We had just come back from our second deposit of crystals in Neo Brasilia. I had grinded out around 648k points worth of level 3 crystals and spent around 274k points on 50 stat upgrades. That left me with around 556k points in reserve for emergency healing. I wasn’t ever going to go below 500k for anything except a regeneration.
Body-300; Mind-100; Spirt-100; Perception-100; Aura-100; Regeneration-300; Endurance-50; Absorption-50 for a total of 1,100 upgrades with all 50 going into Regeneration.
Naran had spent enough points to bring his stats up by another 150 points as well.
Body-100; Mind-30; Spirt-50; Perception-30; Aura-30; Regeneration-100; Endurance-30; Absorption-30 for a total of 400 upgrades.
I had not received a mental alert of an issue with my property, so I would keep grinding out here as long as possible. While it was tempting to go back to Purgatory, there were only problems, no solutions. Solutions would be found when I had enough strength or stats.
“Why do you think the Almighty System uses 100 minutes for the Regeneration stat?” Naran asked as we passed time before going to sleep for the night. I munched on a salted cucumber while Aahan, quietly put away the knife he had used to chop things up.
“I am guessing you have an idea, since I can’t come up with anything,” I replied. I smiled since Naran had said Almighty System. I would get my religion catching on in no time. Something to follow up on with Clarissa.
“The Almighty System is trying to make things familiar, but not too familiar. It is conditioning us like lab rats.”
“Maybe. Or it could have only figured out surface level information. We also don’t know what kind of clock the System uses.”
“The days are 24 hours.”
“They weren’t no matter what was said otherwise. Dammit,” I muttered.
“What?”
“There is something off, but I can’t put my finger on it.” It wasn’t just Ruth brushing away my concerns about the nights getting longer. I had to rethink all of that as well.
“This entire place maybe?”
“No. Maybe. I keep thinking I am missing something important.”
“Did this start after the Ritualist’s attack?”
“Yes.”
“There is your answer. You are probably over stressed about the situation and overthinking things,” Naran said.
“Probably. I am thinking about investing in my stats other than Regeneration.”
“But you aren’t maxed out on grinding speed yet. Did you work out the optimal Regeneration stat, where it is faster than your grind speed?”
“Probably around 500 with my current Body. It is exhausting to keep pushing myself all day.” I poked my stomach. Abs, wherefore art thou? My stomach wasn’t flabby in the slightest, but there was no definition for abs. Just another little annoyance atop all the others.
“The real question is should I focus on Spirit, and just melt everything in my path? Or on Body to move more quickly?” I said, trying to work through the optimal fighting strategy against the Ritualist. I had to deal with the horde of monsters and close the distance to him, so he couldn’t get away.
“Tough to say. But Body would probably be the better choice so you can move faster. I will probably put my next 100 stat points into Body.”
“Not Regeneration to increase grind speed?”
“My skills support my physical attacks, not the other way around. Your physical attacks support your skills.” I nodded at that.
“Well, you are maxed out on skills as well, Imbue Cold?”
“It is a support skill, which I can add onto a weapon or another skill.”
“Skill combination?” Now that was interesting.
“It doesn’t do much. Just chills a target that is struck by the attack. Rather have an extra Rock Lance or Minor Tremor I might change it for something else.”
“It would take more upgrades to make it useful, like gestureless.”
“Exactly, then the cost will go up, and then I would need more Spirit. A lot of stat and skill points to make it viable.” I wondered what an upgrade to the next level for Imbue Cold would look like.
“We can go back to the wolf dungeon and switch it out for an upgrade or something else?” I suggested.
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“No. I will keep it for now.”
“What about one of my attacks, can you buff someone else?”
“The skill forces me to pick a target when I use it. The only options I have are my weapons and skills.”
“Poke me after you use it, there is enough time to choose, right?”
“About 10 seconds. If I don’t pick the skill goes away and I still lose the energy. It only lasts about 100 seconds as well.” I held out a hand. “Imbue Cold.” Naran poked me and I just knew my next attack with Acid Shot would have cold energy imbued into it.
Acid Shot. It was a solid chunk of acid and shattered on the ground. That wasn’t a very useful combination. “Skills can combine from multiple people, good to know,” I said.
“Not useful.”
“I wouldn’t discount it just yet. There was an Imbue Fire, which means there are probably other imbue type skills out there. Stack them up and then use them on an already powerful attack to make it super powerful.”
“Your acid already has death energy and kills everything it touches. What could make it better?”
“Well, um, magic?” Naran rolled his eyes since I couldn’t come up with anything.
“This is X plus X, and getting something random as a result. The good combinations will be few and far between.”
“But what if X plus X gives you five X’s. There is the possibly of synergy being developed. What if it combines with a mental attack? Could you freeze a monster’s brain?”
“Maybe. I just don’t think it will be that useful as just making a skill better on its own.”
“Naran, my friend, you haven’t played enough games. The trick is to find the biggest exploit possible. It doesn’t matter if 99% of the ideas are garbage. There just needs to be that 1% we can exploit to the hilt.” My mind immediately went to the Ritualist.
“Well, that means clearing more dungeons, and the only options are level 2 dungeons for those level 3 skill points.”
“Not for a while. The one’s I have cleared were close calls and I ended up getting injured a bit. No, better to build up stats and then sweep a bunch of them at once to upgrade the skills I have.”
“It truly is a gacha system,” Naran said.
“A black hole system, just points, points, points, points. Why are they even called points? I want a leaderboard.” A leaderboard would be nice to see where I matched up with other people.
Aahan quietly settled on the ground with a blanket and pillow under him. His eyes were just staring up at the pinpricks of light pretending to be stars.
“You think the Almighty System is scoring us?” Naran asked.
“Maybe. It is something that has crossed my mind. But scoring people for what? I know I just accepted the word points, since it is a gaming term, but the actual knowledge downloaded into peoples’ heads comes with loaded meanings. Like Body.”
“It does something other than make a person faster and stronger. It allows them to take more damage. Does that mean the Body is denser? Or Perception. There has to be a danger sense included as part of it. Either that or my intuition is off the charts.”
“So, points, just don’t mean points, but something more?” Naran asked.
“Exactly. It is the kind of thing people just take for granted but reveals the mindset of the Almighty System. Like that tower in the middle of nowhere. There is a purpose behind everything, just have to work out that purpose. Like, what would a score be useful for?”
“We are all lab rats, and this is an insane test.”
“No. That doesn’t make sense, since it violates all sorts of testing methodologies.”
“Chaos test. Throw stuff together and see what comes out. Like cooking,” Naran suggested. I frowned, that could also be a possibility.
“Well, this place is going to go on a long time with how the progression is set up. So, chaos could be an answer. But what is the desired result? You don’t just create chaos and all of this just because.”
“Aliens.”
“You and aliens,” I let out a sigh.
“They are real. This place is proof. Unless you think someone on Earth came up with all of this?”
“No, that isn’t possible. It is too real to be an illusion. At least I think so. But, no, this is beyond anything Earth has ever come up with, so something alien at the very least.”
“Well, that tower you found probably has answers of some kind.”
“Or just more questions. Probably more questions if I had to bet on the outcome.”
“Well, just need to grind up a lot more stats and then you can go and poke it.”
“We should have a summoner by then. They can poke the tower that is clearly hiding monsters and lots of death, maybe even Death with a capital D,” I said.
“Well we haven’t seen him again, so good news there.”
“Or her, Death could be female.”
“I think Death would not have a gender.”
“Point to Naran. Still, Death hasn’t shown up. So hopefully that confirms the million point theory.”
“Hopefully. What Body do you think you would need to match it?”
“At least 1,000 Body. Its speed was insane. What do you think?”
“I had a hard time making it out, but probably. Well time to turn in.”
“Yeah. I got midnight clear.”
“You sure?” Naran asked.
“Yes. I probably won’t go to sleep for a while. Pondering on the mysteries of stats and what my next purchase should be.”
“Alright.”
Another night sleeping against the cart on the hard ground. My sword was at my side, outside its sheath. I didn’t use a blanket. I lived in my armor and filth. At least I wasn’t the one who would have to clean it when we got back to Purgatory. I am sure Clarissa had everything all worked out.
My grinding speed would put me at 864,000 points in 10 days. With Naran’s crystals we would have to leave in 5 days to be safe, which cut down on my speed. The more frequent restorations were nice, but I wasn’t ready to risk a round two with Death.
I could finally joke about it, but it still haunted my thoughts. The speed, the dusting of my arm, all of it. I rubbed my left arm. It felt like my arm, nothing was off about it, I just felt weird. My entire arm had been dusted and then it had come back.
What I really wanted to see was Death versus the Ritualist. Let them kill each other while I laughed and ate popcorn. I would even sell tickets, fight of the decade, no, the century. Unstoppable dusting machine, versus hordes of low-level monsters.
I would put my money on Death, but the stupid Ritualist would probably find a way to escape. I knew the answer I needed. It wasn’t Body or Spirit. I needed more Regeneration. Once it reached 2,000 I could use an Acid Shot once every minute.
Anything stupid or crazy that he came up with, would require my skill. Well to get another 900 stat points, I needed about 7 million points. If I matched or exceeded 100k a day with increased Regeneration, that would take 70 days worth of grinding.
It wasn’t enough. Better to go with Body. I rubbed my facial hair. Would I be stuck with long hair if it couldn’t be cut anymore? That would be really annoying. Body was the best option with another 100 stat points into Spirit, so I had a large enough tank to keep my options open.