“Let’s let the good doctor rest. He is exhausted. We can question him later. Captain Francis, take us to max altitude,” I ordered once the initial greetings were over.

“Yes, sir,” he replied and worked the controls. The airship began to ascend. It would remain tilted and rotating, but I wanted more height if the monster was down there. We could hold off on anything else until Doctor Katz recovered and I could speak to him.

“Doctor, you can have the single room. Get some sleep,” I told him and he nodded.

“Thanks Michael. It is good to see you,” he replied before going to the room with the single bed. Captain Francis stopped the airship from ascending anymore and everyone sat down.

“We either need restorations or a toilet needs to be set up,” Captain Francis whispered to me. Another reason I hated the small and medium airship. With a restoration from the store, people’s waste inside them would be removed. No need to use the bathroom.

“Use a rope. People can descend to the store,” I replied. He nodded at this and made preparations. A rope that we had was tied off to the railing and if people needed to relieve themselves, they had to climb down. If the rope wasn’t in use, it was hauled up. And if someone was down below, it was set to swinging while I kept an eye out.

If the monster grabbed onto the end, the movement of the rope would change, and if a soldier was attacked, then I could intervene fairly quickly. It was a long climb up and down, but with everyone’s Body stat it wasn’t that hard.

I switched off with Captain Francis and got some rest as well. I wasn’t about to rush Doctor Katz’s beauty sleep.

Once I was done sleeping, I got up and took a seat at the front of the airship while listening people chat quietly. “Think we can kill the monster,” the first soldier said.

“Well, Michael definitely can. I just want to see this sword. Imagine a super weapon, one slash, instant win,” the second soldier said.

“That would be nice,” the first soldier replied. I took a seat on the deck next to Michelle.

“Any issues?” I asked.

“No. But I will need to sleep soon. I will need to recall everything to the airship,” she replied.

“Do that now, and get some rest,” I said, and Michelle nodded. She went to get some sleep and I rested my eyes while sitting down. The occasional conversation would pop up and then peter out.

“Um, good morning,” Doctor Katz came out of his room, looking much more refreshed.

“Late afternoon actually,” I replied, and he nodded. “Let’s get everyone up, and we can talk about what each of us has learned.”

“That sounds good,” Doctor Katz said. Food and water were given to him as everyone got up and sat at the front of the airship once more. It was a bit packed, but it was fine. Fiyaz actually took the lead in explaining what had happened since the Crystal Vortex had been destroyed. Covering the monster, and the various nations we had run into.

Then Doctor Katz told his story. How he had somehow survived by crashing into a jungle tree, and the tree reforming around him. I winced at this. Since if he had survived without actively using his Body stat, that meant the rest of my soldiers had probably survived as well. Or not, due to the monsters and being spread out.

There would be no practical way to search for them inside the jungle. It was just impractical. The energy was too thick or dense to see through at a long distance. That meant it was near impossible to have located Doctor Katz or anyone else. It wasn’t like a flat two-dimensional area either, with the trees and undergrowth, the jungle zone was a nightmare for keeping track of where things were and performing any kind of search.

After that Doctor Katz talked about how he made his way to a city, found it deserted, an arrival happened, and then he had left. “I had been thinking about heading either North or South once I came to the split in the road. I went South, hoping to find you.”

“Unfortunately, that was when I ran into the monster. I barely survived the first attack and forced it back. A crystal like humanoid. It was glowing, with black structures for organs, and what looked like blood moving through it. Glowing white eyes, that seemed completely inhuman. I took a spear through the chest, but luckily I was in the city.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I healed up, got a restoration, but it kept trying to ambush me every time I left the building I was hiding in or fell asleep. If you hadn’t shown up then, I would have died from exhaustion,” Doctor Katz explained.

“Notice any weaknesses, or anything else about the monster?” I asked.

“No. It was far too intelligent and capable of moving about. A wide range of skills as well. If it isn’t level 7 or higher, it was created with a meta-point for sure,” he replied. I nodded at this. It was expected, but unfortunate that the good doctor hadn’t been able to find out anything.

There was a long stretch of silence. “So, what is the plan now?” Doctor Katz asked.

“Killing the monster and the sword. Or destroying the sword. If it sentient or not, I can’t tell right now. But both have to go for sure. I am going to buy a regional map building and then use that to locate the monster,” I replied.

“And returning?” Doctor Katz asked, and I shook my head.

“There is no rush. If I can’t deal with these issues, that means a much larger mobilization and research effort will be needed. Similar to what was done to stop the Divine Empress. I want to avoid that if at all possible, or Clarissa will yell at me,” I replied and there were chuckles at this.

“The good news is that there are no nations holding these cities,” Captain Francis explained. “No chance of a war breaking out. Having them act as an area for contention is much better than fighting a nation that is already entrenched.” Doctor Katz just shook his head at that.

“Regardless, I am going to make the purchase now. Are you set for combat?” I asked Doctor Katz.

“I am ready to go, all rested up,” he replied. I nodded at this, and then stood up. I then leapt over the side of the airship and made my way down to the store. I spent points buying a Regional Map building and several upgrades. It cost 92.5 million points to get all the upgrades up to the 9 by 9 zone map.

I then went to the building with one of Michelle’s summons tagging along with me. I began to look at the map, starting from the city and moving outwards. The monster was moving away from the city rapidly, to the South. “Have the airship descend to this building. We are making it our base,” I replied.

Michelle conveyed what I said, and the airship quickly descended. Chasing the monster was pointless and we needed to be able to track it while communicating its position. That meant we needed to ambush it in this city.

One of the three soldiers would always stand guard watching the map. While the rest of us got busy preparing the trap for the monster, for when it came back. Once it got back to the city, it was getting wiped out no matter what.

Unless it could sense the regional map could spot it, and then it might just stay away. If that was the case, then this would get a lot trickier. Where we could take cities but would need monster hunting teams near each city, we took to react to it.

That would defeat the purpose of sending people out here. I didn’t want organization or structure. I wanted things to be the Wild West. Something like the monster would put too much pressure on people and was too strong. Even a dedicated team would struggle, if Doctor Katz almost died.

I set things up so the map building was surrounded by other buildings, that were completely solid. Super thick walls. The entrance to the map building when through another building, with several doors in place. The airship was moved back up into the sky and left there, unmoving. While crystals would slowly be used up, it could stay in place for quite a while, as long as it didn’t move.

Crystals and points weren’t a concern at the moment. I didn’t want to risk losing another airship, which was why I was content to leave it up in the sky where only Michelle or I could get to it.

During this waiting period, I was glad Doctor Katz was back. A hole I hadn’t known about in my heart had been fixed. I was grateful beyond words that he was alive and somehow made it back. Everyone I had known who disappeared, had died.

Normally I didn’t like to get emotional or think back too much. That was one reason I liked to be out of the city grinding. I was self-aware enough to know that I had replaced the connections in my past life on Earth with fighting. It was partially my choice. I didn’t let many people into my heart either.

Doctor Katz was one of the rare exceptions. He had been with me for a long time. While we might disagree with me, he was a good friend and a strong moral compass to my practicality. During his story, him staying to talk to the people who arrived was something I wouldn’t have done. They were pointless, so what was the point?

He didn’t see it that way. Each life had value. While I understood that premise, putting it into practice at a personal level when it would inconvenience me was not so simple. If there was karma in the Systemic Lands, Doctor Katz had cashed his in by somehow surviving and getting incredibly lucky. Falling and impacting a tree enough that it reformed around him.

Not dying from the impact, not getting found by monsters, and then getting out of there. Well the last one not so much, since that was more his skill with healing. If anyone could survive after a fall like that, it would be him. There could also be other stats at play helping him survive in less obvious ways.

Regardless, the fact that he had returned was an emotional blow. A good one, but one I had a hard time dealing with. Getting hope where there should be no hope and only death. I could tell the other people were adjusting to the shock in their own ways.

In the future, I couldn’t have hope. It was sad to say, but it needed to be the exception rather than the rule. Which was why I preferred to focus on the monster at first and let the emotional impact die down. Thinking that I would find my family, or other people could still be alive was a delusion I couldn’t afford.