The Systemic Lands

Chapter 200: Day 433 – Die Or Run

We reached the South gate, the three golems still right behind us. We had managed to slow down a bit since the golems were hitting the curved wall with their straight-line jumps. That was why it was better to run on the outside of the city. This also gave me time to recover my energy. That was the nice thing about an insanely high Regeneration compared to my other stats, I could recover very quickly in these battles of attrition.

I stopped at the entrance to the tunnel through the wall. I made sure to be on the right side of the tunnel. By being in the tunnel the golems would hit the wall and not be able to land on my head.

Acid Shot. A side panel intercepted my skill. I moved to the other side of the tunnel. Acid Shot x2. That was another golem down. The other two golems hit the wall and maneuvered so they landed to either side of the one I had damaged with Acid Shot. They completely blocked the entrance to the tunnel.

Suddenly both undamaged golems erupted with their scatter shot. “Aqua Sphere!” I had no room to maneuver in the confined space, so dodging with Air Burst wasn’t practical. I had practiced with the skill some more after not being fast enough the crafting crystal testing.

Water materialized around me and swept rapidly around me. I couldn’t move, since the skill wouldn’t follow me. I raised my arms in front of my face just in case. The attacks penetrated my skill. I felt the impacts against my armor, but they just felt like strong punches, rather than tearing into me. My armor coming in useful for once.

I dropped my skill after two seconds. That cost me 70 energy total. But I avoided any crippling damage as I quickly raced out of the tunnel and leapt to the side once I cleared it. More scattershot erupted behind me.

“Alright?” Naran asked me.

“I am fine. Let’s go,” I said. We quickly moved away from the wall. There was no use being nearby if the golems did another suicide attack.

Nothing happened as we waited a distance from the wall. A minute went by, then two. Still no wall cracking attack. “Go back?” Naran asked.

“No. Whatever broke the wall, was a very localized explosion and powerful,” I replied. I knew that I wouldn’t survive a suicide attack. We continued to wait. That was when I saw the golems climb up and over the wall. Their stubby legs stabbing into the gray stone.

“That is a bit unfair,” Naran said.

“Well back to the plaza, I need to recover my energy and then I should have a chance to win,” I replied. We set out again as both golems leapt from the top of the wall. They didn’t like the tunnel through the wall. Probably some sort of resistance against enclosed spaces.

It was also interesting that their behavior changed based on the number of golems present. When there were seven, it was a no brainer to sacrifice one to blow open a hole in the wall. Even though it would have been better to climb, they judged the sacrifice worthwhile.

But when there were only two golems they climbed up the wall. I would need to try as well. Would it be possible with a high enough Body stat to punch into the stone and make my own hand holds and foot holds?

There was the natural mental instinct to avoid punching walls. It was the same thing that stopped a person from running at a wall without raising up their arms. I had practiced taking tumbles already and was fine, even if I was a bit scuffed. But I had never pushed my resistance to physical damage.

I wasn’t a physical combatant, punching things felt like a very dangerous way to fight. With how the Body stat worked, one would have to guess if they could punch through something. You couldn’t tell exactly how your force would be canceled and by how much.

I knew I had only touched the surface level of super hand to hand combat, but seeing the golems climb up the wall humbled me even more at my lack of true understanding of what the Body stat meant. I turned my attention back to the streets, since I needed to focus now. I didn’t know the path from the South gate to the plaza.

We ended up going down a long street towards the North, with no turnoffs, but it ended in a dead end. “Up and over!” I shouted at Naran who was still carrying Fethee. Naran kicked off the ground towards one of the windows on the second floor to leap up to the roof.

I darted to the side. Acid Shot. A panel intercepted my attack. Acid Shot x2. The golem began melting.

“Minor Tremor. Minor Tremor!” Naran called out from the roof, targeting the ground the second golem was landing on. It sunk deeply into the ground, up past its legs. I didn’t hesitate. Acid Shot. I was out of energy as I dived into a building. The stone was shredded by a scattershot attack.

The ground shuddered as the trapped golem leapt out of the ground. I quickly exited the building to see it going soaring onto the rooftops after Naran. I raced over and grabbed the crystal from the golem I had killed. I then quickly jumped up to the roof level with a bit of parkour from the windows.

Naran was looping around the group of buildings. I angled my path to catch up with him as the golem chased us. “Back to the wall!” I called out.

“Got it!” Naran called back. We regrouped and retreated to the wall. The golem was like a melted popsicle. Its box shape was much lumpier after my skill had gone to work. We were almost to the gate when I decided to act since I had recovered enough energy.

I slowed down. Acid Shot. The golem’s surface was messed up. No panel to block my attack. It was hit again. Acid Shot. I used the skill for a third time. It crashed into the ground behind us. This was a big chance, my hand went for the Processing Rod. Then it hit me. It would only work up to level 3. I let out a small sigh as the golem turned to dust.

Naran skidded to a halt and slowly walked back over. He set Fethee on the ground, who looked worn and sick, but alive.

I went over and picked up the crystal after the acid from my skill had disappeared. After that we made our way back to the gate and found the crystal we had left behind. Thankfully it wasn’t long enough for the level 4 crystal to disappear.

We made our way back to the plaza slowly. “Well we won,” I said.

“Yeah, won,” Naran replied and let out a sigh.

“We also learned a lot,” I added.

“And there is going to be trouble about Gertrude and her team,” Naran said.

“There won’t be,” I countered.

“Really?” Naran asked.

“I just have to tell the truth. The truth is the strongest explanation. Also, we can share the odd behaviors of level 4 monsters. Gertrude was a hero who sacrificed her life to gain valuable information,” I said.

“I am too tired to discuss this,” Naran said.

“You don’t like running constantly from monsters that want to smush you?” I asked sarcastically.

“I have no idea how we would even grind them. I mean it might be possible, but it would be a lot of headache for not many points compared to level 3 monsters,” Naran said.

“Teamwork, Naran. Teamwork,” I said. He let out a soft chuckle. “You hanging in there Fethee?” I asked the man.

“Yes, just sore, very sore,” he said with a grimace.

“How much was the previous restoration?” I asked.

“About four thousand,” Fethee said, and I nodded at that. He should have enough points for another. No need to spend any more crystals on him.

“Three crystals, not bad,” Naran said.

“It isn’t.” I didn’t make a snide remark about having more if he left Fethee behind. It was tempting, but no need to create pointless drama. “Nice job, during the whole thing.”

“You too. I would have had no chance,” Naran replied.

“Nice move with the Minor Temor there at the end to trap one,” I complimented Naran.

“It worked, but I don’t see how I can close the gap with just the Body stat,” Naran said with a sigh.

“For the golems, sure. But the next level 4, my skill might not pull through. I am more concerned by their range of attacks. We might see level 4 monsters with a similar appearance, but different attacks,” I replied.

“I wouldn’t count anything out. So, are we heading back to Purgatory?” Naran asked me.

“I am not that inclined to. Spending time in the city will only do so much. Better to focus on grinding. But our spot was found,” that was the frustrating part. I didn’t want to give up the spot we had right. There were two level 3 monsters we could both grind. If we changed spots, there would be the hassle of finding such a perfect spot again.

The fact the city was nearby in an almost straight line was a huge advantage to cashing in crystals. There were things that needed to be explored in other level 3 areas, like finding their dungeons to see if they were towers. But I wasn’t in a rush.

“I didn’t look back. Any chance anyone survived?” Naran asked.

“No. The golems would have finished them off. They seem to have a methodology of matching up combatants one to one, going from weakest to strongest based on total stats. So, golems would have broken off to kill the rest of Gertrude’s team and we saw seven afterwards,” I answered.

“Figured as much. What a waste,” Naran replied. I disagreed. The amount of information we gained was incredibly valuable. It also brought a smile to my face if the Ritualist poked level 4 monsters. They had quality and quantity and were relentless in pursuit.

It was honestly kind of scary how they didn’t tire in the slightest and just kept going after us. Well, we weren’t faster than them. That was the other scary part. The golems were still stupid. They had very bad targeting and teamwork.

If they had deployed in front and around us, it would have been a massacre. I needed to be able to kill a smart monster at a higher level before I dared take a level 5 fight. That kind of fight wouldn’t be simple either. My main advantage was out thinking my enemies, especially the monsters.

But in a fight between two equally intelligent beings, it would come down to stats and skills. I couldn’t expect to pull a victory through grit like I had. How would intelligence work on the higher level monsters if they knew they couldn’t win?

The monsters chased me, which gave me a huge advantage in terms of setting the tempo of our fight. But if I was forced to chase them, it would be a lot harder to win. It was kind of aggravating that level 4 monsters had both a power and intelligence boost at the same time.

In terms of power, it was coming to two steps after climbing single step stairs for a while. Intelligence was a separate scale than power, which meant there would be future leaps in monster ability. Each level up had to be taken extremely seriously going forward.

I smiled slightly. In the end I had won and survived. I wasn’t ready to go poking level 4 monsters to grind them right away. But once I knew their capabilities and behavior, it wasn’t out of the question either.