The Systemic Lands

Chapter 43: Day 90 (3) – The Biggest Smile

“Acid Shot.” The skill activated and a blob of acid hit a blue slime. The blue slime wasn’t affected. It had an immunity. This was good to know for a couple of reasons. The first and most immediate was the super blue slime. The second was for future enemies. If they had an attack type, they were immune to said attack.

That was it, this skill system reminded me of Megaman. Where you had to defeat a boss to get a skill and that skill had a type advantage against another boss. There was no improving said skill either in that game, unlike here. I guess learning movement patterns would make the skill more effective, it wasn’t like other games or stories where skills could be leveled up from practice.

That would be the easiest exploit out there. If I could just use skills to improve them outside of combat, just spam AcidShot all day until it reached Acid Tidal Wave.

I carefully used my reinforced club on the blue slime. It only took a very small glancing blow and the drop of acid that spattered onto the metal end portion was barely pitted. I could see why it was worth a hundred times more than a regular club.

“That was it.”

“Yes. Unless you want to pick the other skill Entangling Roots.”

“Maybe, might be useful for a team.” Once you had a team, but Acid Shot was superior since it dealt direct damage in my opinion. Maybe one person with each but being solo made my choice much simpler.

We reached the slime dungeon, and we swept the surrounding area for slimes before entering. I thought about asking what skill he wanted but decided to do the full clear. I was being paid for this after all, no need to skimp out.

We took the side tunnel to the left and I cleared out the brown slimes. Once we made it to the chamber, I began to clear out the slimes, while being careful to keep my distance from the gas clouds the green ones gave off. I tested Acid Shot on the different colored slimes, but they were all immune. Probably a key characteristic of being a slime.

The super blue slime was simple enough to deal with. I rushed in as it was forming up and dragged a spare sword I had kept across its body. The super blue slime was down. I picked up the crystals and we moved back to the main tunnel.

“Alright, don’t come towards me, otherwise you will die. Got it?”

“Yes, got it,” Frank replied.

I advanced and there was the white tunnel mind slime up ahead. I felt a slight pressure but was able to ignore the mind attack it used. I rushed in and did another sword drag through its body. I then duel wielded my reinforced club and sword to kill off the spawned blue slimes.

I got rid of the second white slime after that, and we reached the boss doors. We were only on our third torch, which was very good speed in my opinion. I had Frank step inside with me and cleared out the smaller slimes first.

Once that was done, I had him light up two torches and toss them into the middle of the room, but slightly off set. The giant brown slime fell from the ceiling and recoiled from the flames. I easily finished it off by keeping up the pressure and attacking it. The second time was a lot easier.

I picked up the point crystal and left the center one for Frank since I couldn’t use it. He touched it and after a half a minute it disappeared into the dust the monsters turned into when killed. “Acid Shot?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “You were…that was very impressive.”

“Well next time it will be you. So, I hope you were taking notes. Let’s get out of here.” We left the dungeon, and my cart was unmolested. That was good.

Now I had to make a decision. We were in the West and the Scorpion area was in the East. I really didn’t want to deal with stealth type monsters, decision made.

“Well good luck, I am off. Hopefully you aren’t dead when I return.”

“Same to you, good luck out there. And thanks,” Frank said, and I smiled slightly. Positivity and helping others, yeah! For the first time in a long time I felt a bit of peace and a true smile worked its way onto my face. I began making my way to the East, Frank set off to the Southeast. I would graze by the North of Purgatory, passing through the brown slime forest, then hit the small wolf grassland.

The ruins were much further South, almost opposite from the city compared to the slime pit. Then I would hit the Shadowlands with the scorpions. I could never let myself forget the ever-present danger that existed in this place.

One step at a time, with confidence and no hesitation. That was the key, the willingness to push forward and not hesitate. Pick my engagements and then fight with the fury of a thousand suns. Retreat instantly once I made that decision as well, no hesitation. Still, depending so much on my intuition and judgement was exhausting.

“I complain when I am out of the city, I complain when I am in the city,” I muttered and shook my head at my difficult nature. I really needed someone to talk to, the loneliness was making me go a bit crazy out here in the wilderness.

I cut down another brown slime and pulled my cart through the forest. As I advanced, I heard some chatting ahead of me but didn’t slow down. “Careful now. One good blow and back off.” I saw a man giving a fresh arrival instruction on how to kill brown slimes. I could tell they were fresh from how clean their clothes were and the lack of facial hair.

I was off to their side, and they didn’t immediately notice me. The fresh arrival killed the brown slime. “Good job. Grab the…” The slightly more experienced person trailed off when he noticed me.

“What is it?” The fresh arrival picked up the crystal and looked around spotting me. He looked at his instructor and then back at me. He clearly had no idea who I was. I just grinned and after a long moment decided to show some mercy while having fun.

“Keep up the good work. Every little bit helps.”

“Ah... thank you!” The guide said and gave me a slight bow. “Be respectful or we are dead,” he hissed out at the fresh person with him. I turned to look at the new person.

“Um, yes, thank you.” He gave a deep head bow. Well better than a fight. That was exactly what I wanted. A reputation of unrelenting fear so I wouldn’t be bothered, but not fearful enough to run or attack on sight. I went back to pulling my cart, my grin couldn’t get any wider.

Sam

“Who was that?” I looked over the new arrival I was training up, just like Garick had done for me.

“That Leo, was the Sicario. The one person you don’t ever mess with, no matter what.” Just his gaze felt like death itself. Like he was seeing into our souls ready to pluck them at any moment.

“Him? He seemed… well dressed and had a cart, but is he really that dangerous?” I shook my head at the lack of self-preservation.

“He is the first person to show up here 90 days ago. No one else has been around for that long. He was the first to kill monsters, get a skill, and explore the unknown. On top of that he killed ten people single handedly in the Battle of Blood, cementing the Red Dawn as rulers of this place.” With everything I said Leo’s eyes got wider and wider. I thought back to when I heard the same thing and probably had the same dumbfounded expression.

“If he wanted, he could have just pointed at us, and we would be killed. There are sharks, and then there are megalodons.” I liked the shark metaphor Garick had used to describe things.

“The better dressed they are, the more dangerous they are. I remember you saying that. Black armor, a bit edgy-“

“Shut up,” I quickly said. “People like that. Don’t ever speak ill of them. If they take offense, they might just kill you out of hand.”

“What? They wouldn’t do that… Would they?”

“This place has no rules except what the Red Dawn imposes. That is only in the city. Out here, well anyone can do anything. Still if any one group gets too brazen, they will crack down, but that doesn’t help in the here and now. Also, he is friends with Carlos.”

We went back to grinding slimes before Leo spoke up again. “So Sicario, is that his name or a title?

“Means assassin in Spanish. At least that is what I have been told. Let’s just focus on killing brown slimes right now.” The encounter still had me shaken up. I had met death and he grinned at me.

Michael

It was nice to see people helping each other out. Everything was coming together nicely. Still, I had no idea how the Guild and Red Dawn would play out.

I didn’t run into anyone else by the time I reached the grasslands. I kept heading East, with the sun at my back. I should reach the Shadowlands by evening. I paused to kill another small wolf, late evening at this rate. I took the pause to bang my sword on my shield.

Even when fighting monsters, I had already killed mountains of there was room for improvement. In my mind it was like Beat Saber or another one of those rhythm games. The monsters had patterns and I wanted to get SSS rating for each kill.

That was why I went for direct stabs on the wolves rather than a block and then a stab. It was riskier, but I had to force myself to keep improving. That was the only mindset that would see me through this place.

The fact was that a sword was not a simple weapon. I couldn’t use it like a club and beat something to death. The angle of the blade mattered quite a bit, which added another complex dimension compared to something simpler.

I also needed to work on my aim for my thrusts. Aiming for the wolves’ heads. One thrust, one kill. It helped that my body was not a tub of lard anymore. Still there was a lot of blubber left before I truly was a lean mean killing machine. I killed another wolf and stretched out my shoulder. A thrust on a charging monster was exhausting.

I switched back over to blocking and stabbing. Avoiding injury was as equally as important as improving. I had considered giving up melee fighting once I got a spell. But I decided against that decision for a couple of reasons.

The first was that skills might not work, and I didn’t want to be helpless when that happened. Second, I needed to get in shape so I could run away. Third, I wanted some abs. They were going to happen no matter what. No. Matter. What.

That didn’t mean I would melee fight against scorpions and also pulling the cart was quite a workout on its own. At least it decoupled me from the city for a long period of time. Hopefully there was some kind of self-propelled transport in a future store upgrade. I was kind of secretly hoping for an airship, but that would far in the future if it ever happened.

Made me wonder if there was a height ceiling of some kind in this place? I had noticed shovels in the store, but I would leave finding the bedrock to someone else. I hadn’t worked this hard to be a ditch digger.