I let out a sigh of contentment as I got a regeneration. Only a couple of thousand points. My body stopped feeling sore after that scatter shot attack I had taken.

Naran and Fethee both got a regeneration as well. I purchased a new cart in the same colors as the last one. I let Naran handle the supplies. The plaza smelled clean finally.

Since everyone had been killed off, there was enough time for the Almighty System to reset everything. I was curious if the wall had repaired. It was a massive structure, but everything else had automatically repaired. Correction, owned buildings didn’t self-repair.

Such a huge battle and there was no sign of it. Well, I guess the lack of people was the sign that a major battle had happened. It made me wonder once again if I had come at the start of all of this. Time was one resource that I had a lot of and was quite valuable at the same time.

This city had truly been reset. The level 4 mob strategy was a viable tactic to take out another city. I considered the distance between the tower and Esperanza. I then couldn’t stop myself from getting a Joker grin.

I hadn’t forgotten about Ruth. While she wasn’t the focus of my thoughts, I had in no way forgiven her for teaming up with the Ritualist. She was going to die. If I had to bet, I would say she was hiding in Esperanza to the West.

It would be a headache to run there from the tower, but it was possible. I doubted anyone there was capable of handling one level 4, let alone a horde of them. I lure eight again and then run all the way there. With the level 3 monsters cleared out ahead of time, I could easily outpace the level 2 monsters.

The city would then be wiped out. I was curious what the golems would do afterwards. Would they return to the tower or keep chasing me after I was a long distance away? There was so much more behavior of the golems to work out. Death clearly had different rules. Each level 4 monster would need to be assessed, until I could beat them easily.

Also, none of the golems had landed on the store pillars. That was unfortunate. I wanted to see if they could be broken apart by the golems and what would happen.

Instead as Naran and Fethee got food and equipment I walked to the side of the plaza and one of the buildings. I made my right hand a palm. I wasn’t about to shatter my fist if I could help it. I carefully brought up hand back and made a slow striking motion on the building’s outer wall a couple of times.

Alright, time to test this. A regeneration was nearby if I needed it. I had lots of points saved up. No hesitation. I slammed my hand outwards. I felt the impact and the wall cracked a bit. My hand wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

I kept practicing against the wall, increasing the effort I put into each strike. “Done,” Naran said as he came over and Fethee pulling the cart. “Figure anything out?” Naran asked.

“I know I won’t get hurt, but I don’t think I am leveraging a strike as much as I could based on how fast I can move,” I said.

“Mental?” Naran asked me.

“Yes and no. It isn’t from the Almighty System, but a product of growing up as a regular human. My mind says a stone wall is hard and that striking it with everything I have will hurt.” I struck the wall again and it cracked. “But there is no pain or damage,” I replied.

Naran went up to the building wall himself and began striking it. It took a while as he built up and then he began doing slightly more damage than me.

“It is weird. I feel like I should be able to hit harder, but my mind is screaming no,” Naran said and shook his head.

“A conflict between the downloaded information and what our body and mind already knows,” I replied.

“It is going to be a pain to train out something like this,” Naran said and struck the wall a couple more times. “I also wouldn’t want to use a fist. Too easy to shatter one’s hand.” I nodded at that statement.

“I was thinking martial arts practices wouldn’t be much use, but if someone is going to focus their Body stat and fight melee, then they will need to practice their striking,” I said.

“That is only striking with your hands, let’s try this,” Naran said and went back to the store pillars. I waited as he purchased an iron sword and came back. He brought the sword over his head and then struck downwards.

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The blade cut partially into the wall and then broke. There was a long gouge cut into the wall. “The impact of the blow is increased, but the equipment can’t hold up,” I said. Naran tossed the broken half of the sword to the ground and looked at the damage he had done.

I noted Fethee carefully pick up the pieces. Ah, the recycling center, back in Purgatory. “Our equipment is lagging behind our stats clearly,” Naran said.

“A force blade would be quite powerful and useful,” I replied.

“Passive or counter?” Naran asked.

“Ah, that is the question. Probably passive, since resisting force would mean an increase in the weapon’s ability to take heavy blows and resist them. Passive would just deal more damage, by having a heavier blow but the sword would still snap,” I replied.

“Alright, you done here?” Naran asked me and I nodded. We set off towards the East gate. I could tell he was curious as well. Had the wall repaired itself. That was the big question. It was tempting to leap on top of a building and take a look, but that could reset whatever timer there was.

After a slow walk to the wall, it came into sight. It was completely repaired. No permanent damage. We approached and the tunnel was there, and outside there was no sign of damage to the forest.

“Interesting,” I said.

“No permanency,” Naran added.

“It is fine. I expected this. The wall is part of the terrain, which repairs itself. The real buildings are city buildings most likely. Also, the city shield. The wall only slows down and makes level 4 monsters hesitate. It isn’t a real obstacle. Level 3 and below kill themselves when being brought into the city,” I replied.

“Which makes the wall pointless,” Naran said.

“A bit. But it also creates natural chokepoints and a clear boundary. This place likes clear boundaries. I mean the transition between zones is incredibly small compared to the rest of the landscape. Very Minecraft,” I added.

“I suppose. I guess that the shield will be the main means of defending a city,” Naran replied.

“Yes and I am curious how it will work,” I replied.

“Clarissa going over the million point threshold?” Naran asked.

“It is up to her. My guess is she will invest into a lot of other things first. At least that is what I recommended. She will also want us back. She knows not to upgrade the store at the very least,” I said.

“You think it will trigger something,” Naran said.

“Yes. It is just asking for a swarm of level 4 monsters to attack or something equally stupid. I would rather be overly cautious than risk having Purgatory being wiped,” I explained.

“No objection from me. I was just hoping things made a lasting change. That level of attack, it was huge, not it is gone, like nothing. Like everything else,” Naran said with a bit of melancholy in his voice.

“It is weird, but it also means we don’t have to worry about breaking things. I would also guess that permanent effects occur at a higher level. Or at least things that stick around longer. I mean Death used some kind of curse. So, for level 5 or beyond, there might be terrain changing attacks, that take much longer to correct,” I replied.

“Could be,” Naran said.

“So, what do you think you need in Body to beat the golems?” I asked Naran.

“I would say at least a thousand. Might get a special unlock,” Naran said.

“Maybe. A thousand is quite a bit, but you aren’t that far off,” I said. Naran had 700 in Body compared to my 500 in the stat.

“The main issue is closing the distance to do damage. With those types of attacks and possibly new ones once I am in melee range, it will be tough,” Naran said.

“Dodging will be key, and moving in after an attack. I counted at least two to three seconds between the use of the scattershot attack,” I added.

“The golems are also multi-directional and tough. I also don’t know how tough,” Naran added.

“Well, you can kill level 3 monsters with your bare hands?” I asked.

“I can, but it is difficult. I have to put a lot of effort into it. The golems aren’t human sized to grapple and crush. They also don’t have any obvious weak points like a head,” Naran added.

“That is a good point. They don’t. Death was a skeleton under that black robe. The golems are multi-directional. A third step,” I muttered the last bit with a sigh.

“Step?” Naran asked.

“Step up in power. Level 4 monsters have increased power, intelligence, and now a lack of weak points. Three steps up in terms of difficulty compared to the single step that were the previous levels,” I said.

“That makes sense. Realistically I need a weapon of some kind. Max enchants at level 3 at the very least. Which makes me want to ask about clearing out level 2 dungeons?” Naran asked.

“For new monster types. I get it, but I want to speed through them without concern. I don’t want each dungeon to be a slog and death match. Each new monster type is a risk and I am in no rush to find out new monster types,” I replied.

“That is fair. Well, I want a least a thousand in the Body stat. I am guessing you want something similar in Regeneration?” Naran asked.

“I need more. I need more everything. But a thousand in Regeneration sounds like a good point to assess my other stats. Spirit needs a boost for fights like this. Another hundred stat points in Spirit would give a lot more of a buffer, but you have heard all the back and forth I have done on the issue,” I said.

“Hmm, yes. Surprised you aren’t going full Regeneration. Just focus on it, until you can use Acid Shot once a second, or near enough,” Naran said.

“I would need Regeneration to be at 6,000 to switch over to measuring by second. Then it would need to be at 120,000 stat points to use Acid Shot once every second. Better to focus on other stats and I will probably upgrade the skill far before that. Even with all the upgrades I have, it takes time to kill a level 4,” I said.

“You are worried of a type mismatch, a counter, or a higher level then,” Naran said.

“Those, but also grinding level 4 monsters. I need to be able to one shot them with a skill if I want to be able to grind them. Otherwise, it isn’t cost effective. But to upgrade the skill to the next level, I need more stats,” I explained.