The Systemic Lands

Chapter 589: Day 5,062 – Loaded Up

The last couple of days had been hectic, but far too easy. Upgrading the Abyss had gone off without a hitch. With my energy reserves, I could easily spam my skills and Michelle, easily provided support to handle the spawned monsters.

One thing I did make sure of, was to get the vote from the upgraded city, putting me at a total of 4 votes out of 42. That was around 9.5% and one bit closer to the magic number that would give me a quorum. While tempting to upgrade all the cities, that could happen at any time. The main issue were the towers. But those could wait until I was clearing out level 8 monsters with ease.

Towers were challenges in my mind. It was better to go in over prepared rather than underprepared like my first tower. That had been a mess and the second one, had been a lot better, but still a mess. Going through the air, would be a lot harder, but far less exhausting.

I also needed to be sure I could win, since it would be a one-way assault. I knew I could clear the towers in the level 3 zones, since they had level 6 monsters at the top. The towers in level 4 zones were the question, since they would have level 7 monsters at the top.

Well, that could wait until the Western half of the continent was fully mapped out. Once I made a large scale move on the towers, I wanted to do them all at once. While doubtful anything or anyone would try to stop me, it was better in my mind to repeat them one after another building up experience with an aerial assault.

I had considered only doing one occasionally, but that didn’t seem useful unless another person started claiming the votes. While it was hopeful, I would get enough votes with all the towers in level 3 and 4 zones, it wasn’t a sure thing. And if enough votes were triggered and a quorum was reached, a level 10 monster or something like that might show up.

Better to take it slow and steady. While I had thought about this a lot already, there was nothing to do at the moment. Between Michelle and myself, we had quickly cleared out the four zones we needed to cross. I swore her summons’ ability to gather up dropped crystals was the most valuable aspect of having a summoner around.

For all the talk about running into issues, I was just completely overpowered for level 4 and level 5 zones. Being able to use my skills constantly, combined with my increased Perception, allowed me to spot all the monsters nearby. There was just no hiding from my stats.

It was hard not to get an over inflated sense of my combat ability, after sweeping the four zones. Even with Michelle using high level summons to assist in quickly clearing the zones, I had kept pace with her, in what was supposed to be her strong point, of clearing out lots of little monsters. Being able to constantly use Air Burst and sensing monsters was broken. After a short time, I just started punching the monsters to death. Even the level 5 monsters. My Body stat was just that high, and I confirmed that having 300,000 Body was more than enough to overcome the Body stat of level 5 monsters. A 100,000 was high, but it struggled. Now there was little to no struggle.

I wouldn’t be testing myself against level 6 monsters in hand-to-hand combat, but it added a new dimension to fighting which kept me engaged while having to clear the zones so the airships could pass through without worry. They had stayed quite low and gone slow enough to not draw in the flying monsters.

There was a knock on my door. I was hiding in my cabin, since the rest of the airship, except my cabin and the bridge were packed. Even my personal bathroom was being loaned out for the airships crew, since the rest of the facilities were in use by the passengers.

“Come in,” I said, and Michelle entered and closed the door behind her. She took a seat at my desk, where I was doodling math numbers while thinking about how fast I had cleared things.

“Trouble?” I asked her.

“Sort of,” she said.

“You can speak freely, even if you have a problem with me,” I told her with a nod. Michelle was a key member of my team, and I didn’t want to lose her.

“I just felt useless today,” she finally said. I nodded slowly at that. “I get that having a summoner is useful, and I don’t plan to leave, but I can’t keep up with you. Especially in high level combat. After seeing at the city upgrade, and now clearing the zones, I won’t be able to support you.”

“I understand. You are thinking about if I head to a level 7 zone,” I replied, and she nodded.

“Yes. At best I would be able to provide a slight distraction. I wanted you to know, since I know you consider me a safety net and a fallback point,” she replied. I had thought that in the past. But that wouldn’t be possible going forward. “I have a bit more than a tenth of your stats. The gap is too wide.”

“I understand. Is there anything you would like to change?” I asked.

“No. Sticking around clearing out the zone the Crystal Vortex stops in, is more than enough. I don’t plan on leaving. I like it aboard, and you aren’t a half bad boss. But I can’t do what you keep me around for, at least part of it,” she said.

“That is fine. I wasn’t planning on dragging anyone with me when I checked out a level 7 zone,” I replied. “Any other troubles?” I asked.

“It is cramped. I have my own room, but just moving about is a nightmare. While people are trying to be as still as possible, it is jam packed out there,” she said.

“I know, why do you think I am hiding out, now that we cleared the zones. Even the bridge is packed with soldiers who don’t have anywhere else to hang out,” I replied with a sigh. “I miss Doctor Katz.”

“It is called overgrind,” Michelle said.

“Overgrind?” I asked.

“Like shell shock, then PTSD, now it is overgrind. When a person gives up grinding more monsters,” she explained.

“Overgrind, huh. A good a term as any,” I replied. There was a mental exhaustion point for everyone. Constantly fighting monsters was not the natural state for anyone.

“I am not quitting anytime soon. I enjoy summoning and figuring out how to control the monsters under my command. But they are only so useful with the power gap,” she replied.

“Well, there shouldn’t be any more fights. We will do our two trips to drop people off, and then go poke the cities to the West and explore and map the rest of the Systemic Lands. Lots of new monsters,” I said.

“And towers after that?” she asked.

“More grinding. A lot more grinding. Try to find a good level 7 zone. Will probably poke one after these escort trips. I want to push myself and check them out. At least give them a good look and see all the terrain types,” I said.

“The real question is what kind of jump there will be. There were bosses in level 4 zones,” she replied, and I nodded at that.

“Another important question. I will only poke the edge most likely, unless the level 7 monsters are easy. Will probably do that for a lot of level 7 zones, to get an understanding of the difficulty spread,” I said.

“There crystals will be useful,” Michelle added. I knew she meant for summoning, and I nodded at that.

“You could use them to summon higher level monsters and fight a level 8,” I replied.

“The amount of preparation I will need will be immense. It isn’t worth that kind of investment. We did that for level 7 monsters, due to the power gap and wanting to take a look at level 6 zones. But for level 7 zones, it would be way too much work. Also level 7 monsters have issues, I can’t draw out their full strength.”

“I thought that was in low level zones with low energy?” I asked.

“Even beyond that. The repeated summoning attempts shows that something is missing. I will have to test it out more, but I suspect there is a hard cap. Just like how hybrids are capped at level 3, I suspect that ritualistic summoning is capped at level 6,” Michelle explained.

“Your summoning skills are level 6 though,” I replied and she nodded.

“They are, but you know they have a huge gap to a level 7 monster. I would need to redo all my skills and need your help getting the skill points, to get up to level 7. That means clearing out level 6 zones. It will take time, a lot of time, and I will just get further behind,” Michelle said and I slowly nodded at that.

“Well, at least those skill points won’t go to waste once we start exploring. I am not looking forward to redoing my skills. I kind of want to check out a level 7 zone first,” I said.

“You are hoping for something?” she asked me and I nodded.

“Yes. There has to be something if the patterns hold in terms of zone level and skills. I have no idea what that would be, but there would be something other than a boss monster,” I replied.

“Well there were dungeons with a boss monster, then a roaming boss monster. There might be nothing,” Michelle pointed out.

“Then skills would cap out at level 7,” I muttered. That seemed like the worst outcome.

“If there is a level 8 skill point, you will need to redo your skills. That will take a while,” Michelle said.

“That is the concern. My level 6 skills wills struggle against a level 8 monster. They struggle against a level 7 monster, so it would be an uphill battle,” I said with a sigh and Michelle gave me a smile.

“That is the grind as you like to say. But I am guessing you aren’t planning to redo your skills anytime soon?” she asked me.

“No. I want a count on the total number of level 6 zones and a lot more stat points. Stat points are much more useful for me at the moment. Also getting crafting crystals to upgrade my gear. There is a lot to do. But grinding a level 7 zone would be huge. A 150 million versus 60 million from a level 6 zone is the current estimate,” I replied.

“That is a big jump. But I am guessing that is about 5,000 days away?” Michelle asked me.

“Probably. I would like to get my stats to the point where I can handle level 7 monsters with ease. But leveling up, would make things go faster and get more information. But as you pointed out, no more safety net of team support,” I said.

“We always knew the higher levels would be a massive grind. At least with your meta-point, you won’t be stuck for a lot longer to clear a level 7 zone, compared to before,” Michelle said.

“I am thinking about level 10, now that really will take forever,” I replied.

“You haven’t thought about rushing a level 7 zone to try for a second meta-point?” Michelle asked. I hadn’t actually thought about that. But now that she mentioned it, it was a possibility, but a huge risk. I shook my head.

“Animals die for food. Humans die for greed. Trying to get a second meta-point is just asking for pain and trouble. I still don’t know why I got my first one. Trying to work out the thought process of the Almighty System is a good way to give yourself a headache,” I replied with a shake of my head.