The Systemic Lands

Chapter 204: Day 498 – The End Of A Grind

We had just finished turning in the points for our latest grind session at Neo Brasilia.

Body-550 (+50); Mind-300 (+125); Spirit-500 (+300); Perception-300 (+125); Aura-300 (+125); Regeneration-1,000; Endurance-100 (+50); Absorption-100 (+50) for a total of 3,150 upgrades.

Naran was doing quite well also.

Body-1,200 (+380); Mind-600 (+340); Spirit-100; Perception-100 (+30); Aura-100 (+30); Regeneration-100; Endurance-50 (+20); Absorption-50 (+20) for a total of 2,300 upgrades.

I had chosen to spread my stat upgrades out much more than Naran. He was choosing to go very heavily into Body. It was paying off. He was clearly out classing me in terms of movement and reactions. If we fought for real, I would have to be very careful not to exhaust my energy trying to counter him while he rushed in to close the distance.

We hadn’t poked the level 4 golems again. I was in no rush. Building up stats was far more important. I wanted to raise up my Body and Mind stat a bit more first. Mind was critical, to maximizing the use of Body. It hadn’t been obvious before, but with the testing Naran had done and what I experienced myself, a low Mind stat with a high Body stat would just a juggernaut.

A dumb brute who could only break through walls, without being able to react or adjust. While they would be very strong, they wouldn’t be making the most out of their Body stat. It was the same with Regeneration and Spirit, a synergy between the stats. Except for Body and Mind the connection wasn’t readily obvious.

The mental slow down effect only really kicked in when one was moving at high speeds. It wasn’t something that could be toggled on and off no matter what Naran and I tried. It was also exhausting as a moment stretched out longer and longer.

There was also an interesting development when Naran hit 1,000 in the Body stat. He got a mental download allowing him to better control the force generated. A heightened control over his Body. There was also no zone cap like there had been with Regeneration. Instead using the stat above 1,000 consumed energy.

The amount consumed was very small. At most Naran lost about 1 energy per second, for every 100 stat points that Body was over 1,000. And that was only when moving as fast as he possibly could during that time. Kicking off the ground and hopping through the air only used the Body stat for a fraction of a second.

In other words, while a high Body stat individual would need some Spirit and Regeneration, the requirements were quite minimal. But it would still take away points away from solely investing into those two stats.

It was interesting how the Almighty System was really forcing people to invest in all stats. Body to survive. Mind to think fast enough and resist mental attacks. Spirit to have energy to use. Perception to spot hidden monsters. Aura to resist environmental and magical effects. Regeneration to gain more energy. Absorption and Endurance, to reduce the need for food and sleep respectively to explore further from the city.

That was another reason why I was investing in all stats. With two stats hitting 1,000 and something new happening, there was probably something similar for the rest of the stats. Good or bad, it was all new information. I was more determined than ever to bring up all my stats to 1,000 before specializing.

That should put me on par with a level 3 monster and allow me to go toe to toe with a multiple level 4 monsters. At least, that was the goal.

I hadn’t realized it before, but the store in the city had been upgraded to level 3 for 100,000 points. Apparently, Union teams liked their comforts and gear. It seemed like a waste of points, but Clarissa was cracking down on taxes now, so I it wasn’t worth making a fuss. Laura already took the heat for that issue.

It did raise the question if Laura had some kind of long-term plan to take other cities and suppress Purgatory in some way. I didn’t think she would do that, most likely the upgrade came from people with too many points and not enough common sense.

Governor General Sam was doing poorly, but the city hadn’t imploded yet and he was still in control. But he was killing a lot of people to keep order and make people work from what I could tell. I didn’t care. There was a reason I didn’t want to run a city. It was a trap for people who lost their nerve.

Sam would never sit on the Immortal Council with the passive mindset he had developed. Gertrude had been better, but not enough. You had to keep that hunger, that drive, to reach the heights Naran and I had climbed up to. Getting to 1,000 stat points cost only 2.6 million points. Getting to 10,000 stat points, cost about 260 million points.

It had to be more than a job, or a hobby. It had to be your life, your focus, your mantra. That was why we hadn’t gone back to Purgatory and had kept grinding, day after day. I felt filthy, I smelt filthy. I suspected that the grunge was going to come alive any moment.

We made our way North. It was time to return to Purgatory for a vacation. After that, it was time to explore and fully map out the boundaries of our little world. While I wouldn’t be poking any level 4 zones, I would look at them from the maximum distance possible. I was honestly curious what types of terrain would show up.

It would also be a chance to locate all the dungeons and monsters. To really begin work on equipment. I had high hopes about the type chart Elliot had developed in all this time. Also, Doctor Katz probably had found out all the secrets of summoning and hybridization. Clarissa will have trained up a team of special forces through the power of consumption. This would let me know the short-term effects at the very least.

There was the Ritualist who had disappeared and Ruth who was hiding somewhere. Probably Esperanza, if I had to guess. On one of my previous returns to Neo Brasilia I had told Sam to keep an eye out for her and if he found her and let me know, there would be a reward of 100,000 points, or a trip to a dungeon in a level 2 zone.

It wasn’t my first choice to explore, but I couldn’t kill another gargoyle or go back to another long session of grinding. Mentally I was just done and Naran felt the same way. I had never worked for so hard, for long in my life. Still no abs unfortunately, even if things were quite tight. Maybe they were hidden under the grunge.

“How long of a break?” Naran asked.

“A couple of days at the very least. Let’s plan to leave on day 505. Give us a chance to unwind. A small vacation,” I answered. We were making good time. Fethee had gotten enough Body upgrades he could keep going for a while. Still no complaints. Either he was a hard worker or scared shitless that I would kill him, maybe both.

“Well, I plan to try to melt myself in the shower,” Naran said. He had a lot of facial hair, but it was trimmed. But with a thousand in the Body stat he could turn off the force nullification. That was probably the best use of getting the stat that high.

In comparison I was still pulling out each facial hair one at a time. The hair on the top of my head, Naran spent a while hacking downwards with a sword very close to my head, to get the worst of it off. While it had been tempting to go right for a thousand stat points in Body, I had spread out my stat points.

I would need an acid enchanted knife, to melt through my hair. If it could. That would be a good way to test Aura and how much skill damage my body could resist. It would be a hassle, but well worth it to get a proper haircut.

“I will enjoy some good food, put my feet up just lay around all day,” I said. A massage wouldn’t work with my high Body stat. That got me thinking and I had an alternate idea. Something to enjoy while my eyes were closed while sipping a sweet drink.

“Well, don’t bother me until day 504, unless Purgatory is burning down,” Naran said.

“Trust me. Space is never a bad thing,” I added. While we got along, we had spent a long time together. We were best friends but having a break would be nice. There was only so much we could talk about or train. Eventually things became mentally boring.

I was kind of surprised Naran had lasted as long as he had. But that was what I liked about him. He understood the reality of the Systemic Lands. Stepping off the path of grinding for a long period of time was admitting defeat. Even this vacation felt like a minor retreat, but it was needed to recover our sanity and kill the smell that had attached to us.

I felt a bit bad for whomever was going to have to clean my armor. The worst part once I noticed the smell, it was impossible to unnoticed it. That was the weird thing about Perception. If I wasn’t paying attention, I could miss something, but if I focused, I got all the information. Some information was better left unknown.

The underclothes had been swapped out a couple of times, but it was still rough. It had been tempting to set up a house in Neo Brasilia for showers or to impose on Sam. However, I didn’t want to get tied down like that. While other people might waste points upgrading the city store, I wasn’t going to waste points, or spend them on something I had to learn to deal with.

Once we traveled further from the cities, I had to learn how to deal without showers. Also, I had to learn to handle bad smells. I didn’t want to pass out at the first monster with a body odor. The fact that Perception was based on focus and Body could be mentally adjusted at 1,000 stat points, gave me hope for the other stats.

The higher the stat, the greater the control or granularity, which made sense. When you could only go from 1 to 10 miles per hour in a vehicle, you didn’t need different gears. But when you could go from 1 to 200 miles per hour in a vehicle, you needed a lot of different gears.

The same principle applied with stats. Regeneration was a clear one to one ratio. There was no penalty from having too much either, just filling up the tank provided by Spirit more quickly. Spirit, Aura, and Mind were the stats I was interested in seeing what happened once they hit 1,000 stat points.

The base level for stats in my mind, then I would need to focus on specializing a lot more. Specifically in Regeneration and Spirit, with the goal being to spam an upgraded level 3 skill. Once I could do that, then I could grind level 4 monsters and possibly face a level 5 monster.

It was nice to have clear benchmarks in my mind for my future.