The Systemic Lands

Chapter 177: Day 399 – All The Buildings

“Clarissa. How’s it hanging?” I jovially asked her as I took a seat at my desk. Seeing the improvements walking into Purgatory had put me in quite a good mood. Progress was being made while I wasn’t around.

“It is hanging quite well and a little to the left,” she replied with her usual deadpan. Damn, she was extra spicy today. She looked more relaxed and not about to keel over.

“You seem to have been quite busy, purchasing everything?” I asked.

“Yes. Only the City Shield, Rod of Control, and building specific upgrades costing more than one million points are left. There is a lot to get through.”

“Let’s go in order of purchase. Alchemical Hall?” I asked.

“Similar to enchanting. Eight crafting crystals to make a single vial of liquid that is either resistance or imbuement,” Clarissa explained, and my mind raced.

“Let me guess, imbuement gives people properties of the crafting crystal. Melting and force?” I asked.

“Yes. The effects last for 100 minutes and can be controlled and turned off.” She carefully set two vials on the table. “There is no penalty once the timer runs out. They can’t be stacked. The most recent one replaces whatever current effect you are under. No mental effects beyond giving people a mental trigger to use the abilities.”

I picked up the vials and looked at them. The glass vials were quite small, easily able to fit in my hand with a screw on cap. “You get these from the store?” I asked.

“From the alchemical hall itself. Sells them for 100 points each. They can be reused. They don’t require any liquid. Why, don’t we go take a look? Unless you want to clean up first.” Clarissa asked me.

“Give me about fifteen minutes to clean up and then we can go,” I said and got up. I got a shower and changed into some city clothes. It felt weird that my room was now on the third floor. I was living the high life. Still, had to face my dreaded enemy, stairs. So many things had changed, but there was enough familiarity that I recognized Purgatory.

I noted that there were four guards around us as we moved towards the North part of the city. I looked over at the pillars and noted a short wall had been built with large pieces of stone around them. It was about the height of a person. There were clear places for people to move through and the RMPF could stand on top of the short wall to survey the area easily.

“That is a change.” I pointed out the center of the plaza.

“Better control over traffic around the pillars. The walls funnel people in certain directions and give the RMPF a clear view of all movement. It was Gerold’s idea after some issues with people turning in crystals. Use the melt swords to cut out pieces of unowned buildings that reappeared later. Basically free building material.” I nodded at that.

“The Union?” I asked as I looked over to my right.

“Being handled by Garrett. There were some complaints, but they have died down. Now everything is running smoothly. Deployments are overseen by Garrett and General Gerold. I sign off on them, but they are handling the day to day,” Clarissa explained.

“Glad to hear I don’t need to get involved. Laura?” I asked.

“In the Prison. That will be a headache and a half. Going to be our last stop.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“There are some legal issues we thought to get your input on. Since we have a Prison, I made the decision to hold people until you could review things,” Clarissa explained.

“That sounds ominous and not the kind of thing I want to deal with,” I replied.

“I would prefer not to push these cases on your plate, but the Magistrates and President Bob wanted to defer to you.” I paused to think on this for a second. They pushed it onto her, but she was pushing the issue onto me. I was annoyed, but I would see what they were about first before making a fuss.

“I hope it is only a couple of exceptional issues, not all of them?” I asked.

“They are exceptional. Most stuff is easily resolved with common sense, but these cases are a bit more complex. Unless you wanted to deal with them first?” Clarissa asked.

“No. Absolutely not. You were right to put them last. I have no doubt they are going to eat up all my time just trying to understand them.” Since we had an actual Prison and I had imprisoned Laura, I could see people wanting to defer on hot button or complex cases. I would hold off my judgement on that decision for now.

We made our way past the Enchanting Hall. “Find someone yet to keep track of enchanting?” I asked Clarissa.

“Yes. Elliot is quite diligent in his work. He manages both the Alchemical and Enchanting Hall. Anyone wanting to use either hall has to pay him a fee, tell him what they are doing, and then he is allowed to inspect the end results.”

“That’s it?” There couldn’t be that much business, could there?

“He has to manage the schedule and keep track of everything. There is currently a big push to enchant clubs with counter blue so they last against the slimes as part of a cost saving measure,” Clarissa explained.

“Counter blue, huh, what an interesting turn of phrase. So, the beginner gear is getting upgraded?” I asked.

“Yes, since we confiscate it at each rotation. People are welcome to buy their own gear. But it saves crystals long term grinding on blue slimes. President Bob has been trying to slim down his budget as much as possible.”

“Why? Problems?” I asked.

“More guards and increasing his salary. It isn’t serious, since things are being done more efficiently. I warned him about cutting corners and what would happen. He got the message.” I nodded at that. Good, Clarissa was running the city properly.

We came to a building with double doors similar to the Enchanting Hall. There were two soldiers of the RMPF outside. They saluted when we arrived and opened the doors for us. That was a nice touch. We entered the Alchemy Hall. Its interior layout was the same as the Enchanting Hall. Eight tables around the outside and a pillar in the middle of the large room.

I walked over and touched the pillar. The same costs and options as the Enchanting Hall. A level 2 table for one million points and a level 3 table for five million points. Well, there was also the option to purchase an alchemical vial for 100 points. That was different than the Enchanting Hall.

The process was the same. Put the vial on a table, surrounded of 8 crafting crystals of the same type. Then the vial would be filled up with the potion, either imbuement or resistance. There was 100 minutes of time in a vial. It was small enough to be hard to ration. Potions weren’t going to be quickly popped in a fight, with the screw on cap. It was more of a preparation than anything else.

I was curious to see how well resistance worked. Still, I didn’t think there would be a lot of volunteers to test out my acid. It would also give a clear guideline in terms of power to level of the skill. Also if only one potion effect could be active at a time, then having multiple minor effects could bypass a potion type defense.

Oh, there was an option for different types of vials, customization was an option. Interesting. I left the pillar and checked the tables. Same deal with circle in the wood and 8 indentations around the circle for crafting crystals.

“Tried mixing up the potions together before giving it to someone?” I asked.

“Yes, nothing bad happened. Just a much shorter duration, since the only effect that matters is the one that is consumed last,” Clarissa answered.

“The liquid?” I asked.

“Inert. But it is still being researched. But nothing like the crystals. Doctor Katz is still trying different things, but for now it is a dead end.” I nodded at that. It was probably a safety feature implemented by the Almighty System. Still, crystals could be broken down and had other effects. I would need to think on this for a while and perhaps test some ideas out.

“No throwing bombs then,” I muttered. Well, it made sense since bombs were inherently unsafe. Throwing potions could lead to self-harm if they could explode. So, it made sense in a weird sort of way that the Almighty System wouldn’t provide a simple path towards them. “Any interesting effects?”

“The brown force potion can cause issues. Since you can deliver heavier blows than normal and jump higher. No, it doesn’t stack with enchanted gear. Potions only effect the body, not weapons, or clothes,” Clarissa explained as I walked about the Alchemical Hall.

“How is working out crafting crystal types going?” I asked.

“Slowly. It was only recently did the Union teams all get Processing Rods. Then they have to kill the monster while poking it. Not simple in a lot of cases.” Facts. It was an annoying requirement. Why couldn’t the point crystals be used?

“Summons don’t count for crafting crystal purposes either, something we tried to get around the issue,” Clarissa added. That made sense as well, since summoning seemed to consume up the entire crystal, or whatever energy the monster had initially to bring it back.

The guards that followed Clarissa around were at the entrance, so we were reasonably alone. That was why I asked the next question. “The rest of the research?” I asked.

“We have worked out priming, distance activation, and combination hybrids. Right now, research is being done into packaging summoning in a simple way, to make it quick. Like a pre-form to make the circle and place the crystal on a flat surface. To use the bare minimum amount of powder. Remove the form and summoning is ready to go.” Engineering issues, not fundamental research issues. I was less interested in that type of research and development.

“That would make things easier. Any mental issues?” I asked, since that was a major concern.

“Possibly.” That didn’t sound good. “The biggest concern is increased aggression. The leading theory is that the monster feedback is transmitting aggression. The more monsters and the higher level, the worse this is. We are having summoners meditate and having a designated mental health teammate for every summoner.”

“Good. I like the idea of the buddy system. Regular screenings or interviews?” I asked.

“Both of course. Work on bombs is slower, due to the risks. Like summoning, with the crystals we know, it has become more of an engineering problem, than a research problem. That is why I increased the research team to include an engineer.” I nodded at that. Clarissa was on top of things, she understood my thought process and was getting ahead of it. This was the kind of stuff that made me trust her decision making process.

It wasn’t just dealing with the day to day. It was problem solving and being able to contextualize the problem in the correct way to get to a solution. Understanding that the challenge was an engineering issue was a big step. You can’t just have researchers also do engineering. Humans specialized, and that was our strength.

Just calling research, research, was something idiots would do. There were different types of research. The current staff led by the good doctor was doing fundamental research. But now we needed engineering research and development.

“Anything useful?” I asked.

“I would need to get my notes and pull in Elliot to discuss crystal types. Also, Doctor Katz, since he is in charge of all research. We are making some progress, but a lot of the chart is still empty. I was planning to set up the meeting tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow sounds good. We have more buildings to visit.” I followed Clarissa out of the Alchemical Hall to the building next door.

More soldiers guarding the double door entrance. The soldiers saluted us, or me, and opened the doors. Clarissa’s guards stayed outside just like last time. “This is the Regional Map building,” Clarissa said.

It was a big empty room for the most part. I noted a pillar to the side of the entrance. There was nothing else. Clarissa gestured for me to touch it. I put my hands on the lone pillar. A holographic display of the city and the level 1 zone around it, appeared in the center of the room. The detail was impressive.

I could maneuver the map however I wanted with just a thought. Zoom in, zoom out, expand, it was all there. I zoomed in on Purgatory and a gray haze appeared. The haze increased when I tried to zoom in to make out individual streets. That was annoying.

No wonder why this place cost half a million points. I zoomed in on the dungeons, but couldn’t look inside. The same with the ruined town dungeon. There was a gray haze that quickly filled the image the more I tried to zoom in. At a distance, I could make out the buildings and wall, but close in, just a gray haze. It reminded me of games that had the graphics quality change depending on the distance to location.