The Systemic Lands

Chapter 521: Day 4,905 (2) – The Tentacled Horrors

“Super-size, it, of course just super-size it all,” I muttered loudly as I watched the massive purple suckered tentacles burst out of the ground around the city. Each one was the length of a cargo ship, or skyscraper. There were a thousand of them. Each of them birthed eyeballs. From slits on their backsides, opposite their suckers.

These floating eyes were only level 4, but they had beam attacks of their own. Soon the entire airspace would be saturated. I dodged several of their explosive attacks, and closed in on the base of a tentacle that had risen up against the city shield.

Acid Shot x10. Force Shot.

That only made a small dent in the massive base of the tentacle. The thickness was the same size as a cargo container, so large, but not stupidly large. The tentacles were quite long. But I had been hopeful that I would cut through the massive tentacle.

That was when I noticed that the tentacled flesh was healing rapidly. The glowing white city shield was slightly dimmer and I noted energy flowing from the shield into the tentacles. I dodged more beam attacks from the flying eyeballs.

Based on the section I was standing at outside the city, there were a thousand of these tentacles. That was when I witnessed something crazy as the ground shook, the entire shifted just slightly. The tentacles were trying to flip the entire city. That would probably unleash some super level 7 horror of ultimate doom.

I knew it would be bad, but not this bad. Time to go all out on a tentacle and see if it came back. Void Beam. Radiant Beam. I repeated the attack twice more and cut through a tentacle. Black fluid rushed out and it crumbled to dust against the shield. Racing over past the beam attacks, there was just a bit I could see down to the bottom.

There was no super eldritch monster connecting all the tentacles in the Systemic Lands. I didn’t know what tricks the Almighty System might use. That was 2,400 energy to kill one tentacle with six beam attacks at 400 energy each. Well, I could kill at least 8 right away, and then one ever 12 minutes based on my Regeneration stat of 20,000 giving me 200 energy per minute.

That was about 200 hours of constant battling to kill 1,000 tentacles, or 8.5 days. That would even push my limits to go for that long. Hopefully the city shield would hold. I quickly killed another 7 tentacles, trying to see if I could get away with 4 beam attacks, but it just wasn’t enough. They were just too large and the annihilation reaction from the beam attacks quickly wore out.

I couldn’t half ass the attacks either, otherwise it would quickly heal. Nothing could go into the city while the shield was up, but people could look outside. I grabbed a tube-shaped canister from my waist. A massive amount of red smoke began to billow out. I tossed the canister into the air at the shield. Red meant it would take me 5 to 10 days to kill the monster. Black meant failure. Yellow was 1 to 4 days. Green meant fire everything.

There was nothing I could do at the moment. I quickly retreated to the emergency underground outside command post that had been set up in case I needed to issue orders. Clarissa would handle things inside the city. I had no doubt she was gathering people for massive beam attacks to take out the tentacles one by one.

Better to spend the points, rather than losing the city. But it needed to be done smartly. I reached the underground command post buried in the grasslands. Clarissa had become an expert at these little underground bases. If necessary, they could seal themselves off as a method of last resort, if monsters rushed them.

The soldiers didn’t stop me once I arrived. XLR8 was there in a room. “Bad news?” he asked.

“Ten-day quarantine around Purgatory. Also recall the airship. Level 4 monsters will be spreading out in the zone. Possible zone change.” That was another nightmare scenario that could happen. “Once the message is delivered, I will be returning.” Bad news was that those floating eyes that shot level 4 explosive beam attacks didn’t drop point crystals.

“Ten-day quarantine around Purgatory. Recall of your airship. Level 4 monsters spreading in zone. Possible zone change,” XLR8 repeated back, and I nodded at this.

“Good. Michelle can be a force multiplier,” I quickly left the outside underground base and rushed back to Purgatory in the distance. The energy in the air was increasing. That was why my calculation about my regeneration wasn’t subject to the usual limits.

City upgrades seemed to bump of the energy in the air. With the failure and decay of high level monsters being brought to low level zones, this was a mechanism that the battles couldn’t be cheese by stacked on shields.

When I returned, the entire city of Purgatory had shifted slightly more. It wasn’t that noticeable, but there was now a one-degree tilt to the entire city. I used up my energy to kill more tentacles reaching up. While I waited, I took to dodging the eyes.

The more I dodged, the more frustrated I became. I let out a long sigh as I considered trying something that was not advised. I raced over to the base of a tentacle and poked it. The purple colored flesh squirmed slightly under the slight pressure I applied. I also felt my energy trying to be pulled away.

They were energy sucking tentacles. Probably to boost their functionality and break through city shields. I pushed out energy from my body easily with the Channel stat, and then made sure it was skin tight. It wouldn’t last long, but it was time to get my hands dirty.

I made a wedge shape with my hand and drove it into the side of the monster. A beam attack hit me and an explosion engulfed me, making me stumble. My expensive armor was damaged, but I was mostly unscathed. I could tank level 1 and some level 2 monsters. But level 3 did damage. Thankfully the eyes took a while to charge back up.

My hands were inside the quickly reforming flesh as the monster tried to suck my energy out of me. Acid Shot x10. Force Shot x2. That only cost 1,200 energy. Using skills while completely surrounded by solid matter was interesting and one of the many things that had been tested over the years.

Anything with energy naturally precluded the use of inserting energy into it with a skill. Someone strong enough like me could overcome this innate resistance that was part of all skills with a new arrival. More Karens serving their nation with our research and development team.

Even if the skills did form, they were instantly compromised and quite poor. Even then, the monster’s own energy would stop the worst of it. That was one big reason why I had to stick my hands into it, in order to pull of this trick.

I was already backing away as the energy from my two skills combined to create an annihilation effect. The annihilation spread out as best as I could, and over two thirds of the tentacle was cut off from the base. Flesh exploded and dark fluids exploded everywhere. A bomb was much more effective inside the target than the outside. There was still a bit of a connector left. Acid Shot x5. The massive tentacle separated from the base and turned to dust.

Now just a lot more to go. That was when the Crystal Vortex showed up, skimming over the grass plains. I kicked off the ground and landed on the deck. Michelle was there, ready to act. “Use it, otherwise we might risk losing the city,” I told her.

“As you command Emperor,” she replied. This would be a moment to be remembered for decades, perhaps centuries to come. There would be a footnote in future history books.

As the capital city of Purgatory fell to the siege of the upgrade monsters, the Tentacle Horrors, Emperor Michael and Supreme Governor Clarissa had the foresight that things could end in disaster and it would not be acceptable. Counting on Monster Master Michelle and the developments in battery power, ritual circles, and a key resource, this battle would not end poorly.

I needed to find a historian. I would put Samantha on that, if I hadn’t told her already. “Captain, the kids?” I asked.

“Left behind with little complaints. At least they were well behaved,” he replied. I nodded at this. That had been the plan if we needed to go with the emergency plan. Bringing kids into a war zone as not allowed. The rule was they had to be at least 14 years old to grind. With the wider age ranges pulled once cities upgraded, we sometimes got kids younger than 14 years old.

It was important to help acclimate them into the Systemic Lands as smoothly as possible. The only charity allowed in my Empire, helping the children out. “Purge the summoning chamber, this will require my full concentration,” Michelle commanded and took a seat in her battle chair down in the control room on the first deck.

“Heave ho!” Captain Francis said, and the massive box brimming with energy was tipped over the side. My soldiers were clearing the nearby airspace of eyes with their skills. “Prepare for layer 3 maneuvers. All hands prepare for maneuvering combat!” he quickly shouted as he rushed to the control room.

I went up to the top of the airship. Soldiers were firing beam attacks in several directions. The amount of energy that was being pulled was massive. Hopefully this worked. The airship quickly began to maneuver in away from where the summoning chamber or box as I liked to think of it.

There was a massive surge of energy as a shape took form. The air heated up immensely. What was the beast way to kill level 6 monsters? A level 7 monster. Using lower leveled dust for the ritual summoning had risks and issues. Even with the sphere shaped summoning layers that had been made about the main crystal.

Sphere summoning would destroy the summoning chamber, since a specially made chamber had to be built, to contain the energy. The cost alone meant it was only useful was a theoretical exercise until this very moment. The Ritualist would have been incredibly jealous. But that was the power of teamwork, time, and proper science as Doctor Katz called it.

We could summon a higher tier for a limited amount of time. Even if the monster was a third of the overall size of the one I had fought, no malevolent aura, and missing pieces of its outer flaming armor. It was hemorrhaging energy. Not as bad as it could be, since the energy of the zone had increased when the upgraded and been activated.

Michelle had it rush in and easily bit through a tentacle. The airship swung around to follow the Molten Millipede. It did not have its endowed titles in this state. Interesting, but also a good thing, since if the monster was fully realized, Michelle but have been in trouble. This was a good test for her, with level 7 monsters while allowing us to clear up this attack right away. I launched some beam attacks to kill the floating eyes in our path.

Looking at the city, it now had a 3 degree tilt to it. Even if we won, I would have a sloped city afterwards. Clarissa was probably puking blood at the very thought. At least I wouldn’t have to deal with the clean up too much.