SL: Chapter 713 – Day Unknown 3 – Something Bad Happened

Tower 24 of 40
10 Towers Claimed
Quorum of 21 Required

I removed my hands from the golden pillar at the base of the tower, where the tower once stood. “Still have 10 towers, but no cities. The quorum requirement dropped back down to 21, from 22,” I told Clarissa who was standing nearby.

“So not a different Systemic Lands, not in the past, but a massive wipe and sometime in the future,” she said. After we had discovered that the Forbidden City had reset as well, we had some wild guesses that we had talked about. But in the end it seemed like we were an unknown amount of the time in the future. The fact I had 10 towers claimed, showed that my achievements in the past hadn’t disappeared.

I also knew the numbering matched up to the one I had cleared and the layout of the towers in the Systemic Lands. “Everything has wiped, or at least this half. The Empire of Purgatory is truly dead,” I said.

“It was beautiful while it lasted,” Clarissa replied with a strange expression on her face. On one hand, it probably felt good that she wasn’t about to be pulled into the bureaucracy again. But another to lose everything she had worked on, or almost everything.

“Our next stop should be New Kochi. If anywhere else survived besides the edges of the Systemic Lands, it would be that place,” I said.

“It would be a good place to start. A shame that there is no way to figure out the timeframe of how long we were gone,” Clarissa said.

“Based on the cities, I would say forty days at most. Not a massive amount of time,” I replied.

“True, if the people had been here longer, they would have purchased store upgrades and have gotten more organized,” she replied.

“Unless it is more complicated time nonsense,” I said.

“Let’s not twist ourselves up until we get more information. New Kochi, then to my main hideout.”

“Regardless, Michelle should have survived. She had the stats. And wherever Doctor Katz is, he should have survived as well,” I replied.

“Maybe. The Calamity took out the Astrologer before. So it isn’t that simple. They had high stats, but not as high as you,” Clarissa replied.

“Fair,” I replied.

“I know you are worried about your mother, but Michelle will keep her safe,” Clarissa said.

“I am not worried,” I replied. I was worried, but I didn’t want Clarissa to know. I knew she knew, but I wouldn’t give her confirmation. Everything was so stressful. Now that I knew more I had bigger more complicated problems than all the people who had just arrived and were struggling to survive.

We set off again and I would occasionally check the sky for any airships. I didn’t spot any. I was also in charge of kill monsters, which was easy enough for me, so Clarissa could focus on speed. I had considered offering to carry her, but that wouldn’t have gone over that well and it wouldn’t have saved that much time.

We crossed over the narrow strip of land to the western half of the Systemic Lands. Then we turned Southwest. We saw a tower in a level 4 zone in the distance as we passed through.

“Going to get those now?” Clarissa asked me.

“Should be about five or six more towers. Probably so someone else doesn’t claim them. If there is a vote I want to be able to control it. I swear I have looked at the map so many times, but it all just blurs togeather,” I replied.

“You will have to clear the ones in level 5 zones as well, to get enough,” she said.

“I know. But it is the zone plus three for levels to deal with. Especially whatever is at the top. I don’t want to fight level 8 flying monsters,” I replied.

“Even with your stats?” Clarissa asked back in surprise.

“And what if I activate the vote and some level 10 or higher monster shows up? It is better that I make sure I can handle higher level zones and the monsters there with ease. With the difficulty scaling, winning against a level 10 is unlikely. I could probably beat a level 9, but it would be tough, especially if they swarmed. But a level 10? The difficulty jump every three levels, well it would be very rough,” I said.

“That is fair. You are the only person who can really farm level 7 monsters,” Clarissa said. Michelle might be able to win against a couple if she was prepared enough, but I really was the only person who could fight at such a high level.

While my stats had improved, I was hesitant to throw myself into more fights. I would rather build up my advantage as much as possible. Spending another thousand or several thousand days grinding high level zones. There was a portion to the South between both halves of the Systemic Lands. If I could kill the monsters there, then I would easily get a lot of points.

Speed was key. I needed to be able to kill them quickly and easily. Level 8 zones were a hassle and from what I had seen of level 9 zones the environment would be a hassle as well. A large chunk of level 7 zones would be the best. Just race through them kill monsters, get points, all the points.

I would need to find Young Michael again. He was great at picking up points. Sure he had struggled in the high level zones, but he hadn’t complained and worked hard. Finding someone to assist me in clearing zones as quickly as possible was incredibly useful.

Then there was leveling up my skills some more. I had gone through a lot of high level zones, but I would need to do another pass. I really hoped my airship survived, since it had all this data and maps stored on board. If I had lost that all, it would be a huge headache to recreate.

While I had studied the information like Clarissa, we hadn’t completely memorized it all, especially the more complicated details. Like monster types and other tiny bits of information. Even Michelle might be able to recall quite a bit, but didn’t memorize it all.

My stats helped me, but the number of tiny details were immense. I could recall the big picture things easily enough, but had to double check on smaller issues. Skill points were something I would have to look into and I would have to face the boss monster in the higher level zones. Maybe tease out a level 10 monster into a favorable spot from a level 9 zone.

Before I wouldn’t even have considered such a thing, but I wanted to understand the gap. I was confident in escaping with my stats. Just use Air Burst and zoom away. Higher level monsters would struggle in lower level zones with the reduced ambient energy. So even if it did chase, it wasn’t a huge concern.

Or I could die instantly from such a monster. Well, the tower climbs would be something to do while I made another circuit around the Systemic Lands getting more skill points. Or I could grind up more points and stats first. There was no urgency or rush.

While things had been wiped, there was no new threat besides the stupid sword. The Ritualist, dead. The Divine Empress, super dead. The Astrologer, more dead than the Divine Empress. Monster, wiped out entirely. Divine Empress’s son, also wiped out, the horrible ungrateful troublemaker. Now the sphere was destroyed or dead, depending on if it ever was alive to begin with.

While other people might have annoyed me, they weren’t a real threat. Now there was just the sword left and I should probably deal with it as quickly as possible. Hunt it down and wipe it out wherever it was hiding before it got more meta-points loaded onto it.

There was always more work to do. “Do you think New Kochi is still there?” Carlissa asked me.

“Maybe? Hopefully? If it isn’t, then it is going to be a big problem, in terms of how far things were wiped out. If the pillars are destroyed, the blast takes out the zone, but not much beyond that. So, you would think there would be people out there grinding who survived. But then if there was a wave of energy, that could have killed them as well,” I explained.

“If it is everything? I know we don’t like to think about this, but what if everything was wiped out?” Clarissa asked and that was a good question. More for her than for me. I would just upgrade a city to get an airship and use it as my base.

“Probably take over a city North of here, near where the sword likes to hang out. Meech or New Delhi, most likely. Upgrade the city and have someone run the place. Just come back occasionally to deal with nonsense and turn in points,” I replied.

“That simple,” Clarissa said.

“There isn’t any other option. I am not about to cry or scream about people dying. Why? What will you do if everything reset?” I asked.

“I…I don’t know. All the hidden bases, trained agents, all of it…gone. Setting it all up again sounds way too exhausting. Probably retire somewhere, most likely Normandy since I can blend in, and then wait for you to solve everything.”

“You would just give up?” I asked in surprise.

“I might go out and grind, but I am tired Michael. I just want to live in peace and safety,” she replied. My power was in my stats. Her power was in her minions and plans. If everything had reset, it would be far more damaging for her than for me. That was why I didn’t count on political power like other people.

“Or we can build up an empire again. Split everything fifty-fifty,” I joked.

“No. Never again Michael. Never again.”

“Well, if you need some muscle, you can always reach out. We may have had our disagreements, but you are a friend, at least I count you as one, even if I am a bad friend,” I said.

“You sure that meta-point didn’t mess up your head? It isn’t like you to be remorseful,” Clarissa said.

“If we are the only two people left from before, well it is a lonely group of two,” I replied.

“It would be lonely. Thank you. I know what you are saying and I appreciate it. Perhaps in a decade or so, we will look back at things and laugh,” she replied.

“A decade, I would have thought you would have said a century at the very least,” I replied.

“You aren’t that horrible. Just an acquired taste, that is difficult to deal with, has strong opinions, and should I go on?” she asked me.

“No. My fragile ego can’t take it,” I replied.

“Personally, waiting a year for nations to form again and other cities to start fighting, seems like a good idea. But I am hoping some people survived. Those bases were buried deep and had protections,” she said.

“Well, we just need to travel through the night and will reach New Kochi,” I said. I flicked my hand to help focus and wiped out a monster in our path. I didn’t care about the dropped point crystal.