right now. I recorded the way the mana was structured, which might help me along the line.

I still need to work on making those menus myself. I'm gradually getting an idea of when [W%M;G,P] is going to stop holding my hand, and while it's still a long way out it's not that far out.

Jerome: That's it?

Aster: That's it. There are some new functions, such as...

Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: This.

[Jerome Smith]: Oh, a System chat board. This could be useful.

[Aster K'lon]: There are also private messages, though that will not be necessary until we get more members.

Private Message [Aster]

[P-System]: This is an interesting interface.

[Aster K'lon]: P-System? Personal System, perhaps? Are you Jerome's System?

P-System Log

Shit. I didn't mean to do that.

Uhhh, talking with people, uhhh....

Relax, Parker. Think it through and figure it out.

From everything I've seen so far, Aster is a reasonable person. She also happens to know that I'm different from a normal System. I don't want Jerome knowing that I'm a person, which probably means that I shouldn't let Aster know either.

Private Message [Aster]

[P-System]: Correct.

[Aster K'lon]: This is not the same interface that I would use to communicate with Jerome. You are an entity independent of him.

[Aster K'lon]: This independence must be why you somehow ended up communicating with me.

[Aster K'lon]: Are you sapient? Do you have responses other than those typical for a System?

[P-System]: Define "responses other than those typical".

[Aster K'lon]: That would be a yes, then. Systems tend to respond much like a device known by reincarnators as a "computer". There is little variance between them, as they are generally more than tools. But you... you appear to be intelligent. A boon granted to Jerome by the gods, perhaps.

P-System Log

Shit, she has worldly experience and she's smart. Just from a conversation over the course of like three seconds, she figured out and confirmed something that Jerome still hasn't. Unlike Jerome, she's actually able to multitask. While she was PMing me, she was still talking with Jerome about what our next moves are going to be.

Aster: P'lor is a hundred kilometers due north of Maplecrest. It is still safe from the frontline Edge Cities, and there should be sufficient Dungeon Cores and wandering monsters along the way for us to level up to the point where we will not struggle to survive there.

Jerome: Are we traveling by foot?

Aster: Yes. Beasts of burden often perish during the journey and are hard to defend, and motorized vehicles are too expensive for Maplecrest.

Jerome: You guys have cars?

Aster: Certain Edge Cities have technology on its level thanks to a proliferation of reincarnators living in them. Maplecrest, however, is not one of those cities. We rarely retain reincarnators for longer than a month.

Jerome: We walk, then.

Aster: We walk.

Private Message [Aster]

[Aster K'lon]: Testing to ensure the link was successful.

[Jerome Smith]: Woah, this is interesting. Yeah, it works.

[Aster K'lon]: Excellent. Let us head for the trail, then. It is in the opposite direction from the [Village Core].

[Jerome Smith]: Sure. Lead the way.

P-System Log

I can read his Private Messages like they're my own, but I'm going to assume he can't do it the other way around since he hasn't reacted to my conversation with Aster. That could be useful later on, especially if he thinks that I can't do that.

Anyway, we're off now. At last, we're starting our first proper adventure!

Hero's Personal Log 045 Yes! An adventure! I hope I can fight lots of monsters and level up! This is so exciting. I need to get stronger. P-System Log

...the degree to which our minds seem to run in parallel is a little disturbing. Jerome seems more excited for this than I do, though, which is probably because he doesn't need to deal with the pain in the ass that is managing stat increases and levels and all that shit and can just appreciate the benefits of those numbers going up. Lucky guy. Wish that could've been me.

It's kind of stunning how little time has passed. It feels like so much has happened already, likely because of the veritable mountain of System-related issues that I've had to deal with, but it can't have been more than a couple hours. In terms of real-world time, Aster has become pretty buddy-buddy with Jerome in a shockingly short amount of time. At the very least, it was definitely not enough time for a normal human being to make the choice to leave their entire life behind to guide a newly-met man a hundred kilometers away from home.

The power of a [Legendary] class, I suppose.

When Aster called our path a trail, she was definitely understating it. It's a proper dirt road, nearly twenty feet across. Once we left Maplecrest proper--which had to wait until Aster got through a truly ridiculous number of goodbyes--the road wasn't paved anymore, but it's still a pretty decently built structure, especially for a fantasy world that lacks proper modern technology this deep into the wilderness.

Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: Jerome, do you read me?

[Jerome Smith]: Yes. Why not speak instead of using party chat?

[Aster K'lon]: A twofold purpose. First, ensuring that the link holds when we enter areas with lower density, like the unpopulated road just out of Maplecrest. Second, minimizing sound to prevent attracting bandits.

[Jerome Smith]: You have bandits here? Why?

[Aster K'lon]: Not everyone is capable and dedicated enough to brave the dungeons and earn from there, and some are incapable of even doing a non-combat trade. These people grow stronger by preying on traveling non-combatants, and they plague the woods for kilometers around every Edge City.

[Jerome Smith]: And you don't kill them? Couldn't you flush them out of the woods? Gain some XP from it?

[Aster K'lon]: No. Unless a major crime is executed very near an Edge City, they do not gain kill orders, especially since they are by and large not R Beasts. Besides that, XP can be gained on an individual basis. The areas between cities are lawless regions, and killing in the name of self-defense is one of the tamer 'offenses' that occur around these parts.

[Jerome Smith]: So we can just farm them for XP, then.

[Aster K'lon]: A crude way of portraying the issue, but yes.

P-System Log

Damn, this guy is raring for a fight. He might get his wish, too, though it won't be bandits.

We've been on the road maybe... fifteen minutes now? My sense of time isn't the best. Maplecrest is fading further away into the horizon with every step, and now Jerome and Aster are making their way through a sparsely wooded field. The dirt road cuts straight through the center of the massive meadow that we're in right now. On either side of the dynamic duo that I'm overseeing, flowers of every color are blooming, their bushes haphazardly sprouting from here and there. The flowers aren't covering the fields, per se, but there's quite a few of them. Dense enough that there could be things hiding in them.

Well, there are things hiding in them, which is why I bring it up.

I don't know if they're malicious, but at the very least, they aren't attacking yet. We're almost past them, so there's decent odds that they just don't think it's worth their time trying to kill Jerome and Aster. Given that they've barely moved an inch as the two of them passed, there shouldn't be a conflict here.

But there can be. I don't want to throw Jerome at something that he can't handle, but I do need more W Inertia. I can use my pseudo-[Assess] perception to examine them.

It hurts to burn even more, but you gotta spend money to make money, right?

Nasce Axton Class Race Level Assassin Human 5 Stat Current Maximum Mana 176 176 Health 132 134 Skills [Assess lv. 9], [Fire Resistance lv. 3], [Magic Resistance lv. 2], [Sneak Attack lv. 15], [Backstab lv. 3], [Silent Step lv. 12], [Imitate lv. 1], [Hide From Magic lv. 2] Titles [Assassin], [Bandit], [Killer III] Stat Modifier Total Strength - Magic - Insight - Constitution - P-System Log Hm. I count three of them. They're substantially weaker than the R Beasts that we fought in the Maplecrest Dungeon, and this time Jerome and Aster are both fully refreshed. I think this is a fight worth taking. P-System Message Warning: three hostile Integrated identified in your immediate vicinity. Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: My System just told me there's enemies around us.

[Aster K'lon]: I did tell you your System was different from the others.

[Jerome Smith]: What should we do?

[Aster K'lon]: It is your choice, reincarnator.

[Jerome Smith]: Hm.

P-System Log

I don't know how much W Inertia humans give. I don't know if this is going to be worth it.

Ah, whatever. I don't want to spend more than necessary, but I still have a bunch of W Inertia left. If it comes down to it, I can afford to use an [Objective] that gives a disproportionate amount of reward a few times.

Sucks to suck, bandits. Gotta know what I can get out of you.

[Objective] creation go!

New [Objective]: Eliminate the Hidden Assailants Rewards: Enemy drops, Skill XP, XP,