“We are pushing onwards. We handled a level 4 monster, we can handle whatever nonsense that comes up at level 3. Just watch your footing,” I said as I eyed the large boulders strewn ahead of us to make the stonelands.

“You taking point or me?” Naran asked. That was a good question. He had the higher Body stat, but I had the higher Perception stat. I was also the best equipped to deal with any monsters that might show up. In the end

“I am going first. Since your buster stick, really requires proper footing to swing. I can react faster with my skill and higher Perception,” I said with a sigh. Naran was meant to be my meat shield, but I was better equipped to go first, while he covered for me from behind.

I kicked off the ground. I landed on a boulder, and it took me a brief moment to adjust my foot angle properly and kick off again. My arcs were higher than I liked unfortunately. I kept a lookout for the level 3 monster in this zone.

“Behind!” Naran shouted. Acid Shot x3. I spun around as I used my skill. A massive great sword was plummeting from the sky. My acid missed and the sword skewered a boulder, splitting it apart, and sending debris flying everywhere.

The sword had teleported back up and now there were two. They both plummeted at me. Acid Shot x2. Unfortunately for them the angle of attack was terrible and I was fast enough to dodge their attack. The swords both melted and turned to dust. The crystals dropped down deep into the boulder field and made my heart ache.

That was another reason I hated this kind of terrain and the swamps. It was a nightmare to retrieve any of the crystals that dropped from the monsters. I let out a small sigh and kept going.

We soon had routine. Naran would shout out above, I would adjust my movement and use Acid Shot directly above me. It was simple and efficient. Even with our slower pace due to the wildly uneven terrain we made good time since we didn’t stop to pick up crystals.

It was afternoon, when we ran into a new type of monster. A floating metal sphere. At least it looked like metal, with how smooth and reflective the surface was. Well type for the good old skill, Acid Shot.

The acid just dripped off and there was no damage. “Air Burst!” I quickly reversed my trajectory so I didn’t run into it. I landed on top of a boulder and Naran leapt past me.

“Impact!” He shouted. I thought it was stupid, but he liked to attach words to his attacks to help him focus what he needed to do, to better express the force generated by his Body stat. The buster stick slammed down into the sphere. There was a massive clanging sound. The sphere was heavily dented as it slammed into a boulder, sending stone shards flying.

Naran kicked out and propelled himself back up on top one of the boulders. The sphere monster lifted back up into the air and flew towards Naran. He leapt into the air again. “Impact!” He struck the sphere again, this time there were cracks left behind. I raced forward.

I slammed the Processing Rod right into where the cracks had been left behind in the deep dent. The monster turned to dust. I let out a sigh of relief. That had been high risk. I recovered to the top of a boulder and looked at Naran.

“That was not good,” I replied.

“Something that resists your acid. Looks, like I am taking point here,” Naran said.

“Two blows and then the Processing Rod. I want that crafting crystal. This feels like a type we haven’t seen before. Did you see any type of attack?” I asked.

“No, nothing, which was weird. It wasn’t fast or really did anything besides float,” Naran said.

“Maybe a preparation attack of some kind. We can’t afford to let our guard down. The longer it takes to attack, the worse it will be. Could be something like Radiant Beam, that would be a nightmare if we let it get an attack off,” I speculated.

“Imbue Reform. Imbue Reform. My sword is going to take a beating. But it should hold out,” Naran replied and I nodded at that.

“Good. Since that is our only way forward, after you,” I said and Naran took the lead. We didn’t see any attacks the spheres made. But Naran didn’t give them any time. We weren’t about to test our defenses against a monster that could negate my skill.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Just to no sell me like that, was scary. After killing eight of the monsters and using the Processing Rod, I got a new type of crafting crystal. It was a shiny gray color that seemed to catch the fading light. It was getting quite dark, by the time we finally reached the edge of the level 3 zone.

Looking to the East, I let out a sigh of relief, there was swamp. I never thought I would be happy to see swamp. We came to a stop on the very narrow strip of transition between the two zones, where there weren’t boulders, and the ground was only slightly soggy.

“We did it,” I said with a grin.

“Yes, we did,” Naran replied with a grin of his own. He was probably happy that he wasn’t useless against those sphere monsters. I shuddered to think what a level 4 monster of that type would be like. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t go poking level 4 zones anymore, but I had to know.

The next time I went grinding, I was stacking those crystals a mile high, before I returned to a city store to cash them all in. Death would just had his crystal to the pile, just grind up faster. After that skittering bladed horror and traveling through two level 3 zones, I was quite pleased with myself.

The fact we had run into a level 2 zone, meant that a city was probably nearby. We just had to track it down and see if the Ritualist had stopped by. It would also be interesting to see what knowledge the people had and if I truly was among the first people to arrive to the Systemic Lands.

“South, I think to the middle of the zone and hope for something other than swamp,” I suggested.

“Sure, let’s go,” Naran replied, and we set off towards the South. Thankfully the swamp went away and the terrain turned into deadlands. I went first and a large dark blue mosquito flew at me. It had been hard to see in the dark. While my Perception stat helped, it wasn’t true night vision.

Acid Shot. I killed the monster. A quick scout around cleared out several others. Naran and I then sat on the dirt to rest. “Urg, I am hungry,” I complained.

“Just shut up, me too. But you wanted to race across the level 3 zones and find the Ritualist. We really will need to find the city within a day or so, otherwise we will have to turn back,” Naran said.

“Well if they aren’t useless, they will have people outside the city grinding away. Just head towards people and someone is bound to know English,” I replied.

“If they don’t?” Naran asked.

“Then we just use common sense and go where the monsters have been killed. Eventually we will find a route,” I replied.

“I hope Fethee and Heba are okay,” Naran said.

“They will be fine. We said three days after today?” I asked.

“Yes, day 535 is when we should be back by. Or the morning of day 536. We should be fine. Today was rough Michael. A level 4 and those boulders. I don’t which was worse. I kept constantly feeling that I would slip and fall down into the crevices,” Naran said.

“Urg, don’t remind me. I have no idea how the Ritualist crossed that or the mistlands, if he even did. Probably had something carry him or fly him,” I replied.

“Any luck with flying monsters, I haven’t heard anything?” Naran asked me.

“Useless. Summons have a tether limit that is quite high, but they can’t see anything from up there due to the obscuring effect. Carrying people just doesn’t work. Even small loads, causes issues. Summons can handle their own weight, but not more,” I replied.

“That makes sense. Thinking of flying to the top of the tower?” Naran asked.

“I was. Since we need a lot more Body to attempt wall kicking our way up.” I shook my head. I really didn’t want to go in the tower. Better to cheese something like that with lots of space to escape if at all possible. Going into an enclosed space was asking to be brutally killed in a death trap of some kind.

“Well we-“ Naran began to speak but I held up a hand to cut him off. I heard something. I got up and looked around. There was a woman, killing a dark blue mosquito. The buzzing from the monster had alerted me.

She was swinging around a sword and I would beg her Body stat at around six to seven hundred. She had dark skin and dark hair. Naran had stood up with me. Well time to try some of the good Michael non-melting diplomacy.

“Hello there!” I called out after the woman had killed the monster. She spun towards us and seemed to sag. She picked up the monster crystal and put it in her back and then came over. I noted her clothes were worn and she smelled. The kind of smell that happens when you are outside a city with no shower for a long time.

“Hello, I am Champion Michael and this is my teammate Naran,” I introduced both of us.

“Ajani. Come, far away?” she asked and gestured to the West.

“Yes,” I said and mentally sighed in relief. She could speak English. I did not want to do charades. Ajani let out a visible sigh of relief.

“Peace. No fight,” she said and raised up her hands.

“Peace. No fight,” I copied her, and she nodded and lowered her hands. I repeated the gesture and smiled. Finally, there was a reasonable person who wasn’t a hassle. A rare person indeed. “Sit, talk?” I asked and gestured at the ground. I was tired and didn’t want to keep stand. Ajani nodded and took a seat when both Naran and myself did.

“How about we trade questions. You ask a question. Then I ask a question,” I let her go first to buy into the idea.

“Can you help me leave?” Ajani asked without hesitation. That was a loaded question right off the bat. We might piss off whoever was in charge, but I didn’t care about that too much. Information was more important and putting this woman at ease was key to that.

“Yes. But I will need more information. And we need supplies from the city. Why do you want to leave?” I asked.

“Great evil. Come and kill Uday. Now, the people are lost. Everyone is lost. Great evil gathers strength. Must sneak into city, very hard,” Ajani said. Well there was only one great evil that I knew about. The Ritualist. I had found his nest. But there was clearly a lot going on here and we needed more information.