The Systemic Lands

Chapter 11: Day 15 (2) – Landmark

I had managed to get 121 slime crystals, which put my point total 684 points. I had gone to the pillars after dark. There were still people moving around, but I had to risk it. Thankfully no one stopped me. Probably the angry look I had on my face and how ripe I smelt.

My sense of smell was terrible, so when I could smell myself, I knew it was bad. I needed a good bath and fresh clothes. Also, a shave, I was really hating my facial hair. Should have had it lasered off while I had still been on Earth, too late now. Maybe an upgrade would unlock a shave and bath function? It was tempting to pay for an upgrade just for that reason.

The restoration cost was 594 points. Stupid, idiot, infantile Lucas. Making me waste my points. It wasn’t really a waste and the only reason I was still mentally cursing him out was how dangerous that fight had been and how lucky I had gotten.

I had enough fruit, which meant I didn’t need to buy anymore. I also had a spare club, so I wasn’t in danger of being weaponless. I turned to leave the plaza, looking around at the various groups huddled together in the darkness.

Like rats on a sinking ship. Where was the human spirit? The human drive to thrive? I felt disappointment that only so few people were willing to risk it all and there were heaps of useless flesh sacks waiting for death to claim them. Despair, fear, and a lack of information were powerful forces trapping people here.

I understood it, but I detested that state of mind. I considered giving a loud impromptu speech to try and motivate people. I quickly tossed that idea into the garbage bin. While I had faith in myself to give such a speech, I didn’t want to be responsible for other people. It was exhausting having to think, and I mean really think, all the time about social interactions.

Oh, you have got to be shitting me. Two men and a woman were moving to cut off my exit from the plaza. I couldn’t afford to be injured again. A serious injury, like a broken bone, could easily run a couple thousand points.

I broke into a light jog.

“Hey wait up,” one of the men called out. I brought up my club in front of me in a defensive position and kept moving forward. They didn’t move to block me but stood off to the sides.

“We just want to talk,” the woman said. I had already made it past them and turned around in the dim starlight, making sure to keep an eye out. No other figures were there, but I was more worried about someone waiting to intercept me from the street. A four on one ambush would be very hard to survive.

“We were wondering-“ I didn’t listen to what she had to say and just took off in a jog away from the plaza. No one was chasing me and there didn’t appear to be an ambush. Still, I wasn’t about to get sucked into some pointless drama.

The restoration made breathing so much easier, and I was able to keep up a light jog now. I kept checking and even waited a bit at a turn, to make sure no one was following me. I found an empty building and went to the second floor to sleep.

It was important that I don’t become predictable. Unfortunately, there were two key choke points in my current routine. The gate to the slime forest and the plaza. Both were places where I could be intercepted, and the danger was the highest.

The next day, I left the city to go grind out some slimes. It really was like grinding with how their remains turned to dust that disappeared.

With how refreshed I felt, I put in the work. I managed to earn 200 crystals. It was getting dark as I made my way to the gate, and I was exhausted from how much slime killing I had done. I paused on the forest side of the tunnel through the wall, which I was calling a gate despite there being no door or portcullis.

This was no time to get complacent. I slowly advanced and listened like I normally did when entering the city. Oh, how quaint. There was breathing. I stopped and listened. Three people, perhaps that group from last night.

I checked behind me, but no one was coming into the city from the forest. Now, could I turn this around? Not easily. It was time to flush out the rats and clear this blockage. “Waiting to ambush me. How quaint,” I called out. I heard their breathing shift and shook my head.

There were very little to no ambient sounds anywhere. Even in the forest, the gentle breeze barely caused any noise. In the city, there was nothing. No cars, no machines, and no bystanders. This meant one could pick up on breathing quite easily if they were paying attention for it and the other person wasn’t being careful.

“We just want to talk,” the woman said, but she didn’t step out.

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you. Waiting like rats to ambush me, doesn’t engender trust.”

“Two of our friends came this way, do you know what happened to them?”

“No idea. Probably died in the forest. It is quite dangerous.”

“What is out there?” I smiled at this stupid question. Like I was going to share anything for free.

“Danger,” I replied. The slimes were dangerous if you got their slime juice on you. That acid power was no joke.

“Tell us or else!” One of the men shouted. The woman hissed at him to be quiet. What a bunch of idiots.

“Or else what? I am curious?” I asked.

“He didn’t mean anything, he was just worried,” the woman said.

“Understandable, understandable. But the real question, is now what?” I asked, curious to what their response would be.

“You can’t come back into the city, unless you tell us,” the woman said. They were like children. You can’t play with my ball unless I am the captain, or something silly like that. They thought I feared them since I had run away earlier.

It wasn’t so much as fear, as being risk averse. I would rather ambush a person than fight them head on. A lot less risk that way. I didn’t say anything and turned around and left. I could hear them shouting at me but couldn’t make out the words.

That is one of the most aggravating things a person can do. Just walk away in the middle of a conversation. I picked a spot near a tree, just a slight distance from the gate off to the side. I set my watch to go off in six hours.

Just enough for me to get rested up and their group to be tired out. I slept outside the walls with no issue. I won’t lie and say there wasn’t any fear, but there was no other option. Well, there were other options, just none that I was willing to follow through on.

I had already been outside the wall when it got dark, so sleeping near the wall where there were no slimes felt safe enough to me. If I was going to travel away from the city, it was time to gamble. I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, I got up and stretched in the dark to limber up my body. Wait them out, or go and kill them? I didn’t want to be ambushed in the forest, and I sensed that was what they would do next if I didn’t go to them. Ambushing them at the gate was just…sub-optimal if I was going to fight.

I let out a long sigh. That was the problem with killing people. It was like pulling a string out of a sweater that started to unravel. There were more and more strings that needed to then be pulled until there was no sweater left.

This was the exact situation I had wanted to avoid. Killing that man and woman might have been a mistake, maybe. Hindsight was 20/20, but it made to rethink my actions to make better choices in the future. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

I made my way back to the gate. No breathing, so they had left. Thinking it over, I should have laid down in the tunnel and observed where they were going last night. The darkness would have mostly concealed me, maybe.

I began to check the nearby buildings. One, two, three, four, oh number five. I heard breathing inside. I carefully made my way in, checking for trip lines and other traps they might have set up. There was nothing. Foolishness to sleep in such a close location when you know there is a nearby enemy. That could also apply to me sleeping in the forest, but I was trusting on their fear of the unknown to hold them back.

If they hadn’t gone out during the day, they definitely were not going out at night. It had been a risk, but one I felt comfortable taking. My fear of the forest was nothing compared to my fear of other people. This place clearly had rules, people had no rules.

What did they expect to hold me back from coming to kill them here? Something they probably never really considered. In a world with no rules, everything had to be considered. First world thinking no longer applied. Even third world thinking was questionable. This was a hell world, or at least purgatory. Waiting for heaven to finally arrive and being stuck.

All three were sleeping on the second floor. I readied my club and got to work. Soon, there were three corpses to add to my death count. Since there were no points or anything related to killing people, I didn’t bother to keep track. That was a waste of mental energy.

They had a single bag with some fruit, which I took. I changed out my club. Oh, another watch, this made three total I had now. I left the building and made my way back into the forest. Time to hunt slimes again.

The trees were surprisingly slime resistant. Made sense since this was a slime forest. Even if one was smashed into a tree, only half an inch was melted off at most. Probably take ten or so slimes in the same spot to compromise one of the pine trees. No baby trees or pinecones on the forest floor either. More fakeness that was everywhere if one really started to pay attention.

It just wasn’t worth it to try and drag the slimes to one location to bring down a tree. Also, it might start some kind of boss event or raid. I could easily imagine a tree spirit coming out and killing everything.

What I needed was some kind of anti-sleep stat. To be able to grind constantly and not have to worry about being ambushed.

At least I should be clear of any fights or people coming out here for the next couple of days. I would head back the morning of day 20 for another round of upgrades and a restoration. I was debating if I should sweep the plaza area and kill off any remaining people.

If it worked, the next group would not get any information. If it didn’t work, they would be alerted to my existence. Another choice with no easy answer.

That was the problem with this place, just like real life. Answers to questions weren’t always clear. Unknown information was the culprit and a source of frustration for me.

It all came down to risk versus reward in the end. The risk was quite a bit, and the reward was minor. In fact, it would be better if people reported the slime gate was dangerous and no one returned from this direction.

Let them fight the monsters in the other areas and get me information. Let other people upgrade the store and not waste points on it myself. I just needed to be strong enough to beat off any interested people, poking their noses into my business.

What is that? Each day I had gone a slightly different direction in the slime forest to scout it out for anything of interest. Hidden between several trees was a hole supported by roots leading down into the ground.

The first thing I did was clear out the slimes around the area and then slowly went over to look at the hole. It was big. Big enough that a single four door car could fit into it. The slope downwards was about fifteen to twenty degrees, which was kind of steep.

The walls and ceiling had roots supporting them, with the occasional root sticking out of the floor. There was a weird smell coming from the hole as well. It probably wasn’t a hole, but a dungeon. I hadn’t seen a slime come out of it, so it could have another type of monster.

I got out the lighter I had and held it up in my left hand. Mind my feet, check behind me, check carefully for hidden tunnels, look for tripwires and pressure plates, don’t hesitate to retreat, keep looking up. I went through the mental list of safety rules I had for exploring a dungeon.

I stepped into the hole and began to make my way downwards in a zig zag pattern, carefully checking the walls and the ceiling across the width of the tunnel before advancing. The most dangerous thing was being ambushed from behind or from above. A short distance in, I let the lighter go out and listened carefully.

No noise, no light. How annoying. I left the dungeon. I needed a better way to provide light. I didn’t remember any light sources in the store, but I had been looking for fire starting tools. Perhaps there was a torch. I would need to check for that.

I made a mental note of where the dungeon was located and went back to clearing slimes. With game logic, there was probably a boss hidden at the bottom, but it would give a reward of some kind.

Man plans and God laughs, or the System laughs. That was the name I was giving the overlord of this place until I learned otherwise. A dungeon is going to be such a mess and dangerous. The question was, what steps could I take to reduce that danger?