The Systemic Lands

Chapter 166: Day 351 (5) – Power Plays

I walked back to my home, Clarissa at my side. “So, why wait to bring up the issue with Union taxes until that moment? I am not blind.” I asked Clarissa.

The silence stretched on for a bit, before she responded. “Laura is being difficult. I had been hoping to resolve the issue without involving you. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. She needed to be taken down a notch. Should I look into dealing with her?” Clarissa asked.

“No. As long as she doesn’t make a move against me, that is fine. She is like a pressure valve for people unhappy with me. If close them all off, things will eventually explode. Better to give it an outlet as long as it doesn’t cause too many problems,” I replied.

“Should I move guards into the Union? I can crush her underfoot.” I liked the way Clarissa thought, but no. I shook my head.

“Nothing so serious. Just give her enough freedom to make a move if she wants to. The moment she does, she is dead. I don’t mind complaints, but we are not slowing down the research for anything. Unfortunately, there is no alternative to human experimentation,” I let out a sigh at that.

“Should I authorize human experimentation with the crafting crystals? We are almost finished with everything for the hybridization,” Clarissa said.

“Level 2 crystals? I didn’t see anything on them.” I read everything Clarissa gave me. While it was tempting to ignore stuff or skim through it, I read through all the reports line by line. I wouldn’t make a mistake by not taking the time to read reports that were written just for me to read.

“They caused the people to explode. The next step is the combination, remote activation, and fusion process that the Ritualist did.” All things I had worked out. Still, there was no rush to share such discoveries. I wouldn’t purposely delay the research, but I would let it play out, maybe something unexpected and new would be discovered.

“That is odd. But summoning at the higher level’s works. It is frustrating. I feel like I am trying to understand the sun by staring at it, but the answer lies in atomic physics instead. But I suppose no one has proposed any kind of fundamental research or made a big discovery?” I asked

“Only that higher level zones have a higher ambient energy density. But nothing beyond that, no proposals about raw energy research either.” Frustrating, very frustrating. Sometimes it felt like I was the only one really thinking about deeper issues around this place.

“The good doctor was right about there being a clear line in regards to danger. Everything from the Almighty System is absolutely safe for the person using the skill or store. Lots of built in safety features.” Like how my own acid didn’t hurt me. “But all the raw crystal research is dangerous.”

“We can move the lab to a more isolated portion of the city if you want?” Clarissa offered.

“No. It is fine where it is. Easier to keep all our buildings centered around the plaza. I do want to be here when the Rod of Control is purchased,” I added.

“I figured as much, but will make sure of it. The Alchemical Hall is next. We are going to cluster the city buildings to the North. Already districts are forming.”

“The Union to the Northeast, businesses to the Northwest, the RMPF, gambling, and prostitution to the West and Southwest. What else?”

“The high class district to the East, where you reside, the slums to the South.”

“We have slums?”

“More like public housing. Most of it is in low use at the moment, but the plan is to offer cheap places, showers, for people to live. Basically, a bed,” Clarissa said.

“Keep an eye on that. I don’t want vagrants or the place to descend to filth.” A clean city was a prosperous city. Well, maybe not all the time, but you couldn’t have a prosperous city if it was filled with trash.

“Trash collection has been taken care of under President Bob’s management. We have designated trash buildings people can take their waste to. We also have trash collectors and littering is a heavy fine.” I nodded at that. I liked things being orderly. I was never diagnosed with OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder, but from all the time playing civilization games, I loved my grids and organization.

The fact we couldn’t rearrange the buildings to create clear streets was also annoying. If we could move buildings, we could create a mini city within Purgatory centered on the plaza. It would be much easier to have that as a secondary fallback point from the wall. Instead, we had the maze of side streets.

Even with the year I had spent traveling in and out of the city, it sometimes took a second to remember which turn to make to get to my destination. That was why it was so easy to hide in the cities. Just a lot of empty gray stone buildings that all looked similar. The plaza, pillars, walls, and gates were the only initial points of interest.

“Good job on the trash collection. Bob is handling that?” I asked.

“Yes he is.” We continued to walk in silence back to my home. I noticed the guards dressed in blue uniforms were spread out at a distance, keeping anyone from bothering us.

“So, the guards? Where are you recruiting from?” I asked.

“The RMPF, people I know that can be trusted and are discrete,” Clarissa said.

“I don’t want any problems. I am holding you accountable. Let’s have breakfast as a group tomorrow.”

“I understand.” I hoped she did. She had become my proxy within Purgatory for all things. I couldn’t afford not to trust her. So, at the first sign of betrayal, I would have to take action. Confirm the information first, if possible, and then get rid of her. I couldn’t tell if she was holding off on upgrading her stats to put me at ease or for some other reason.

For now, she had earned my trust by being competent and useful. “When do you think you will return?” Clarissa asked.

“No idea. I will be grinding a lot more. The threat of the one-million-point cap is concerning,” I let out a sigh.

“You aren’t sure it is even the point cap, right?” That was true but didn’t encapsulate the full extent of the issue.

“Well, not like I want to test the stupid thing. No respawns here. When you only have one shot at things, you are cautious. Perhaps too much but rolling the dice time after time is stupid as well,” I replied.

“Thoughts about the Ritualist?” Clarissa asked.

“Sometimes. Thinking I could have kept pushing in some circumstances. I could have won. It annoys me, but it is what it is. There is also the risk of overcommitting. The problem is, people only survive if they lean to one side of the risk spectrum,” I replied.

“Since that is the only side the survives,” Clarssia said with her usual deadpan voice.

“Indeed. The optimal strategy is not the safest one most of the time. I have been thinking about this issue a lot since the fight with the Ritualist and trying to decide on my stats.”

“Increased grinding speed, versus stats that help you in a fight?”

“Exactly. The optimal choice is to focus on Regeneration and Body until I hit the maximum possible speed I can grind in a level 3 zone. Then take a look at the other stats. While Body is useful, there are other concerns, specifically Mind. Now with equipment, I could get level 3 gear, but it would be an investment. A serious time investment,” I explained, curious to what advice Clarissa might have.

“That is where experience comes into play. If something works, then keep doing it. While a more balanced build may not be optimal, it should allow you to survive more easily. Also, you can always focus on specific stats later, once your base is strong enough.” I nodded at that. It was a reasonable suggestion, but it wasn’t optimal. It grated on my sensibilities. Clarissa then continued to offer her advice.

“As for equipment. Whatever you pick will be with you for a while and you will have to adjust your combat style. We also need to get a better understanding of the process and work out the alignment of monsters to crafting crystals. Also, how to use active enchantments. Unless you think there is something you want?”

“We would need to increase the levels of the enchanting tables up to level 2, preferably level 3 before I make a decision,” I replied.

“Before the other buildings?” Clarissa asked.

“For now, no. Let’s see all our options first. I never thought there would be crafting crystals. Who knows what else the other buildings will reveal?”

“Very well,” we reached my home. A guard quickly opened the front door for us.

I went to my room and tossed my ruined clothes in pile off to the side. I was glad, it wasn’t my job to sort them out. I then got into my private shower and rinsed myself off. I made sure to run my fingers through my hair several times, to remove any pieces of politician that might have gotten stuck there.

Perhaps not my brightest idea to test the crafting crystals activated properties. But I had a lot of things to think about during the next grinding session. Just like my hesitation to dive into negative energy sensing, I would wait to see the results of crafting before making a determination.

That was the nice thing about having a city working on stuff, was that I could outsource all the information gathering and risk taking to other people, with exceptions. My mind drifted to the third type of crystal, a skill crystal.

They always appeared to be floating in the air once the boss of a dungeon was killed. The crystals were immobile. But what if I brought a bowl of water and raised the bowl of water up to the skill crystal? What could a skill crystal or skill crystal powder do? Would it even break down to powder, or would it undergo a transformation like the crafting crystals underwent?

It was something I was going to have to test. The wolf dungeon was in use for skill points, so there was no easy level 1 dungeon I could just grab. I could kill the floating rock sound monster and water pressure monster at the spring, since the cliff bulb was going to be picked up by another soldier.

That was the real grind, building up overall strength. By the time the Treaty of Heaven ran out on day 399, we would be ready. I would be ready. By day 370 the first batch of people would have completed the full rotation in the level 1 zones.