SL: Chapter 761 – Day 28,335 – Almost Fully Upgraded

“How powerful,” I muttered as I focused and I used Void Beam followed by Radiant Beam. In the Southeast there had been island zones. I didn’t care that they were separated from the main Systemic Lands. Honestly it wasn’t a surprise.

What was a surprise was the fact that there were so many. Acid Shot. Force Shot. I used my offensive skills all separately one by one. The super skill points I had earned had pushed all my skills up to the highest upgrades possible.

Going with 5 skills instead of 6 was a good decision, so I could upgrade all of them fully, almost. There were 17 upgrade options per skill I could boost. That meant a total of 85 super skill points. I had cleared 30 zones on the main land for 30 super skill points long ago. The islands gave me another 43 for a total of 73 upgrades I needed out of 85.

For each of my five skills I had ignored the minor effects that could be added to them, leaving me with a total of 75 aspects of each skill. The last two effects that were left out were the size upgrades for Acid Shot and Force Shot.

My control was more precise than ever. A brief moment of focus and hundreds of skills activated in thin lines all over the place, then the opposing skill activated in such a way as to create an annhilation effect that extended outwards in a plane, creating my signature beheading attack.

The 100 level 8 monsters were all instantly killed. Their points dropping from their dusted corpses. That was 300 million worth of points. A small fortune, instantly annihilated in a single attack.

At the end of it I was breathing heavily. That had taken way too much focus and overwhelming amounts of energy. If I had been more precise killing them in smaller groups I would have only had to use a million energy instead of four million.

But I wanted to wipe out all the monsters like this at least one time. It was something to put on my bucket list or take off now that I had done it. Being able to instantly activate such attacks combined with my sensory abilities and mental speed made me unstoppable.

“A useful find. A shame they couldn’t be upgraded all the way,” I said to myself. But I would probably find more zones in the opposite corner in the Northwest. I focused and used Force Shot all over the place, sending the point crystals flying towards me. I wasn’t going to pick them up one by one.

A clever inversion of the skill’s energy, allowed me to create force opposite of what it should normally create. A minor but useful trick. As the crystals touched me, I instantly claimed them with my portable store. I frowned.

After so long grinding against monsters, I had a very good understanding of how many points I got from each crystal. The fact was that a level 8 crystal should give me 3,024,000 points. The key part being the last three digits shouldn’t change.

They were changing in my reserves, which shouldn’t be happening. I had made them a nice three zeroes. And would routinely purchase some junk to zero out the last three digits to make it easier on me quickly working out how many points I had in reserve.

Those zero numbers had changed. I had gotten less points than I should have. This place was dying. While it was only a few points out of millions it was incredibly worrying. It would create a massive point crisis across the cities. The value of everything would skyrocket and people would begin to horde. Starvation and mass panic were very real risks.

The corner in the Southeast was like the one in the Northeast, nothing of interest. Only the islands had proved slightly interesting, but the monsters I didn’t even care about anymore. I could wipe them out without a thought. At least the ones below level 10.

Now with the skill upgrades, level 10 might not be as difficult. I might be able to wipe a large group as well with ease. Something to test if I came across a large group of them. Probably in the Northwest.

I kicked off the ground, flying forward and into the air. Air Burst.

My next stop was the Western half of the Systemic Lands. Ascension, an interesting name, but nothing that concerned me too much. I would head to West Madrid, the city furthest to the West. Air Burst.

Check the Southwest corner, not expecting anything and then prepare for the Northwest corner. The huge gap in the map indicated that there had to be something there like the Southeast, at least that was what I told myself. Even though the theme of this place was disappointment. Air Burst.

I passed over a void zone just South of New Kochi. Clarissa’s unofficial base and a neutral city between the two powers. I debated on stopping there, but there was no point. Telling Clarissa I got stronger was not necessary. I would let one of her people know in West Madrid about the islands and the zone layout, but there was no need for me to go out of my way. Air Burst.

I glanced to the side and saw a large airship with cannons moving on an intercept course towards me. Did they want to have a conversation, or did they want to die? Air Burst.

I didn’t change my route, but they were speeding up and drawing close to me at a parallel path. They weren’t aiming their cannons at me. It appeared someone wanted to talk. Air Burst.

I moved for the airship rapidly before they could react and gently landed on the deck. My control was impeccable. While I was dressed casually in gray, I didn’t care what anyone thought. Why waste points on clothes that would get wrecked.

“Why are you bothering me?” I demanded.

“You have entered restricted airspace. Without proper identification. Without proper colors. You are being placed under arrest,” one of the soldiers said.

“Oh. That is interesting. You are daring to arrest me. Perhaps I haven’t paid a visit to your half of the Systemic Lands to remind you people of certain truths. Well arrest me,” I said. I was going to kill them all and make a point. It would be amusing to see when they realized the truth.

“Restrain him,” the commanding soldier said and two moved forward with Null manacles. Interesting, but nowhere near enough to make me excited.

“If you try and touch me. You will experience instant death,” I calmly replied.

“Arrest him!” The soldiers moved in. Time to show off a bit. I focused for a brief moment.

The two soldiers moving forward and their command officer fell apart into smoking cubes. They still leaked fluid and blood everywhere, but I had diced them up perfectly with a criss cross of annihilation planes. All three of them in a single second with a thought.

The other soldiers watching all paled in fear. I calmly stepped around the mess and made my way through the airship to the control area inside at the front. Some soldiers tried to stop me and were cubed.

Stepping into the command area the captain of the airship turned to face me. “Really? You Ascension people don’t recognize me? The ruler of everything that exists.” He began to open his mouth and I moved instantly in front of him, holding up a single finger.

“Shhhh. Don’t speak. You might make me made and get cubed. Take me to the capital of your little kingdom or empire. It is clear that you people need a clear reminder of who I am and why I am in charge of everything,” I stated.

“Sir! He just…they were cut apart instantly!” I stepped back while the idiots figured out what was going on. After a minute of pointless shouting, the captain finally turned to look at me and was incredibly nervous. I could taste his fear.

“That would violate my standing orders,” he said and I cubed him.

“Who is in charge after him?” I asked. No one spoke up. “I can start cubing you all until one of you speaks up.”

A soldier stood up. “I am,” the soldier said.

“Take me to your capital. Your most heavily defended and important location where whomever is in charge resides,” I declared while moving to sit in a chair on the bridge. “Well, hurry up.”

“Yes, sir. Um, who are you exactly?” the soldier asked nervously.

“I am Michael. The one who stands at the top of the Systemic Lands. The one who has slain the Ritualist, Divine Empress, Astrologer, Monster, Bastard Disciple, and the Sphere. Now hurry up before I cube you. I won’t warn you again.”

The airship immediately shifted course. We were headed towards Ascension’s capital of Meech to the North. The name had been changed to Ascension, but I couldn’t be bothered to care. Perhaps I would rename the city after destroying it.

I could tell the soldiers were nervous and this was a detour. But I wasn’t about to let this annoyance go. I was going to make a point. The people in the East understood who I was. Now it was time to make a point here in the West so there was no confusion going forward.

When I said jump, they all better jump to the best of their ability. No asking questions like how high. If they had flown past me, I wouldn’t have bothered making this trip, but now I was going to teach these Ascension people a lesson.

“Who is in charge? Is it some stupid council?” I asked. I hated councils.

“No. Um, the Imperial Archon is in charge, some refer to him as Emperor,” the soldier said.

“Uh huh. Well just fly me to his palace or capital. I will want to speak to him, personally,” I said. I waved the soldier away.

At least there was only one idiot I needed to deal with. Clarissa hadn’t made a huge deal about them and they seemed to be behaving. But bothering me and trying to arrest me was a joke. Someone flying through the air like I was, wasn’t someone to target lightly.

I swear that people were lacking in critical thinking skills. Now if only I could harness all that stupidity to actually do something useful.

The airship flew towards Ascension’s Capital and I knew the soldiers were using methods to contact their superiors and warn them. That was a good thing. It would be nice to settle everything in one major battle.

I also gave it even odds they would roll out the red carpet and apologize instead. It was hard to say which way things would go. I was the pillar of Purgatory, the threat that prevented all out war from breaking out. So, they might want to try and ambush me to achieve total victory in a single move.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t chess and I was no queen. I was above the games these people played and would bunch the player I didn’t like and kick them a bit. The player in this metaphor being the nation that annoyed me enough to actually get involved in their nonsense.

“Um, do you want us to stop and resupply in-“

“No. Keep flying. Don’t slow down or stop until we reach the capital,” I ordered. The soldier nervously scurried away. If they wanted a fight, then we could do it at their capital. Not in another location.