FB: Chapter 88 – Monster Options

I returned to the Information Broker and they laid out three pieces of paper in front of me listing out three different options. I picked up the first piece of paper. There were level 160 Rock Golems on Mount Golem. They were highly resistant to everything and strong physical brawlers. But there was only a single type of Rock Golem.

It would be a massive pain to kill them, but it was possible. If I used some sort of water magic, it would be a lot easier. But I used poison, which would be a pain to kill them with their high resistance to that type of attack.

The second option were the Mega Spiders of Spider Forest. They were level 140 to level 200. Giant spiders would be a hassle to fight in a forest. If I could pin them in place, they would be easier than the Rock Golems. The problem was actually pinning them in place. I would need a very specifically designed altar. Technically possible, but a massive pain.

The third option was the Infinite Ooze beyond the Twilight Depths in the Eternal Dark. A super monster that kept spawning lower level monsters ranging in level from 100 to 300. While these oozes could be cheesed with a special kind of salt they came in a range of elemental immunities and attacks.

Three monsters, each with their own problems. The golems would take explosive consumables to kill. I was looking at a gold per golem, possibly two. That meant over 1,700 platinum. That was way too much. That wasn’t even counting on the cost of lures and everything else. I would conservatively put the cost of getting the experience I needed at around 3,000 platinum with the Rock Golems.

The Mega Spiders were simpler, but also more complicated just in a different way. I could kill them with Vomitatis over time. The tricky part was actually building an altar in Spider Forest. The consumables and lures would only run about 100 platinum. Incredibly cheap, but the altar would be expensive. The spiders had corrosive venom, which would mean I would need special construction materials as well as an elaborate design since they also could unleash a horde of smaller spiders to swarm hidden targets.

The altar would probably cost 100 platinum and realistically the consumables would be 200 instead of 100 platinum. So, a tenth of the price of the Rock Golems. Just a lot more headache inducing and risky. I would need to spend some time at the Designers Union coming up with an altar that could work.

The Infinite Ooze was right out. Too much variation and a headache to get to, past the bottom of the Bottomless Pit. While I had no problem making the trek, it wasn’t something I wanted to do. It would just take one high level ooze with a weird composition to completely wreck me. I was good, but not good enough to work out the type weakness of each ooze on sight.

That left the Mega Spiders of Spider Forest. Not the outer forest with the other high-level monsters, but the inner part of the forest, where the spiders were incredibly thick. “Do I owe anything?” I asked the Information Broker who shook their head.

“No. You paid up in full. This information is questionable by the way and the areas with these monsters have not been fully scouted. There could be a boss level monster, or they might act irrationally after so many of them have been killed.” I nodded at this. That was basically QAI’s warning that it wasn’t going to let me easily cheese high level monsters.

There would no doubt be some sort of super spider boss. The question was, how many of these Mega Spiders could I kill at what expense and time investment. I left the Information Broker and hired a rickshaw to take me to the Designers Union in the capital.

I got to work designing an altar. Gaps between stones would need to be quickly sealed shut with rapid seal mortar. I needed the high quality stuff that would resist corrosion. I tried a couple of different designs, but I didn’t like any of them. The sheet of information the Information Broker had given me contained information on the Mega Spiders and their skills.

The spiders were the size of cars and had a lot of annoying skills. If they couldn’t reach me, they would unleash a bunch of hand sized smaller spiders to swarm me. An elevated structure with a hole in the bottom would be best. Coat the edge of the hole with high grade pest repellant to keep the smaller spiders away. Have one long rope from the ceiling through the middle of the hole that was well secured to force the giant spiders to climb upwards towards me.

I could unleash poison down on them and their corpses wouldn’t clog things up. The acid properties of Vomitatis would help break down their bodies. Perhaps some fire grenades as well, just in case. The problem was the size of the structure. I needed a hole in the floor the size of a large car and the box needed to be elevated at least two stories, preferably three off the ground.

That meant I would need long metal support bracing between each of the four pillars. High quality support bracing like everything else to resist corrosion. The gaps between the pillars would need to be large enough for the spiders. Five by five in terms of blocks would be the best size, since the walls of the box should be at least three blocks thick. The roof of the box would need to be angled with metal spikes to dissuade the spiders from going on top.

By the time I finished designing the structure, the altar was a massive four legged monstrosity. I got the material list, and it was going to cost around 150 platinum for the building materials at the level of quality I wanted. I couldn’t have the materials degrading from attacks while I was inside the structure. If anything it wasn’t over engineered enough since I had no doubt QAI would have a surprise for me in the form of a super spider boss.

I would need a lot of barrels of flammable oil and some sort of gas mask to breathe if my altar was filled with smoke. Tiny metal tubes through the roof and walls to help things ventilate but not big enough for spiders to get through. Probably the size of my finger would be best. Also, a large amount of pest repellant to keep the small spiders away. It they swarmed me, I was finished.

My costs were quickly rising, but I couldn’t afford to half ass this altar. Messing around with such high-level monsters was no joke. I could stack on Sample Poison to get my poison crit chance up to around 70% instead of Reduce Weight.

The money I would earn from the drops would not be enough. The skill Summon Spiders and the item Giant Spider Eyes had value but nowhere compared to the amount I was going to be spending. The skill would probably sell for around ten gold while the drops could be reclaimed for a silver. I might get some Mega Spider Webbing as a drop as well which was a crafting material I didn’t have a use for. All told, I would at most earn 25 platinum.

That was why leveling up this way was a massive money sink and looked down on. A guild would go bankrupt trying to do this at scale, and that wasn’t counting the sabotage that would occur. Even if people found out and looked down on me, I wasn’t going to waste my time killing monsters one by one in direct combat. That was a complete and utter waste of time in my opinion. Better to cheese things as much as possible.

Levels would be first and then skill shards. I had other skill shards I also needed experience for. I would plan for 170,000, but if things went well, I would resupply and then head back to the altar as quickly as possible. I did a check and there was just enough room in the box to set up a cabin so I could log out safely. I would toss a large metal plate over the hole in the floor and then set up the cabin. Getting to Spider Forest was a massive trek.

But if it worked, then I planned to return and get the experience for everything I needed before going beyond level 120. It took 31.25 million experience for an Artifact ranked skill shard to be upgraded to Heirloom no second skill shard required. Since they were all personal skills that I had earned experience for myself, I wouldn’t need a special item to go from Artifact to Heirloom.

To max out the experience on an Heirloom skill required 156.25 million experience and a Divine skill shard. I would probably only be able to do one skill, but I wasn’t concerned about getting a Divine rank skill at the moment. If I could get everything up to heirloom rank, I would open up some skill shard slots. It would be a lot of spider killing, but as long as it was safe and efficient, then I would have no complaints.

It was a bit of a shame that I had committed all the skill shard experience to specific skill shards when I had first started out. Dying and losing all that experience would have been way too big a risk. It was a minor regret, but I had taken far too many risky options to choose anything else. Losing millions of experience would have been a disaster.

While I was grinding the spiders, I planned to have the skill shards ready to go to stuff full of experience. The hardest part would be the duplication skill shards that were kept by the Human Emperor to hand out as rewards. If I wanted any, he would no doubt require some incredibly annoying quest. That wasn’t going to happen. Once the Unmentionable Horror was killed, I planned to avoid him as much as possible.

In fact, I wasn’t going to go to any more Tournament of Champions, since I would have to request a reward from him. That was where my troubles started, and I could learn from experience. Winning the Tournament of Champions was a massive trap, one which I could avoid from now on. I had no idea what the next rank in the title chain would require, but I wasn’t that interested since the benefits of the title mirrored the slayer title chain. Getting another reduction of 40 in the absolute level difference was nice, but not something I was that motivated for.

I would find another way to get the duplication skill shards even if I had to pay a large premium to avoid the Human Emperor. The cost of dealing with him was far higher than any markup could ever reach.

Well before I wasted a lot of money building my altar, I would practice with a test version and cheap materials, so I could construct it as fast as possible. I might do it a couple of times. Once I reached the inner portion of the Spider Forest, I would have to quickly rush the construction.