SL: Chapter 735 – Day 6,138 – The Grind Never Stops

I finished killing the last couple level 7 monsters in this zone. It was nice that they all rushed towards my location. It made it easier to kill them quickly. This was the last level 7 zone for the day. I would clear three of them and a level 8 zone every single day.

The level 8 zone was a headache to fight in. Floating slimes that used high pressure liquid elemental attacks. If it was before I got my second meta-point then it would have been insanely difficult and annoying. Now it was simple to kill them all off.

The hardest part of the grind was to get their point crystals before they hit the bloody tentacled ground. Fighting the terrain was annoying and didn’t accomplish anything. While my stats could resist the ambient energy from the terrain, my clothes were another story.

I got to fight in the nude, letting everything hang free. It wasn’t my preferred method of fighting, but my clothes just couldn’t handle the environment and combat. And the few high quality enchanted clothes I had, I didn’t want them to get wrecked before crafting was built back up.

That meant I got to fight in the nude every day. I would clear 2 level 7 zones and let Young Michael get the point crystals back to the airship. I would then work on clearing the level 8 zone and picking up the point crystals myself. Once that was clear, I would drop the point crystals on the airship and then head to the last level 7 zone.

It wasn’t the most efficient route, but it was the most efficient method of getting point crystals, which was the goal of grinding. I returned to the airship and rushed past Young Michael who was going to my clearing spot.

Each day of grinding I had an optimal grind amount of 750 million points. It should have been a bit higher, but some point crystals were lost. Landing back on the airship, I put on some clothes and checked the surroundings. Nothing nearby, which was good.

I then got to work moving the point crystals into large chests and into the hold of the airship. I made sure to keep the chests of level 7 and level 8 crystals separate. Young Michael eventually returned ladened down with packs. I began moving the point crystals into the chests they needed to go into while he prepared dinner.

“We are running low on food,” he said while handing me a large bowl of stew.

“Already?” I asked.

“With the way we are both eating it isn’t a surprise. We did stock up heavily, but this isn’t a large airship,” Young Michael replied.

“True. We just finished day 100 out here as well. We should have around 75 billion points,” I replied.

“That’s a lot of points,” Young Michael said.

“A tenth of that is yours,” I said.

“You helped me upgrade my skills, which is more than enough,” Young Michael replied while we both ate.

“I need someone picking up the point crystals and you earned it.”

“Thank you.” I just nodded as I continued to enjoy my stew. “So that will get you a lot of upgrades?” Young Michael asked.

“Some. About 30,000 before my meta-points, which means around 800,000 afterwards. It is a lot, kind of. Just exhausting to grind out four zones every day, day after day with no clear end in sight,” I replied.

“You talked about earning a over a billion a day before,” Young Micheal said.

“If the zones were arranged close enough togeather. There is no other good clump of level 7 zones out there. Only to the North and South of the Rift do you have more than one level 7 zone next to each other. And I don’t plan to explore out across the void,” I replied.

“What about exploring the other level 8 zones. I know you have been interested in making a complete map,” Young Michael said and I nodded at this.

“There might still be something out there to discover, but I want to be able to handle level 8 zones with ease. Just clearing one is exhausting. I need to increase my stats even more,” I replied.

“Body?” Young Michael asked.

“Mind and Spirit. I need to be able to react faster and have more energy available. I don’t want to have to worry about regenerating energy for an entire day if possible,” I replied.

“I thought you wanted to get your Regeneration high enough,” Young Michael replied.

“It is high, but it takes time. Honestly, I just need to bring everything up to a million without the meta-points to see if there is another boost. Which is around 250 trillion. Just 350,000 more days of grinding,” I joked. That was around 1,000 years.

“That’s a long time,” Young Michael said as we both finished up our big bowls of stew.

“It is. But there isn’t anything else to do that is worthwhile,” I replied. “You doing alright picking up point crystals?”

“It is fine, and I get to face level 6 monsters if I want to fight a bit. So, are we heading back?”

“How much food do we have left?” I asked.

“Another 20 days,” he replied. But there was no need to push things up to very limit. While it was less efficient, there was something nice about having a 100 day grinding session and then resupplying. But I was hesitant to deal with any drama that would come up.

Out of that 75 billion, Young Michael was taking 7.5, and I would give Clarissa another 2.5 billion points. That would leave me with 65 billion. Not as good, but Young Michael had earned his share, and Clarissa was incredibly useful with her intelligence network.

I also would just be saving up the points for now, building up my health insurance. While tempting to get more stats, I preferred to make a large gain all at once, rather than small incremental increases. That way I got a better sense of how much I was improving by and if the effectiveness of each stat point was decreasing.

“Water?” I asked.

“The same. I budgeted for 150 days, but we have been consuming enough to put our time down to 120 days at most,” Young Michael explained.

“Do you want to head back?” I asked and he shrugged.

“We will be back out here eventually. There shouldn’t be a rush to return,” he replied. “Gives me time to practice energy control exercises.”

“Then let’s stay out here another 20 days or until our supplies run out. Could we pack more for next trip?” I asked.

“Not easily. You saw how we filled the entire airship up with supplies. We are consuming food faster than we are filling up the chests with point crystals. We could get a bigger airship, but that is up to you,” Young Michael pointed out.

“No. The cost is not worthwhile and you really need a crew for the larger airships. I don’t have an Empire to help offset those costs anymore,” I replied.

“Grinding out here gives more points than anything else,” Young Michael said, and I nodded at this.

“It does. And I want to make the gap between me and everyone else grow much bigger.”

“What about a tower? Fighting in the air against flying monsters?” Young Michael suggested.

“A tower in a level 7 zone, so it would have level 8 flying monsters?” I asked and he nodded. “The beam attacks and swarming from the tower monsters are annoying. But that would be similar to the floating slimes. The big issue would be getting point crystals from around the base.”

“I could do that once you cleared out the rest of the zone. It is something to consider,” Young Might suggested. It wasn’t a bad suggestion. The towers did have unlimited spawning, but the flying monsters were very annoying.

“I haven’t cleared any level 6 towers. A tower in a level 7 zone would have a level 10 boss monster at the top as well, which would be risky,” I replied.

“Then start at a level 6 tower. You should clear them. I mean you can handle the level 8 zone easily enough. Handling a level 9 monster shouldn’t be too big of a problem,” Young Michael replied.

Honestly it was a very good suggestion. Towers did have unlimited spawns. Rather than clearing one, using one to grind up points would be much easier. “You clearly have been thinking about this.”

“There is nothing else to do, but think out here. Most of the time you go right to sleep after eating, so you can wake up and start grinding,” Young Michael said.

“They are long days,” I replied.

“I don’t disagree, but they do give me time to think. With the towers as an unlimited source of points, work smarter, not harder, as you have told me.”

“They sound like a very smart person,” I replied with a smile and Young Michael rolled his eyes. Some things were universal regardless of the background or culture. “A level 6 tower. There is one to the East of here. Well two of them, but we only care about one. Anyways, we can try tomorrow before heading back.”

“What really?” Young Michael asked me.

“I would like to get an idea of tower grinding before committing to it. How exhausting is it? Do the monsters eventually run out? Does something else trigger after killing enough of them? There are unanswered questions. They only trigger if someone tries to fly up the tower or fly at it. The most annoying part will be the beam attacks.”

“Should I stay at the bottom?” Young Michael asked me.

“Watch from a distance. I will clear out the zone first, then deal with the tower. I want to see what happens. You can beat level 6 monsters, but you struggle a lot with level 7 monsters,” I told him.

“Ah, well I will get stronger,” he replied.

“I am not arguing with that. I am just concerned that you will be targeted. Adding one variable at a time. The first day I will kill the flying monsters to check what happens and how feasible it is. I will need to kill around 1,000 to match our current grinding speed. Energy will remain the biggest concern,” I replied.

“Really?” Young Michael asked.

“The tower monsters are a more annoying than regular monsters at the same level. Especially the flying ones. Level 7, there is a good chance they will dodge and kite me with beam attacks. If I have to use costly change attacks to counter, then things will get difficult over a long period of time,” I explained.

“Well, you have 900,000 Spirit and will be regening over 1,800 energy per minute,” Young Michael said. I nodded at this. I had shared detailed information about my stats, since I trusted him and he was copying my skills.

“Yes. But a combination beam attack will cost 800 energy without boosting their power. Multiply that by a 1,000 you get 800,000. Combined with an Air Burst every second at 50 energy, I will be losing 1,000 energy per minute,” I explained.

I also didn’t want to go below 300,000 energy if I could help it. That would be a disaster and leave me unable to respond to a crisis. “So clear 500? Then break off?” Young Michael asked me.

“Somewhere around there. I have to get a better sense of how difficult the combat is going to be. Even one Air Burst every second might not be enough.”

“Or you could try to go through a wall of the tower to fight the monsters inside,” Young Michael suggested.

“The outside wall is going to be thick. Very thick. And getting though won’t be simple. Also, the monsters inside might not even come out or trigger. I am not going inside no matter what,” I explained. Climbing one tower from the inside was more than enough for a million lifetimes.