The Systemic Lands

Chapter 29: Day 46 – Connections

I was bad at dice. I lost 30 crystals yesterday afternoon but had no complaints. I purchased a second fruit and vegetable platter when the first one ran out. Another 15 crystals to get my shoulder and head worked over by some amazing fingers.

In total I spent 163 crystals in one afternoon. I had suggested a salon, or place to cut hair as another business. Carlos looked interested in that after seeing how ragged people were getting. I promised I would pay quite a bit if there was someone decent. I could see other people who had been listening in look interested as well.

It was a great afternoon, but something I didn’t plan to repeat any time soon. It was all a lie. A nice lie, but a lie of safety and comfort. I could kill wolves every day and make enough to live like that, but it was just asking to go soft and die.

I couldn’t afford to lose my edge after I worked so hard to reach this point. So, what, if I had to sleep in empty buildings with only my pack as a pillow? So, what if I had to hunt monsters for days on end by myself? That was the price I had to pay to stay at the top.

I had pushed myself so hard at the start, but now there were temptations. I had to hold off as long as possible. If I gave up now, I would hate myself forever. After all those deaths, that pain, and the suffering, I couldn't just coast by.

Still, I was okay with the break and stimulating the economy a bit. A bigger economy would mean a greater demand for crystals, which would mean more grinding, more taxes, and then a Store upgrade.

I stood at the gate to the grasslands. Time to check out the last adjacent area to the city. I left the city and noted the grass came up to over my waist. That was not good. Anything would be easily able to hide out here.

The grass was shorter near the wall, but quickly grew up to its height away from the wall after a couple of meters. Unfortunately, monsters did not appear near the city. I spent a couple of minutes just looking out over the tall grass waving in the gentle breeze.

The weather was so nice, it was hard to think about the fact that it never changed. Maybe if I got to the rain biome or the snow biome, I would curse at the sky. With this nice weather, I just enjoyed the sun, getting some Vitamin D.

I didn’t like the tall grass. The more I looked at it, the more I didn’t like it. I had just glanced at it the last time I went by, but I hadn’t given it much consideration. It was a problem for future Michael. Now I had become future Michael and it was now my problem.

I swung my sword at the grass, and it bent rather than being easily cut. I wouldn’t be able to see the ground, that far beyond my feet. Seeing monsters before they attacked me was a huge advantage. It allowed me to defend myself and be prepared.

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This grassland was just asking for sneak attacks. The only upside was that the ground was hard and not swampy. I just kept looking and thinking, but the only thing that changed was the position of the sun and the occasional drifting cloud.

“Steel balls,” I muttered. This place wasn’t going to get any better. I slowly made my way out, straight from the gate, checking each footstep. Every couple of steps I banged my sword against my shield, hoping to lure the first monster to me.

I spotted some grass moving slightly to my right. I oriented myself in that direction. To the left now. It was zig zagging towards me. I readied my shield. A brown blur came out of the grass, right for me. I moved my shield to intercept.

The blow was light. From my experience with the wolves, I stabbed around my shield at the monster. I felt my blade hit some and pressed down and forward. I took a look at the monster, and it was a tiny wolf, a mini-wolf, midget wolf? It had the same gray and brown coloration as the ones in the forest.

It quickly died and I looked at the grass. No more movement. I picked up the crystal and thought this development over. The smaller wolf was less dangerous but a lot faster. With the tall grass it was more dangerous in my opinion.

Honestly, I had been expecting rabbits, just another reminder my guesses weren’t always right and to be careful about assuming. I walked back to the city and then began making my way to the to the South. I had a hunch and wanted to see if I was correct.

After way too much walking, I saw the grassland transition into the pine forest. It was a pretty abrupt transition. I then began to walk along the boundary. I encountered both types of wolves, but it was easy enough to kill either of them without the tall grass blocking my vision.

I reached the top of a small hill and looked at the city. Since the land was gradually sloping down, away from the city, I was still about the same height as the base of the wall despite being on top of a hill. I looked out over the grassland.

I noted some rocks off in the distance. Possibly some ruins. It was hard to make out. That was probably dungeon number two if I had to make a guess. Looking off past the grasslands they kept going, with a haze covering the far distance.

This was the farthest I had gazed in this land, so it was hard to tell if the haze was the result of a biome, an overall limitation, or a limit due to my Perception stat. I wasn’t inclined to push more, until I could easily handle the wolves and the nearby dungeons.

The wolves were like dumb meat missiles. I could only shake my head as I killed another. This would be a death sentence without a shield or if they mobbed a person. Hitting my shield with my sword to pull them was a key tactic to draw them towards me and not get enveloped by multiple monsters at the same time.

This tactic wouldn’t work on something like the slimes that were as slow and ignorant of their surroundings as a bunch of rocks. The real danger was something that wasn’t pulled by noise but was fast like the wolves. This would let multiple enemies engage me at the same time. Or large groups of enemies. Everything so far was either by itself or just one other monster, outside of the dungeons.

It seemed less like larger groups and more like overlapping patrols. Still, with my sword being able to kill them in one hit each, I wasn’t pressured that much. The bigger wolves were easier to hit. Not that I had missed the small wolves.

I reached the city wall and checked the position of the sun. It was a short walk to reach the gate. I had managed to gather up 218 crystals. An okay haul and I confirmed a new monster, dungeon location, and that the gates were just gates and not portals.

I made my way back into the city. No one was at this gate. No motivation or drive, people were useless. I could only shake my head at that. Well maybe I was being a bit hard on people, I had been grinding the slimes for quite a while before moving other areas.

The real challenge was that there was no clear path forward or strategy guide. I really didn’t want to fight more tiny wolves. Fighting two or three at a time in the grass could get quite sketchy. They had enough of a jump to be quite dangerous.

The slime dungeon was a no go due to the sheer cost and needing a light source. There were the deadlands past the blue slime forest. But if this place was on game logic, the monsters there were above wolves based on difficulty based on the distance from the city.

It was for the same reason I wasn’t that interested in checking out the biomes past the other areas around the city. I didn’t want to go to any of them. I could only shake my head at my hypocrisy. The same fear I was feeling, was the fear everyone else felt, but in the areas I had already checked.

That was the bad part of a soft and educated upbringing. There was a greater aversion to risk taking with one’s own life. There was also the sense of fear of being out here alone. While I could deal with it, it wasn’t something I could ignore.

I thought about the path I had chosen, and quickly let that line of thinking drop. I had already gone over my actions, there was no point in uselessly going back and rethinking even more. Time to think about the future.

I did some quick and dirty mental path and figured it would take a bit more than 40,000 points to bring the Body stat up to 100 points. That was 57 upgrades. I winced at the sheer cost. If I was able to get 300 slime crystals a day, without expenses, that was about 27 days, so call it 30 with expenses. That was a long time and a huge investment into Body upgrades.

I would have preferred to be a wizard, but the Body upgrades had the most notable impact on my performance. If I could increase my take to 600 crystals a day, then it would only take half the time. I then considered my pack. If it was filled to bursting it could only hold about 2,000 crystals at most.

I needed someone to pick the crystals up for me to really maximize my speed. I kind of wished for a quest board to put a notice up. Recruiting, one crystal picker and torch carrier. No cowards. High pay, high danger.

Even my last foray into recruiting people at the fifth arrival didn’t go well. It was troublesome. That meant it was time to leverage my connections.

I went to sleep and got up early the next day. I made my way to the plaza. The guards perked up at seeing me. Word probably got around that I was rich and a decent tipper. I went up to the Captain with the red armband.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Good morning Sicario.”

“I need someone to pick up crystals for me and keep up. They would get 20 crystals a day. Know where I could find someone like that?” I asked. He appeared to grow thoughtful as he considered the question. He then shook his head.

“I am sorry. People might go with you to blue slimes. Anywhere else…well, you are Sicario.” He then shrugged a bit and I let out a long sigh.

“What about someone desperate, willing to do anything to survive?” I asked.

“Those people get driven away from the plaza or killed. Same thing.”

“No guard or Captain that wants to make more crystals?” I asked.

“Not that desperate.” He looked at his men and they all looked away.

“Alright, can you pass a message along to the other captains and the Red Dawn?” I asked.

“Of course, Sicario.”

“Any captain who can bring me someone in three days on the day of arrival, I will give 20 crystals. If that person can keep up, doesn’t complain, doesn’t cause a problem, and lasts at least five days. I will pay that captain 100 crystals.” I pulled out 10 crystals and handed them over to him.

“You got that?” I asked.

“20 crystals for a person three days from now. They need to keep up, not complain, not cause a problem, and last five days and then the captain will get 100 crystals.”

“Good. Now two more things. The person will get paid 20 crystals a day if they meet my requirements and be on my team, so free from the tax. Second, if there are multiple options, the captains can figure out the best person to volunteer. I will be annoyed if I have to find another person or there is no one to come with me. Got it?” I asked.

“I got it Sicario.”

“Good, good.” I left the captain and went to the pillars. I cashed in 209 crystals, leaving me with a reserve of 50. That put me at 4,802 points. Nowhere close to what I wanted or needed. I quickly left and made my way to the pine forest biome with standard sized wolves in the South. Time to get a lot more crystals.