Kicking off a piece of ground, I raced for the monster. Air Burst. Air Burst. I couldn’t afford to let it unleash a beam attack. While I wasn’t sure if it could track, I didn’t want to find out. “Die!” Its thought screeched in my head as it gathered up energy.
The amount of power was immense. This was exactly the kind of skill I wanted. Just one massive artillery strike to blow anything and everything away. If it could be prepared ahead of time, then that was even better. Air Burst. It was so far away, which was the biggest headache and not rushing at me.
It was going to get off a beam attack and I needed to be able to dodge it or block it. Well the answer was simple. “DESTRUCTION!” Its massive beam was unleashed. Radiant Beam. Void Beam. Acid Shot x20. Force Shot. Air Burst.
That power of silent and gestureless skills, was that I could use them all at once in a situation like this. Two different annihilation effects happened as the opposing beam smashed into them. One explosion, then a second explosion, and I was out of the way as the weakened Empowered Destruction Beam, slammed into the lava nearby. The explosion wasn’t big enough to catch me.
I kicked off another patch of ground. Air Burst. Damn, the monster was stupidly massive and far out. It was rushing for me now as well. Good, at least I didn’t have to deal with another beam attack. I zipped up into the air towards the main part of its body.
It tried to twist out of the way, but it wasn’t a floating monster. Some part of it still had to touch the rock underneath the layer of lava. The lava wasn’t that deep, since the Hell Lords walked through it. I felt a massive amount of heat. It just wasn’t heat but the aspect of the monsters endowed name.
Just like stats and so many other things, people had the same names for things that came across. This was the endowed name. The only thing that didn’t have an endowed name were meta-points, or divine-points. This was an interesting realization, since it was assumed that the energy in the air subconsciously transmitted the name of things into people brains.
The fact that meta-points weren’t a part of this implied they were unique in their own way, and not something naturally appearing, that was part of the background energy. That energy was part of the Almighty System. Since it would remove trash, fix the terrain, and replace monsters, it was clearly watching everything.
Energy was thought and thought was energy. That meant that the entire Systemic Lands could be the Almighty System itself, which was a scary thought. Or that it was held in its mind. Well, I hoped it was paying attention right now, since I was about to end this fight.
Air Burst. Air Burst. I went zipping up past the intense flames, dodging around the various spiked legs, and approached the monster’s head. It spun to bite me with its massive mouth, a critical mistake. Acid Shot x100. Force Shot x2.
Its head was heavily damaged, but now for the coupe de grace. Void Beam. Radiant Beam. Acid Shot x100. The monsters head was blown apart, and acid poured all over it. Or liquid that melted stuff, but it was the same as acid in my mind, even if it wasn’t based on pH, but on the energy type.
The monster struggled for a moment and then turned to dust. Even missing part of its head, it still tried to keep going. Acid Shot came in clutch once again with damage over time. And unlike the armor on the outside, there were no intense gouts of flame and energy to push away my attacks.
The monster turned to dust. I grabbed the point crystal, putting it in a pocket, instead of my pack. Air Burst. I soared up and touched the diamond shaped skill crystal. I picked my sixth skill, Empowered Destruction Beam.
It was expensive, but I would get the stat points for it. The battery ideas from Jacob had been quite intriguing and there was a way to use them that would limit the curse damage. I would let other people test them out first, since there was a risk in making a flesh battery. Having other people access bits and pieces of me seemed like a bad idea and created a backdoor for betrayal.
I was done for the day, and began making my way back to the Crystal Vortex. That might had been easy, since I had been willing to fly in close to the monster to launch a point blank attack. I guess most level 7 monsters could be defeated like that, but I wasn’t about to run off. That beam attack was something I had planned how to handle.
If I hadn’t planned for that I would have been killed. Next time it might be something else, something I wasn’t mentally ready for and had no leeway or margin of error while fighting. The same with level 6 monsters, but not as bad. I could handle them without skills if I had time to plan. I could handle a level 7 on my own, if I had time to plan and knew its main attack.
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That was the key part about these fights, knowing what to expect. My explorations and knowledge of level 4 monsters was helping to a large extent. When people finally went for level 5 monsters, I would have paved the way there as well.
There were a few teams hard at work grinding, trying to get points in level 4 zones, but it wasn’t easy or simple. You couldn’t camp in a level 4 zone without an airship. Roads were possible, but monsters would come onto the road once triggered, which would be a mess.
That was why roads hadn’t been built into level 4 zones if we could help it. It would just take one person being an idiot, or a fight to go poorly and then the road would be a mess and have to be fixed. It wasn’t worth the hassle or the headache.
Level 4 grinding teams camped out in level 3 zones at their edge. But not too close, since the level 4 zones at night were a nightmare. There had been attempts at a compass, but no luck so far. Instead teams would run along the border of a level 4 zone pulling monsters out.
Unless it was the darklands. Those were more popular, but more dangerous. If you got caught in one at night, you would be dead. Without the ability to see, it would be a massacre. Level 4 zones were high risk, and even harder to grind in. Still if a team could do it efficiently and effectively, they made a lot of points.
Other cities tried to sponsor teams for level 4 zones, but it wasn’t going well. Clarissa had a few that were managing, but I was so far ahead at the moment that it was depressing. Still I was paving the way so it would be easier for future people to grind out various zones.
Also, I was hoping the children born in the Systemic Lands would be good at melee fighting. That would greatly increase grinders available since the Body stat didn’t need a lot of other stats like skills. Sure the other stats were useful, but you wouldn’t have to worry. If I was good at melee fighting I would have killed that level 7 with my fist.
I just couldn’t. That was the big difference between me and a melee fighter. I could throw a punch if I knew I would be okay. But leaping into the Molten Milipede’s maw was something only someone truly dedicated and possibly a bit crazy could do. While there had been complaints about the harsh martial arts training that the kids received, I insisted on it.
They had to be able to take punches without fear and return them. And I didn’t want to rely on Divine Empress level of crazy for that to spontaneously occur. While not all the children would be suited, I would be happy with ten percent that would be melee fist fighters.
Just empower them with enough Body stat and they would win regardless. There are only so many ways to punch things. It was all about mentality and determination to get in close. People from Earth were too soft, even people from third world countries as weird as it was to get to that point.
It was just human nature to resist close up brutal fighting. And monsters made it so much more difficult. Even getting as close as I had in the last fight, was only possible since I had faced the monster before and had fought monsters for over 10 years. That was the power of experience in terms of mentality. One had to be able to endure the life and death pressure that came from fighting these monsters.
Sure, combat skills were useful as well, and played a major role, but those could be easily trained with practice and instruction. But one couldn’t easily teach people a fighting mindset. It was an aggravating thing that I had to deal with and stymied a lot of expansion efforts in relation to grinding.
That was the true hidden jump for level 4 monsters. They were weird and hard to fight. The earlier monsters were mostly animals or simple monsters. They made sense. But the sheer size and craziness level 4 monsters got up to was immense.
I hadn’t realized it before, but there was a mental barrier that needed to be overcome as well. The deranged mental transmission from level 7 monsters was also a shock and could easily disturb a person’s mindset. After having faced a lot of craziness, my mindset was very steady. But other people not so much.
This was where Joyo failed in my opinion. I had thought he had that spark of craziness to adjust, but he hadn’t. He tried, but it was a job to him and his actions in Purgatory showed he was spiraling the drain as much as I refused to admit it.
Well, the board was now clear, and I would be looking at the children. I had been hoping for Qi Ji Long to join me. Now that would be a dream team, Michelle, Divine Empress, and myself. I was hoping Qi Ji Long to replace his dead mother in this ideal team.
It would have been amazing and an unstoppable combination. Michelle was better than the Ritualist and better mentally, and the Astrologer could go die in a ditch after what he had done. He was a schemer not a fighter. I didn’t need a schemer for my dream team.
Doctor Katz and Captain Francis in a supporting role. They were decent, but not astounding. Truly capable people were rare, incredibly rare. Michelle was the best thing to happen to me. And while I didn’t have a romantic attraction to her, I was emotionally attached to her fighting skills and dedication. She was the only one who worked as hard as me in my opinion.
While other people weren’t slacking, she actually thought about situations and future engagements. She planned ahead and took this job seriously. It wasn’t a nine to five like Joyo. It wasn’t an important job, but one where they didn’t excel like Doctor Katz and Captain Francis. It may be unfair to them since Doctor Katz was doing other things and Captain Francis managed my soldiers.
Still, it wasn’t combat related. They didn’t have that spark of usefulness. They didn’t push themselves to get better every day, instead content to let me pave the way. That was why I liked Michelle, she was pushing all the boundaries with her summons and trying to create new ways to fight up a level efficiently enough that it was viable long term.