The Systemic Lands

Chapter 97: Day 219 (2) – Exploration Is Annoying

“Ah, yes, yes,” Luis said. I noted that Juan looked mentally tired as well. Probably from my non-stop verbal deluge. All of what I said was true, but completely boring and hard to understand. Only someone with a solid background in game mechanics, math, and some other esoteric concepts would have been able to follow along.

In fact, my brain was bleeding from talking so much about absolutely nothing. “Let’s focus now, we need to watch out for monsters now,” I said, and no one argued with me. Thankfully a clearing team had removed several of the level 1 monsteras that would have been in our path through the grasslands.

The couple times we did run into a white cat it wasn’t very impressive and easily killed. I didn’t even experience their mental attacks, but I also wasn’t in a hurry to do so either. Eventually we reached a pit on a hillside. An underground dungeon of course.

“Naran, the lantern?” I asked.

“Already prepared along with a fire starter.” I nodded at that. He was already earning Michael points as my cart butler.

“Alright, three people can come along, three get to stay out here and watch the cart.” They had a quick discussion in Spanish. Luis, Juan, and a guard would go down. The remaining three would stay outside and keep an eye out.

“Alright listen up. Watch the ceiling and the back angles. Do not panic. Do not get in Naran’s way of holding the lantern. If I say anything listen. Make sure everyone understands.”

“Yes,” Luis said and then began to translate. I got a nod from Juan and the guard. With that done, we entered into the pit dungeon.

Three white cats raced out in front of me from the darkness. I felt a pressure on my head. Acid Shot. I swerved my hand so all of them were hit by some of the acid. They quickly died but I waited. No follow up monsters. I hadn’t dealt with groups yet. I had always been careful to limit my encounters to one on one if at all possible.

“Don’t touch the acid, you will die,” I said and made my way around the corpses slowly. Apparently, I had been advancing too fast before, and the pull rate dropped to one monster at a time. That was when a brown cat leapt out of the dirt.

I managed to block with my shield in time and force it back. I quickly drew my sword and stabbed it as it leapt at me a second time. I looked at where it had leapt from. “Dirt cats, or cat mines. Keep careful watch.”

I kept my sword in my hand, since I wanted to regen energy. My pool was only 100, and Acid Shot cost 10 per use. Still, I wouldn’t have traded the upgrades. The silent casting and its overwhelming power were why I wanted to upgrade it two more times.

I was coming to realize I hated sword fighting as I stabbed another brown cat. They were like the wolves, only less straight forward. We came to a split in the tunnel. I checked the right, nothing. I then led us down the left path.

After clearing some more white and brown cats, we came to a large chamber. I counted at least 20 cats, with green cats mixed in and a large white cat hanging in the center of the chamber. I was at 27 energy at the moment.

“Naran fuel?” I asked quietly.

“I have more in reserve.” I nodded at that.

“Alright, the rest of you stay ready. I might be able to stop everything from getting by. If I fall back, don’t stand there looking stupid. Got it.” My words were translated, and I got nods in return.

Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. I did a massive alpha strike focused on the level 2 monster white cat. It was immediately taken out along with 16 of the level 1 cats, leaving only 4 remaining. I waited as they ran about. Eventually one aggroed on me.

It was a green one. I killed it with my sword, and it didn’t emit any gas. Still, I didn’t want to get poisoned, if the color was any indication. The last three cats were nothing new and I finished them off. I didn’t expect anything and was proven right as we searched the chamber.

With the chamber cleared we made our way back to the intersection and went down the right path. More base level cats, but in greater and greater numbers. I would pull as few as possible, retreat, then counter charge.

I had to do it this way since the white cats would stop at a distance and mind attack me, which was incredibly annoying. A bow and arrow would have been incredibly useful here. Eventually we made it to the boss door.

I pushed it open and there was a large brown cat on a raised platform, with a veritable horde of level 1 brown cats resting around it. I backed away and went over my gear and my condition.

“Trouble?” Luis asked.

“No, just thinking and checking to make sure everything is in order. Also resting for a bit to recover. That is the boss room.” After recovering enough energy, I was ready.

I went to the entrance. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. I targeted the boss first of course. I noted it took slightly longer to die and for the acid to eat through it. Probably some kind of protection. After that it was a slow and methodical cleanup of the chamber.

While a bit boring, I preferred dungeons to go this smoothly. I did not want to have to run screaming with my tail between my legs with my clothing melted off. I was still a bit sore about the bud monster on the cliff.

We entered the boss room, and I touched the skill point crystal. The two skills were Mind Jab and Dirt Armor. Both were sub-par for what I already had. I already had an attack skill, Acid Shot. Defense skill, Aqua Sphere. Movement skill, Air Burst. I just wanted a healing and utility skill. I also only had 3 skill slots and all of them were full unless I wanted to replace a skill, which wasn’t the case.

I was given the upgrade options for my only level 2 skill, Acid Shot, of trajectory, shape, and size. I went with size. Better to compound my advantages. A single powerful, massive, ball of acid. My upgrades so far had been power, size, minor effect death, nullification, silent, power, and now size again. It appeared that my original observation that the options repeated after 5 upgrades was right.

That was good to confirm, it meant I could think on what minor effect I wanted next, or I could go with multi-cast or prep-and-hold as my other two options.

“Alright, that is it, time to go,” I said. The people didn’t say anything as we left. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the cart, once again completely untouched. Well, these people weren’t going to be melted today.

We set off towards the city. It was beginning to get dark. The group spoke quietly in Spanish discussing what they had seen, while Naran and I kept our mouths shut. Thankfully no one pestered me so I could think on my next skill point.

I didn’t think my Acid Shot needed another effect besides death. Multi-cast was interesting for me. If I could get gestureless as well, then I could unleash a massive barrage all at once to overwhelm any monster or opponent. The ninth upgrade would be nullification, persistence, or minor effect once again.

I was thinking another nullification upgrade there. I wanted to be able to chew through any kind of defense I ran into. Far too often the monsters had been tanky, especially the level 3 monsters. I was afraid I would run into a monster that I couldn’t kill quickly and get killed in return.

While I was still willing to take risks, I felt I could pace myself more. The key was to find a good grinding spot for level 3 monsters. If I could kill one per Acid Shot then I was quite hopeful. If I could keep that up for 15 hours, that meant 81,000 points per day. The trick was to find such a location and those were a lot of ifs.

We reached the city of Esperanza as it began to get dark and made our way back to the plaza. I helped Naran move our supplies and angled the cart into the building we would be staying for the night.

“Watches?” Naran asked me quietly.

“Yes. I will take second. Wake me up when you can’t stay awake anymore.”

“Got it. Thanks, by the way.”

“No need to thank me. We already talked about it. You aren’t getting anything from me this trip in exchange for those dungeons.”

“Two skill points are worth a lot more than 200,000 points.”

“Yes, but it is nice to have someone who doesn’t complain or moralize all the time. Also, you are the cart butler, you have duty and honor to uphold, to guard and protect the cart.”

There were no incidents that night and early the next morning we set off with the same group. This time we left from the South gate of the city and then made our way East. The red beetles shot out bursts of fire but were easily dispatched by the guards who came with us. I didn’t make a fuss since I wanted to preserve my condition for the dungeon.

We came to the stop at the top of a hill. Down below was a deep valley with several large flowers. “Urg, an open area type dungeon.” I was thinking of the wolf one, and it had been incredibly annoying.

I took the lead. There were a lot of beetles, including green and blue ones. They emitted poison gas and acid respectively. The key thing was to shield, strike, retreat a step, and repeat. There were a lot. Honestly this place offered really good grinding for low level people.

The moment I saw a larger blue beetle appear, I used my skill Acid Shot and killed it. It was tricky having to put my sword aside each time, but I was not about to take a chance with a level 2 monster. Gestureless might have been better than silent. It was the difference between PvP and PvM, player versus player, and player versus monster.

Monsters didn’t care if you said your skills, but silent skills were critical for killing people. I didn’t regret my choice, but I made a mental note to pay close attention to anyone with a silent skill.

After ten of the large blue beetles, a large red one came out. Acid Shot. I killed it off. A skill crystal appeared in the middle of the small valley. I went over and touched it.

The two skill options were Acid Bite, which was an instant no. I did not want to bite monsters. Still, it might be interesting if it did something unique. Regardless someone else could test that. Then there was Fire Burst.

It was decent, but nowhere close to Acid Shot in my opinion. Why did the bugs have bite while the slimes had shot? I would have guessed it would be the other way around. These little things were where I was hoping to make a breakthrough in understanding of some kind and took notes on.

The upgrades were exactly like I had predicted for Acid Shot. The initial options for minor effect had been cold, air, death, or metal. I considered picking cold if I went with minor effect, but it just wasn’t that useful. My acid was acid and already had a death effect. After the split second of hesitation, I went with multi-cast.

Having a skill pre-prepared was only useful for high hand usage skills. I could see that being incredibly useful if there were ten hand signs. Better to prep a skill like a cannon.

The knowledge was somehow put into my head, which was disturbing as always. Basically, I could use the skill as many times as I wanted once I met the prerequisites. So, if I made the hand sign, I could fire off three Acid Shots instead of one. Still the same cost for shot. The upgrade didn’t come with any aim bonus.

Once the skill was gestureless, I was hoping I could just think and fire balls of acid. But that was two upgrades away. I needed to find another city and clear their dungeons if I wanted to reach the tenth upgrade, which if the pattern held should give me a gestureless option.

We left the area and waited a distance away after clearing the dungeon. Once the time went past the arrival, we poked the dungeon area again. Only the sub-bosses and boss had come back. Good to know, that outside dungeons were the same as pit dungeons. Boss monsters reset at the arrival while both regular monsters and boss monsters reset in the middle of the night.

With just the level 2 monsters, it was easy enough to finish them off and have Naran claim the skill crystal. He was going with trajectory, his first upgrade had been speed for his skill Rock Lance. More precision over power.

It was a decent choice, especially if he could pin a monster in place, even for a short period of time. Or he could use the monster’s own momentum against it. Still, I highly preferred Acid Shot for its area of effect, AOE, damage.

The splatter was amazing with how large the ball of acid was now. It used to be the size of a basketball, now it was the size of a dresser with the double size upgrades.

With the dungeon cleared a second time, we made our way back to towards the pit to get Naran his second skill point for the day.

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