The Systemic Lands

Chapter 40: Day 89 (2) – Wheeling and Dealing

After finishing my magic and dungeon discussion with Carlos. He asked about the monsters in the outer areas. I explained that they were on the same level as the boss monsters in the dungeon. High risk without a comparable reward. I explained the scorpions and how I never risked fighting them without magic.

Carlos seemed frustrated by that. With a promise to show up the following morning he instructed one of the guards to go ahead to the Inn and have their best room reserved for me on the house. I left my cart outside of Carlos headquarters since there was always a guard there.

I entered the Inn. The entry room was most of the first floor. “Welcome Sicario.” A middle-aged woman greeted me. “This is the Inn of the Red Dawn. We can provide any service you require.”

“A quiet room with a bed. Preferably secure.”

“Of course. All our rooms come with reinforced doors for peace of mind.”

“What does this place cost normally?” I asked.

“Fifty crystals per night. This place is guaranteed to have complete safety while you sleep. No outside windows and you will hold the key to your room. There are two guards on duty, and we are part of Red Dawn’s patrol path for this area.”

“Do you actually get a lot of business?” I asked.

“Some. People can’t resist a bed. Unfortunately, the top hunters prefer their Guild Hall.”

“I heard about it, what is it?” I really needed to find a new informant.

“An alliance of the top five teams have formed the Guild. They only pay 25% tax, but in return they don’t interfere in the slime forests. The idea is that they are on the front edge of explored zones.”

“So, the wolf forest?” I asked.

“For now, yes. They are also limited to 50 members total and can’t interfere or undermine Boss Carlos’ authority.”

“You know quite a bit.”

“One of our services is information.”

“Full service indeed.” I took a seat and put my packs on the table. “Michael.”

“Ruth.” I pulled out 10 crystals and set them on the table.

“A tip.”

“Thank you.” She quickly pocketed them. “Is there anything else you are interested in?”

“The groups, how organized are they?”

“Fairly organized, at least at the top level. Still Boss Carlos is very careful to make sure both him and his captains retain an advantage over the Guild. They have accepted that for now, since Boss Carlos and the Red Dawn keep things organized in the city.”

“Purgatory.”

“What?”

“The city is called Purgatory.”

“This comes from…?”

“I decided on the name and Carlos agreed.” She seemed surprised and then shook her head slightly.

“Very well, the city of Purgatory.” I couldn’t help my smile. At least it was a million times better than calling this place Michaelopilis.

“No push on the grasslands and the mini wolves?”

“For now, no. But after the next arrival, it is anticipated that Boss Carlos pushes the Guild to that area. There are only so many monsters to go around and things are beginning to get cramped.”

“Any run ins with higher tier monsters in the biomes beyond the forest?”

“Just rumors of lizards, but nothing conclusive. Either people died or things were observed from too far away to make a determination on what happened.”

I laid out another 10 crystals. “Upgrades, how many do people have?”

“That is something people don’t like to share. The speculation is that the Guild members have around 50 to 100 each, same with Boss Carlos’ captains.” That was only about 35,000 points for 100 upgrades, or 7,000 crystals. That was disappointing and comforting at the same time.

But then there were buildings, furniture, and a lot of other useless junk people were purchasing. It was one trap I was glad I had avoided. I drummed my fingers on the table and shifted in my seat a bit. I still needed to get used to the armor. I was glad I had gone with shorts, otherwise I would be overheating.

There was no helmet, next upgrade most likely. “How do the Guild teams get along?” I asked.

“Alright, mostly they are a check towards Boss Carlos. I would say they are united when dealing with him, but internally it is a bit unclear. There is a lot of competition and there have been heated words exchanged more than once.”

“Not surprising, not surprising at all. Surprised all this is set up with not that many customers.”

“Well Boss Carlos has slowed down on new businesses until there is more economy to support them better. Not like he can just let everything get thrown out.”

“His guards, any trouble?”

“There is a lot of discussion on who will be the Underboss. Boss Carlos hasn’t made a decision and he isn’t being pressed to hard, since it is unclear who is in front at the moment.”

“Ten captains?” I asked.

“Yes, with ten guards under each. They manage different areas of…Purgatory.”

“Casino, brothel, pillars, what else?”

“Two on the casino, brothel, and pillars. One for general businesses. One for the Guild and Guild issues. The last two for general patrols and substitution and to rotate in and out.”

“You can tell me all of this?”

“Ah, well normally this would cost quite a bit, but your stay is free, and you are the Sicario.” How tricky of Carlos to tempt me with this woman explaining things.

“And how much would I have had to normally pay per question?”

“Five to twenty crystals per question depending on how valuable the knowledge is in my opinion. The more who know a thing, the less it is worth.”

“And where does your information come from?” I asked, curious how such a person gathered information.

“Here and there. A lady doesn’t reveal her sources.” Now I was really curious. I put out another 10 crystals on the table. “Well, you would have seen me at tomorrow’s meeting. I am one of the captains of the Red Dawn.”

“Really, no armband?”

“Only when I am on official duty.”

“This isn’t official?”

“I wanted to meet you. I have heard a lot about you, but never met you.”

“Surprised a woman is Captain.”

“Really, well women work in the brothel. It was a complaint that Boss Carlos’ captains were all men. I was appointed to handle the information side of things. Care to share anything?” I just smiled at her.

“I am dangerous.”

“Ha! Very valuable, that information. So, you were the first one to arrive and this is day 89?” I tapped the table. “Really, with how rich you are?”

“That was before I knew you are a Captain in the Red Dawn. But I will throw you a bone. Most likely and yes.” She nodded at that. “The days, are they getting shorter? Did Carlos find someone to figure it out?”

“The days? I haven’t heard anything about that, what do you mean shorter?”

“Well, I think the days are getting shorter by a couple of seconds each day. It is very hard to tell. Asked Carlos to find an astronomer, mathematician, or physicist to work out the exact time each day is decreasing and do some math.”

“There are three outcomes I see. I am mistaken and there is no issue, or the days fluctuate to a minor degree. Second, there is seasonality of some kind. Third we are headed for eternal night. With this place, who knows?”

“I see. That is concerning. I will follow up on this regardless.”

“I do know that a Greek philosopher figured out the circumference of the world based on shadow length at two different locations from pillars. But that is all above my one plus one math skills.” Basic mental math yes. Complicated trigonometry like that needed someone who knew their stuff.

“You are an intellectual, how surprising. Here I was thinking you were just a blood thirsty brute.”

“One can be many things. There are other cities out there. Don’t ask how I know, but there are. This place, these Systemic Lands are much larger than one might think and have hidden depths.” I stood up.

“Another name you came up with?”

“Yes, my prerogative as the Sicario, naming rights.”

“Hmmm.”

“My room?”

“Of course, follow me.” She pulled out a key and handed it to me.

“You the owner of the building?” I asked.

“Boss Carlos owns all the buildings of the Red Dawn. It gives him a sense of who is in what building.”

“Any permissions feature?”

“No, or Boss Carlos hasn’t shared it.” We came to a stop at a metal banded wood door. “Your room.”

“Thank you, Ruth.”

“Sweet dreams, breakfast is at dawn.” I unlocked the room and entered. There was just a bed, table, and two wooden chairs. Also, a light on the ceiling with a string hanging down. It emitted a soft white glow, easy on the eyes.

I locked the door and moved the table to block it. I then pulled the chair over and began taking off my armor. It would be a pain to sleep in, but tonight I would try to sleep without worry. It felt nice to give my toes some air.

I began to stretch going through all the stretches I remembered. I did stretch a little bit while out in the wilderness, but nowhere close to the routine I was doing now. I rolled my head around and let out a sigh. I had really needed that restoration last night.

I had been ignoring it, but wiping my ass with just grass was, not the best. I poked my stomach once again. I had a hard time believing that my gut had gone down so much. I felt like I would be getting abs any day.

I checked under the bed and the entire room once more before turning off the light and laying down to go to sleep. While I trusted Carlos and his minions to a certain extent, it never hurt to be too careful. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

It was still mid-morning, like 10 to 11 AM if I was using Earth time. I was tired from staying up the night, but not that tired. I lay there in the darkness with my eyes open, just thinking about what the Endurance stat could be doing exactly.

After a bit I turned to look where the door was. I could see a faint outline of light around the edge. The issue of the darkness was still bothering me. I only had 10 Perception. Another 10 upgrades would cost me 11,225 points. I could afford it after Carlos paid me off.

I had earned quite a bit with just information, and it was surprising how much he had saved up. He was raking in quite a bit, but it was expensive to maintain the town and pay the salaries of his people. I figured it was probably 2 to 3 days’ worth of income.

It kind of made me want to be running things, but he had to pay for his captains to get upgrades to keep up with the Guild. That was a surprising development. I thought on what my next move would be.

Upgrade my Perception for sure, and then the wolf dungeon. I would need to check for rope and get torches. Twenty torches and then the rest I would save for supplies. I would head to East again and then push the shadowlands with the scorpions.

From there I would explore the entire area. At the rate of 1 brown scorpion every 10 minutes based on my Regeneration, I could get about 60 scorpions per day, or 3,000 points. If I put those 10 upgrades into Regeneration instead, I could grind out 72 scorpions a day, or 3,600 points.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make. On one hand, Perception would hopefully reduce the need for torches by making it easier to see in the dark. On the other hand, Regeneration would give me energy more quickly, which meant more efficient grinding. Over 20 days, the point difference would run about 12,000 points.

That wasn’t a small number by any means. It felt like it was the smart play. Still, I didn’t like it. Skill points were key to me maintaining my edge over others. That many extra points meant at least around 10 upgrades, another key area for me to hold my edge over others.

If I spent 22,950 points, I could get 20 upgrades. My head hurt from all the mental math, but if I put them all into Regeneration, I would get 84 scorpions a day, or 4,200 points. After 20 days, it would be a 24,000-point advantage.

I would need about 40,000 points after that for another 30 upgrades, so about 10 days. That would get me to 100 Regeneration and give me 1 energy per minute and make my scorpion hunting bring in 120 scorpions per day, or 6,000 points. I was liking this idea the more I thought about it, but not going after a skill point right away hurt.