Chapter 99: Day 242 – Gains

“That. Is too. F-ing cold. I think my bits have frozen solid.” I shivered as I sat next to the cart. Naran was there as well.

The grinding had been going well so far, but it was boring and cold. Oh, so cold. Every piece of my body felt like it was going to die.

While the initial restoration didn’t have a high cost, I was sure the next one would. There had to be permanent damage. The cold never seemed to leave me anymore. “I think I might be cursed,” I muttered.

“Want a fire?”

“Yes. I am done.”

“We are heading back?” Naran asked.

“Yes. Getting back a day early or so, doesn’t matter. I am done with the cold. Everything is frozen.”

“Well, you wanted to save the wood for a celebration,” Naran said as he got a fire going. I got in close and let the heat wash over me. The cold was bone deep.

“It is a nightmare. It just sinks right into your body. I will need to boost up all my stats.”

“Well, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“True.” I sat next to the fire enjoying the oh so needed heat. Hell was cold, and cold was hell. I shivered again. Screw grinding here. I didn’t want to deal with this again if I didn’t have to. It was a good spot, just the environment was incredibly brutal.

“So, two days to get back?” Naran asked me.

“Well, we have the rats, then the bear sloths, then all three dervish types, so it will be a slog. You can handle the bear sloths, so we can rotate there. For the dervishes, I will have to deal with them. It will be a pain, but hopefully we can make it fairly quick. I say two days sounds about right.”

“Good to hear. We will be getting back just in time, not a day early.”

“The most important people always arrive fashionably late. Give everyone a bit of a scare when I don’t show up.”

“Really?”

“Well, if the place hasn’t burnt down, then it shouldn’t matter. I just don’t want to come back to a mess. You want to stick around after that?”

“As a cart butler.”

“Yes, you made quite a lot of crystals and got two skill points.”

“Very true. I suppose it isn’t all bad. How long is the rest for?”

“Probably leave day 251. At least that is the goal. As for where? Well, I will have to talk to Laura and see what has come up while I have been absent. Also, the convention is going to give me a huge headache. I can just tell.”

“The one you got started.”

“Don’t remind me. Give me the credit when it is over, but just thinking about it, and the stupid arguments and the stupid people. It is enough to make me want to keep grinding. Not here though. Screw the cold, give me boring meetings over that any day.”

“Make the convention in the cold. Agree or freeze.”

“I wish, but threatening people…well you know.”

“It doesn’t work forever. Eventually people forget,” Naran said. He understood at least. That was why I liked him. He had to deal with the nonsense that came with being in charge of a city. That could be the name of the team, City Squad, only city leaders or ex-city leaders allowed.

“Well, I trust Ken has things well in hand.” The fire was finally warming me up. Still a chill persisted. The nights were the worst as I shivered under the blankets. I had been tempted to ask Ken to sleep next to me, but the smell. Nope. Even if he was fairly good looking, I would still say no. The grunge was real.

I could deal with my own personal grunge. I couldn’t deal with another person’s grunge. We sat in silence, and I contemplated all the crystals I had earned. A total of 20 days of cold grinding. Very cold grinding.

I did two loops. Once in the morning, one in the afternoon, each loop was 6 hours long. I earned an average of 60 tier 3 crystals per loop. That was 54,000 points per day. I now had 1,083,600 points of tier 3 crystals I could cash in.

I planned to purchase 919,500 points worth up stat upgrades, or 200 of them to be precise. I was still debating on how to distribute them. I needed more stat points everywhere. I didn’t want to risk falling behind in any area. I really hated the scaling. I remembered when the first stat was only 100 points.

It had seemed so much then. Now they had reached the cost of 4,100 points. Still, I needed more stats to tackle level 3 areas. Also, I would be able to think about the swamps. Nope. I didn’t want to go through water. Nothing was worse than that cold, but swamp water, just no. Ok, cold swamp water could be worse.

I had quite a bit of 50-point crystals as well. Spending money for some new clothes, upgrade my home. It could really do with some serious upgrades, but that would cost points. I needed to speed up my grinding and I was rarely there. If anything, I should invest in a bed for the cart. I could only shake my head at such foolishness.

I looked up at the stars as the fire was mostly coals now. “They look pretty,” I said.

“Yeah. They don’t change at all though,” Naran replied.

“Well good to confirm that at least. This place is just…” I let out a long sigh. “So going to set up a dance troupe?”

“No. That kind of thing is fun and keeps me in shape, but no one would want that here. Who would hire me? Not like there is any entertainment venues. Why, you interested?”

“Just thinking about other options or things I could do.” It was boring to grind away all the time.

“Like?”

“Well, I grew up playing the piano. I was terrible at it of course. My head is for math, not music. But I always felt bad giving it up. It would be nice to take it up again, as a hobby. Besides the endless killing and grinding.”

“You want to do something besides grind. The person who plots out their grinding efficiency and keeps tracks of percentages and all the other stuff you do in that book of yours.”

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“Don’t ridicule the book. Monster distribution is a very important thing to consider especially as you correlate that between different levels, environments, and monster types.”

“Yeah, that. Well, good luck. Doubt there will be any pianos available.”

“I checked. No instruments.”

We were silent for a bit and then Naran began to clap and then sing. While there was no music, it was to the rhythm of an Irish drinking song. I sang the refrain with him and then he did the first two verses.

“Ahhh, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hi,

My adventure in front of me,

Dark as could be,

The time of my life,

The monsters scream loudly!

It started to shake,

I needed to yeet,

Boy it was so horrible,

There go my feet!

Oh, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hi.”

Now it was my turn.

“I asked what is the matter,

Are you feeling fine,

That is when I screamed,

When you poked my behind!

I kicked you in the face so quickly,

Right out the door,

That was your mistake,

You started walking sore!

Oh, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hi.”

Now back to Naran.

“You took me to the pillar,

You led me to the guards,

You took me to the monsters,

Since my pain wouldn’t stop!

I just kept screaming,

People looked on in surprise,

That was when I knew,

That I was nothing in your eyes!

Oh, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hi.”

Back to me.

“Now no one pokes me,

My behind is safe,

But I just need to be sure,

To make sure I brace!

I will live on in history,

What is a guy to do,

When you are famous,

Just don’t poo!

Oh, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, hidie, ho!”

We began to chuckle. It had become something we had started doing. Singing very bad songs as night fell. We had talked about mostly everything, so singing stupid songs were a great way to pass the time and insult each other.

We were terrible at first, but we had gotten better and better. No, we were the champions of very poor Irish drinking songs. We just needed some drinks to go along with the singing.

We sat there in silence just relaxing after a long day. I felt a tremor.

“What was that?” I said and quickly stood up, looking around.

“What?”

“There was a tremor. A tremor in the ground.” Naran had gotten up as well and was looking around.

“I don’t see anything. You sure?”

“Yes. I am sure.” Maybe it was my imagination. But something just didn’t feel right.

“Lantern?”

“No, I want full night vision.” There was another tremor.

“I felt that.”

“What is causing it?” I muttered. I got down on all fours, took off my helmet, and put my ear to the ground. I waited. I heard a deep thrum in the ground and felt a deep fear. Like I had to run away right now. I took a deep breath and slowly stood up.

To move or not to move. It was dark and traveling would be incredibly dangerous. “Naran.”

“Something is out there,” he whispered back. I had never been that scared of the night in the Systemic Lands after I had understood how they worked. Now fear was gripping me.

We waited in silence the rest of the night. The fear slowly went away and there were no more tremors. It was terrible. I was constantly on edge, tired, and still felt cold.

“We should move,” Naran said.

“No. Whatever this is, we haven’t seen anything. The only thing of note is the tremor and the fear. Nothing else. Think. Really think. If there was a powerful monster, why would it bother doing something so petty?”

Naran was silent and I continued. “Whatever is causing this, wants us to run. Wants us to be afraid. I suspect a trap. We run, and then into a pit or mouth we go. It would be a powerful combination. Fear to make people run, and earth moving skills for a pit. Slowly build up the pit, while fear is built up.”

“That…that makes sense.” I hope it did. I was gambling with my life. Naran’s life also, but he didn’t matter into my decision making when my life was on the line, except as a meat shield and combat support.

The sun, or light source, slowly began to come up in the East. I looked towards it. Oh shit. I didn’t want to die. Almighty System, time to move your uncaring ass and deliver your one true believer.

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