Chapter 37: Day 57 – Nope!

Chapter 37: Day 57 – Nope!

The grassland turned into shadowlands. The closer I got to the next biome, the darker the sky became, and the grass quickly died off. There were scraggly bushes and rocks sticking out of the ground. The weather should not be determined by the biome and there shouldn’t be such a quick transition either. It was less than half or mile or about a kilometer before there was a transition area to the next biome.

Crazy game logic. The number of small wolves had been quickly decreasing and I kept my eyes peeled for the new monster of this area. I banged my shield and saw something moving towards me. That was very big scorpion. It was the size of a large dog and the barb on its tail was the size of an arm.

It was also armored. It was moving toward me fairly quickly, so no waiting and seeing the tactics it used. “Acid Shot.” The ball of acid hit the brown scorpion dead on. It actually let out some noise. A pitiful screech and collapsed to the ground. It then turned into dust. I went over to the crystal.

It was the size of a 50-point crystal. Ok, these things were insanely dangerous based on the crystal given out for killing one. Far more than I had initially thought. Still, they were alone, and my magic skill could easily kill it in one shot.

I then began a zig zag route, only occasionally heading into the scorpion’s area while mostly working to clear out the small wolves in the transition area and the grassland nearby.

When I called it a day, I had managed to grind out 448 small crystals and 8 medium ones. I was going to start labeling that way, until I found more denominations. Might as well leave room in my nomenclature for large and super large for the future. It was biggest haul to date. With each medium crystal being worth the equivalent of 10 small ones, I had grinded out a total of 558.

I made sure to spend my night away from the scorpions and the transition area. That place was incredibly scary without magic. Armored, fast, with three means of attack, and probably poisoned, that thing was insanely dangerous. The medium crystals only confirmed that.

Swords would have a hard time penetrating the armor and shielding against three different attacks would be a struggle. You would either need magic or to swarm the monster from multiple directions. Even then its legs were weapons in their own right.

The difficulty scaling was ridiculous. If the number of points implied a ten times greater threat, then what were the monsters like above the scorpion and super slimes? It was a worrying thought. Still, the only thing I could do right now was to rake in the crystals.

When I returned to the city, I wanted to have a large amount. I was also leaning more towards Regeneration, than Spirit. Then I could really start plowing through the tougher monsters. I would need a lot of Regeneration though.

Realistically, I felt I needed about 200 total upgrades in Regeneration, to gain back 2 energy per minute. The next 90 upgrades alone would cost about 75,000 to 80,000 points. The cost of a well-furnished house. The next 100 upgrades after that would cost around 130,000 to 140,000 points.

I was becoming a glass cannon. That felt weird after all the upgrades into Body. I could move easily enough, and my body was a fat burning furnace. There was also the new stat Endurance. I thought that was covered by Body. The stats needed a manual like the skill had come with.

I went to sleep and woke up the next day, before dawn. I had my route already worked out. Like a very tight sine wave. I would poke into the scorpion area, kill two. Then I would do a long loop through the grasslands killing wolves.

When I looped back to the shadowlands, I would have enough energy to take out another two scorpions. I had some vegetables for breakfast and set off for another day of grinding.

This was by far the best choice I had made, getting away from the city and the drama that was etched into its stone. I was a free agent at the end of the day, not Carlos’ right-hand man. The main risk was being intercepted when I returned, but I was confident with magic and a very early pre-dawn arrival would take care of most risks.

Teleportation and matter manipulation. I wasn’t about to mentally confirm that whatever was running this place had the power temporal manipulation yet. People could have just been put in storage. It felt like a virtual reality with the lack of depth that kept popping up. The problem with the virtual reality theory was the type of people showing up here.

I would expect a huge slant towards a younger audience, but there was a fairly even spread of the ages that did show up. No crippled or handicapped people showing up either. I could recall right up to the moment before my teleportation as well.

There was no blank spot in my memory. One moment, sitting at my desk, next moment flopping onto the ground at the plaza. I knew it was pointless to speculate on all of this, but I couldn’t help it. This was the mystery to end all mysteries.

If I had to bet, my current favorite theory was aliens running an experiment of some kind. But then I got to thinking, what was the point of such an experiment when they already had so much power? Maybe some non-human like intelligence wanted to see how we would react in a structured environment? Set up multiple cities and see which ones thrive and which ones die.

I moved a hand under my shirt and felt my gut. It was shrinking but still quite jiggly. I thought I could feel some abs beneath the remaining flab. At least one good thing had come out of this place. I was tempted to make a vow to avoid killing people and try to be a better person morally as well as physically.

That wasn’t going to happen. It was like claiming to be a vegetarian. I was a vegetarian all the times I wasn’t eating meat. There would be a stupid situation with stupid people doing or wanting stupid things. I would be forced to kill someone since I either was unable or didn’t want to deal with the alternatives.

“I can only hope,” I muttered. I could only hope for a future that wouldn’t force me into making unpleasant choices. Still, arriving at a choice wasn’t something I would not be involved in either. It was like a bad poker hand and going into a flop. You might hit, but you could still be behind with the poor hand that should have been folded pre-flop. I could still make a decision now, like leaving the city to focus on grinding and it could be a bad decision long term.

I couldn’t see anyone grinding faster than me. Still, there was no guarantee I was in the first group to arrive. Then there was the possibility of teamwork surpassing one person’s efforts. I almost chuckled out loud at that.

Teamwork in this place? It wasn’t easy and it would be slow. Everyone would have an opinion. Only the physically capable would be able to get a head start on me in my opinion. I tried to think back on what the most optimal decisions would be in order to adjust my long-term thinking.

This type of self-reflection was only possible since I refused to lie to myself. I could lie to others, but I had to be brutally honest with myself. It came down to less spending and more grinding. But the returns were marginal the further I got based on the point scaling.

The scaling was key. I needed to kill a higher tier monster than the scorpion and see the number of points it gave. I speculated it would probably be 500. The problem was the danger and difficulty, and the scaling would only matter above that.

No, the scaling of monsters was the wrong way to think. It was the grind. This place was like a road. Going 70 or 60 mph didn’t make a huge difference when you arrived. It was the breaks or fuel refills that were taken.

My gut instinct to come out here had been a good one. Was there anything I could do to increase my speed? I couldn’t kill the small wolves faster and I wasn’t going to try and kill a scorpion without magic. I thought about my wave movement pattern to maximize my grind efficiency.

I considered my cart. I could park the cart in one location and then sweep out from there in a wave pattern along the border. Then at the end of the day, make a straight line back to the cart. The more I thought about this idea, the more I liked it.

I would leave the cart in a depression between two hills, so it wouldn’t be easily visible. I would sweep out in one direction for half the day, and then sweep out the other direction for the other half. I would only take a pack to carry crystals in.

That way I wouldn’t be too far from the cart. I would only be leaving it alone for half a day at most, which was the biggest risk I was willing to take.