Olivia was in a daze as she watched Sylas fight. That was because she had tried to scan the gnoll elite and what she had seen left her floored. How could he be so strong?
The rest was cut off from her, unable to be elucidated by her special scouting Skill.
'An F+ warrior! We ran into an elite!'
This was the only thing she could think before Sylas jumped into battle. She called out to him, trying to get him to retreat, but he seemed to not have heard her at all. He had tunnel vision, and he dismantled the gnoll elite as though it was worth next to nothing before him.
When Olivia thought about how her scouting Skill didn't work on Sylas at all, she felt that it was maybe more acceptable. But even so…
It was too ridiculous.
The vast majority of creatures in the forest, including the humanoids, were F-. They had learned through their excursions that this didn't denote their stats necessarily, but rather how effective they were at using them, what Skills and Gene Talents they had to compliment them, and their overall battle skill in general.
It could be said that you could take an F- threat's stats at face value. An F threat was about 5% stronger than their stats suggested. As for an F+ threat, Olivia had no idea because she had never come across one before.
Both Lauren and Alex were at F- according to her Skill, but Morgan was at F. She, herself, was also rated at F.
But to deal with an F+ so easily…
No, forget that. For an F+ to appear so casually, just what level was this gnoll village at? And without Sylas, what would they have done?
'No, it's not a hopeless situation. They're powerful, but they're lacking in equipment. Their bone axes aren't graded, and they have no armor. I would assume their greatest strength is their numbers. With Maya's armors, we should be fine… it's just unfortunate she can only create leather armors and not forge weapons.'
Olivia calmed herself and kept a level head as she watched the rest of the battle.
The injuries to the remaining gnolls made them easy targets. Only one of them was completely free of them, while aside from Vorak, who had just fallen, there was a second that was breathing their last after being attacked by one of their own.
That left Snarl with a broken arm and Drax with a useless leg after losing his Achilles tendon. The worst part for Snarl in particular was that Vorak had caught his ax-swinging hand, which meant that he was forced into battle with his off-hand.
They stood no chance against the numbers of the humans.
Morgan took on the healthy Krag. He used a longsword, much like Alex. But unlike Alex, who used it practically like a hammer with an edge, Morgan was more deliberate. His steps were smooth, and he used his reach advantage on the bone ax quite expertly.
Lauren wielded the lightest sword of them all and she used it as though she were an expert fencer. In fact, one would be hard-
pressed to believe that she was anything but.
She fought with her body narrow, leaving little for her enemies to target as her sword led her movements. It was clear she put caution at the forefront.
Alex's Strength was on full display. He was left fighting Drax, and since the latter only effectively had one leg, he couldn't escape Alex's mad swings like the fox could. Despite being the least skilled, as a result of his battle style, Alex was the first to finish his battle after Sylas.
Soon, the three adventurers stood over their enemies.
Alex exhaled a breath. "Damn, Psycho Sylas. That shit was badass. You took down that F+ like it was nothing."
Sylas was prepared to casually wave away Alex's comments as usual as he watched the changes to the gnoll corpses. But he frowned when he heard "F+."
"F-plus?" Sylas asked.
Alex and the others looked over at him, looking just as surprised as him.
"Holy shit, you don't have the Basic Scouting Skill? How did you even survive after the first day? Scouting creatures is like rolling the dice if you go deep enough into the forest, without the Basic Scouting Skill you could easily run into something you can't handle."
Sylas didn't reply, his thoughts churning.
Now that he thought about it, for whatever reason, Little, Middle, and Big Madness all gave far more Genes than creatures with similar stats to them. Could it be that they were part of this elite group of creatures as well?
"I've just been using my Mental all this time," Sylas eventually replied, not wanting to be rude.
Everyone looked at one another. The surprise in their eyes was evident.
Sylas could only be said to be playing with fire in their eyes, unless his Mental stat was truly that high? After all, their Basic Scouting Skill didn't even work on him either. But… they thought that it was because he had a Skill to counter it. The City Lord, or "dommy mommy" as Alex called her, had a similar Skill.
However, why would he pick up a Skill to counter if he didn't know what was?
"Hey Sylas… I know it's rude, but I have to know. Just how high is your Mental?" Alex asked, a light of curiosity in his eyes.
Mental was extremely difficult to increase. They could pick up Physical Genes anywhere, but without going deeper into the forest and really risking their lives, they couldn't find Mental ones at all. Most of them had only gathered one or two of them. Even Morgan, the strongest of the three, didn't even have 30 Mental.
Sylas gave Alex a look, causing the latter to look at him somewhat sheepishly. Clearly, he wasn't going to answer.