Chapter 292: Day 630 – Dungeon Rush (3)

“Good morning Champion Michael,” the man from the night before greeted me.

“I never got your name,” I said while sitting down for a cold breakfast he had prepared.

“My name’s Jeff. Used to be a Vice General in the RMPF,” Jeff said. I recalled that Gerold had promoted him after Truth had been taken. It felt so long ago.

“So you spy here in Esperanza now?” I asked.

“Spy, sabotage, assassinate, and assist people like yourself,” Jeff answered, and I nodded at that.

“Why leave the RMPF?” I asked.

“Not as many opportunities I felt. Disagreements with other Captains. A lateral move was possible, so I took it.” Clarissa was clearly doing a good job in personnel management. I decided not to pry. My guess was that Gerold’s faction had fallen out of power once Smith had died. I had no idea about how the RMPF was handling the day to day. That was Clarissa’s problem, if I got involved, people would get melted. Tyrese being assassinated had made that very clear.

“The message?” I asked, since I had cleaned up and went straight to bed the previous day.

“Already taken care of. One of my people here was dispatched immediately with the news. I have requested reinforcements, but keeping our operations secret has not been easy,” Jeff explained.

“How so?” I asked out of curiosity.

“The number of patrols has increased inside the city after a couple of assassinations that have been carried out to destabilize the city. We have also inserted a couple people into the arrivals to slowly undermine and report on city operations from the inside,” Jeff told me, and my eyes went wide.

They really were going all out. It was honestly impressive. “Well hone those skills and stand ready. The Divine Empress will be making a move eventually. No idea when. But it won’t be long. Are procedures in place in case that happens?”

“Yes. To hide and gather information on any movements. Hold off on sabotage until Purgatory falls, then we are authorized to act independently,” Jeff explained. Good, Clarissa was on top of things. I knew this but it was good to have confirmation. We would move towards full guerilla warfare and insurgency once Purgatory fell. We had no direct counter to the Divine Empress currently.

That counter was supposed to be me, but I was far too weak. I hated this feeling. I wanted to stand on top and other people run like the rats they were. Now I had to be a rat and scurry away. I finished off my breakfast and stood up.

“Good job Jeff. I will try to get the ability to fight the Divine Empress, but she is beyond even me, by at a full combat level at the very least,” I said with a sigh. He nodded slowly at that.

“I understand. An assassination attempt?” he asked me.

“Doubtful. She will most likely have over 5,000 in each stat and over 20,000 in Body. Her danger sense and speed will beyond anything. Also with the Sense stat, she will perceive primed crystals. Still if you come up with something, I won’t say no,” I answered.

“Thank you for explaining Champion Michael.” I nodded to Jeff and then left.

I quickly left the city over the wall and raced to the Southwest towards the dungeon of the zone at coordinates (-4,-2). It was still dark out. More than enough time and get to the next one by noon. Also, there was no one around to give me trouble either which was nice. While I hadn’t slept as long as I would have wanted, even that bit of rest was helpful to clear my mind.

Even with my stats, I still needed to eat and sleep occasionally. I had been keeping an eye on how Endurance and Absorption were affecting me. Absorption was clearly affecting my appetite. After increasing the stat to 430, I had been eating about a third of what I did before.

It had been about a half when the stat had been at 100, but had now gone to a third. Would it just level off at a point or would I be able to go without eating? With Endurance cutting down on the need for sleep, I could eventually reach the mythical full deek grind. No breaks, just grind, grind, grind.

That was one thing I knew I could beat any snotty Divine Empress in. No one could out grind me. I was the master of the grind. I raced into the swamp and past ostriches. Really Almighty System? The monster didn’t even work that well in the swamp environment, since they sort of bobbed along. They were plains type animals.

I shook my head at the Almighty System’s arbitrary decisions in some things as I raced for the center of the zone. A large dead tree, which was a terrain feature and most likely the dungeon based on past experiences. I raced up the tree, killing the ostrich monster that tried to bite me. They were way too slow.

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After clearing the boss monsters, I gave the skill crystal a poke. It offered me the skills Force Bite and Dust Bite. Who would ever want to bit people as a skill? Or even worse, monsters? That would be the most insane and vampire combat method ever.

The upgrades I could pick for Air Burst were trajectory, shape, and size. I went with the pick I had done for the third upgrade, size. Air Burst. I shot off the tree towards the East, with a bit more speed to my body. A minor boost, but I would take everything I could.

I raced to the East and eventually exited the swamp and into the next zone with the striped rats. I quickly killed them as I raced forward. It had been a long time since I had been here. Not since Death had chased me to Esperanza.

That was a big loss in so many ways. I didn’t want to think about the lost meta-point. It pained my soul. I leapt off a cliff. Air Burst. I landed in the valley as rats poured out of holes in the ground to kill me. With a wave of Acid Shot I easily cleared my way forward to the pit dungeon.

I checked the sky and my watch. It was just past mid-day. The dungeon should have reset. People had tried being inside a dungeon during the reset, but the monsters didn’t form until everyone had left. Like the dungeon was put on hold. It would be a valid place to hide out. Clear a dungeon and then camp inside it.

Entering the dungeon, I unleashed Acid Shot again to clear the way forward. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all drenched. Now this was dungeon clearing. Just unrelenting attacks to pave a path forward. I didn’t bother to pick up all the level 2 crystals. It occurred to me that was a way a high level person could be tracked. Crystals they don’t bother to pick up.

I entered the boss room, quickly finishing off the super rats. I poked the skill crystal. Dust Bite and Poison Bite were the offered skills. Absolutely terrible. I picked prep and hold for my eighth upgrade. Air Burst. Instead of 100 seconds, I got a 100 minutes of saving up the skill and could use the skill while a charge was saved up.

Stacking similar upgrades was a powerful boost. Even though Air Burst cost 100 energy, it was more than worth it, getting all these upgrades. Unlike Acid Shot I didn’t need to spam this skill. I quickly left the dungeon and raced for the third dungeon I would be clearing today. There would be two tomorrow and hopefully reaching my grind spot before it got dark.

One thing that was confusing me was that the silent upgrade for Air Burst had made it completely silent, but Acid Shot got words added to it when it was upgraded to level 3. This made me reconsider the gestureless upgrade instead of getting another silent upgrade.

It was possible that the lower cost for upgrading a skill to the next level was offset by an increase in the speech and hand sign requirements. That wouldn’t be strange. A level 3 skill normally cost 50 energy, but after bringing Acid Shot up to level 3 with no cost upgrades, it cost 40 energy. A small but important difference.

If I didn’t need hand signs, then I would have a massive amount of mobility and I was using hand signs for Acid Shot. Only one skill between the two should have hand signs at a time, so I could use both at once in combat. That was key to my fighting style. It would greatly speed up my ability to move and attack at the same time.

I entered the next zone, killing wispy bearsloths. I just ran past them or used the occasional Acid Shot if they were in the way. Eventually I came to a ruined temple in the distance at the end of a long crack from the void zone to the South. I called it a temple since it was shaped like one of those circular Greek temples, but there was no iconography.

I entered the ruined temple and quickly killed the giant crab boss monsters. I gave the skill crystal a poke. The options were Scatter Mind and Decay Ray. They were both really good options. I actually hesitated to consider not taking this skill point. But in the end, I chose to get the upgrade. There would be countless more zones and more skills.

I couldn’t afford to be picky right now. I was here to get upgrades, no matter what the skills were offered. I picked persistence as the upgrade option for Air Burst, which matched my fourth upgrade for the skill. This upgrade would allow me to go just a bit further when using the skill.

I practiced with Air Burst as I raced for the city of Neo Brasilia. I could only hope that Purgatory would not suffer the same fate. But that was unlikely. No matter how I played a confrontation out in my mind, there was no way to win against someone with massively higher stats.

It was the base level of performance that set them apart. They could out pace me easily, so I couldn’t even depend on a counterattack. They would do circles around me and easily kill me. That was not counting their skills or whatever meta-point they might have.

The Astrologer had mentioned he thought the Divine Empress had a passive skill from her meta-point. But that seemed too simple. Still, it might be her style. To just focus everything into Body and crush people beneath her fist.

That was the problem with fighting a pure body build. Once they reached a certain point, they would be untouchable. Even though every 100 in a Body stat after 1,000 used up 1 energy per second, it would not slow a dedicated fighter down.

That Null Field skill fight prove useful, but even Naran had managed to recover. I could see several mental attacks, overlapping Null Fields and other skills might touch a body fighter. But then Perception would kick in and they would maneuver out of the way, too fast to easily target.

Only mental skills were line of sight. And the Divine Empress would have a high Mind stat to go with her Body stat to control her movement at high speed. I just kept running into dead ends in each mental battle I played out. Overwhelming power, was overwhelming power for a reason.

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