Chapter 202: Day 441 (2) – Back To The Grind

“Surprised you let him take control of the city. It is going to be a cesspool,” Naran said as we left the city back to our grinding spot. I wasn’t going to change it, despite the risk.

“I know,” I replied with a sigh. “Sam and his team aren’t good people, but it doesn’t matter. As long as the crystals flow to Purgatory, that is all that matters.”

“When he becomes another Ritualist?” Naran asked.

“He might become another Ritualist, he might not. But I can say that if manages to not get killed and organizes the city over the next 40 days, he deserves to be in charge. If he fails, then he fails,” I replied.

“And if he uses the city’s income to power up himself?” Naran asked.

“You haven’t been keeping up with the math, I see.” Naran winced a bit.

“You are the one that likes your spreadsheets and tables, they make my head spin,” Naran said.

“I can grind 120,000 points per day. The city can take in 250,000 points per day if they maximize the level 1 zones. With expenses, food, tax, and everything else, he will be doing quite well if he manages to get 20,000 points per day for himself,” I replied.

“And that is after he ramps up. Which would take a while, and by that time the lead you have is even more,” Naran finished.

“Exactly,” I replied.

“There is still the issue of if he tries to cheat the tax or do other things,” Naran said. I nodded at that statement.

“Let him try. He doesn’t have the intuitive genius of the Ritualist,” I said.

“And if he tries to assassinate us, perhaps moving to a new location?” Naran suggested.

“You know the area we have is the best. The mistlands and stonelands are too dangerous or too hard to transverse,” I replied.

“So, we stay,” Naran complained a bit.

“We stay. If we move, you will struggle. The blue force gargoyles are one of the best level 3 monsters you could face. I can take the white mind ones, and the tower is nearby to poke if we want to,” I added.

“Thinking about trying to grind the golems?” Naran asked.

“Yes. But I can’t bring a summon with me, without it being a distraction. Summoning one each time I reach the tower is waste of time and points, that is better spent grinding other monsters,” I answered.

“You might also trigger something new if you poke the golems too much. I don’t fancy another panicked run through the night,” Naran said.

“More like hopping, but yes, I get it. No poking the level 4 monsters until I can solo two of them at once,” I replied.

“More like three at once,” Naran said.

“So, there was something once I got 1,000 stat points in Regeneration.” I then explained what the store mentally downloaded into my brain.

“That is concerning, there would be some kind of limiter,” Naran said.

“But there might be something for other stats as well, at 1,000 stat points. You will have to let me know about Body once you hit that point. You aren’t that far off,” I said.

“I need more Mind. The bare minimum ratio to maximize high speed movement, seems to be a two to one ratio. I realistically need to get my Mind stat up to 500,” Naran said.

“You noticed something? I don’t have my Mind stat at half of Body,” I asked.

“It is a struggle to focus and maneuver my body quickly enough at high speeds. Might need to consider eye protection as well, for high-speed movement,” Naran added.

“Then I would need a higher Perception stat, since that would interfere with my sight. What an uphill climb,” I muttered unhappily, thinking about how many stats I needed. Naran and myself backtracked on the way we came to the city, so there were no monsters.

I had been away from Purgatory for quite a while, but no alert had been sent by Clarissa by damaging my property. Normal wear and tear didn’t count thankfully. Also, she had taken steps to make sure the guards and other employees didn’t mess anything up while they were in the building. She knew I would be very unhappy if I was recalled for no reason.

If an accident did happen, she would break something in the following hour and the hour after that. Since she was tied into the permissions, she would know if an alert was sent out. Trying for anything more complex wasn’t worthwhile. Better to just return and assess the situation firsthand.

It wasn’t like I could reply either. If travel distances ever were over two days, I would consider alternatives. Realistically I could cross a zone in an hour. In reality, it took about twice that at my current max speed, due to just moving on the terrain and avoiding monsters.

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If an alert was sent out again, Naran would remain with the cart while I rushed back at maximum speed and catch up as soon as possible. Or we could just abandon the cart? That could be a possibility as well. It all depended on how many crystals were in it. And there was a good chance it would be unlooted or wrecked until we returned.

For now though, we were going to keep grinding away. I didn’t have a specific number or time in mind. I felt fairly confident about fighting level 3 monsters. But there was still a risk. Going through all the level 3 dungeons, should carry zero risk.

It was the issue of compounding percentages. Even if there was only a 1% risk, if I took that risk 20 times, that was about 18% risk when all those percentages compounded together. That was why I didn’t rush to face new monsters or clear more dungeons. I needed to be more risk averse, the golems proved that.

Recovering from a mistake would become harder and harder, so I needed to go slower and slower. No matter how boring grinding the same monster was day after day. That was the only way to gather the power I needed in order to be able to survive.

Trying to rush things would only hurt me and put me in a precarious position. I needed to increase my foundation before I could begin to really investigate the dungeons in level 2 zones to upgrade my skills and to explore level 3 zones.

The big risk was the loss of power I would experience once Acid Shot was upgraded to the next level and most likely lost all the upgrades that had been applied to the skill to get it to this point. While the Almighty System hadn’t downloaded that information into my brain, my assumptions were squarely in the realm of pessimism.

That type of rushing into problem after problem was the mindset I had when I was panicking when I had come to the Systemic Lands so long ago. Now I needed to orient to a much more conservative and risk averse mindset.

Each battle with a level 4 was no longer simple. There would be teamwork and tactics. I assumed too much and wasn’t pessimistic enough. While I didn’t feel regret about Gertrude dying it was an avoidable mistake. Still, she had served the purpose I had first envisioned for people of the Union. Meat shields to explore and test monsters for me.

The recent run in with Sam had brought the incident back up in my mind. “You think Body will be limited by zone?” Naran asked me, interrupting my thoughts.

“Maybe. Predicting what the Almighty System does, beyond the math is headache inducing. It isn’t simple in the slightest. Any time I think it will zig, it zags. Better to not even guess or assume,” I replied.

“Fair enough.”

“What, what were you hoping for?” I asked.

“Well I was thinking I could fly by kicking off the air,” Naran said.

“Nope, that is impossible, well, I shouldn’t say that. But it will have to involve something other than kicking off air. If you are kicking off air, you will be sending out sonic shockwaves at the very least. Our speed is high, but we aren’t fighter jets,” I replied.

“Oh. You think there has to be something else?” Naran asked.

“Some energy nonsense, or a skill. We are probably going to get airships first. Urg, I need to test how far I can fall,” I said with a groan.

“Wouldn’t it be just how high you can jump?” Naran asked.

“No. That is regular thinking. The landings are always rougher and harder to time. You can jump up under your control, but when you land, you need to time that perfectly. That is the same reason we need a Mind stat to go with the Body stat,” I said.

“Fair. I was just thinking of things that I could try,” Naran said.

“Well the real game changer is when we can maneuver in a three dimensional space by leaping off the ground, then landing on the ceiling and leaping off of that. I am not looking forward to practicing that kind of technique,” I said. While I did train, it felt too much like exercise. I still needed to do it in order to fight in an enclosed space with a high Body stat. I thought more about how such movement would actually work.

“It wouldn’t just be one’s legs, one could use their hands as well. Get that Body stat high enough and there is a good chance you can punch into terrain to maneuver. Or use a hand palm to deflect yourself at high speed,” I speculated.

“Like parkour, only high speed, and much more verticality,” Naran said.

“Yes. I really don’t want to train in something like that, but it will be necessary. Fighting in a swamp or boulders, requires an understanding of three-dimensional movement. Also, the interior of the tower will probably be filled with traps and death,” I said. I didn’t want to see what the Almighty System came up with for traps. It would horrible, stupid, and unfair.

“Well, that will be fun,” Naran said. He was a lot more invested into physicality and the Body stat than me. I could speculate, but the higher the stat became, the trickier things would become. It came down to gravity having less and less of an impact on a person’s movement.

It made me wonder if climbing up the tower was possible. I had no doubt that the material it was made of was of the harder variety like the purchased city buildings. So, making handholds wasn’t possible and it was completely vertical. Still, there was the possibility of wall kicking one’s way up.

I thought about that. One would need to kick up higher and as vertically as possible without the wall dragging them down. High quality and possibly enchanted boots would be needed. The big danger was accidentally kicking out too much and then being stuck in free fall.

Also, what was even at the top? I would need to be able to survive terminal velocity, before I even considered something like that. Well, I had Air Burst, I would need to test leaping off of buildings and the Airship Port. Even more reason to have more energy in the tank with the Spirit stat. That was something that could wait for a while.

With everything that had happened, both Naran and myself were focused on how far the Body stat could be pushed. I thought of anime, and it was clear Naran was thinking in that direction as well. While it provided a guideline, there was a lot that was unrealistic, since the powers often worked on super strength, not force generation and nullification.

Regardless of the future, I just needed to take things one day at a time and keep grinding.

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