The next day we set off into the frostlands. There were dark blue centipedes that emitted blasts of freezing cold. Dangerous, but not that hard to dodge. Much easier than the force wall gargoyles for sure. Naran and I took turns killing them and turning them into crafting crystals.

About halfway through the zone, I paused for a moment. Why was I doing this? It was pointless. Naran suddenly ran past me and smashed a pink spider monster the size of a very large dog with his massive sword. “You okay?” he asked.

“Mental attack. I would say depression or sadness. Not bliss like the white monsters,” I replied and shuddered a bit. What a horrible type of mental attack. At least with bliss, you felt happy and lost your sense of self. This mental attack made it so you didn’t even want to continue.

“Want me to take the lead?” Naran asked. I seriously considered the idea. He had twice my Mind stat.

“Alternate. I need to get used it and recognize this type of mental attack like the other kind,” I said and Naran went ahead to kill the next pink spider monster. Mental attacks were something that could be trained up to better deal with.

While their main incapacitating effect was pass or fail, that wasn’t the end of such an attack. It lingered or left an impact. One had to train to recognize and ignore the thoughts and feelings that came with such an attack, or the headache.

Like learning to ignore an annoying noise in the background, one would be distracted and caught up with the noise at first, but in time, it would fade into the background. The noise never went away but had less of an impact. This was the same concept for the mental attacks. Only a high Mind stat could negate them, but one could learn to ignore the minor effects.

It wasn’t easy. Each pink spider made me feel depressed and frustrated. It was a mental struggle to keep going and I had to force myself to kill monster after monster. We did manage to get a pink crafting crystal.

It made me wonder if one could depress a monster enough to kill themselves. I was also going to turn this into a bomb to use on the Ritualist. Summoners had a weakness to mental attacks and level 3 pink crafting crystals of sadness seemed like a great counter. Maybe it would make the Ritualist slit his own wrists if he showed up again.

Mental attacks were insidious like that. If you didn’t know about them, or weren’t prepared, they would sink into your mind indistinguishable from one’s own thoughts. The Mind stat needed to be a priority for when a level 4 monster with mental attacks showed up.

If it specialized more into its mental attacks than other aspects, it would be devastating. The fact that there was other things besides the white monsters out there, implied there might be even more types of mental attacks.

It seemed like depression was the opposite of bliss, but I wasn’t so sure. This was why I needed a type chart to reference and to work out the interactions of energy types in more depth. If bliss wasn’t the counter, than drinking a potion to counter depression, could make one gleefully depressed.

While there was little sense in such a combination, it was too much of a risk to not upgrade my Mind stat. Depending on common sense with skills and monsters seemed like a bad long term plan.

Light yellow crafting crystals were fear and illusion. I had almost forgotten about them. There was probably a fourth mental effect, if there were three. Maybe. Four seemed more balanced than three, if types had opposites. Maybe if all four were used at the same time, it would explode a person’s head or something equally horrible.

“Hold up,” I called to Naran after he killed another monster. I pointed to the East. There were several large rock pillars in the distance, barely visible, in the stonelands. “I think that is our terrain feature and it is not a tower,” I said.

“Thinking about it?” Naran asked.

“No. The terrain is terrible, and I am not poking a level 4 monster. Let’s keep going,” I said and Naran nodded. I took point to take out the next monster. We kept traveling South, it was a lot slower than a level 2 zone where we could rush forward without a care.

I was about to call it since it had just reached midday, when Naran came to a stop after killing another pink spider. I came up on the hill next to him. I looked out at the sight before us.

Calling the forest in zone 1 a forest and calling the swamp in zone 2 a swamp was nothing like what was before us. Trees towering ten stories or more. Vines, dense foliage underneath, and just a tremendous amount of plant life despite the tree cover.

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I would call the terrain type a jungle on steroids. The massive trees with stick branches, close to each other and all the green and lack of light would make the terrain a hell. It would be too easy to ambush a person from any direction.

Looking to my left, across from the boulderlands, was another type of terrain. Mushrooms, lots and lots of mushrooms. So were the size of houses. Others were the size of a finger. They were everywhere. Mushrooms on top of mushrooms. Where the jungle was a wall of dark green, the mushrooms were like the rainbow. Every possible color, even neon. There were so many colors it gave me a headache as some of them even seemed to shift.

There was also a haze in the air. Probably some terrain effect based on spores. Entering the mushroom terrain clearly would have the effect of being high out of one’s mind. Multi-colored mushrooms and a haze of spores, it was so obvious that I suspected there might be something else if that wasn’t already terrible.

We stood there quietly, looking at the two terrain types, barely breathing and not daring to move any closer. We stayed there for a couple of minutes taking it all in. I noticed some more details like how the jungle was very wet. There was water dripping down, but the ground was too covered in plant life to be a cesspool like the swamp terrain.

The mushroom terrain appeared to undulate slightly over time. Shifting and changing in height. Mushrooms burst into spores, not dust, and new mushrooms quickly grew. Then they were static while other areas shifted. It would be a nightmare keeping track of one’s direction based on the terrain.

I looked up at the sky. It was hard to tell what the cloud cover would be like in those terrains without experiencing it first hand or getting a lot closer, which wasn’t going to happen. Most likely the light would shift rapidly in the mushroom terrain while being overcast and drizzling in the jungle terrain if I had to guess.

We slowly backed away until the zones were out of sight. “What do you think?” I quietly asked Naran.

“Completely messed up. I think I am still seeing spots from looking at those mushrooms. Then the jungle, there is going to be a lot of three dimensional combat. Ambushes from every direction. What a nightmare,” Naran replied. I nodded at that as we made our way back to our cart. At least on the return trip there were no monsters.

That was another thing, a level 4 zone might have different monster dynamics for movement and interception. The frustration of how much time it was taking to overcome level 4 monsters and terrain niggled at my mind.

“It makes me wonder what fresh hell the third terrain type will be like,” I said.

“If things keep to that pattern. Anything that carries through to level 4 will continue beyond that most likely, maybe. I have no doubt that haze is spores, which will have crippling effects,” Naran pointed out something I had already recognized.

“I saw that. The terrain was changing too, which would make traversing the zone a nightmare. Any guess on the stat requirements?” I asked.

“At least 1,000. But probably 5,000 to 10,000 just be safe. Not something we can touch for a long time,” Naran said with a sigh. I agreed with him and felt the same way.

“So Southwest tomorrow?” I asked.

“Hmmm, I guess, not a big deal unless we are grinding,” Naran said. I frowned, Naran’s mentality was clearly being affected in some way. That was quite concerning.

“What do you think we should do?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Naran replied.

“Naran, are you alright?” I asked.

“Stop bothering me!” Naran shouted. He then came to a stop. “Sorry.” He then rubbed his face. “Just feel stressed, about a lot of different things, from combat to exploring. It isn’t easy,” Naran said.

“That is why I asked. We can take a break. Returning to Purgatory for a while isn’t a huge deal. Mental health is more important,” I replied and meant it. I couldn’t have Naran being off kilter and not being at one hundred percent.

“That may be for the best. A day to get back?” Naran asked.

“Depends on how close we cut the corner on the void zone and if we stop in Heaven. We can get back fairly quickly without much hassle. The monsters aren’t that big of a concern,” I said.

“A longer route might be better. I just feel tired and irritable. Too much of the void zone. There are clearly effects, I can’t think of anything else,” Naran said. I agreed with that and the most recent pink spiders didn’t help matters either.

The last vacation ended in a life and death battle. “Let’s plan for eight days. Take your time, no rush. Don’t worry about the cart. We will get back day 517 and can leave on day 525. No upgrades, no stress,” I said.

“That would be a good idea. What about you?” Naran asked.

“I can look through Clarissa’s accounting and inspect various aspects of Purgatory. Might do a day trip to the swamps North and South to clear those dungeons for the skill points. That way you can skip them,” I replied.

“You will be okay?” Naran asked me.

“Don’t worry about it. I mean it. Rest, get your head on straight, then we can grind up stats a bit, before exploring a bit more,” I replied.

“That sounds good. Sorry to cut the trip short,” Naran said.

“It isn’t a big deal. Not that worried about delaying our exploration. Already came out quite well already. Got a huge chunk explored to the Southeast of Heaven and three skill points. If I clear the swamp dungeons near Purgatory, that will add a couple more,” I said.

“We need to do a lot more grinding,” Naran said with a sigh.

“We already knew that. Nothing has changed. With how much of a slog it is, I am hopeful that there will be common ground found if we run into other high stat people about the situation,” I said.

“Not kill on first site?” Naran asked.

“I am going to channel some optimism for once. Also, with the knowledge we are bringing back, we are probably fairly close to working out all the types,” I said.