It was fairly early once we arrived at Heaven. There were people near the gate, but I ignored them while we got stares and people pointed fingers, but no one tried to stop us. We made our way through the city towards the plaza.

This was the perfect time to try out some things. Once we reached the plaza, there were people standing around and trash all over the place. They hadn’t descended into cannibalism, but the place didn’t look well run.

“Excuse me,” a woman came up to us and spoke up. I kept walking and ignored here. “Hello! Excuse me!” She then tried a couple of other languages but I ignored her.

I went over to one of the pillars. The city was at level 3. I looked over to the building the Ritualist used to own. “Naran, you check that building?” I asked him.

“No,” he said. The building was still owned by the Ritualist, so he was still alive. It was good to get confirmation of his status. It looked like the building was the hangout of some minor group. I didn’t care.

“Hey, you understand English!” The woman from before shouted at me.

“If you keep bothering me I will melt you, need supplies?” I asked Naran.

“We are set for a while,” Naran replied, and I nodded at that.

“You first?” I asked him.

“Sure,” he said and went over to one of the pillars. He settled into a stance to brace himself and brought his mega sword up and over his head. It really was a good way to tell people to buzz off having a sword that big.

“AHHH!” Naran let out a shout as he swung downwards in a blur. His 1,200 Body stat going to work. The massive blade struck the store the pillar. For a second I thought the attack would just bounce off, but the pillar suddenly shattered under the blow.

The people watching us let out shouts. A few of them started to rush over. Acid Shot x6. They started to melt instead. People screamed and ran away in panic. The woman who had been trying to talk to me earlier froze like a deer staring at oncoming headlights.

Fethee was staying next to the cart while watching at was happening around us. I walked over to Naran who was looking at his massive sword. “It made a huge dent, it is warped,” he finally said.

It was bent, the metal was cracked and distorted, and huge notch had been imprinted onto the blade. Naran tossed the sword to the side where it hit the ground with a resounding thud. He then purchased another massive store.

I went over to one of the pillars and checked the status of the store.

Critical Damage. One million points for repair.

Now that was interesting. The repair cost ten times less. The only explanation was that an upgrade wasn’t in progress. Still, the damage was reported as critical, which was concerning. We were not about to break more pillars and unleash a super high level even or be wiped out. Destroying one pillar was enough conformation.

Acid Shot x3. I sent a deluge at another pillar. No damage. Perhaps a high resistance to energy-based attacks. I would have to try again once my skill was increased in level. “Anything else you can think of?” I asked Naran.

“Not really. Everything else would be too much of a risk,” Naran said, and I nodded at that. I was not about to purchase a store upgrade for Heaven and then run away. Who knows how long the level 4 monsters might chase me. The variance in targeting priorities was a headache to deal with.

We left the plaza and made our way to the East towards the city gate. Where are you hiding Ritualist? If I could catch him in the wilderness, he was done for. Hybrids would make for good back carriers, especially in rough terrain like the swamps or level 3 zones.

The cart which had originally provided a way to leave Purgatory for an extended period of time was now a weight around my neck. It provided needed food and water for extended trips and grinding sessions, but it wouldn’t go through a swamp easily or any of the level 3 zones. Well, it might go through the mistlands, but that was just asking for trouble. I still hadn’t poked one of those again. The risk of getting lost was too great and I liked visibility.

“We have a tail,” Naran said quietly, and I nodded. It was the woman from before. She wasn’t getting in the way or saying anything, so I was inclined to leave her alone. I didn’t say anything back, which meant to just leave the issue.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

We eventually reached the East gate and went through the tunnel under the wall. We exited into some forest with red wolf monsters and kept heading East. The woman was still following us. When we reached the swamp around mid-day we came to a stop. The woman had followed us all the way from Heaven.

She either was desperate, or crazy, perhaps both. I turned to face her fully and she froze. “You followed us all the way out here. What are you expecting?” I asked.

“A chance,” she said. I waved a hand for her to continue. “A couple of clerics have taken over. I don’t want to get shoved into a burka and put into some man’s harem for his sick pleasures.” The city was New Cairo before the Ritualist made it Heaven.

“What if I have sick pleasures?” I asked, curious what she would say.

“You are strong,” she said, but I could see the fear on her face and hear the tremor in her voice. She had to be around 18 to 24 if I had to guess. Not that I would, I was very bad at guessing ages. But if I was forced to, I would put her around that age. Black hair that went to her shoulders and wearing a plain gray dress, that hid her figure. Very dark skin, that was almost pitch black.

“We already have a cart puller and feeding you will cost points and be a headache,” I said.

“I can cook and clean,” she desperately begged. I felt bad for her, but if I tried to give a position to everyone who begged me, then I would have an entourage following me about. I didn’t want that. It would also hinder Naran in a crisis situation if she was on the team.

But she had guts to follow us to the edge of the zone where it touched the swamp. Even after seeing the melting happen in Heaven, she was willing to take a big risk. Go with a strange man into the wilderness. She even knew it probably wouldn’t end well, but still went anyways, implying the situation was not good in Heaven.

I let out a sigh and looked at Naran. “What do you think?” I asked him.

“It would be hard for her. Fethee has at least 200 stats with 100 stats in Body,” Naran said. So that was why we he was pulling the cart more easily.

“I wasn’t so much concerned about that, but if we take her along, we are taking responsibility for her to some extent. She can’t do anything useful,” I replied. She couldn’t even sell her body without having the necessary Body stat. Cooking was not needed and there was nothing to clean. I learned to live with the grunge.

“She has guts. You know that is the most important and hardest to cultivate trait,” Naran said.

“Guts,” I muttered. While it was true, it was also annoying. She knew to shut up at least. Fethee was good like that, only occasionally jumping into a conversation when he had something to contribute, but content to stay in the background.

“Well, up to you,” Naran added on. Gee, thanks, I already knew that.

“Fine, she can be in charge of cleaning. Since we are going into the swamps, armor will need to be cleaned afterwards. She can be in charge of that. Also, food prep, since Fethee is pulling the cart. What is your name?” I asked the woman. That was when I realized I was giving her gender specific tasks.

“Heba,” she replied. “Thank you for this chance.”

“Don’t speak unless it is something important. Naran is in charge after me. Fethee can explain things. What do you think of the swamp Naran? Wait or go now?” I asked.

“It will be super dark during the night and our footing will be bad. With the water, smell, trees, and everything else, I say we wait. Go until just before mid-day and then turn around,” Naran suggested.

“Seems like a lot of wasted day. Let’s head North along the border. See if there is a break in the swamp line. If that doesn’t work, we can come back and check South,” I said, and we set off.

So now I had a new follower, Heba. Well hopefully the state of our meals would improve, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Still, having someone cook and clean my armor would allow me to focus more on grinding. I had proven to myself I could live with the grunge and the lack of comforts.

I guess I was at the point where I needed to start optimizing the process. That was why I had seriously objected to her request. It was time to looking at all the areas where I could squeeze out fractional improvements to my grinding speed.

That made me think to the other discovery by Clarissa. Death was not triggered by a million points in the city of Purgatory. Still, that didn’t mean anything in my mind, or very little. It might only trigger with those points in a level 3 zone.

The city store upgrade showed how random and devastating events could be. Well not random, but harder to predict. Knowledge was as valuable points at these higher levels, where any misstep could spell doom. Each bit of knowledge gained was another important piece of the puzzle to understand how the Almighty System ran the Systemic Lands.

We reached the Northeast corner of the zone, and it was swamp. So, we turned around and headed back South at a quick pace. Heba was breathing hard to keep up, but that was her problem, not mine. All the walking to get around would get anyone in shape.

It was getting late once the forest of Heaven’s zone turned into flowerlands and the zone to the East had the swamps turn into deadlands. I decided to poke the zone to see the monster type before calling it a day.

Bundles of vines with thorns came out of the ground and whipped about, trying to ensnare me. Acid Shot.

I targeted the main vine bundle and the monster quickly dusted after it was hit with my skill. I picked up the crystal. Time to find out their type. I killed eight more of the vine monsters and held up my Processing Rod to them as they died.

After the eighth monster I had managed to get a green poison slash nature type crafting crystal. Nothing new unfortunately. That was another reason for this trip. I wanted to work out the type chart to decide on the best direction for my equipment.

Getting level 4 or 5 gear would be a huge investment of my time. It was not something I wanted to constantly have to redo or adjust. Since it would impact my fighting style, it was critical that I chose the best option to start with, since switching out gear later on would be harder. I returned to camp where Naran was explaining to Heba how to prepare food for the late evening meal.