The Systemic Lands
Chapter 156: Day 335 – Rematch, Skill Power, and Processing Speed

Acid Shot. I watched carefully as the bulb struggled in the air. The vines were fast, but not fast enough to reach me. There it was. Light began to gather. “Air Burst!” I darted to the side. No wardrobe malfunction this time or hiding in a ditch.

The beam of light cut across the landscape. Getting to see it from a short distance, the attack was impressive. It was tempting to switch it in as an attack skill. The main issue was how unwieldly it was. Acid Shot x2. The monster collapsed dead after a couple of seconds of being soaked in acid. I frowned a bit. It had certainly been faster than the first time I had fought this thing, but it wasn’t a one hit kill.

My skill took a short time to work. While level 2 monsters weren’t a huge issue, level 3 monsters managed to resist for a short time before succumbing. I would say that level 2 monsters were able to last a second to five seconds. Level 3 monsters were able to last three seconds to fifteen seconds. But I had mostly experimented on level 3 boss monsters.

Was it more powerful since it was a boss monster that left a skill crystal? Maybe, it was hard to say. I thought about the other level 3 monsters I had seen and faced. Would an invisible force wall really be balanced against something like a Radiant Beam? It was hard to say. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ ɴøᴠel Fɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

I noted the group making their way over with Naran in the lead. Regardless, there would be a full-time person with this skill in the guard. It would be a powerful weapon against anyone attacking Purgatory in the future. If we had two people with the skill at each gate, then the Ritualist would never have broken into Purgatory.

The other person was in the Union and wasn’t on defense duty. Still, it was a powerful skill useful against a single powerful opponent, or a large group of clumped enemies. Another reason I wanted to test myself was to see how dangerous and easy to dodge the skill actually was. It was the only skill I had seen with a clear charge up time period of about two to three seconds.

Another reason why I didn’t like it for the type of combat I engaged in. I wanted something spamable. Acid Shot met all my requirements except not being powerful enough to kill every level 3 monster in a single attack. That was the biggest problem in my mind.

Even with getting the power upgrade twice, it seemed only to be doing so much. It was both frustrating and disappointing. It also was a clear reminder that I wouldn’t be able to easily kill any level 4 monsters instantly. I guess it was a strong attack, but it took time to work.

Well, my test was complete. I thought back to how I was afraid of every little thing. Now I had confidence to conduct tests with level 2 and level 3 monsters. That lack of fear was what gave me confidence in my decision to let someone get this skill. The first time I had been desperate for points.

Now, it was charity and improving my standing army. I watched as the person chose the skill. I said my goodbyes and my small group set off. Myself, Naran, and Aahan.

“South, I see,” Naran said.

“Hmm, yes. No one is knowing my travel plans but me. Too much of a risk.”

“No arguments from me. I will keep things quiet when we get back,” Naran said. I glanced at Aahan.

“Yes,” was all he said. I looked at Naran who gave me a slight nod.

Naran had been supervising Aahan and when I asked about him, Naran had explained a couple key things about the man. He had basically given up on his life but couldn’t commit suicide or was afraid of death. Naran wasn’t sure which. It might even be a religious thing as far as he knew.

Regardless, Aahan was dragging my cart around in the hope he would die. When I had asked Naran if I should just kill him, he shook his head. The man was suffering in a lot of ways and was working through them. Having him drag a cart around and hoping to die seemed incredibly stupid to me.

Where there was life, there was hope. Death was the ending of possibilities and futures. Not that all futures deserved to be kept around. I suspected that Naran had a soft spot for the man and how much he had suffered. As long as he did his job and didn’t cause problems, I wouldn’t complain. Plus, he was cheap, which was the most important factor for keeping him around.

I was actually looking forward to all the grinding I would be doing this time. The fact that I hadn’t needed a major regeneration in my last couple of battles with the Ritualist meant that my approximately 850,000 banked points were enough for my health insurance plan. Everything I earned now, could be put into upgrading my stats.

I had a 500 Body stat, so at most a regeneration would cost me 499,999 points. In the census there were people with higher initial regeneration costs than should be possible. Stage 4 cancer, got up to 30,000 points or so. However, no monster injury had exceeded the person’s Body stat by a factor of 1,000. At least as far as the data that had been gathered.

Perhaps there was a curse or some other skill to leave high damage, but not be fatal. I thought of the chill that Death had left me with. Losing a finger compared to losing an arm, the cost was massively disproportionate.

The other person had their entire body dusted. I only had an arm dusted, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t some kind of body wide effect. I stopped myself from rubbing my left arm and shook it a bit instead. It didn’t feel different, but there was something that still bothered me about having my arm completely replaced.

I couldn’t afford to tank injuries. It was kind of funny that the Body stat both let me tank damage and avoid it, all in one package. It also didn’t escape my notice that it was the first stat listed. After testing myself on monsters, I wasn’t that interested in weight measurements. I knew how the stat worked at a deeper level. I had no doubt there were more intricacies and possibly more effects, but for now I was content with what I had learned about the Body stat, which didn’t even improve the body.

My next focus was the Mind stat, since it was number two in the mental list that the system store gave. I hadn’t upgraded it at all for a while, but the mental attack monsters were incredibly dangerous, and the stat was the only resistance that was known. While sub-optimal not to upgrade Regeneration even more, I wanted to be able to shrug off mental attacks. No distractions or pressure. Especially since it was a favored tactic of the Ritualist.

I hadn’t reached the point, where I wasn’t able to think about my movements, but I had noticed that when I had upgraded my Body stat, it was harder to maintain the same level of focus while moving at high speeds. Focus might be the wrong way to think about it.

It was tempting to think of time dilation, which it might be, but I would rather think of it as a slowdown effect to process things. Slo-mo effect in combat, but not something I could manually trigger just yet. That effect had become harder to utilize properly with my higher Body stat. I was less able to adjust as quickly and efficiently in my movements as I wanted to. This was even more true when I was moving and used Air Burst. The last fight showed me that my precise control was lacking slightly.

The difference was small, but noticeable. If 500 points for Body was above a level 2, but below a level 3, I wanted Mind to be at least 300. It would also let me observe the differences. I wasn’t ready to draw any major conclusions like I had with Body. There wasn’t enough data.

Still, I knew it helped with processing speed and resistance to mental attacks. There had to be more of course. Perhaps a better ability to work out problems or think? It was hard to tell, since I spent a lot of time thinking.

There wasn’t much else to do while grinding and traveling. Sure, there were conversations, songs, and other ways to pass the time. In my personal time alone or grinding time out of combat, I spent a lot of it working out how the Almighty System functioned. It was kind of fun to pick it apart and use every scrap of information at my disposal to figure things out.

I was also thinking of my future upgrades for Air Burst and Aqua Sphere. I could get at least 4 upgrades without increasing the cost. Power, speed, and cohesion were the options for the first upgrade. I wanted to pick all three.

I tried to imagine what each upgrade would look like for each skill. Power was easy, and just increase the power of said skill, so it was better able to propel me or resist attacks. Speed probably increased speed, but what speed? The cast speed was limited by the hand signs and stating the name of the skill.

Cohesion had the same issue. I knew from Naran’s skill of Minor Tremor it made the effect more concentrated and harder to escape. Well Air Burst was going to be my rapid movement and escape skill, so speed made sense. Cohesion made sense as an upgrade for Aqua Sphere, to better shield me from attacks.

Still, there were a lot of questions about upgrades. I knew Clarissa and Laura were on top of keeping track of people, their skills, and what upgrades would do. It made me wonder what equipment, from enchanted gear to system alchemy would look like?

My mind went back to the remaining stats. The main one after Body and Mind was Regeneration in my opinion even though the order was Body, Mind, Spirit, Perceptions, Aura, Regeneration, Endurance, and Absorption. Regeneration translated directly into how fast I could grind. It was tempting to just keep dumping points into that stat, to grind more. But that would be a mistake. No matter how much I hated it, I was the one poking dangerous areas.

I needed to be able to adapt and survive whatever the Systemic Lands threw at me. Still, it hurt thinking how strong, fast, and unrelenting I could be if I dumped everything into Body or how fast I could grind if I dumped everything into Regeneration.

“Michael, you thinking about expanding our group?” Naran asked me out of the blue.

“Yes. Maybe. Not sure. Right now, everything nearby has been mapped out. I would like to map things out more, and clear higher-level dungeons, grind up stats. Still, a summoner would be useful. Why do you ask?”

“Think about what our team composition should be and what skills people should focus on.” I shook my head slightly at that.

“It is less about the skills and team composition than being able to trust people and grinding efficiency. We can worry about skill synergy much later. Soon, you will be able to grind level 3 monsters.”

“My skills aren’t good for one shot killing like yours are. I will have to invest a lot into Body and some other stats, so I can take the monsters in melee.” That was risky. I could see his grind speed being slower compared to mine over a longer period of time.

“Maybe switch skills?” I asked.

“No. I like the skills I have. Just thinking long term.” Apparently, someone else was using their brain just like me.

“Well, if you find someone you think will be a good fit, I will interview them. Our current team composition is quite good. I am hesitant to push for a larger group.” I wanted to avoid drama. Drama would kill me more quickly than a monster would. Also monster density would be an issue and having enough easy monsters to kill in an area.

“Don’t worry. I will make sure to vet whoever I propose carefully. But we need to form up a team if we are going to poke high level areas.”

“Perhaps, perhaps. Honestly, I want to focus on grinding. I want to get my stats up a lot more. A total of 10,000 stat points.”

“That is a lot. The cost?” I winced at the question.

“A bit less than 250 million. At my current grind speed that would be about 4,000 days. Hoping to cut that down to 1,000, with more Regeneration.”

“Well, that is a lot of grinding.” Why thank you Naran, for that insightful comment.

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