[NR] Abhorrent Slayer - Chapter 689

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Abhorrent Slayer - Having slayed those from outside reality, you are now better prepared to recognize and fight such threats in the future

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Jason resisted snorting. Not that the concept of “abhorrent” beings was a complete fabrication by the System to target those from outside of System space. Though this title is certainly aimed at those sorts. It likely wouldn’t even care about the intent of those from outside of the System.

Actual abhorrents as Jason understands the term comes from outside of reality. That didn’t necessarily mean literally outside of the universe. It could mean a being who is displaced in time, even if most of those come from false futures, at least in his last life that was how time travel seemed to work.

Most of the time, though, abhorrents are from species that originated beyond the universe and haven’t assimilated. Irl there are more than a few decent examples in fiction, whether it is those squid faces or the spawn of the “Other Gods”. Beings who break the rules of reality by simply existing. Which to be fair, those undead technically were, but that is just for the greenhouse that is System space. The actual Rules of reality won’t be so fragile as to break because of how you stack your resistances.

Though now that Jason had checked his titles, there was nothing left to do besides listen to the grey-haired wolfkin drone on. And it is a drone, partly because they are also honoring the dead, but Jason was mostly sure it is because this councilor hadn’t ever learned to put emotions into his voice.

And, of course, the entire ordeal took the rest of the day. Which also meant it was too late for the party to receive their two silver and the high silver rewards they had earned. So with nothing else to do, the trio goes back to their inn and compares what they got.

The gold coin counts are all over the place, to which Courtney noted it was likely a representation of some behind-the-scenes recording keeping. Might even be a direct “this is how many points of assistance you provided”.

Rosha, “And I’m not going to complain about how much money we are getting. But it seems like a bit much!”

Courtney, “That’s more because we haven’t really been trying to make money. Now, the economy isn’t so broken as to make the value of money crater with each break. But yeah, past the third bottleneck, you’re going to be dealing with hundreds of gold.

“So while a few thousand is a lot, don’t get me wrong. It also isn’t that amazing, especially after you consider what the threat was at the end. We were fighting undead a break above us. The only reason the rewards aren’t even bigger is because we are travellers. Locals get more for this kind of thing because they risk permanent death.”

Rosha, “Okay, I can see that. Now, how do we redeem the cash?”

Courtney, “You can just pull it out whenever you want or spend the gold directly irl. However, if you’re pulling the gold out in NeoRealm, it is all or nothing. No using the reward like a one use storage device that you pull a couple coins out when you need to.”

Jason, “Will it be gold coins? I know there are larger denominations, but they all seem to have worth in and of themselves instead of just being funny shaped gold.”

Courtney nods, “Pure gold coins. Though we might get some of it in plate form. Worth ten times the value for only twice the mass because the System said so. Actual kingdoms won’t mint the stuff. Everyone accepts it, but most just go and trade the plates at System buildings for regular coins. Only adventurers use the stuff. There’s actually a funny story about that!”

Rosha smiled and leaned in, “Really?”

Courtney smiled back as Jason was ignored off to the side. “Yeah, and it is made extra funny since there are similar stories irl. In fact, one of the butler’s family had such a story from an ancestor’s time in the military before the arcologies.

“Anyway, there was a town that didn’t really have anything going on besides being a stop on the way to somewhere else. That somewhere else was big with adventurers and the town wasn’t happy about this. What with adventurers being a bit rough and tumble.

“Anyway, the town was planning on doing something to make their displeasure known. So, the guild officials in the town went and started paying all their adventurers in plates. Turned the mayor and their people’s opinion around right quick when all the local businesses started complaining about being paid almost exclusively in plates.

“And the one butler’s story followed about the same pattern. His ancestor was in the navy and had been stationed at an overseas base. The locals wanted to push the enlisted people out. Blamed them for all sorts of things and not to say they weren’t causing problems. But then the guy in charge of pay started giving the enlisted 2 denomination bills. Yeah, when the town realized how many of those bills were suddenly in every corner of their small economy, things settled down. True story!”

Jason frowns, “It sounds funny, but if you think about it, that’s kind of dark. They had complaints and so the people in power smacked them with money to shut up.”

Courtney shrugs, “I won’t say it was harmless. Though that sort of thing is, well, not in the past, but with arcologies the population is more centered. Shame we lost all those small communities during the trouble, but there wasn’t really much of a choice. The choice was that or they die and some of them did choose the second option.” Courtney shakes her head, “Dark times.”

Rosha pats her on the shoulder, “Things are far from perfect, but at least we figured out being able to care for people. No one goes hungry anymore and always has a place to live.”

Courtney sighs, “I wouldn’t say that is 100%, but we try despite corporations still likely having way too much power. And that’s after they got so heavily censored!”

Rosha snorts, “Given my family? The corporations certainly still have too much power.”