The Systemic Lands

Chapter 45: Day 95 – Striped Meerkats

I looked at my left arm. It was healing quite well. I tried to compare it to the rate things healed on Earth to see if any stats were impacting my healing rate. I thought so, but it was hard to tell. At least I had near full functionality again and didn’t have to return to Purgatory earlier than planned.

I also cleaned off the bracer and reattached it to my arm after banging it back into shape with my club. It looked like trash with how mangled it was, but it did provide useful protection.

“Acid Shot.” Another scorpion died near instantly. The skill definitely acted much more quickly than before. I was pleased with my choice for the skill crystal from the wolf ruins.

Today was the day I was pushing hard East. I was heading East directly from where Purgatory was, with little North or South deviation. At least with the sun, or light source, at the same position every day, and no clouds, it was insanely easy to keep track of what direction was what without a compass.

There was a small hole in the ground up ahead. I paused and looked at it. That was suspicious. A head shot up. It was gray and brown striped and appeared to be a rodent of some kind. There were more holes ahead of me.

The ground also transitioned from the shadowlands to the deadlands I had seen in the West. Dead trees and plants scattered about. Less overcast and more unrelenting heat and sun. The head popped up out of the hole again.

I banged my sword on my shield. The monster’s head snapped in my direction. It then ducked back in the hole.

“AHHH!” I yelled as something bit my leg. I spun around with a bit of a jump. It was the rodent from before. I swung down and left a deep slash on its body. It let go and I stabbed down. It turned to dust and left a 50-point crystal.

My copper greave had taken most of the bite, but some had still gotten through. My heart slowly calmed down and I looked around carefully. The rodent was no longer putting its head out of the hole.

“Low attack, but either super speed or a movement ability. Nope.” The fact it had managed to get behind me so quickly was a pain. I needed a lot more Perception and Body, urg. I looked out to my East and debated my options. Advancing through the rodents… meerkats, that was their name. Thank you, National Geographic. At least I thought they were, and I was the one who discovered them so I got final naming rights.

It would be a slog. I didn’t need a skill to kill them like the scorpions, but their annoyance factor would be insanely high. My legs would get chewed up and the possibility of getting mobbed sounded dangerous.

One of those monsters, that by themselves wasn’t a big deal, but if I got a couple attacking me at once, with their movement ability, then I would be in trouble. I frowned and kept looking East. I got out some food and had a short snack break as I considered my options.

I would try and kill one more to see if I could do it without taking an injury. All this time, super slimes and all, no injuries. This trip, two injuries and possibly more. I did not like that number going up. I finished up my cucumber and left my cart.

As I got closer, I spotted another hole with a striped meerkat monster popping up to look out. I banged my sword on my shield. It looked at me then ducked into the hole. I spun around and there it was. I stabbed down, pinning it to the ground and killing it.

“Tricky bugger.” That was no earth movement ability. That was blink, short range teleportation, with a visual limitation from hostile beings if I had to guess. Couldn’t teleport anywhere where it could be observed. I felt a very strong need to find a meerkat dungeon and clear it, just for that skill. The boss monsters would be insane, but short-range teleportation, no matter the limitation, was huge.

It probably came with a lot of passive sub-abilities like matter sense so one wouldn’t intersect with something else and sense the surrounding area. I could be wrong, but blink was incredibly powerful for casters for a reason.

I began a new grind. I would very slowly advance, kill one meerkat at a time. Then return and pull my cart forward. Once my magic regenerated, I went back to killing scorpions, since it was a lot easier on my brain to kill them. Also, it was a good way to practice my skill aim.

As night began to fall, I made my way back to where the scorpion shadowlands turned into the meerkat deadlands and waited. I would see how dangerous it became during the night.

Surprisingly it was just like the grasslands and the slime forest. The monsters did not spawn around me, and no patrols came near my cart. Again, I wouldn’t take this for granted unless I checked first, but this was a good sign.

It was an uneasy night, as I kept getting back up to check things, but nothing attacked. I repeated the grind again, killing scorpions and meerkats.

I managed to kill 175 monsters, which was huge. The main slowdown was how careful I was with the meerkats. That blink ability of theirs made me very scared to fight more than one at time. I would get gnawed to death. Also 175 was 8,750 points, quite a large amount compared to before.

With the small wolves and the scorpions, I was averaging about 6,000 per day. Now 10,000 per day was not out of my reach. Since I could stay in this area at night, I could improve my technique. I changed my movement pattern, leaving my cart and instead moving East and West, with only a tiny change in North to South to fight the two types of monsters.

Unlike before, I couldn’t just plow through the meerkats like I had the small wolves, but they were worth a lot more. The rules of this place made it appear that one could set up a hunting camp and be safe. Once again, I put an asterisk on this conclusion. I would not be taking it for granted.

No matter how much more quickly I wanted to grind, I had to keep myself in check. A meerkat swarm would be the end of me. I noticed that if they were in the ground their hearing was greatly diminished. I had to wait for them to pop out of their hole and make sure there wasn’t a second popped up from another nearby hole before pulling the first meerkat.

It was tedious, but any injury would slow me down more. I couldn’t trade health for speed no matter what. That was how I would die, trying to rush when things were boring. Better to just grind away safely. That way I could get a lot of upgrades and then come back and plow my way through the meerkats.

Time passed and it hit day 100. That was when I felt a new skill slot open up. Someone upgraded the store, finally. I finished off the day and did a crystal count. My take had increased to 190 50-point crystals. A decent amount.

All told I had 75,000 and change worth of points after ten days of work. That also included clearing the wolf ruin. Another 8 days would double that number of points at my current speed. I could purchase 80 more upgrades like I planned and get a building to live in.

Upgrades were getting more and more expensive, and I wanted some place I owned myself to sleep in when I was in Purgatory. I was sure Carlos had the economy well in hand, no need for me to kick start things. Also, things were probably reaching the point, that individual people began thinking about buying property.

Better to get in early and get a huge mansion at the plaza. Carlos had linked up buildings to form a barracks for his men, there was no reason I couldn’t do the same. The main thing was an isolated piece of property surrounded by roads on all sides.

While I didn’t think people would tunnel through or anything, no need to take that chance. Also, it was a statement of my wealth and power, similar to the armor I wore. I could always decorate it later. Still, the thought was painful at spending points in that manner. I could buy a shit shack instead.

A house of shit and sticks, which was my joke at the first houses in Minecraft made out of dirt blocks and wood planks, shit and sticks. I could also speculate. I could buy a large chunk of real estate and then I would let it sit for a while. If it became a trash heap, I could always fix it up later. I wouldn’t be able to change the location compared to cleaning it up.

The fact that it was day 100 and I was still here with no signs of escape or a way to leave, meant that I would probably be here for quite a while. I needed to think long term. My mind drifted to the impact of stats on longevity. That wouldn’t be something easily tested, but I was not about to discount such a possibility.

I would stay out here and grind up the points before returning. As long as possible, which basically meant until my supplies ran out. Since the next time I came out here, I would explore more, a lot more. Search for the scorpion and meerkat dungeon and check out the areas surrounding the slime forests.

I could only shake my head at how hard I was working. While I had worked hard in my life, it had never been for such a long period of time as this. I had five days off or so out of hundred. My working days were sunup to sundown. No wonder why the grinders were sometimes called farmers. Got to farm those crystals.

“Bugger off!” I stabbed another meerkat that had appeared behind me. It was sad how predictable they had become. Still with their small stature, I was forced to stab downwards. My sword was getting worn from impacting the ground through the meerkats, but it hopefully would last.

It also didn’t help that the deadlands were hot and I began to sweat. My water supplies were not that much, and lack of salt was a concern. My left arm was still sore and was scabbed over. So much for having stats that would just allow me to take damage like an unstoppable juggernaut.

I could only shake my head at the lucky people out there who probably had stumbled over god tier skills like self-healing. With self-healing, a lot of the danger and risk went away. Or flying, that would be amazing. I would be able to cover a lot more ground. I hadn’t seen anything flying so far. Another oddity, but flying monsters were a lot more dangerous than land bound ones.

That was probably super-duper boss level, flying monsters. “Die!” I killed another blinking striped meerkat. Those things were really pissing me off. I could kill them, but it required me to focus quite a bit and go slow. They were on my list. What list? The list of things that were really pissing me off.

It also made me want to have that skill even more. Blink. Blink. I would be popping everywhere. I banged my sword on my shield. “Come on, out of your hole.” This one took three minutes. I know, I timed it. It was the underground thing, it made them change the distance I could pull them towards me.

That was the true issue. Variable pull lengths. That did not paint a good picture for stronger monsters. They might have large patrol paths. If I couldn’t win near instantly, I might get swarmed. Problems for future Michael. Don’t blame me future Michael, you knew the risks.

My thoughts drifted over to what the new stat could be. I was hoping for something like flight or speed related. “Nice try Mr. Meerkat,” I killed another one.

New stat, hmmm. I honestly had given up trying to make sense of the stat system for the most part. I would leave that to other people to work out the exact nuances that existed. I was more curious about what items had opened up in the Store. A mechanized cart sounded amazing. Not having to haul everything with me on a pull cart.

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