SL: Chapter 717 – Day 5,841 – Bonita

“Well, it looks like the wave of energy wiped out all cities,” I said while looking about West Madrid. The city had reset like all the others. My airship was hovering over the plaza, fairly close to the ground, since I planning to restock up. I wasn’t worried about people making trouble.

If they tried they would regret it. There were already several melted corpses nearby. It was a universal thought to try and tax the usage of the store pillars. The person who controlled the store controlled everyone. That was why a portable store was so powerful. I didn’t regret letting Clarissa keep it, even if I wanted one myself. My new meta-point made me quite happy.

If I did take over an empire, I would spread a rumor that a portable store was the best, greatest, most valuable item a person could ever get. Then once they got one and I found out, well it would be a nice donation to help me out.

“Senor,” an older woman came forward using a cane to speak to me. I wanted to roll my eyes. Old people didn’t elicit any sympathy from me. The Divine Empress beat that thought out of my head and heart. I was filling up a pack with supplies.

“If you don’t speak proper English, then don’t even bother talking with me,” I replied. She was silent.

“What is going on?” she asked.

“This is the Systemic Lands. If you want to have a chance, go outside the city, kill monsters, get crystals, turn those crystals in for points, get a regeneration. If you manage that, then you will probably live. If not, then just give up,” I told her. There was no safety net like we had in my empire for new arrivals. Everyone was stuck with their body without a regeneration.

“Thank you, Senor, um, who should I thank in my prayers?” she asked me.

“I am Michael, but the only god here is the Almighty System that watches and controls everything,” I replied as I finished up my purchases. That was when three young men advanced towards us with swords in hand. I looked at the melting corpses and these young men. Then up at my airship and back at them.

“Hand over your supplies and that, um, air thing,” one said.

“Are you retarded?” I asked and they looked at each other and then back at me.

“Shut up!” one shouted.

“I mean, I melt those three people that tried to cause me trouble when I arrived and you threaten me with weapons? What is going through your head?” I asked.

“We need food, man! We don’t have any points,” one said.

“Ahhh!” another rushed at me and hit me in the face with the sword. I didn’t even flinch or blink. The sword deformed.

“And I stand above all others,” I replied and jabbed out with my finger. The shockwave from jabbing the man in the head caused it to explode in a shower of gore away from me. The old lady just let out a sigh and began hobbling to the side away from them. The other young men pissed themselves and dropped to the ground pleading for mercy.

I melted them, since I was annoyed by their noise. “Seriously. I swear stupidity is contagious,” I muttered.

“You need a cook?” the old woman asked me.

“No.”

“A cleaner?” she asked.

“Not really,” I replied with a bit of amusement.

“Sorry, I am not young. I can’t dance. What do you need?” she asked.

“Someone to pick up crystals and fly my airship,” I stated.

“I can pick things up,” she said.

“Why you?” I asked.

“Because I am here and willing,” she said. Well, that was true. I had to give credit to this old woman. She had her head on straight.

“Three hundred days of service. If you wreck my airship, I will torture you to death.”

“I will be careful,” she said.

“Hmm. You know how to fight?” I asked.

“No, but I can learn. But I am a bit slow and old,” she replied.

“At least you can speak English. Well, I will give you a choice.” I pulled out a crystal from a rank 8 monster and tossed it to her. “That is worth around three million points. Use it, get a regeneration and upgrade your stats.” That would give her a 100 in each. But the store wasn’t maxed out, so less stats available.

Well it didn’t matter. She caught the crystal. While she was an old Spanish looking woman, I didn’t care as long as someone was willing to put in the work. Since she had the guts to come over, spoke English, and understood the situation I would give her a chance.

She quickly went over to one of the pillars. After her regeneration, she stood up easily and let out a sigh of relief. She quickly glanced at me then went back to the store to purchase stat upgrades. I purchased another two packs of food while she was busy.

“I purchased the stats, Lord Michael,” she said.

“Just Michael is fine. Your name?” I asked.

“Bonita Rose,” she said.

“We don’t do last names in the Systemic Lands. Consider it a cultural thing, Bonita. Oh, get a pack and clothes. Ones you can move about in and are comfortable,” I said.

“Yes, Michael,” she said and went back to the store. She had a pack filled up. I took it from her and then went up to my airship tossing them inside before going back down.

“So, you come with me, you work 300 days to pay me back. After that we can discuss things. Any other questions?” I asked.

“Will I have to fight?” she asked me.

“No. But you will have to pick up crystals and quickly. It is hard and brutal work. We will need to get you some more stat points so you can handle the level 7 zone. Now I am going to pick you up,” I said and she didn’t resist as I took her into a bridal carry and went back up to the airship.

“These are the controls. There will be flying monsters, I will deal with them. Let me show you your room. The rest of the rooms need to be cleaned out. You can do that while I am clearing towers,” I began to explain things to her as I showed her around, which wasn’t much. This was a medium sized airship. Not as small as an airboat, but it wasn’t designed for large groups. There was one bedroom with an oven and two beds. A single bathroom.

“Questions?” I asked Bonita.

“No, Michael,” she replied. I could tell she had questions, but that wasn’t my problem.

“You can get settled in and use the bathroom. There is unlimited water so don’t worry. Trash you can toss over the side,” I said, and she nodded. “Another stay,” I muttered to myself. But there was no other option. I needed someone to fly and pick up crystals.

At least Bonita had the look of hard work about her, even if she was old. I heard her getting a shower and changed. She soon came back out and I glanced at her from the control chair. Simple gray clothing, but it was a decent fit. She would have to lose weight, well it would come in time.

“Feeling better?” I asked.

“Yes, Michael,” she replied hesitantly.

“We are here, on the map. We are going here to the tower. Orient to the grid pattern using the sun and the terrain below. Don’t fly high, or any higher than this. If you do for any reason I will be very unhappy. Watch carefully. We need to turn around at a certain point and slow down. When that happens I need to be aware so I can deal with the monsters chasing us,” I explained.

It would be a learning process, but being able to give her a direction and go to rest without having to constantly handle the flying would be nice. The annoying part was having to explain everything, the zones, the monsters, height ceiling, the fake sun, and how everything worked.

“Get me when we reach this point on the map, I am going to rest my eyes,” I said.

“Yes, Michael,” she replied. I went to my bed and laid down. Would she try and flee if I left her on the airship? Well she wouldn’t have the points to operate it for too long. And if she did do that, I would hunt her down and kill her.

But she didn’t know my reputation. Well, I would see if she could handle a simple task of alerting me first and if she did try and steal my airship, the flying monsters would kill her and destroy the airship. Which would really annoy me.

She was able to handle slowing things down as we approached the target tower and getting me. So she wasn’t incompetent. I did notice her eyes went wide as I blew apart the flying monsters. “If you steal this airship, they will chase you and kill you. Do you understand?” I asked her.

“Yes, Senor. I mean, yes Michael,” she quickly said.

“Move, I have to position us properly,” I said and she stepped away from the controls and I took over. I spun the airship rapidly around to see how far the tower was. I adjusted our course and kept slowing us down. “When we come to a stop I am going to clear away the monsters around the airship. You wait quietly on board. We will be low to the ground so no flying monsters will show up. But if you move you will run into ground monsters. Don’t do that. Just wait quietly and say some prayers or something. You can prepare food or use the bathroom, but don’t make excessive noise. You understand?” I asked her.

“Yes, Michael,” she said.

“Alright, Bonita. I am trusting you. Don’t disappoint me, or I will be very angry,” I said as I brought the airship to a stop and got up. I leapt over the side and cleared out the nearby monsters. Once that was done, I set off towards the tower in the distance. It was time to clear another one.

If I gave her 300 million points, that would be enough for 1k in each stat. She would be barely able to handle level 7 zones. Realistically 10k in each stat would be best so she could actually keep up, but that was 25 billion points. I could clear two level seven zones in a single day. But it was incredibly exhausting without someone to pick up crystals. That was around 300 million points per day.

But I had triple my previous stats. Could I clear three level 7 zones in one day on my own? If I had help could I do four? And if I could find a large enough group of level 8 zones, probably at the South end of the Rift, could I clear multiple of those zones? Based on the declining monster numbers and the increase value of points, it would be around 300 million points, double that of a level 7 zone and less work to clear since there were less monsters.

The problem was the environment in the level 8 zones. Bleeding flesh, tentacle flesh, and blood rain. I would have to fight in the air the entire time and it would be a massive headache.