“Meta-points as I call them, are awarded by the System for accomplishing an impressive feat without help or knowledge of the meta-points,” the Astrologer said, and it all clicked in my head. I closed my eyes and let out a long breath.

“Now you understand. There was only one easy way, and easy is relative here by the way, for you to gain a meta-point. To run into a level 4 zone. You can’t fake the risk. Also, the System has to favor you for you to get some of the chances that are presented.” I frowned at this. What chances? Then it clicked.

“Death!” I said as the realization hit me like a ton of bricks to the face.

“Indeed. If you had fought it on your own right away, there was a good chance of dying. But if you had won, then you would get a meta-point. The System rewards people for acting individually at great risk. Bombs, going outside the system, getting help, running away, those are things that the System doesn’t like.”

“Why not tell people then at least?” I asked in frustration. If the System wanted people to go out and risk their lives for even more power, it should say so. But telling people, violated the requirements for said power.

“Because the System wills it to be so. If people know, it cheapens the requirements. People would try to find exploits, loopholes, and any manner of getting these meta-points by any means possible other than personally risking their life.” I sat there in silence. Maybe they weren’t that good? I knew that wasn’t the case if they had a name like god-point.

“What do these meta-points do?” Clarissa asked the question I didn’t want to. I felt ill at missing out on something so valuable.

“A meta-point at its heart is a wish.” The Astrologer held up a gloved hand before I could scream in frustration. “With hidden limits. You get to ask for up to three things, information, skills, stats, anything. And then the meta-point will present the option closest to the request. Then the person must pick from the three options.”

“What did you pick?” Clarissa asked. That was a dumb question, Clarissa. I shook my head at that.

“Things and stuff. I mean you don’t seriously expect me to answer that? These abilities go beyond conventional knowledge or patterns. But they are rare. To illustrate how rare, I only know of three people to earn one of these meta-points. Myself, the Divine Empress, and a person she killed in her ascent to power.”

“Thankfully, you can’t steal these meta-points. I suspect that the Divine Empress picked something related to her sense of self. A unique passive skill enhancing everything about herself, to compound the effects of her insanely high Body stats while having to spend less in other areas to be protected from various types of attacks.”

“That combined with her mastery over the martial arts, makes her truly unstoppable in direct combat and near impossible to hit.” Now I was dying to know what meta-point or points the Astrologer had. But that was a question that was never going to be answered. It was his trump card. His power to reverse a bad situation.

“So, you wanted me to get one of these meta-points and spend it to free you?” I asked incredulously.

“I would have asked you to pick something related to energy absorption with a filter. Then you could have broken me out and the skill would be incredibly useful, to fuel your other skills. If you didn’t like that option, there are a few more I could have suggested. The cage doesn’t need a key and can be broken in various ways.”

“So, it is the System in the end? Are you sure it discriminates?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes. Another way to get a meta-point is to upgrade a city to level 4 and triumph alone with no assistance. And yes, these points would compound over time. Making it easier to get the second once you have the first, but the requirements increase to match your power and ability.”

“That is frustrating,” I muttered. I also realized that there was a good chance that the Astrologer had more than one meta-point. I wanted to curse and scream at how unfair this was. The missed opportunities, which wouldn’t come again. It made me feel ill.

“Of course. I warned you, but you wanted to know. My Valkyries tried so hard to earn one, but it never happened, no matter what they tried. So, the only way is the very hard way. A lot of Spirit stat and training,” the Astrologer said.

“How many stat points is one worth?” I asked, wanting to get a better understanding of the meta-points.

“It is multiplicative. I know that much, but I never asked such a question. You can only ask for three possibilities. Iterating on a single goal is much better than trying to work out the scope of the meta-points. But if I had to guess. Than I would say a multiple of ten in a single stat.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“TEN!” I screamed in shock! A multiplication factor of ten, would mean millions or even billions of points that would have to go into that single stat. If that was how much a meta-point boosted a single stat, then I wanted to scream some more in rage. Why did I have to ask the Astrologer to explain things? I should have just closed my brain and run right into whatever hell he wanted me to run into.

“That is a huge multiplier,” Clarissa replied.

“They aren’t called meta-points or god-points because they are cabbages that you can pick up off the ground. Each one is rare and precious. While grinding can help make up some of the difference, the boost they give is insane,” the Astrologer said.

“Ten years and only three people who have earned these meta-points?” I asked.

“There may be more, but they are keeping a very low profile. The Divine Empress spreads this knowledge, why do you think she is called the Divine Empress? She wants people to ask about the Divine part and ruin their chances.”

I wanted to curse the stupid Almighty System some more. You couldn’t give me a clue? A hint? Just like, hey this is what I want from you, and you will get super rewards. How could you cultivate a certain mindset if you don’t tell people?

Or maybe the Almighty System was more insidious than that. It wanted to see what outcome was the strongest. Grinding away forever, or taking huge risks to get these meta-points.

“What other ways are there?” I asked.

“None that are within your power level at the moment or even close to that have a chance of working now that you know about the meta-points,” the Astrologer answered.

“Alright, let’s prepare for this Divine Empress and trying to free you. Clarissa?” I asked.

“I have no objections. We will need to reorient our combat doctrines. Any advice to take her down?” Clarissa asked.

“How would you kill someone with at least 50,000 in their Body stat? Start there. If you come up with anything, let me know,” the Astrologer replied.

“But you wounded her?” Clarissa asked.

“I attacked her in a way she wasn’t expecting. I used my skill Imbue Life to create a living tumor in the center of her brain. No way to remove it. And it cursed her. A close person to me died just to give me the chance to make this happen. In addition, it was piggy backed on a very powerful mental skill that I no longer have access to.” Well, there was some vindication for Clarissa’s mental attack plan with imbue type skills.

“Again, it is not the size of the skill, but how a skill is used that matters. The Divine Empress is a battering ram and spiked club. No subtlety at all. But her method of combat is effective. She will have resolved the gap in her defenses. But she is still cursed,” the Astrologer said and my respect for him went up a notch. Creating a living tumor in an enemy’s head to curse her was not simple.

I could see why both sides would back off after such a fight, but I was curious. “Why not press the advantage?” I asked.

“The Valkyrie who was killed had the mental attack skill and catching the Divine Empress with her insanely high Body stat is not simple. There were also resonance-based tricks I could use to bypass all her defenses and drive her off.”

“I actually pressed her quite a bit. But just like you made a treaty with the Ritualist, I made a treaty with her. I was expecting to become even more powerful by the time we fought again. Gaining another meta-point to crush her.”

“Unfortunately, the calamity struck, and trapped me. Now I am reduced to begging for help like a pathetic wastrel. If you want my thoughts on fighting her, then don’t. Fighting a martial arts master with a high Body stat is a fight that happens in a single second. And plays to their advantage.”

“So mental and physical attacks are out?” Clarissa asked.

“Everything is out,” the Astrologer said.

“But how will your main body stop her, if you didn’t manage to kill her the first time and she has only gotten stronger?” Clarissa asked and I nodded at that. It was a very good question.

“Why would I reveal my plan for round two? If she captures either of you, I don’t want such a thing leaked,” the Astrologer answered. It was a good point, though slightly frustrating. “High level fights between people are decided inside of a second. It comes down to information and method of attack. If a fight lasts longer than a second, then someone is not leveraging all their advantages. And yes, it would technically be possible to have even stats, but that speaks to poor planning with skills and meta-points.”

“By your own admission you only had a single fight with someone with a meta-point?” Clarissa asked.

“I have had several other fights. You don’t gain meta-points by sitting around safely or being meek. Now we need to focus on the short term plan. You need to grind up Spirit, and preferably against a level 4 monster to go as fast as possible,” the Astrologer said.

“How much?” I asked.

“At least 1,000, but realistically you would need 5,000 to have a decent chance of freeing me. After that, there are other stats that would need to be focused, but Spirit is the most critical. After Spirit, then Absorption,” the Astrologer said.

“Two things. How do you expect me to grind level 4 monsters efficiently? And what about the Absorption stat is important?” I asked.

“The answer to the second question can wait. But to put simply, you need to manually unmake my prison. Spirit, will allow you to get to my prison and not die. Absorption will allow you to unmake it. Yes, it involves draining energy from the environment to sustain you, but it is more complicated than that. You need to work for an explanation.”

“As for grinding level 4 monsters. I have one in mind. You can upgrade your Acid Shot to level 3, and then you can directly South of the place you call Neo Brasilia to the darklands. The monster, The Bulwark Shield can be damaged over time by your skill and you should be barely able to dodge,” the Astrologer said.

“What happens when I upgrade my skill to level 3? Does the cost go up?” I asked.

“No. The only thing is you lose all upgrades, but the skill remains the same except the power increases. You add on a hand sign and add a word to the skill use. There is no cost increase. That is why skills leveled up from level 2 are superior to higher level skills you pick up.” I wanted to scream at this. Another critical mistake I had made. Well maybe not. Since my current upgrades allowed me to spam it, and that was a big help against the Ritualist.

“I will speak more on skills in detail at a later time, once you have proven you aren’t useless. Consider it encouragement to hurry up and free me,” the Astrologer said.