“Thank you, Michael, for not forcing me into a war,” Michelle said as I polished off another burger. “I need to consider completely redoing how I handle things. Since capturing a level 7 won’t be simple.”

“Impossible in my opinion. A hundred minutes on something like the level 7 over there,” I waved my hand in the direction of the moltenlands in front of us. “I don’t have the stats for that. I can’t get close.”

“There has to be a combination, that I am not considering,” she replied.

“It is a step up in power. That is the issue. We have only faced one level 7. There will be others. If anyone can come up with a way to capture one it, is you,” I replied, but she shook her head.

“I am afraid, I won’t be able to get any higher. Without you carrying me up the combat levels. It just isn’t possible. Even if I get a massive number of stats, it would need to be as much as you, or more to fight at your level, without you capturing monsters,” Michelle said.

“That’s how it has always been. Don’t sell yourself short. I needed help and support the first time I fought the monster. Information is half the battle. This tier will just take a lot longer. More time to get a few percentage points of improvement out of fighting and turning monsters into crafting crystals,” I told her.

“It is nice having a monopoly on level 5 crafting crystals,” she replied. I wasn’t going to mention that the war was going to keep those high margins coming in. The expansion of the military, bombs, and equipment would all require high level crafting crystals.

They wouldn’t be used for general grinding. That was too much of a waste. But they would be used in military applications and rich grinding teams. When we returned, Samantha would handle selling off the crafting crystals in bulk. She had been doing good work for me, keeping my life running smoothly when I was in the city.

The easiest and the hardest job to have. Easy since I wasn’t around that much. Hard, from how demanding I was. Well, I trusted Samantha to handle the sale of crafting crystals, she had done so in the past. This would be a much larger batch, since we had never spent so much time grinding before.

“When are we going to other level 6 zones and testing them out?” Michelle asked me.

“After the celebration at day 5,005. The upgrade of the city, combined with the farming, will make it a major event. We will grind until then, and after that, we are going to poke other level 7 zones. Maybe. I am tempted to say we should just keep grinding. What do you think?” I asked her as I picked up the last burger and began eating it.

“Grinding would be better. Since we know the power of a level 7. The only reason to test multiple of them out, would be to get more knowledge or upgrade skills. I could use the upgrades, but I suspect the big jump will come from a level 7 zone and a level 8 boss,” she said. That was why I liked Michelle, she reached the same conclusions that I had.

“Indeed. Well, once the skill point resets, you can take it for one of your skills. No point in letting things go to waste. Also here,” I set my half eaten burger back on the plate and pulled out the level 7 crystal. “Kind of tempted to cash it in, but you can have this one as a backup. Will get more in the near future.” I handed it over to her.

“That is very generous of you. Thank you, Michael,” she replied and held up the spherical light blue point crystal up in front of her. “So much power in such a small thing.”

“Indeed. I suspect that packing in more energy becomes more difficult the denser it is. A difficulty to volume relationship. That is why there are less high level monsters and why the point crystals scale as they do,” I explained.

“That could be, or it could be computational resources. The higher-level monsters are more complex. Same with the higher-level terrain. Perhaps that is the limit of the Almighty System?” Michelle proposed.

“It could very well be. It will either make me cry or laugh, not sure which one, when we leave this place and the monsters out there are either impossible, or super easy.”

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“Could be both. The only place where there are levels are things that are artificial,” Michelle replied and I smiled at that, picking up my burger again and polishing it off. It was a good point.

I wasn’t sure about this place, but I didn’t like it. I felt hemmed in a way I had never felt in the past. That was due to the limited amount of zones and all the void zones out there. The Systemic Lands felt smaller than ever. While I couldn’t see far, I knew the layout of all the zones around me for the most part.

But what was beyond the void? That was the real question. There was one possible land bridge to the West, that I hadn’t explored, since we had passed it as a level 5 zone at the time. A small corner connection, just North of The Abyss and Southwest of the Avatar’s old cities.

It was the one level 5 zone I had not poked yet. I had been holding off. But it might be worthwhile, going on a trip to the other half and exploring myself. Getting a lay of the land before any invasion. Kind of like an adventure slash vacation.

While there was talk of city upgrades and other measures to spy, the quickest, easiest, and simplest way was to go over there myself. “What do you think about poking the other nations with me?” I asked Michelle.

“Probably not. I will support the airship if you need me to. But I prefer fighting monsters, not starting wars,” she replied. She was giving me a look.

“I was just thinking that it would be the best way to gather information. There would be new monster types,” I tempted her with what I knew she enjoyed. That actually made her hesitate.

“Level 5 and level 6 zones?” she asked.

“At least level 5. We might find something you want captured,” I added.

“That would be a good reason to explore. All right. But don’t use me as a strategic weapon,” she replied.

“I won’t. At most just a show of force. Throw out a level 7 and make all the locals scream. A good way to draw out anyone strong,” I added.

“I will have to side with Doctor Katz on this one. Don’t start something unless you need to. If we travel, we aren’t looking to pick a fight,” Michelle told me.

“Alright, alright. Just fights with monsters and if people give me a hard time. Then we drop a level 7 on their head,” I replied with a grin and she rolled her eyes.

“You are impossible, but fine. I am curious about the scope of this place myself. It will be nice to explore the other portions of the Systemic Lands. See how other people and nations are handling everything,” she replied.

“It will be a disaster. Don’t doubt that. The fact we have more towers, and they don’t have a level 6 city, is not a good sign for them. That is why I am not too worried. Oh, that reminds me, have you checked out the battery idea from Jacob?” I asked her.

“I am considering it, but it isn’t something I think I would want to risk easily. I can already prime my summons if I need to. A larger energy pool is useful for upkeep. I need to think about it some more,” she replied.

“That is fine. Let’s plan to head out after the celebration. With our firepower, and me here, I am not worried,” I said. It might be famous last words, but I wanted to know if there really was another Divine Empress out there. The more my thoughts drifted to her, the more I was worried there was someone completely crazy, pouring crystals down their throat to empower themselves.

At 150 million points per day, I doubted anyone would be outpacing me, but with a meta-point, the risk was real. Better to take a look for myself and get a handle on the situation. We could park the Crystal Vortex in a level 3 zone, the mistlands. No one would spot us and we could be close enough to the ground without issue.

From there I would go about and check out the local cities. I would have to work on the trick that was used to hide stats. Putting a layer of energy over me and altering it. It was a massive headache I didn’t bother with. Since one couldn’t use skills and one had to focus on keeping the deception up.

It just wasn’t worth it most of the time. But checking out another nation meant I should practice that technique to look like someone who would be grinding in a level 3 or an easy level 4 zone. Poke around, get some information, check out the local warlord.

Maybe they had a democracy, now that would be hilarious. I could imagine myself, going in and declaring my candidacy, winning, and then revealing I really was the leader of another nation. Surprise! That was the kind of thing Clarissa didn’t want me doing. It would lead to headaches. Still, it would be another nation.

It can’t be any worse than Truth and the Dragon Empire. I didn’t think it was possible to have worse nations, but I was willing to be surprised. That was what would be fun about the entire thing. A real adventure, with subterfuge.

Not that it would matter with how powerful I was, but that would be the fun part. Like a high level professional gamer, going into a noob lobby and crushing everyone for the laughs they could get. It was bullying, but between nations I could call it spying, or something like that.

That was the crazy part of having a nation, where the leader was also the strongest person. If they traveled about it could create some very interesting scenarios. I had to mentally promise myself, that I wouldn’t scream out about having a nation behind me. No giving information away. I had to go there to collect it.

With an airship and Michelle in support, it would be great. I would also bring Doctor Katz along for moral guidance. He had mellowed out a lot due to the Divine Empress and her pure evil. Another nice thing about her was that I could point at her and go, ‘At least I am not that bad. Am I right?’