To Kill or Not to Kill

New Barrier Created
Type: Suburbs
Enemy type: Fountain Fairies
Population: 20

The Gamer glanced around the newly made Barrier. Fortunately nothing seemed to be immediately about to rush him, so he had a chance to get his bearings. Unlike the old Tier 0 Barriers, the Tier 1 actually brought quite the upgrade with how it adjusted and changed its environment.

Most of the area was still comprised by his suburban neighborhood. However, a series of identical structures were now randomly spread out across the Barrier. They were fountains, or at least one could very roughly call them that if one looked at them with their eyes squinted.

Pillars of stone were shooting out from the ground, around sixty feet in height by his estimate. And they were clearly built while not caring if they were in an empty yard or had to break through the middle of a house, of which there were a total of four that he could see. Like a normal fountain, these structures had three platforms evenly spread from the top to the bottom.

However, rather than the standard convention of them starting from the smallest and going down to the biggest, the order was reversed. And that wasn’t the only thing that was flipped on its head. Because even the flow of water had been subjected to this reversal in design.

John observed one of the unobstructed pillars as a waterfall flowed upward from what seemed like a small pond surrounding its base. It climbed up to the lowest and smallest of the tiers, before the liquid disappeared into a hole in the central column. He assumed that it then continued to move upward to the second and third tiers from the inside.

On the lowest ring was also a number of creatures. There were only three of them as far as he could tell. Yet even from this position where John could only make out their features so much, he realized that calling them fairies was… a stretch. Unless by fairy one actually meant a half water elemental, half seemingly feral humanoid.

Their skin seemed to be partially transparent and rippled with each movement like the water they bathed in. He could see webbed hands that ended in hooked claws in place of fingers. When one of them opened its mouth, he saw rows of jagged teeth that reminded him a lot of the maw of a shark. In John’s personal opinion, he’d place them closer to bestial water nymph than being a so-called fairy.

Granted, they did have one feature that could be called fairy-like, which was a pair of small wings on their backs that were only semi-visible depending on how the light hit them. However, said wings seemed too small to be useful when compared to the size of their bodies. But considering how magic was a thing, that kind of logic for viable wingspan should likely be thrown out the window anyway.

And unlike the Tier 0 Barriers, where the spawned monsters just kinda hung around until he drew their attention, these creatures were actually active. The Gamer watched as one of them sauntered over to another and seemed to communicate through some strange, almost garbled language.

In his mind, John designated the one that initiated the communication as Fairy A. When A and the one very creatively called B finished their conversation, the former did something interesting. It actually went up the central pillar of their structure and began to climb it. An action that apparently distressed Fairy B as its garbles became high-pitched and it moved to try and stop its peer. But the monster was determined and shrugged off the attempts so that it could continue unabated.

It only managed to get halfway up the pillar, however, before something happened. A different fairy approached the edge of the middle tier and looked down at A. The Gamer noticed how this one was a bit different from those at the bottom in appearance. Its skin was a shade closer to being purple, and he assumed that it was probably one or two feet taller.

Yet at the same time, its features were less feral. Its face was generally more human-like in expression and it had smaller claws on its hand. The young adult also couldn’t help but notice that while the lower Fairy had a chest that was completely flat and smooth, the new one was a bit more… endowed.

‘I wonder,’ John thought to himself. He first looked to the one climbing the column, then to the newcomer standing above it.

Lesser Fountain Fairy
Lvl 6
HP:55/55
The lowest on the chain of command amongst their kind. It practices a lower form of water magic, but still relies on claws and fangs in close combat.

Greater Fountain Fairy
Lvl 7
HP:65/65
The middle of the chain of command amongst their kind. With its higher intelligence, it relies less on its natural weapons and more on its gifts in water magic to defend itself.

After the Gamer compared the notifications and their difference in levels, the greater fairy took action. With what sounded to him like a scolding in their garbled speech, it raised its webbed hand.

The monster then manipulated the water into a large ball and threw it at the one that still tried to climb its way up. The lesser fairy screeched as the ball hit it, which caused an explosion of water that crashed it back down to its original platform. Fairy B, which had been watching this entire time, just shook its head as it picked up its still dazed companion.

With another quick check via Observe, John confirmed that the attack hadn’t just been for show. The HP of the Level 6 monster had actually been reduced by 12 whole points. But the entire series of interactions, which happened completely independently from him, did indicate something important.

‘So are these things actually sapient, then? And it looks like they even have a full on society with a hierarchy and everything?’ John asked himself. The young man furrowed his brows together as hesitation gripped his heart.

It was one thing to kill monsters like the puddle slimes that were likely even dumber than regular insects. But killing beings that actually seemed to not only be intelligent, but enough so to develop an entire language was a harder idea to accept. Doubt creeped through his mind as for a few moments, John was unsure how he wanted to proceed from here.

Yet at the same time, it wasn’t like the Gamer could really just call himself a saint and choose to walk away. Not when these beings would disappear alongside the Barrier, and thus effectively die anyway. At the end of the day, he just didn’t fully understand how these Barriers actually worked with the mobs they spawned.

Was there a species somewhere out there in the Abyss actually known as fountain fairies? Now that was something that he could actually try to find out through either the Auction or some other potential source of knowledge. But if these were just fully unique entities that only existed as Barrier mobs, then what about their intelligence? Were they truly sapient in the traditional sense, or were they more like very clever bots that only seemed sapient.

John shook his head to try and dispel the quickly spiraling train of thought. That was a rabbit hole that could get very messy, very quickly. The Gamer stared up at the monsters for another minute or so. Until eventually, he made his peace with what had to be done.

He’d come here to grind for EXP after all. There would be a better time and place to contemplate the nature of Barriers and the monsters they created once he actually had the resources to answer his questions.

The Gamer summoned his scythe between his hands. By now, just holding the weapon came with an almost comforting sensation of familiarity. He looked back up to his target. With how spaced out these tall structures were, John felt confident that he could take one at a time without the others being attracted to the fighting.

Several minutes had now passed since he entered the Barriers. There were still all 20 fountain fairies left from the initial population. So for now, it was time to do what he’d made this Barrier for in the first place. And that was to reduce that population to 0 and claim their EXP for himself.