The Systemic Lands

Chapter 235: Day 520 – Slime Swamp

I had camped out at the edge of the swamp the previous night and set off first thing in the morning. I was not about to be stuck in a swamp in the middle of the night again.

Acid Shot. I took out a large level 2 brown slime floating its way towards me as I kept plowing through the stagnant and smelly water. After this, we could hopefully stay away from swamps for a while. I wasn’t hopeful, but I was just about done with them.

Oh, a large green slime now, new monster type. Well, I was getting somewhere. Acid Shot. Lots of poison gas was emitted as the slime died. Luckily none of that gas was in range to get me. Slimes may be many things, but fast wasn’t one of them.

It would be interesting to see what a level 3 slime looked like in the dungeon. I would have seen one monster of that type from level 1 to level 3 then.

It was midday when I finally came across a lake, filled with scum. I followed the edge of the lake North and soon spotted an elevated hill with trees around the perimeter. It reminded me of the leaf beast temple from the zone near Heaven.

Looking around while I let my energy recover, I saw the lake was in the shape of a crescent. Oh, hello level 2 slime. Acid Shot. Like pustules floating across one’s skin. That was how slimes appeared. At least they weren’t under the water. A small mercy. If that was the case, there would have been no way for the assassins to have run from Truth to Purgatory through this swamp without dying.

Still, nothing would change how bad swamps were. “Air Burst.” I saved a charge of the skill and waited some more while my energy recharged. There was no rush. The return trip would be fast since there would be no slimes in my path and I could spam Air Burst without having to worry about my energy.

After this side trip, I would be letting my feet dry out and napping on the roof of my house like a lazy cat until day 525, when Naran would be ready to head out again. That was a lot of napping. I had time for one more day trip.

There was that ruined down to the Southwest with the dervishes. Or I could go to the Southeast and deal with the mimics there to find the dungeon. There were options. It was kind of freeing not to have a cart or any company.

Naran had the right idea. A vacation like this was needed. While I didn’t mind having company and Naran was great, we needed our space. Like how living and working in the same environment with a person just naturally built-up stress and drama. There didn’t have to be anything bad happening, but the drama would build up regardless.

Well time to focus here and now. Level 3 monsters were dangerous enough that I had to pay attention unlike level 2 monsters. I went towards the elevated grove of trees scanning everything. Acid Shot x3. I killed several level 2 slimes and kept moving forward.

Acid Shot x 3. More level 2 slimes. Oh, there were the big boys. The level 3 slimes were the size of an RV. They were also a combination of green and yellow. I counted five of them. Unfortunate, since I would have liked to know what kind of crafting crystal they dropped.

Acid Shot x5. I targeted them all at once. Fluid began to leak out, but then quickly stopped. Blasts of light and heat came at me as the super slimes advanced. They then began to emit clouds of green gas, pushing themselves forward.

Still, they weren’t that fast. Acid Shot x2. I targeted one super slime twice over. It turned to dust. So, some resistance to my skill or a way to stop it, but not enough. Air Burst. I jumped and went above all the slimes. Acid Shot x8.

The remaining four were dusted and a skill crystal appeared floating above the ground in the center of the grove. Not bad at all. I went over and gave the skill crystal a poke. My two options were Radiance Burst and Poison Burst.

I frowned at that. Both were close range area of effect, AOE, type attacks. Both very good in my mind for dealing with lots of small monsters grouped together. Still, I only had 3 skill slots and wasn’t about to switch any of them out.

Well, I might switch out Aqua Sphere. It was an okay defensive skill, but not the optimal one I would have picked. I kind of wanted to replace it with a very sturdy forward facing single use shield. Still, a shield that could stand up over time and could move with me was useful, but how useful for level 4 combat was the question.

Skills that focused on what they did well were better than skills that spread themselves out. At least that was the feeling I had picked up so far looking at all the skill options. I also needed a very good utility and healing skill in my mind to be balanced in terms of skills.

I considered Air Burst again. With prep and hold, it wasn’t such a big deal if it wasn’t silent and gestureless. I frowned at that. No, that wouldn’t work, since I wanted all my skills to be silent and gestureless. It allowed me to use multiple skills at once, which was a huge advantage in fast paced combat situations.

I didn’t dare increase the cost of Air Burst above the current 50 energy. That was a tenth of my reserves and I didn’t want to risk it costing any more. I felt I was at a good point in terms of the cost of my skills. Increasing the cost anymore was too much of a risk without the necessary energy to back me up or to help me grind.

The three choices for Aqua Sphere were power, speed, and cohesion. I had already picked power and speed. I picked cohesion this time. Aqua Sphere could be my test bed of various upgrades. I used it so little I could look at some crazy combinations to plan out my main two skills better.

“Aqua Sphere.” The skill cost 50 energy to use initially and then 10 energy per second afterwards. I moved and the skill moved with me. It was a good defensive skill, but it impaired my vision. I leapt into the air and water formed underneath me. When I landed back on the ground the water was swept away.

I let the skill drop. There was no obvious difference. I would need someone else to use another skill against it to test how cohesion helped. Based on the name of the upgrade, I would say that the energy maintaining the skill was less likely to be disrupted.

Leaving the slime grove, I began making my way back towards Purgatory before it got dark. I was going to reach the gates as night hit, but it was better than being in the swamp at night. “Air Burst. Air Burst. Air Burst.” I shot out of the water and soared a small distance before splashing back down.

A skill that nullified gravity would go perfectly with Air Burst. It would really change combat up. But the cost to maintain it would be a nightmare. I was going to focus on getting my stats up to 1,000 across the board and Spirit had moved much higher up on my list.

I needed energy. Long drag out fights had shown that having a huge tank of gas was important. At a certain point I could just overwhelm any level 4 monster with volume of attacks and just spam them out. At one Acid Shot per second I needed 120,000 Regeneration which wasn’t practical.

But having 1,000 Spirit meant I could run and gun for 50 seconds. Double that to 2,000 Spirit, I could run and gun with Acid Shot non-stop for 100 seconds. The resistance to the void zones was also a factor, but I had been underestimating how important a big tank was.

I was focused on Regeneration for grinding, but in high level combat, the tank I had mattered much more. I was also hoping for something interesting once I put 1,000 points into Spirit. Preferably good, interesting like Body and not bad, interesting like Regeneration.

I exited the swamp at the light source was approaching the horizon. I set off at a much faster pace through the forest. Now that I had solid ground and no water around my legs, I could move. I wanted to get out of my wet clothes and get some sleep.

As I ran, I thought more about my stats. I was convinced more than ever, that getting everything to 1,000 stat points was key. It was some kind of threshold. Then there would be the new stat once the store upgraded.

Based on the information from the people involved in consumption the next two stats appeared to be energy sensing and energy manipulation to use active enchantments. No stat beyond those two had shown up, but it might be subtle like Aura.

I felt a bit of vindication since I had not indulged in crystal powder. While the Almighty System was many things, it had safeguards in place. I was not about to go past those safeguards. The summoning I had done was the most I had been willing to do, since it was too useful to ignore, and I wanted to understand the Ritualist better.

After the 1,000 benchmark for all stats, I had no idea what I would focus on. Regeneration and Body were the safe choices, but Spirit and Mind were quite useful as well. There was always a chance that one of the other stats would give me a surprise.

The bad things about all of this, was that Naran would have 5,000 Body and 2,500 Mind by around that point, completely outclassing me physically. That was the problem with being a generalist. I covered all my bases, but it left me critically weak in specific areas.

That was why I was still debating things over and over in my head. Regardless, I wasn’t changing the 1,000 point plan. I wanted a base level of competence in each area, so I wasn’t completely helpless. There was a real risk that Naran would live himself open to a mind attack or another skill.

Even Aura was useful for resisting the environment, which would be critical in level 4 zones. So, the difference might not be that exaggerated. I mean he was having mental affects and taking time to recover, while I was getting more skill points.

It was just getting dark when I reached Purgatory’s outer wall. I reached the gate where soldiers of the RMPF were standing guard. They quickly saluted me. I returned a lazy salute back. I was never in the military, so it was hard to understand the dynamics around saluting, but I figured giving one back was respectful enough.

I entered Purgatory without issue. There were several people in gray outfits milling around. I got some looks as I raced off back to the center of Purgatory. Time to get cleaned off and have some dinner. Hopefully the next store upgrade gave out some meat. I really wanted meat and not meat from hybrids. That was disgusting and creepy.