Etiquettes are the unspoken rules of a system. Some follow them and call it honor, while others disregard them and call some stupid. The general etiquette in fighting is to respect the rules of a battle. Privates are to be kept private so their children can fight your children down the line. All these rules are made up by the society and Tetsu agreed to them until a certain limit.
Would you let a child live if he could spell out your doom?
After all, survival reigns supreme over values, ethics, rules, and the system itself. One might argue the system of life is to survive the ordeal.
A battle raged within Tetsu after his first alleged fight. He didn't understand the pride he held after his victory, nor the thrill he felt during the battle. He won, but at what cost? Was he going to fight and kill for the rest of his life?
Kill a living being and a normal person's mental state is forever disrupted. They are left to deal with the blood on their hands for the rest of their life. A certain dumb asshole, named Kile, only made Tetsu's life worse by making him realize one survives by snatching another's vital energy. That fucker didn't stop until Tetsu agreed with him.
"I mean, the dude isn't wrong, just a jackass."
'Comfort,' being a step further, is about hoarding more than one requires. Even the so-called necessities such as food, water, shelter, and hygiene are stolen from either a fellow human or a weaker species. We don't need three meals to sustain ourselves or a metal bird to travel. We moved from surviving—to "The" survived. And now comfort has become a basic necessity.
Tetsu always took the side of ludicrous optimism, while Kile won with simple logic.
Would a superior race treat humans the same?
Yes.
And would humans again climb to the top and do the same to them and justify it as vengeance?
Also, yes.
Heck! Once we climbed up the ladder, we fought and still are fighting with our fellow human beings.
Kile didn't believe in naivety. Intelligent species have always fought for themselves and even if a single individual being could reign supreme over the rest, it would have to protect itself and the things it values from greedy individuals. In the end, confrontation is a must. Death at a minuscule level or committing mass genocide is still just death and each and every living thing has a life.
Do they have our level of intelligence? That's a different question. But just because you don't believe so, doesn't change the fact.
"Each time you breathe, you kill a billion microorganisms. What are you going to do now? Stop breathing? Do you see how many holes your theory has?" Kile schooled Tetsu.
Unlike the others, Tetsu didn't argue for fun, to irritate or get irritated. He simply desires answers to a problem and debates to find loopholes or any solutions to said problem. Like always, not having any good counters, Tetsu agrees with Kile's point of view.
"Do what you think is best. Trust in yourself for true justice and don't be a coward who doesn't change their opinions down the line."
With all that behind his mind, Tetsu used info on the grassling—a general battle etiquette to remember his opponent. Experiments to perceive, grow, and eat the grass never crossed his mind. He just did them later.
Information floods into his mind as he surmises the statement under four points. It would be hard to remember otherwise. Overthinkers are notorious for forgetting the details of their day-to-day life.
{Shell of a dead Verdentide- Aka: grass. They breed and grow fast.}
I don't know how they breed and I'm definitely not interested in seeing how grass "do-it" while I myself haven't received any action yet. But this, however, made sense. As 'Verdentide' [grass] ripped their brothers out to kill Tetsu, he never had to move away from his safe house. New grass grew every day, replacing their old brethren and filling the empty spots.
He also suspected them to stay away from the tree as it projected some scary image into the 'Verdentide' minds, which might confirm they are intelligent beings.
"Tree on top of another tree, maybe?" Tetsu shivers by the mere image. "Wish I get laid before death." Another teenage fantasy gets added to his list of desires.
{Easily destroyed by fire, pride full race, and left unchecked they can take over the world.}
Tetsu checks another experiment off his list. A vague idea is enough to confirm his suspicions through "Info."
Leaves, or in this case, grass being weak to fire, was a huge possibility, and while his hunch still said post-system grass with mana might be stronger, but so was fire with mana. Fire still beats grass. This is how Tetsu formed a vague idea, which was later converted into solid information through "Info." Yet said technique still didn't work on the tree. This proved that the information can be vague, it can't be too vague. Tetsu adds another note to his skill.
"Sometimes I make no sense to myself." He chuckles.
{Still small, they are practically harmless. They can grow in size and get affiliated with more mystical powers}
"Well, duh! System and levels." He frowns over the obvious.
{Hive mind. one mind that controls, coordinates, and picks skills that boost individual stats to help their queen.}
"Sacrificial move to the win?"
This point baffled Tetsu on many levels. Yet he whistles, imagining the insane power behind the attack, and he accepts the information. He never understood hive minds. That one time, Kile pissed off some ants and left Tetsu to deal with the consequences. He ended up with several bite marks and many more dead ants.
"Still date I don't see how the fuck did he piss off ants or how I ended up destroying an ant hill? Oh! Wait. I remember him running past me, tossing me a tiny black ball, and the ants following him switch targets." Tetsu lets out a deep sigh. "Get experimented on or get caught in the cross heirs. Dude's a handful either way." He moves on to the next point.
{With a minor assistance from 'Zephyrblade' (Elephant grass), even fire becomes ineffective.}
"My dead zones." Tetsu sheers, remembering the areas he visited, some elephant grass growing, and following his intuition to run.
{The tallest grass can tower over the Eiffel Tower.}
This piece of info brought back sweet memories of home, specifically the dare trip he took with Kile and the wonderful view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. The pain of taking said trip was even more vigorous. If his mom ever made it to the tutorial, he was sure she would've already been granted the title of warrior.
"Or higher." Shutters Tetsu.
With the system involved, he doubts if he can ever cross Karen anymore. Tetsu didn't want to imagine, or rather couldn't imagine, his punishment for staying away for so long. According to Karen's logic, this is his fault. System be dammed.
Back to the important part. "Info," grew stronger based on how much vague info one can gather beforehand. All this time ventured into knowing his foe presented him with vague knowledge, which in turn strengthened his rune: 'Info.' While he did spend a similar time on the tree, he still didn't have the vaguest clue about its mysteries.
"More of a hassle, if you ask me. Also, the term' vague needs to be changed."
Next, he activated 'Info' on the scorched pollen grains of what he assumed was a freakish dandelion. At large, and probably the scariest threat to face, he had to learn as much as he could before facing the darn thing. Skeptical about 'Info' helping at all, he uses the rune.
{Ashes of a Flareblossoms. Race: Dandraliths. Level- 04.}
{Flareblossoms, once part of the peaceful Dandraliths race and amongst the "Noor Quo." In power, the Dandraliths are fierce fighters always looking for a challenge. Since birth, they are known to be affiliated with explosive rex, fury flare, rebirth cycle, and earthly swamp affinity. With sole focus on their inherited abilities, they have high attack and defensive properties, able to fight enemies far above their level. While they do enjoy solo hunts as a pleasure, they always move and hunt in groups, allowing them to take down an enemy ten times their level. One is a stretch. Run if you meet two Flareblossoms in proximity.}
{Weakness: explosive power comes with explosive stamina drain. Light drop, electric & earth affinities can counter and defend well against Flareblossoms.}
The information disparities between the two were too drastic. On the contrary, Tetsu knew much more about the Verdentide (grasslings). He did his research prior. It was his first hurdle that could downright kill him before his adventure began—his alleged first opponent. A one-time fight, which he half saw and half rolled down the hill, shouldn't give this much info.
He mentally slapped himself before using 'Info' on the grass once more.
His jaws loosened as he read through the information again and again until his mouth dropped wide open for a tree to fit in. Influenced by his stupidity, he forgot intent had a huge role to play in the Ru'nic magic system. His intent while using info on 'Dandraliths' (dandelion) was to fill his vague gaps of information to survive. By doing so, he got a much more detailed breakdown. Yet with Verdentide (grasslings), Tetsu used info with a flawed intent. He overestimated his knowledge and didn't question the nor, while underestimating the grass as he won using a hack, all in all, yet another dumb move.
Once he scans through and organized the information, he understood his grave misconceptions, which would surely come to bite him in the ass.
{Verdentide of the Zephyrglades race is one of the hive-mind fighters. Like any other hive, they serve true to their queen. One order and one order alone reign supreme.}
A memory brought back an intense pain that soared through Tetsu's leg. Kile tossed Tetsu a tiny container with the ant queen within and he had to annihilate their entire hill to survive. The survivors somehow even followed him back home for revenge. He was certain the attack only stop once he killed the queen and all her followers or subjects. Hive minds have one command and they follow said command even if there isn't anyone left to enforce the command.
"Did I piss off another hive!" Tetsu shrugged away the thought and focused on how he could deal with the situation, diving deeper into his newfound information.
{Individuals without a will, stronger as they grow but still super weak against volcanic affinity. Affiliated with earth, wind, and growth affinities. Highly focused on speed and sharpness. Focuses on one-time-use skills that have desitating power. One reason they can fight several opponents at a time, even if they are of a higher level. Their attacks slay opponents several times above their class.}
"Yup! I screwed up big time." Tetsu gulped.
Several levels above is already a scary amount of power. At his current level, Tetsu could do explosive push-ups. He imagined being able to at least punch a hole in the planet at level one hundred. In this sense, the grass can stay at his level and still kill him when he reaches level one hundred.
"Did I miss out on my one-time skill?" Tetsu wonders.
Under a small wisp from the muse realm, he checks the tree first, then later moves over the burnt ashes of Flareblossoms (dandelion) again.
"Info first helped get the information, then helped grow the information."
Turns out Info is an overpowered hack in his arsenal. By ratings, it sat on top of all his current skills.
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