NOVEL NEXT Chapter 337 – Pre-History Ages Mentioned
Jason is panting as he finishes his rant. Everyone is looking at him strangely. He hadn’t really revealed any of this before, even to Rosha and Courtney so it all came out of nowhere.
Gregor tries to say something a few times but can’t figure out the words. Rosha and Courtney are mostly just stunned that Jason broke down that way as he seemed to always be solid as a rock. So it falls to Peter to pick up the conversation.
Though Peter has his own bombshells to drop. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.”
Everyone turns to him and he shrugs, “I mentioned it just recently, didn’t I? I’ve found ancient ruins and duplicate artifacts. The System hasn’t always worked the way it does now. But that is only the surface.
“The world is decently sized, right? In fact, from what I have gathered from other travellers who are more of the exploring bent, it is bigger than what you guys have to work with. The mountains are higher, the depths are deeper, and we even have an entire Underdark area that travellers don’t have. But it was bigger. I find ruins in collapsed spaces.
“There are maps I’ve found that suggest some sects of prehistory covered lands taking up what would be large percentages of our world and yet also claim they existed with many similarly sized sects. Barely understood treaties around naming conventions that suggest a king can only call themselves an emperor if they control three digits worth of other kingdoms.
“Then it ends, at least twice in fact. First was the split off of mana and qi. Then a mass extinction that wiped out numerous empires, which I remind you requires over a hundred kingdoms, of beasts ruled by things like large families of dragons or phoenixes.
“That means there were at least two eras before recorded history. And you know what? I suspect both of them lasted longer than our entire recorded history so far, including the bit that isn’t prehistory but isn’t that well recorded. An entire epoch of time where the power of creation ran rampant and then another ruled by mythical beasts.”
Jason gestures at Peter, “See? This is what I mean. Let me guess, while there are mentions of powerful beings they were either gathered together like those mythical families or individually as the ruler of the local kingdoms?”
Peter nods, “Despite all my research pointing to there being at least a magnitude more power back than, the truly powerful were spread out. The bamboo our kingdom is so proud of is one of the things to survive till modern day and we only have nine small sprouts of the stuff.
“I know where the founder got them from. There used to be a forest of the stuff that rose past the skies despite it being referred to and quite literally being nine skies. And part of why such a large forest of them managed to grow? There was only a small family of Royal YingYang Pandas that could even break the surface of the things. And that was within the nearest few empires.
“Our modern situation where we have to be careful that some enterprising kid doesn’t start cutting them down is the outlier in all of history. Too many powerhouses are too close. Not just because our world is smaller, but also because people as strong as us should be more, well, everything!
“More people reach our level of strength without our level of mental fortitude and strength of personality. There are those past the sixth break who still work as guards and officials! In the past, that not only was a level of power denoting the ability to rule a region. But to reach that level would mean either an unwillingness to join a power structure or at the very least to not do menial chores. The powerful now have weaker minds, personalities, and wills.”
Jason sighs, “It’s the System’s fault. I wouldn’t change a thing in the past because it all led up to where I am now. But the System has made advancement too easy. It is all gifted power and levels. Over 90% of people would be struck down by what I consider a proper bottleneck.
“You should need talent, willpower, and luck to get to the levels you two have. Not saying you both haven’t gotten that with time, but enough others clearly haven’t. If the System ever fails to protect this little bubble of the universe, the population would take a disastrous dip, especially on the higher end.”
Courtney is frowning quite hard at this point. “NeoRealm isn’t a cultivation novel. While there are some similar elements, that is true for most rpg systems. A gradual build up of power is just how it works. Just because the bamboo has the word tribulation in the name doesn’t mean the heavens will be literally striking us with lightning after breaking certain bottlenecks.”
Gregor coughs, “Ah well, technically that does happen? Just not for the normal bottlenecks. But if my sources aren’t lying, that sort of thing does happen to someone trying to break through the ninth bottleneck and hit level 500.”
Jason nods, “As it should. Tribulation lightning is always seen as special lightning, right? That is because it represents stress between a person’s internal world and the external. Instead of being electricity or whatever other form the tribulation takes, it can be seen as a form of dimensional power in a similar vein to an earthquake.
“This power just takes the form of natural phenomena because that is the path of least resistance. Try and breakthrough in the void and you would have to deal with whatever counts as weather there. The stress must be released in some way or bad things happen. The 9th bottleneck’s tribulation is likely extra hard because the System has kept everyone safe from any previous advances. Everyone is like whales in the ocean and level 500 involves leaving the water. You’re going to need some special training to get past that.”
