Chapter 63: Day 151 – Western Zone

“There, see it?” I pointed out the largish lizard that was laying down next to a couple of rocks in the deadlands.

“I see it now,” Ruth said while staring intently. I looked over at Tom.

“I am still missing it.”

“Acid Shot.” The attack hit the monster and quickly killed it. I walked over and picked up the crystal. “Like the scorpions in the shadowlands, not something I would want to fight head on. You think you would be okay on your own?” I asked Ruth.

“Not really, if I miss one, I would be in a huge trouble.” She shook her head.

“Well, it is time to make a push and do some exploration.” We quickly learned that the chameleon monster didn’t react to noise unless you were close. We swept our way to the West, and I took point in killing the monsters.

It took a bit of effort to spot them, but the chameleons were the size of a very large dog. Most rocks weren’t that big and once I focused on them, I would quickly make out the defining features like a tail, claws, or mouth.

It was mid-day when I noticed that the terrain dropped away. We continued forward to reach some large black stone cliffs with a swamp at the bottom of them. I estimated the cliff height to be around 100 feet, or ten stories. Quite tall but not to an insane degree.

We followed the cliff, but it began to turn to the West. “Up ahead,” Ruth said. There was a large boar or big monster that had black fur. It was about the size of a small car. It quickly turned to us.

“Acid Shot.” I hit it as it began to charge, the acid smearing over its flank. The monster stumbled heavily but didn’t go down right away. “Acid Shot.” I followed up and hit it in the head. It finally collapsed a short distance in front of me.

“That is disturbing, that it was resistant to the splash damage of my skill.” I had gotten used to it one shotting everything, even with a glancing blow. I walked over and picked up a 50-point crystal as the monster turned to dust.

“The sun is going to set in a short while,” Ruth said.

“I know.” I walked over to the cliff and looked down and out at the swamp again. Both the pigs and chameleons would be a hassle to deal with at night. I also didn’t want to camp next to the cliff. It would take too long to get back to the slime forest.

“Pigs, at least they are noisy and large. South, to get away from the cliff.” We went away from the cliff and black pigs kept showing up.

I called it a day on a small hill and cleared the surrounding area. Ruth had tried to take down a pig, but she only had two Acid Shots to cast from her reserves and that wasn’t enough. Mine were at a higher power, which was clearly showing its usefulness right now.

Without that upgrade, I would be burning through energy too fast to keep up. Even so, the double attack needed to take down the pigs, was not efficient. As I ate my food for dinner, I considered the situation.

“The plan?” Ruth asked.

“Thinking about it. There is probably a dungeon in the cliff or at its base if I had to guess. Dealing with a swamp is not something I want to do. The overall danger level and difficulty will go up another tick in such a place with that type of terrain.” Swamps were never low level or low skill areas. That was a big reason why I wanted to avoid them for now if at all possible.

“That means West more or to the South. Both the pigs and chameleons make for poor grinding in my opinion. I am more tempted just to push through the pigs to the South to the next monster area. Still, finding the dungeon here…if it isn’t in the swamp and we can get to it. A lot to consider.”

“All the monsters turn to dust?” Tom asked.

“Yes, why?” I asked.

“I was thinking about cooking up some BBQ,” he said.

“Hah, I wish. Anyways the monsters are probably poisonous or dangerous to people. If you wound one, eat it, then it dies, what will the monster dust do to you? What will happen if it becomes a part of your body? Some questions are better left unanswered.”

“A shame. You would just need the right kind of sauce. Now there is a business idea, sauce manufacturing,” Ruth suggested.

“Yeah, if anyone besides us could afford something like that. We are going to walk along the cliffs until the end tomorrow checking for a dungeon. I will reevaluate at that point.”

“Seriously considering it?” Ruth asked.

“Maybe, maybe. We aren’t equipped to go spelunking and I don’t plan on doing that regardless. But just knowing where things are will be a huge help.”

“Wonder how far the other cities are?” Ruth asked out loud.

“Probably further rather than closer. If we do run into anyone, I will speak.”

“Got it,” Ruth said, and I looked over at Tom who gave an affirmative. “You don’t want me to try and sound them out?”

“There are a lot of issues when we meet a new city. All the people showing up in Purgatory come from the US. Another culture, another form of government, any number of things could lead to conflict.” I shook my head. “I will need to assess them first. It makes a big difference if they have skills or not as well.”

“I guess, but sometimes showing a bit of trust can go a long way at putting others at ease.”

“I don’t care about that. It isn’t my responsibility to put others at ease. That is useless Earth thinking and you would do well to throw it in the trash where it belongs.”

“Really?” Tom asked and I glared at him. He quickly shut his mouth.

“Yes, really. As more people end up in cities, they will be forced to go to other areas to get points. Eventually the cities will conflict with each other, hence the city level upgrades. It is a guess, but the next big crunch will be the city crunch as the best spots are contested.”

“You sound so sure people will devolve to tribalism. I have a bit more hope than that,” Ruth said.

“After everything, well good on you. But if you share a single piece of information about me, including my name, history, anything, I will hold you accountable. This isn’t a place of happiness and kumbaya. It is a hellscape where people die, and power and knowledge are the currency of the day.”

“I get it, don’t worry. Just wanted to present an alternative viewpoint.”

“I need to rest due to the midnight walkabout I need to take.” I set my alarm on my watches and closed my eyes while leaning against the cart. I slowly altered the rate of my breathing and relaxed my throat muscles to snore lightly. I had gotten better feigning sleep with practice. It also helped that my need for sleep had been decreasing slightly. Might be the Endurance stat, I didn’t say anything, since that knowledge was worth an insane amount if it was true.

“Is he always so…intense?” I heard Tom ask Ruth quietly.

“That was him being nice. He is right, this place isn’t nice, and everything seems to be pushing people into conflict.”

“Then why did you bring all that up?”

“Because he needs to hear it at the very least. I don’t want the role, but I am stuck with it. Making sure he doesn’t become too depressed or off kilter. You need to start stepping up more if possible.”

“I-“

“If you want to live you need to. That man is broken in so many ways. If he ever goes crazy, truly crazy, we are all dead and he wouldn’t blink an eye doing it. I think he knows it as well, that is why he tries to stay away from the city.” Well, that was rude. I am not broken, just making decisions. You don’t like those decisions, so I am broken. Minus points Ruth, minus points.

There was a long stretch of silence while I carefully managed my breathing to not give away, I was listening in. “What should I do?” Tom asked.

“Agree, but don’t be afraid to purpose other ways of thinking or ideas. Don’t complain either, he hates that. Finally, if you plan to go after him, don’t. If you miss, the fallout for everyone isn’t worth it.” Nothing I really disagreed with. Ruth knew me well enough to know what would push my buttons at least.

“I see.”

“No, you don’t Tom. Think of him like a war vet still fighting with lots of PTSD. Trigger something and there will be violence and tears.” I wasn’t that hair triggered. I debated if I should speak up or not. This was annoying, but it was also the image I had cultivated with my actions. Complaining about it now, was like trying to put milk back in a cow.

“Regardless, you will soon figure things out. Get some sleep, you will need it tomorrow,” Ruth said.

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“Sure,” Tom replied. I changed my breathing pattern slowly and then drifted off to sleep.

I woke up to beep and quickly got to my feet and switched off my watches. I stretched and saw Ruth get up as well. Tom kept on sleeping. “Surprised you are getting up with me.”

“Need to make this a habit,” she said, and I nodded at that. Some common sense at least, not to leave her life in someone’s hands during the middle of the night. At least if she was awake and things went badly, there would be a chance.

I began a circuit around the camp, keeping a look out for black furred pigs that may have spawned. “Acid Shot. Acid Shot.” I took one out and picked up the crystal. I finished my circuit around the camp, taking out five more of the monsters. I came back to the cart where Ruth was keeping guard. I had gotten the respawn time down to an exact science.

I took my seat, leaning against a one of the cart’s wheels, with my shield next to me. Nothing needed to be said as I fell asleep once more.

I woke up predawn, wishing I had uninterrupted sleep. It wasn’t worth the risk unfortunately. It was still dark out as I gave Tom a light kick and began to get my breakfast.

“Uh, wha-“

“Wake up. You need to be a lot more alert. You didn’t even wake up during the night,” I said.

“Don’t look at me, he is right. Got to kill the monsters when they come back.”

“When they spawn or re-spawn.”

“What?” Ruth asked.

“The correct terminology is spawn.” I began to peel my morning orange. “Monsters spawn, they aren’t born or come back. They spawn.”

“Is it that important?” Ruth asked.

“Words are important, meanings more so. We are at the cutting edge of our field, so it is important to maintain the proper terminology for future people. Monsters spawn.” With my knowledge I should be called a Doctor of Systemology. Dr. Michael did have a nice ring to it and my mother always did want me to become a doctor.

“Alright, if you say so. Tom, they spawn in the middle of the night, so we killed them off. You didn’t even wake up.”

“I…no one said anything.”

“There isn’t much hand holding out here. I also believed I talked to you about this. Even if you can’t do anything at the moment, you need to develop good habits. No matter how tired or exhausted you are, you need to wake up in the middle of the night,” I said.

“Why not watches?”

“Again, they spawn in the middle of the night and the monsters so far don’t patrol that heavily. They might maneuver around a small zone, but they don’t go beyond that unless you pull aggro. Think on it while you pull the cart today.” I popped an orange slice in my mouth, delicious and sweet as always. The store did good work.

“These pigs aren’t good for me,” Ruth said.

“I know, I don’t like them either. Too tanky. Still, we will follow the cliffs some more today and see what we see. Then we will push West after that. See how far we can get.”

We soon got moving again and I took out pig after pig. We were forced to pause when my energy got low and take a break like yesterday.

We reached the cliff to the North of our campsite and then followed it to the Southwest from where we had turned away from it before.

I routinely checked over the edge as we advanced. That was when we came across brown furred pigs, just as big as the black ones, but less resistant to my Acid Shot. It took me one attack to kill them and two from Ruth.

These were doable to grind on unlike the black ones. It made me think there might be some type advantage going on like Pokemon. What was the opposite of acid? A base? Just throw a fortress at the pigs. I shook my head at the bad joke I had made up.

That was when we came across a large swathe of cliff covered with vines. It was hard to get a look over the edge, but I made an effort. The vines rose up from the swamp below and covered the cliff face. “Acid Shot.” I targeted one of the vines.

A chunk of it melted, but the rest still clung to the cliff face and slowly began to move towards us. “Opinion?” I asked Ruth.

“It is something, you thinking a dungeon?”

“You see a cave in the cliff face?” I asked.

“No, but there are some sections, I can’t see.” I nodded at that as we both looked over the cliff edge at the approaching vines. “You want to spend the day here?”

“Yes, the vines are quite interesting and the only thing we have found out about this cliff that is remotely interesting.”

They covered about a quarter mile, or a third of a kilometer, of the cliff face and I melted off many of them along with Ruth.

“There.” I pointed at the large green bulb halfway down the cliff face. Ruth took a look. Then off to the side.

“Another one,” she pointed out. I saw the other green bulb and had to take a moment to think.

“Dammit,” I cursed once I realized what this meant. It was so stupid, but nothing I could do. “Acid Shot.” I aimed at one of the green bulbs. The outside smoked heavily but it didn’t melt away like the vines had. “Acid Shot. Acid Shot.” I targeted the same area twice more.

After taking the attacks the bulb detached from the wall and began to float in the air while acid dripped off of it. “Back!” I shouted and quickly retreated from the cliff face. Ruth didn’t hesitate and quickly retreated back towards Tom who was waiting with the cart.

There was a sudden massive burst of wind, and the bulb was floating just above the top of the cliff. “Acid Shot!” The bulb spun, creating a wind vortex and the acid hit it. Most of the acid from my skill was blown away leaving only slightly smoking areas on the outside of the bulb.

Flying plants, that was cheating. There was another burst of wind-

-I was rolling across the ground trying to make sense of what just happened. “Acid Shot!” Ruth called out. I got to my feet and noted that my iron shield had a dent, and the bulb was floating where I had been.

“Acid Shot.” Our attacks hit its spinning form. The monster was oval shaped about the size of a table. I didn’t let up. “Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot.”

It finally collapsed to the ground with a thud and began turning to dust. “You, okay?” Ruth came over to me.

“You get the name of that truck? Thing hit like a base.” I spun my very sore shield arm around to try and mitigate the pain and soreness I was feeling. “Without a shield I would have been paste.” I walked over to the crystal and picked it up. It was larger and slightly clearer than a 50-point crystal.

“I also believe we just defeated our first level three monster, the cliff bulb.” I handed over the crystal to Ruth to look at.

“How much you think it is worth?”

“Most likely 500 points, which would be my best guess. But the only thing we can do is wait and see. The real question is, to try and kill the rest?” I looked up at the sun, it was mid-day. “Let’s take a break while I think for a bit.”

“Sounds good,” Ruth said, and we went back to the cart, and I began to chew on a carrot.

“What was that?” Tom asked and I just waved my hand at Ruth to let her explain.

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