The Systemic Lands

Chapter 272: Day 543 (2) – A Cursed Injury

That was the worst request he could have asked of me. I considered it carefully though. “And what would you have me do, if you can tell me?” I asked.

“I can easily tell you, so you can weigh the risk. To charge straight into a level 4 zone and believe you can win an impossible fight. Then win it without any help or guidance,” the Astrologer said.

“That sounds stupid and pointless, but clearly there is a reason, again, one you don’t want to tell me, because of reasons you don’t want to explain since explaining will hurt me in some way,” I replied.

“Knowledge can both be a blessing and a curse as I have discovered. If I could unlearn things, I would. But that is not the case. Instead, you must trust me and go beyond.” I shook my head and the Astrologer let out a sigh. “If you will not sacrifice, then why should I? The harder and longer path is your choice, but so be it.”

“Tell me, Michael trusts me, and I can make the determination if he should know or not,” Clarissa said, and I considered the offer. The Astrologer’s hooded head turned towards me.

“It is possible, but knowing what I know, will ruin you, Clarissa. Perhaps you will find the strength to overcome the setback you will suffer, but even my Valkyries, were never able to overcome the knowledge once known,” the Astrologer said.

“I…Michael, what do you think?” Clarissa asked me and I wasn’t sure.

“What is wrong with Naran?” I asked another question since I needed to think about this issue with forbidden knowledge some more. “You mentioned the wound is cursed and you can fix it. Why can’t I fix it using crafting crystals? What exactly is a curse?” The Astrologer appeared content with going along with my change in topic.

“A free lesson then. Consider it a sign of my sincerity that I will answer these questions that are quite valuable. Energy is thought given form. Or form given thought. The difference between the two is interchangeable. Not all thoughts are tangible, just like not all physical forms are tangible. There exists at least two separate layers of this world that we reside in currently.”

“Those void zones are physical gaps between layers. I can’t say what would constitute a higher or lower layer, probably the amount of energy, with the lower layers having more. A human cannot cross this boundary and live. The Ritualist used a technique of forcing his tethers into the higher layer to avoid the basic sensing and disruption techniques. The City Shield draws from the lower layer, flooding the area with a certain form of static. This is what disrupts normal tethers, but struggles to impact higher level tethers, and only impacts their entry points in and out of this layer of energy that we physically are in.”

“For a human being, our energy represents us on this plane of reality. Our physical form and our mind, both conscious and subconscious shapes the energy within us, and the energy within us provides context to various abilities, stats, and skills. This is how a restoration works. It takes the idealized version of ourselves, that has been shaped by our concepts and creates a template.”

“I know you are wondering about pre-existing conditions and why a blind person can regain sight. Or cancer is healed. The simple answer is that the System or Almighty System as you call it, gives a nudge at the start. It has a very good idea of how a human body should work and all restorations initially target this ideal. After that, there is no further help or direction provided.”

“That is why mental illnesses aren’t touched in the slightest beyond fixing the brain tissue itself. The System doesn’t want to limit the range of mental criteria it screens for. I don’t know its end purpose, but it clearly wants a wide range of people here.”

“Now back to what a curse is. If you lose an arm, your energy that makes up you, knows you should have an arm. If someone got a restoration, then lived in the Systemic Lands for over a thousand days after having lost an arm with no further restoration, it would not restore properly. Their energy would slowly shift over time to match their physical reality, with no outside guidance from the System.”

“Ten days is normally the recommended time frame from my experience for any kind of injury, before it leaves lasting impacts. What Naran has suffered is a damage to his energy, that is reflecting onto his physical body, not the other way around. A cursed wound.”

“Since restorations use one’s own energy as a template. Damage to this energy cannot be fixed by a restoration. The template itself is damaged. One’s concept of self has been altered on a fundamental level. To fix this, the offending energy must be removed. Often this is difficult to impossible and requires a specialized technique.”

“I can use this technique at a cost. I would force my energy into Naran, force the offending energy out, then disperse the energy I spent. Since this is not my real body, such a decision is costly. Physically cutting away the affected parts will help slightly, but the most serious damage is to his energy.”

“You could mix energy types, but that is a gamble at best. What your doctor did was the best thing he could have done. Acting quickly was key to avoid as much contamination as possible. A combination of the life and flesh-self type to heal and strengthen Naran’s own energy to an extent. But too much of those types, would create their own problems.”

“To illustrate how fundamentally damaging curse damage is, I struck the Divine Empress with such an attack. She struggles with it even now and it is the greatest roadblock to her climbing up the levels of power. Damaging one’s energy of self, is the most idiotic self-destructive thing a person can do long term, no matter what benefits it might bring in the short term.”

“The energy sensing, consumption, and even summoning to some extent outside the System all do this. Most of the time this is minor, and the damage slowly heals or goes away. But if you stray too far, then the System itself considers you dead. That is why store access is lost. A person’s energy is no longer recognized by the System.”

“Which could be an argument about losing one’s humanity, but that isn’t clear cut. Each person has a mix of natural energy types. Straying too far from that mix loses one access. But getting the mix back doesn’t restore access. Once lost, the store is lost forever.”

There was silence after the Astrologer’s long speech on energy and curse damage. “What about a combination of surgery and using crafting crystals?” I asked trying to think of a solution.

“Again, it is the problem of diluting Naran’s energy. Imagine Naran’s energy is yellow sand, and what the Ritualist inflicted on him is green sand. Pour the green sand on the yellow. The ground is constantly shaking, so the sand slowly begins to blend and merge.”

“So, you have to hurry. Physically changing things would be taking a shovel to the sand. Bits would be left behind and still mixed together. Also, you can only cut someone up so much before you take that critical bit of sand. What your doctor did was like taking a hose to the sand. It blasted off a lot of the green sand, but left water behind, sinking into all the yellow sand and mixing up what remained behind even more. The best solution since you couldn’t just shovel the sand away and it was quick before it blended too much.”

I thought about the Astrologer’s metaphor. “What if we wake Naran up and have him get a restoration? To give him time to let his own energy recover?” I asked.

“That is just pouring more yellow sand on top of the yellow sand that already exists. The green stand will still be there and there can only be so much sand. In time the green sand will spread out, dilute, and eventually disappear, but with a cursed wound to the head, the color of the green sand might bleed into the yellow sand around it. The mind, it would affect the mind, which would affect him.” The Astrologer expanded on the last bit after he saw the confusion on my face.

“Trust is not so simple. You would ask me to go right into a level 4 zone, without a question and win,” I responded.

“Yes. But I know you won’t accept. That is why the long and hard path that might not even work will focus on increasing your Spirit stat. If it gets high enough, you might be able to attempt a rescue, but it will be a struggle and this city will probably be wiped out when the Divine Empress makes a move,” the Astrologer answered.

I had two options, neither of which I liked. Agree to follow what the Astrologer said, and he would help Naran. I would not be able to learn whatever big secret he was keeping. It would be high risk as well. I didn’t want to go into a level 4 zone, but I also felt that the Astrologer didn’t want to kill me before achieving whatever goal he had in mind, which might be rescuing him. Or it might be for this will of the Astrologer to take over my body. Or for him to move in and set up shop if he was lying about everything.

The second option was to have the Astrologer answer my questions and explain everything in detail. But he would not help Naran, and this Divine Empress would have a good chance of acting before I completed whatever plan the Astrologer had cooked up to free himself.

“What about fleeing? To the East Bastion? To escape the Divine Empress?” I asked. The Astrologer shook his head.

“She knows of its existence. You don’t seem to understand. She has only been stopped once. The rebels in her territory amuse her. Some even speculate that the rebellion is led by one of her people to draw out anyone with rebellious thoughts.” That was going full Emperor Palpatine right there.

“A combination of factors keeps her in check, but something will give. Either she will decide to really test me. Fix the cursed damage I did to her. Or advance to a point where her power allows her to ignore any threat. It isn’t a question of if, but when. Back to fleeing, she would sweep across the land once she took control.”

“We could hide in the wilderness and sneak back into the cities?” I suggested.

“That is possible. But she has diviners which will be carefully watching. You would have to live in level 3 or level 4 zones to truly remain hidden. Or a dungeon. All of these things would be discovered in time as she accumulates more and more power.”

“The only counter to her is my main body. Even then it would be a difficult fight that I might not even win. Since there are no more Valkyries to aid me and her power will have only grown.” I frowned at this. It seemed we were in a no-win situation. I didn’t like how the Astrologer was pressuring me to make a choice.

“Now you understand my frustration and exhaustion. I have no more good options. I have only you. To come here and beg while trying to make you understand the scope of the problem that now descends upon us.”

“What about a bomb, or an assassination attempt? I mean we gather up all the crafting crystals we can and just bombard her, if she shows up?” I asked. The Astrologer bent his head down and placed it into both his palms.

“The stupidity. Oh, please help me, the sheer stupidity I must deal with,” he muttered loudly. I looked at Clarissa who shrugged. The Astrologer kept his head buried in his palms as he elaborated on his answer to my idea of bombing this Divine Empress to death.

“You haven’t experienced a true high-level fight. You saw my play fighting with the Ritualist and your fight with him was just kids fooling about. A true high-level fight is a terrifying thing. This is something that cannot be explained right now,” the Astrologer replied, throwing up another roadblock to getting the answers I wanted.

“What about hybrids and drowning her in numbers?” Clarissa asked.

“Again, it is pointless at that level of combat. She fights at a high level 4 if I had to estimate from our last confrontation. Michael here fights at a high level 3. The jump from level 3 to a level 4 fight is not simple. I would estimate that she is now a low level 5 fighter or getting very close to that point. Me, right now, I would consider myself a low level 4 fighter with this projection.” I noticed he didn’t rank his main body.

“But I killed the Ritualist, and you didn’t,” I countered. Why was he looking down on me so much?

“Killed him? You wore him down and trapped him due to his own hubris. Pathetic! Weak! Ignorant! The gap between level 3 and level 4 is greater than you can imagine.” The Astrologer brought his head up and swiped a hand to the side. “Bah! Words are wind. High level combat is more than smacking people and don’t ask.” This again.