Hero's Personal Log 024

I'm starting to regret this, not gonna lie. This is scary.

...but I need to push through. Otherwise, I'll never improve.

P-System Log

Now is not the time to be waxing internal monologue, Jerome! You have a huge ripped guy that's like a whole two feet taller and wider than you sprinting right at you!

Oh, he noticed. The room isn't much more than a hundred feet--er, thirty meters, that's what this world measures in, apparently--and this R Beast has already crossed more than half of it. He could've been a bodybuilder or WWE wrestler on Earth, from the looks of him. Wouldn't be surprised if he somehow ended up being Mike Tyson's reincarnation or something. He's not wearing much armor--or anything at all, honestly--which might speak of a strong defensive skill. Maybe the [Strengthen Body] skill use just used helps with that.

Aaaand Jerome's decided to rush forward himself. Seriously? Not even a skill usage?

Maybe testing his Strength out made him too cocky.

Oh no. It's like watching a kid try to rush a pro wrestler. As much as the Strength contest might be a thing that kind of nullifies form and individual skill, Jerome is running like he's never seriously sprinted before. Maybe he hasn't, given the fact that he was apparently a gamer just like me in his past life.

On the other hand, the [Berserker] rushing him looks like an ancient Greek competitor in the Olympics. He's got a headlong rush going, arms pumping so fast that I might have missed the movement if I didn't have sped up perception.

This isn't going to turn out well, is it.

Strength contest initiat̷͎͠ì̷̯n̴̮͒g̵͉͆! B System construct rejected. Hero's Personal Log 025 What the fuck? [E??t?? Wr??h] + [Strengthen Body] + [] + [CANNOT BE APPROXIMATED] + unarmed strike dealt 106 damage to you! P-System Log

Oh, shit. That hit didn't look anything like the hit that Jerome dealt to the dire wolf earlier. Jerome just got fucking blown back. I saw the interface that I don't control--the Origin System, I think--try and fail to activate the same Strength contest as before. It already looked like it was going to fail when it was in the process of activating, but I feel like that can't be the limit. Surely the Origin System isn't weak enough to fall to the Systems of two relatively low-leveled R Beasts. Unless that was the larger System that they have--R System?--at work. I don't think it was, though. There's just something about the way that the contest failed that makes me think I could've forced it through if I had invested a good load of W Inertia into it to stabilize and overpower that rejection.

Slightly more importantly, Jerome just got fucking destroyed. He started rushing at the other guy when the [Berserker] (or whatever its real name is) was halfway across the room, and they met at around a quarter. It was like watching a freight train run through a shitty sedan. I swear I could see his limbs get torn apart by the force of the blow in an instant before the Health system patched him up.

Collision with wall dealt 68 damage to you! P-System Log

And there's him hitting the wall. Fucking hell, man. I'm getting a little worried about his ability to stay alive now. Still, he has half his HP or so left. I'll just observe for now. If it gets bad, I'll dump some W Inertia on his Health.

As a side note, what the hell is the damage formula for impact? Yeah, he got sent flying real fast, but 68 whole points? I'm a System, I should be able to access it, right? Focusing on that notification and burning just a little W Inertia should do the trick.

Damage Calculations (abbreviated) Event/Skill Damage Formula Collision S^2*(1+1R10/10)/10 P-System Log

Assuming S stands for speed, I guess that makes sense. It's like a bastardized version of kinetic energy.

Ah, shit. Jerome is getting up. I should probably get slightly less distracted. Side tangents are slightly more disruptive when someone's life is on the line.

Aster: You are remarkably durable. Reincarnators.

Jerome: Thanks. Ow, I feel like I can still feel my wounds even though I shouldn't have them at all?

Aster (sighing for the umpteenth time in the last two minutes): I swear. Some of you can't be helped.

The charging enemy is preparing for another go. Looks like his momentum full stopped when he hit Jerome. A magic effect to transfer it all into Jerome?

Jerome: Oh no. My HP dropped below half.

Aster: First lesson of the Continent, reincarnator. Reveal not your weakness.

Oh, she's forming mana. Somehow, she makes the skill she's using seem to carry a sense of disappointment and irritation with it.

[Inferno Spear] cast! P-System Log

Ooh, that's going to leave a mark.

Well, not on the [Berserker]. No matter how differently their Systems might work, their Health barrier seems to work pretty much the same as ours. He got hit really hard, but he's completely and wholly intact. Joy.

The floor certainly suffered for that, though. Aster must have been holding back on her first spell or overcharging this one, because this one was massive. It was wider across than I was tall back on Earth, and where it hit the ground, the ground burned. Some of the tiles were completely blown away by the effects of the skill, revealing the shallow pits dotted with sharp, rusty spikes underneath them. More like something out of Dragon Ball than a spear of any kind, but I suppose the System titles for skills don't need to be a hundred percent accurate.

...damn, this setup does seem kind of like an anime, doesn't it? Not Dragon Ball, but one of those generic shitty isekais that the industry couldn't stop releasing, what with the pretty lady being weirdly ready to infodump about the world and the ridiculously high base stats that Jerome got.

Okay, that's really not the issue right now. I can make parallels with the shit I used to watch after we k̶̛͚í̸̮l̶̰̿l̸̡̈ these shitters.

Aster: 53 damage!

Jerome: You're calling it out?

Aster: Common practice, if the first spell does not kill.

That makes some degree of sense, actually. If I can't see the messages notifying Aster of how much damage she dealt, there's no way Jerome did either. Good to see that Aster actually has some common sense, even if it comes with the regrettable character trait of running away from the enẹ̴̈́m̴̤̉y̶͖̅.

The enemy in question got knocked wayyy back by that skill. Back to halfway across the room, in fact. He landed on his back, but it looks like he tumbled quite a bit on the way there because some of the traps activated properly without being destroyed, spikes activated and protruding from the tiles. Don't think any of them hit him, though.

Jerome: Here we go.

Both Aster and Jerome are forming new spells. And oh shit, so is the [Cultist].

[Greater Magic Missile] cast! Overcharged [Magic Missile] activating! Skill invoked: [D????? ?h????] P-System Log

A [Legendary]-rarity skill? He has only has a [Rare] class! Axel was able to access [Uncommon]-rarity skills with a [Common] class, so it makes sense that this guy would be able to access [Epic] skills, but yikes. This shouldn't be possible, should it? At the very least, it feels like it shouldn't.

That's a lot of mana being expended in mere moments. The [Cultist]'s spell feels different from the others. I think it might be burning W Inertia. Is his System more liberal with its usage?

Whatever the case, it feels strong. It just popped into existence, a bright golden wall of force that spans the entire room horizontally across. It just cut off the room, with Jerome and Aster on one side and the two R Beasts on the other. It's fully opaque, and I can't sense anything past it. I'm going to spend a few points of W Inertia to try to see past it, but I'm not going to make the same mistake as I did earlier. If I get to ten and nothing happens, I'll stop.

[D????? ?h????] The weak shalt not lay their gaze upon the supe̷̩͌r̶̲̉į̸͊ǒ̸̦ṙ̵̹. P-System Log

Well, shit. I burnt twelve W Inertia, but I didn't get anywhere with perceiving the skill. It even brought up a piece of scripture or something just to rub in the fact that it's practically giving me the finger.

Both spells spent themselves on the shield, and as far as I could tell they didn't even do any damage to it. Is it completely unviolable?

Jerome: Why did he cast that? I don't think he needed to, did he?

Aster: I assume your target was the [Berserker].

Jerome: It was.

Aster: Even with a [Resistance]-type skill, I believe he may have perished if we continued our assault. With my overcharged [Inferno Spear], I took a large portion of his health. A continued barrage would have been unsustainable.

Jerome: So now we're just stuck here? We can't advance?

Good to know he's still thinking about killing them and clearing the dungeon. That [Objective] I gave him is really putting in work.

Aster: Most skills involve mana requirements. This unknown skill will likely cease after the [Cultist] is no longer able to maintain it.

Jerome: Great, so we wait here until the barrier runs out, and then we kill them. There's no other exit to the dungeon, is there?

Aster: They may exit if they clear the dungeon themselves. We are unlikely to catch them, and I would not provide my aid if you attempted to besides.

...fine. I can acknowledge that fighting those that can activate [Legendary]-rarity skills like nothing is probably a bad idea right now.

Jerome: Fine. I'm still clearing the dungeon. Will you help me with that or not?

Aster: Ah, reincarnators. How I've missed dealing with one. I will.

And now we wait.