We left the temple very early in the morning and raced through the swamp to the Southeast. Thankfully the swamp quickly turned into shadowlands. The overcast sky was a little bit annoying, but not a huge hindrance.

We ran into white leaf beasts, but their mind attacks did nothing to slow Naran and I down in the slightest. We reached the corner of the zone and looked at the three neighboring zones. To the East, was the zone we had already checked, but there were mistlands.

To the South were also mistlands. It would be way to easy to get lost, so both of those weren’t an option. To the Southeast at coordinates (5,-2) was more void. The mist was being pushed away from the void and we could barely back it through the corner of the zone, but it was there.

“That is a bust,” I muttered. With nothing else, we turned back and raced back the way we came. That was the bad part about exploration. Sometimes we just hit a dead end. Well, not a true dead end, but I wasn’t about to test my luck with the mistlands.

I was also hungry and tired. Sleeping, well more like resting, in the temple hadn’t been very restful. I had been on edge. While I trusted my Perception to alert me to danger and Naran and I spread out our sleep schedules, and we did a midnight clear, I was still uneasy.

Still, we were making progress, and I was getting one skill upgrade after another. This also benefited Naran, which was why he wasn’t complaining too much. If we found the right type of monster, then it would play a huge role in the type of equipment we would work towards.

Also, it was combat experience. While these monsters were incredibly easy as level 2 monsters with the occasional level 3 monster, just seeing all the types and abilities, helped us get a better understanding of what the higher level monsters might be capable of with a bit of extrapolation.

We had run into enough level 4 monsters that we could make that type of guess. A leaf beast at level 4, would probably use leaves to intercept attacks. Have the leaves circle around like mini-drones to attack from behind and the flanks, while the main body kept its distance.

Or the vines we kept running across. A level 4 vine type monster would emit something from the vines like a gas for an area of effect attack. Also, some vines would be harder and tougher to fight in melee combat.

I had noted that all level 4 monsters had a defensive skill, which made me wonder if they were more spread out in terms of ability and stats. While they were a step up from level 3, it wasn’t the jump from level 2 to level 3 in terms of ability in a single area.

Each category was slightly less, if I had to guess, but their overall scope increased. It was a better tradeoff, since anything level 3 or below had one or two tricks at best. Once those were figured out, the monsters were easy enough to kill.

What was really hitting home, was how much there would be to explore once we could cross level 3 zones as easily as we crossed the swamps. With difficulty and headache, but it would open up a range of possibilities.

I wasn’t really considering this realistic until after I had managed to get my stats up to 1,000 across the board and I had equipment that I could use in combat with ease. Since Naran was able to control the force generated by his Body stat to some extent at 1,000 Body, it had become a key number in my mind for stats.

I didn’t think I would get anything special for all my stats hitting 1,000, but there were bound to be interesting tidbits and pieces of information, with the chance of something more useful. Regeneration being zone limited, matched up with everything I had learned about energy density.

If I ever got it high enough, it would be interesting to test how the stat was affected close to the void. Which was another thing, the void zones. More like holes on this flat piece of world we lived on. I was almost tempted to call it a sea, but it just pure black with no movement or anything.

I was glad I had gone on this exploration expedition instead of focusing on grinding. The grinding was absolutely necessary for us to clear zones and dungeons like we were, but going back to grinding would have been a mistake. I hadn’t been sure, but the recent skill upgrades and new knowledge was already worthwhile in my book.

While Naran and I might complain about and loathe the swamps, it wasn’t that bad at the end of the day. Just very unpleasant and annoying. We eventually made it back to the cart in the afternoon. Both Fethee and Heba were still alive. Fethee had been slowing killing the nearby spotted twisting vine monsters. He hadn’t made that much progress, but he was still earning crystals. Heba had stayed with the cart.

Stolen novel; please report.

I quickly changed into a robe to relax while cut fruit was served. I really wanted a chair and table, but that was useless weight to bring along. Spare clothing was far more important than having a place to sit. If I sat, then Naran would need a chair, and soon we would need a second cart.

Sitting on the ground wasn’t the best, but I could survive doing it. After I ate, I got to work updating my research notebook with my observations and guesses. I wasn’t about to bring it with me through a swamp. Having all my notes getting ruined would be a huge loss.

While my memory was good, there were a lot of fiddly details about the Systemic Lands, the Almighty System, and energy. I was hoping to work out a deeper understanding of these things based on my observations. I wasn’t holding out much hope, but it was a long-term goal.

The next day we set out towards the West, following the border of the swamp. We moved into the zone South of Heaven and ran into black twisting vines. Definitely not letting those touch me and Naran and I easily killed them.

It was mid-day when we ran into more cliffs. This time the swamp was on the low side and the deadlands we were traveling through as on the high side. We kept to the high side and I kept checking over the side of the cliff.

We started running into very light green twisting vines. I almost wanted to call their color neon. These ones whipped about unleashing an air type attack. Killing them off gave us a light green crafting crystal. A third new type of crafting crystal we had discovered. I would put my money on wind.

Since they were level 2 monsters, they were easy enough to harvest as we made our way along the cliff. That was when I spotted a gaping hole in the base of the cliff. I let out a long sigh. Of course, we couldn’t get lucky with another open dungeon. Acid Shot.

I targeted the pit, but nothing stirred out of it. “Call it a day and go in?” I asked, since it was just past midday.

“This is going to be annoying,” Naran said and slammed his sword into the ground at the top of the cliff. He then banged on top of the hilt with his hands several times. “Get a rope,” he called out to Fethee who quickly began moving.

Naran tied one end of the rope to the hilt of his sword and gave a light tug. It didn’t move. He tossed the rope over the side of the cliff. “Fast or quick?” Naran asked as he got a smaller blade from the cart.

“Fast, might as well practice, I will go first. Shout if anything pops up. Scream if it is a giant worm bursting out of the ground to swallow me whole,” I replied.

“Got it. Shout if there is a giant worm about to eat you,” Naran said. I wasn’t joking. The pits in the ground made me think that something massive would leap out of one. I grabbed the rope with one hand and jumped off the side of the cliff.

Friction was interesting with how the Body stat worked. The vast majority of the time it worked as intended, slowing a person down. But it got interesting at high speeds. The force and damage of friction was canceled out by my Body stat.

That meant I could hold onto a length of rope and rapidly descend, with just enough friction to slow my descent from being a free fall, but my hand wouldn’t be ripped to shreds. I could always tighten my grip to quickly come to a stop. If I went too fast, then the friction burn might overcome my Body stat.

It was good practice to do this now. I landed to the side of the pit and killed two green centipedes that rushed at me with Acid Shot. I walked around the area as Naran plummeted downwards, one hand on the rope as well.

“All clear, ready?” I asked. He nodded and passed me a lit lamp. “Thanks for remembering,” I said.

“No problem. Let’s do this,” Naran replied. We entered the pit. A trickle of swamp water running into it. Of course, the pit wasn’t full of water, despite the nearby swamp having loads of water. More terrain nonsense by the Almighty System.

It quickly became clear it was a centipede pit dungeon, as that monster type tried to attack again and again. Acid Shot easily cleared the way.

After killing a level 3 green centipede that spat out poison blobs, we took a small break in the chamber. “Dead end,” Naran said.

“You think the dead ends mean anything or hide anything?” I asked.

“No. There has been a lot of excavation in the slime dungeon by Purgatory and no one has found anything. Dead ends are probably just that, dead ends. I don’t recall any localized terrain effects like illusions or traps. It has all been monsters and landscapes,” Naran said.

“True. If anything is going to have traps, it is going to be the tower,” I replied. After the short break we sent out again.

I kept clearing out the centipedes and a couple more level 3 green sub-boss centipedes. Eventually we reached a door. The only doors were boss doors. This was a localized terrain effect, a boss door. Since it had hinges, it implied that the Almighty System could make more complex devices.

I pushed open the door. Acid Shot x3. Ten level 2 centipedes died as they tried to pour out of the gap. I stepped away and waited for the acid to disappeared before fully pushing open the doorway. I saw what could only be described as a clear centipede, with its internals visible in the middle of the room. It took me a moment to recall what the possible type was.

“Naran, I think you are up for the boss, clear type. I am going all out at the start, then it is on you,” I said.

“Got it,” Naran replied. I stepped into the chamber, Naran right behind me. It was too big to try and aim from the doorway. I raced forward as the door shut behind us. Another idiosyncrasy of dungeons with doors. The doors were the most interesting part of the entire design.

Acid Shot x5. Acid Shot x3. The first wave of attacks took out a lot of the lower level monsters. The follow up attack was aimed at the boss. It quickly dodged out of the way of my Acid Shot attacks. Naran moved in front of me and raced forward.

He stumbled heavily while moving. The boss leapt at him. I couldn’t use my skill without risk of hitting him and I didn’t have the energy for an Air Burst.