The Systemic Lands

Chapter 64: Day 152 – Salty

“Nine more,” I said.

“Same,” Ruth replied.

“We beat one, we can defeat the rest,” I said.

“You mean you did, and you will have to defeat them. The amount of skill attacks the one took, I don’t stand a chance,” Ruth replied.

“Alright, you hang back with Tom. I have an idea how to handle these things.”

I had regained all my energy. I used Acid Shot four times in quick succession on a bulb sitting on the cliff face. It began to spin and retreated from the cliff and floated up like the previous one. I watched it appear at the top in a burst of wind, coming to a near instant stop, floating in the air.

I then began to unleash on it, Acid Shot after Acid Shot. I got in six more attacks before it quickly stopped spinning and bulged up. I fell backwards and angled my iron shield in front of me. The large bulb shot forward impacted and I felt the breath knocked out of me, but nothing like before when I had taken the blow head on. The bulb had come to a stop a short distance past me.

I rolled to my feet, “Acid Shot. Acid Shot.” I left my shield behind and alternated hands to use my skill. The monster crumbled to dust after all of that. I picked up the dropped crystal and looked at my dented shield.

The thing had cost 5,000 points. If it wasn’t for the possibility of this being a dungeon of some kind and a skill point, this wouldn’t be worth it. I highly doubted level three crystals were worth more than 500 points. These things were tough and dangerous, but that was proportional based on the scaling from level one to two.

I went and sat back down by the cart. “There isn’t enough daylight,” I said and let out a sigh. I had been hoping more initial attacks and closer attacks would have helped kill the monster more quickly. But to kill ten in one day and remove the needed vines to target them, was impossible while there was light out.

“It was a good idea at least,” Ruth said.

“It was garbage. It is only good if it works.” I let out a long sigh. “Regeneration would need to be around 150 to make this work. At 12 attacks to kill a single one, it is taking too long to gain back the energy I need right now. Dammit!”

“Well at least you know what to do in the future,” Ruth suggested.

“I suppose, still annoying. That air burst movement ability or float, both would be amazing. Well let’s get moving West, still daylight left.”

“I wonder how people are meant to fight them normally?” Ruth asked out loud.

“Who knows? It isn’t worth wasting brain power on something like that. If a method works, it works. If it, doesn’t, it doesn’t. I am not interested in trying to poke with a sword either, unless you are volunteering.”

“No, just seemed impractical to fight monsters on a cliff face.”

“A fighter would climb the vines or repel and attack them that way. It just isn’t practical for our situation. It does confirm that the power scaling is exponential for monsters unfortunately.”

“Really? There is that big of a difference?”

“A level one monster can be killed by a base level individual. A level two monster would take around 100 upgrades to match it. That there, can be taken by a person with 1,000 upgrades with the same level of risk. Skills alter that equation a bit, but it is exponential. I was afraid after seeing the store upgrades price increase the way it had. This is just…just a lot worse.”

There was a long period of silence. “Well good job killing two of them, I couldn’t even see it move,” Tom said.

“I couldn’t see it move either. The iron shield is wrecked. Level three monsters…impossible for right now.” I let out a long sigh of frustration. This place got a lot more grind heavy.

To get 520 more upgrades and reach 1,000 upgrades, I needed 1,974,700 points. I loved my notebook, being able to work out things in advance like that. The numbers kept growing larger and larger and my mental math speed was becoming slower and slower.

This was exactly what I feared and knew in my heart would happen. The difficulty increased, but the way forward became slower. It was like I was being squeezed from two directions. Monsters at the front, people catching up from behind.

I liked to say the grunge was real, the dirt, sweat, and tiredness from traveling on foot. But now the grind was real. What was level four going to be like? How many levels of monsters were there?

Nothing to do but keep pushing forward. We continued to follow the cliff and killing brown pigs. Eventually the cliff came to an end as the ground sloped downwards. There was an edge between the swamp to the North and the deadlands.

I didn’t even want to bother with the swamp. That was just asking for a headache. We kept pushing West. The pigs began to drop off as it was getting dark, so I called a halt for the day. We could face new monsters tomorrow.

I did my usual middle of the night patrol, wiping out the pigs. This time both Ruth and Tom had gotten up as well. Ruth even took out one of the brown pigs on her own.

After getting some more rest we continued to push West, using the edge of the swamp and deadlands as a guide. After killing a couple more brown pigs we quickly found the new monster.

Three brown rocks were floating in a group above the ground. Each was slightly smaller than a basketball. I approached one set of rocks and they began to float quickly towards me while spinning more and more quickly.

“Acid Shot.” My skill had limited impact on the terrain, and it appeared to be limited in impact against a terrain type monster. “Acid Shot.” One of the rocks melted enough to fall out of formation. The other two soon fell to the ground and they turned to dust. There was a 50-point crystal left behind.

“A double attack needed?” Ruth asked me as I walked back to the cart to take a short break and think.

“A double,” I replied and got out a banana to eat while I thought things over. “Also, I doubt a sword would have much impact on something like that.” I took a small bite of my banana and thought over the issue. We were about the same distance West as I had gone East when I ran into the ants.

“We push on, straight West, leave the edge of the terrain behind if it curves North. If the swamp curves South, we will curve with it.” I was not going through any swamp. After finishing my quick snack and tossing the peel on the ground, we began advancing. Great thing about this place, littering didn’t do anything since trash was just vanished when no one looked at it for long enough.

It was a bit after mid-day and a lot of floating rocks later that I crested a hill and saw a sight. I paused as I looked out on a large body of water. Ruth and Tom soon joined me, and we stared at it in silence. It went straight North presumably where the swamp had curved off to. To my left or the South, the body of water curved Southwest.

I noticed what was either a peninsula or an island out in the body of water. Could be a lake, or sea. There were small waves, so it didn’t have the ocean feel, with much larger waves. There was no moon, and this place was weird. The water could extend infinitely for all I know.

I took the lead again and killed my way forward to the body of water. The smell of salt began to permeate the air. I stopped at the shoreline and looked at the murky water. I didn’t see movement or anything below the surface besides the occasional small wave, but no need not to be careful.

I went and got a wood club from the cart. I came back and poked the salt water. Nothing. I waited and did it again. Again, no response. I poked the water longer for a third time, still nothing. I then used my left-hand pinky to touch a drop of water on the club.

Didn’t melt my flesh, so that was good. I then put the drop on my lips. Salt, very salty. I quickly spat out and got a flask of store water, rinsing out my mouth.

“So?” Ruth asked.

“Salt, very salty. Even more so than an ocean. Completely undrinkable. If there is anything living in there, it is probably quite strong, and salt based.”

“So, a sea?” Ruth asked.

“Maybe, let’s follow the shoreline South.” We set off again.

A short time later the floating rock monsters went from brown rocks to gray rocks. I noted that they emitted sparks, so probably a lightning-based attack. Most likely touch based. I was in no hurry to test out my theory.

Soon I could see the other side as the body of water, which quickly turned into a flowing river that was 40 feet wide or about 12 meters. The current was quite quick and from what I could tell would be around chest height at the deepest.

The river was also salty. I knew there were salty lakes on Earth, but not a salty river. We found a place to camp a distance away from the river, far enough away not to hear it. I didn’t want anything to cover up the sound of a monster.

“So, follow the river?” Ruth asked.

“Yes.”

“Getting pretty far away from Purgatory.”

“We are, but as long as we can advance, I am not that motivated to turn back.” I looked over my journal and the preliminary map I had been drawing. “This is an exploration trip with the goal of charting out the monsters and features. Find dungeons and possibly other cities or people.”

“How far?” Ruth asked.

“I figure until day 160 or maybe a bit longer before we turn back. We have enough supplies for 30 days. Today is day 154, so 6 more days at the least.”

“It is a risk to push on with low supplies,” Ruth said.

“I agree, but if there is something interesting, we spot, I might want to take a look for a day. We have ten days leeway and there is no need to rush back.”

“I will just keep pulling the cart?” Tom asked. I looked at him.

“Well, someone has to. Unless you want to fight?”

“No, just…I am worried since I am not getting any points and your talk of upgrades from before has me worried.” Ah, that I could understand.

“You’re telling me, I am barely killing anything,” Ruth complained.

“That is how it is. If we find a good monster, then we can grind it. Until then this is an exploration trip. Next one will be all grinding. Trust me, I want more points as well.” They gave me a look. “I could be earning double or more if I found a good grinding spot. I will consider a share going to you at the end of the trip Tom, no promises. You Ruth, well you are capable enough on your own.”

She let out a sigh, “I know, but I don’t have enough energy.”

“Then you know what to focus on when you purchase stat upgrades. If you come along then I pick the direction and general plan. You knew this would exploration.”

“I know, just frustrated at everything we encounter. At least with the meerkats they can be stabbed.”

“Yes, they can. Still, we should get some rest. A lot of headaches ahead of us.”

The next day we went back to the salt river and continued South. Mid-morning, the gray floating rocks gave way to dark blue floating rocks. It took four Acid Shots to bring one of them down.

I picked up the 50-point crystal and looked at the river as it curved to the West a bit but still kept going South for the most part. “Back East until we can head South without the blue rocks.”

We continued our trek and finally ran into a brown pig. It was late afternoon, and I had our group turn South to see if the blue rocks were replaced with something else.

“What the heck…” I heard Ruth say behind me. I was of the same mindset as I looked at the newest monster, we had run into out here in the deadlands.

There was a light gray orb and spinning around it were six iron swords. The speed wasn’t ultra-fast, but it wasn’t slow either.

“A sword dervish,” I said. “A dervish is a spinning fighter.”

“That makes sense,” Ruth said from behind me. I advanced forward. The monster had a perception to it and could pick up on sound I made to try and aggro it.

It began to approach with the swords getting further away from it and spinning around the central orb slightly faster. “Acid Shot.” Two of the swords were heavily hit and began to disintegrate, they quickly turned to dust and the remaining four began to spin around even faster and move further away from the central orb.

“Acid Shot.” This time I managed to hit the central orb. All the parts of the monster quickly turned to dust and a 50-point crystal was left behind. I picked it up.

I called it a day and we went back to set up camp in the brown pig territory.