Chapter 279: Day 585 – A Meeting And Progress Report

Turning in the points at Neo Brasilia had been easy enough. Governor General Sam was managing the city well enough and there was no trouble from the guards. Even as I cashed in bag after bag of level 4 points, no one interfered.

I had been thinking there would have been an ambush. Or Death would have showed up. I still wasn’t sure about that one million point mark, but I had put it to bed and then some. I had spent day after day killing level 4 monsters with one use of my skill. This had allowed me to pass the limits of all common sense that I had before in terms of earning points.

The Astrologer had given me a massive shortcut and advantage. One that I would exploit as much as possible.

The number of points I had earned was astronomical. I made sure to refill my health insurance plan up to one million points, just to be on the safe side. Then I purchased 2,700 stat points for around 61.1 million points.

Body-650 (+100); Mind-400 (+100); Spirit-2,500 (+2,000); Perception-400 (+100); Aura-400 (+100); Regeneration-1,100 (+100); Endurance-200 (+100); Absorption-200 (+100) for a total of 5,850 upgrades. The next stat point would cost 29,350 points, a far cry from the original 100 points the first stat point had cost.

While it wasn’t doubling my stats, it had been a huge leap in power from my perspective. I had put most of the stat points into Spirit, like the Astrologer had requested, but still spread the rest out. I wanted to raise up all my stat points regardless of the Astrologer’s request.

What had decided this for me was his statement that the base stats of a level 5 monster were beyond me. That meant I needed to raise up my base stats. While it was tempting to keep going for Regeneration, my grind speed was quite good already. I was honestly more concerned about my low Body, Mind, Aura, and Perception stats.

Having more leeway across all stats was not a bad thing, even if it did slow me down towards the Astrologer’s stated goal of 5,000 stat points in Spirit. The biggest change had been crossing the thousand stat threshold for Spirit. I could now sense the energy within me.

“Michael,” I heard a familiar voice call out and looked up at the sky as the Astrologer floated down towards my camp that I had set up outside the level 3 zone. I would push through it tomorrow and it had taken quite a long time to get back to the city. I wasn’t going to travel through the mistlands at night.

“Astrologer,” I greeted the fake person. I didn’t ever want to forget this key fact, no matter how real he appeared.

“So you have, hmmm, I would guess 2,500 in Spirit?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“And you invested in other stats,” the Astrologer let out a sigh of frustration. “You don’t fully trust me.”

“Even with all your help, which I am grateful for, it would unbalance me quite a bit.”

“Time grows short and it is too late to berate you about your poor decision,” the Astrologer said.

“And how did you mind me?” I asked.

“I regularly check on your progress and had an estimate of your supplies. Now onto more important matters. Spirit, listen closely,” the Astrologer said, and I paid close attention to what he was going to say.

“I already explained energy to you. Thought given form, form given thought. Spirit is your energy that makes you, you. It makes it a lot harder for curse damage to take root. That is why tricks like consumption are faulty. Damaging your own energy is the worst thing one can do.” At least I was right about the drugs and ingesting crystals. A small victory.

“It allows you a wider scope of items you can purchase from the store. You have to hold the thought of what you want in your mind. The System provides templates, but you can mentally adjust those templates. That adjustment will be easier.”

“In addition, you can now shield yourself for brief periods. You sense your internal energy.” I nodded at this. “Then focus on letting go of your grip over it. It will leak and it will be scary. Reign this in. Your control will snap rigidly back in place. Eventually you will be able to maintain a layer of energy outside of your body.”

“Isn’t that what Aura is for?” I asked.

“To some extent yes. But Aura has a much wider range. This technique is less about imposing your will on the world, which is what Aura does, but creates an energy shield. This will stop attacks before they reach your body, like mental attacks. It won’t be quick or easy and you will probably need 5,000 Spirit before you can sense your energy well enough.”

That meant the Astrologer had at least 5,000 Spirit. That was not a small number. “Practice every night after grinding. You won’t be able to maintain such a shield while you sleep or are in combat yet, but you need to practice this.”

“To free you,” I said.

“To free me yes. Mind’s innate mental defenses are a poor way to go about defending from mental attacks at the higher levels. It is the last line of defense. One you should not rely on. If the Mind stat fails, you will be wounded severely.”

“What about the other stats? You wanted me to put stat points in Absorption next? To absorb the energy in the air?” I asked.

“Yes, but you lack control to risk something like that. Let me test you and not spoon feed you. What do you think will happen if you just absorb energy from the air?” the Astrologer asked me. I considered the question thinking back on everything he had explained and that I had thought of.

“I would be cursed. There is no easy way beyond what the Regeneration stat does, to create my own energy,” I replied.

“Regeneration is something one can manage on their own at the higher levels. The higher you climb, the more you need to specialize in stats. Regeneration is one of the most useful stats, but also one of the stats you get the least value from. Direct absorption of energy is far better than anything else. Also with a high Spirit, you can fake the Channel stat.”

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“But not as good as the stat itself?” I asked for confirmation.

“Of course not. Raw energy techniques are where true power lies and what you need to free me. It should go without saying, that what I told you is incredibly valuable. Worth millions and possibly billions of points.”

“Which is why you didn’t step forward earlier, hoping I would get a meta-point to bypass this issue and knowledge,” I countered.

“Yes. Again, there is no point in my lying at this juncture. The living tumor inside the Divine Empress grows weaker by the day. It is only slight, but she has found it and is wearing it down. Even with all my tricks when I implanted it into her brain, she has seen through them.”

“How soon?” I asked.

“No more than 500 days for sure. Probably not less than 100 days. But I can’t speak to a specific timeframe. I have to limit using resonance to sense it and the strength of the living tumor ebbs and flows. But time is limited.”

“How much Absorption will I need?” I asked.

“At least 1,000 stat points, but probably 5,000 as well. Realistically, we will have to make the attempt when you have 2,000 or so, maybe less.”

“That is 4,300 more stat points. It is doable within the next 100 days or so,” I said while thinking about my grinding speed. “Is there any other requirement besides these two stats?” I asked.

“Besides the training, no. I can handle the combat when we make the attempt, while you focus on surviving. It won’t be pleasant, and I won’t have any strength left, when we make it to our goal, but I can make a single trip.”

“You don’t sound hopeful,” I replied.

“There was a reason a meta-point would be far better than attempting to work around the issue like this. Stats are like Legos. Great at building a foundation and a tall tower, but terrible for anything abstract or coloring outside the lines.”

“And the Almighty System won’t be upset with this?” I asked.

“No idea. Don’t look so surprised. I don’t have conversations with it, just educated guesses like you have developed.” He was looking through my notebook. “You don’t have anything I care about. You are using the equivalent of black powder muskets on the tech tree, while I have machine guns. There are a lot of steps you still need to climb.”

“Up front about violating my privacy. You sure don’t hold back,” I said and shook my head.

“The truth is a powerful sword I use to cut to the heart of the matter. I tried my manipulations from behind the scenes, but they weren’t working. Now trust is the only way forward. It is not my first choice, or second choice, but my last choice.”

“Trust. Anything else?” I asked.

“No. Just remember to practice every day. Do not try absorbing energy. Once you get that stat high up enough, I will explain in our next meeting,” the Astrologer said.

“Really? Not ready to just tell me now. Trust?” I challenged him. He let out a light chuckle.

“I could. But I know you. You are already thinking about not rescuing my main body. You don’t take the threat of the Divine Empress seriously.” I nodded slowly at that. If he wanted bluntness, I could oblige. “I would be doing the same thing. So, I will tempt you with knowledge each step of the way.”

Dammit, he knew my critical weakness. “Alright, you got me there,” I replied.

“A good salesperson knows their target audience. I won’t lie and say it will be easy, but freeing me is important enough that I am willing to reveal information that is beyond valuable. Consider this but a taste of what you can grab.”

The trick was to not die in the process. I knew the Astrologer had something devious planned. It was so obvious that it might as well be dancing around naked and flashing neon lights in the middle of a nunnery. The problem was that I had no idea what he had planned, and I wanted this knowledge.

I was a drug addict and the Astrologer had become my dealer luring me to a dark end. We both knew this but I couldn’t say no as long as he kept spoon feeding me. I was sure when the time came to act, he would offer something completely irresistible, and I would struggle to turn away from being trapped.

Still, I would do it. I would dump the Astrologer and his plans in a heartbeat. Until then I would milk him for every drop of knowledge as shamelessly as possible. It wasn’t like stats and powering up myself hurt me. The techniques he was teaching me might have a critical weakness, which I wouldn’t use around him, and I would watch for long term affects.

“Take care Michael, until next time.”

“Astrologer,” I replied and gave him a nod as he floated away and disappeared. If he was Ajani then he also had a way to physically shift between layers, since she, it, whatever the Astrologer was had been covered in acid at the time.

The perfect escape technique for someone as troublesome as him. He wouldn’t lie to me but tell me the truth as he led me to my death. I just needed to pull off the highway of power at just the right time before I crashed.

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