I was looking at the muscle, sinew, and flowing blood. I could see the immense amount of energy coursing through it all. I looked at all the energy coursing through it. Jacob was back at his on-site lab. This was a test I was going to do on my own. I had said I was heading back but had moved further West instead to take a look.

It was more energy than flesh. An immense amount of energy was coursing through this terrain in a constant flow. It was clear that previous things vaporized since they couldn’t handle the energy overload. I picked up a rock from the ground of this level 2 zone and tossed it onto the flesh. It disintegrated. Just like before.

Taking a deep breath, I carefully reached out. I then poked the flesh with my little finger. I felt the immense energy pushing back on me. My body was resisting, and I could resist by forcing out energy, but I wasn’t naturally resistant yet. Even with a meta-point increasing my stat points, it just wasn’t enough. I pushed my energy outwards and then pulled my finger away.

The skin had melted away slightly, but the damage wasn’t that bad. Like a splatting of acid. It hurt a lot, but I had gotten used to pain a long time ago after all the limbs I had lost. I pushed my energy out of my finger and there was no curse damage thankfully. Or if there was, it was easily removed.

That was not a good sign. I had been hoping that I would more easily resist this type of terrain without thought. But I had been too hopeful, and the number of stat points needed was too immense. I had looked at the charts Jacob had prepared, and it was reasonable to guess that this would be the terrain for a level 9 zone based on the difference in energy levels from the earlier zones.

The kind of systematic data driven research was exactly the kind of research I wanted. Hard facts from what we already knew to extrapolate the future. Before I might have guessed level 10, but that was unlikely, unless things leveled off in terms of zones.

My gut wasn’t always right. That was why having someone research who I could compare notes with was incredibly important, important enough to put up with someone who had tried to kill me in the past. The fact his appearance had changed so much was a testament to Jacob’s skill in regards to hiding his previous identity.

It took guts to come forward and while I wouldn’t forget his actions, the Divine Empress was incredibly brutal. I also knew that no one else would give him the time of day. If he caused trouble for me, there would be nowhere to run. I had to give the man credit for understanding people’s motivations and presenting himself as palatable. That was his true power, not science.

Looking at the flesh landscape and the other tears down to the void, made me concerned about the shards. It was the only thing that we truly had no real understanding of. That was why I was taking a greater interest. The towers, the zones, and even the sword, were all problems that had possible solutions. But the fact was, that there had been a Calamity in the past, and it was very likely the shards were involved in some way.

The Astrologer was a horrible conniving person, but the fact was, that even he with all his knowledge of energy manipulation was forced into a desperate situation in order to survive. If it happened once it could easily happen again.

My equipment would need a massive upgrade as well. If I could grind level 7 monsters, I might even have a chance of getting their crafting crystals. It would be a massive hassle. But then I could get level 8 equipment. It would take a lot of level 7 monsters, but I had hopes that I would manage something like that.

We would need to purchase the top level buildings and equipment soon. While the government was making a lot of points, portal buildings cost 10 billion points. I had no doubt there would be additional expenses after they were purchased. There were a lot of things left to purchase and arrange.

The additional funding Jacob had requested would slow things down as well. It would take 300 days for the government to earn 18 billion. That kind of amount was not small and not something I was willing to pay for out of pocket. That was without any kind of operational expense of which there were many.

For now we had airships and ports would be set up between the Abyss and New Kochi. The names were being kept. People would be packed like sardines onto airships and transported. I looked around one last time before heading back towards Purgatory.

An extra large airship would be purchased just for the purposes of transporting people on a set schedule. The hope was it could directly head West over the void zones that made up the Rift instead of having to loop up North. It was a huge investment, but Clarissa and I were determined to see the expansion through.

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It wasn’t enough to just drop people off and control a city. We needed a line of communication and transportation to effectively maintain control. Then there was the issue of building up the city of New Kochi itself into a fortress. Purgatory had invested quite a lot of points into its defenses and was still investing.

I had talked it over with Clarissa and we had agreed to limit defense spending at home for now. Everything that wasn’t paying salaries or research would be going into pushing West to get a foot hold as quickly as possible before the other nations made their own move.

At least upgrading the cities to level 6 wouldn’t be that difficult. While expensive, a hundred million was not a bank breaking expense. I could grind level 7 monsters for a day to get that much. Also upgrading both cities would get me two more votes, making for a total of 5.

That was something else I hadn’t forgotten either. While it increased the total number of votes, it also increased the number of votes I controlled.

I reached the swamp to the Southeast of the lab area and began using Air Burst to fly across it. That was another reason I had made the trip out by myself to the research site. I wanted to get more experience moving around with my massively increased stats and using the skill to actually stay in the air.

There was a trick to it, timing the skill just as I began to descend, to give me a slight upward thrust while keeping my forward momentum. With my energy reserves and the power of Air Burst itself, I just had to use the skill once every 5 seconds to break even. It ended up being slightly more than that since I had to maneuver around trees and adjust my course, but there was no issue with me staying up in the air.

I noted people trudging through the swamp, killing monsters below me. Only a few noticed me flying above their heads as they killed Floating Eye monsters. I had no plans to helping anyone and getting into the swamp juice. That stuff was nasty.

Also, what would be the point except to bask in the awe of people putting in the work for their job. It would be like the CEO of a massive corporation, stopping to check in with the janitors. There just wasn’t a point. Unless they did something to come to my attention, even then there was just too much of a gap in status and power.

I didn’t put in all this effort to be a celebrity, but to control my own destiny. I also didn’t like dealing with minor complaints and I knew it would cause headaches for Clarissa’s administration. I could do it, and no one would object, but it would just be a hassle. Just because I could do something, didn’t mean I needed to. Also swamp juice.

While there was still a long way to go as I just found out with the flesh terrain, being able to fly and remain energy neutral for the most part was a huge advantage, primarily for combat and dealing with the high level zones.

It did not escape me, that I might have to continually fly in level 7 zones and higher. Level 6 zones with the lava, exploding lava, and ash were all bad enough. I could only imagine how much worse it would get in the future. My clothes would be hard pressed to survive as well. Which meant I would need to get crafting crystals.

Poking a level 7 zone was on my list of things to do. The first was to wait for the first trip back out West and upgrading the city. After that, exploring and possibly poking a level 7 zone if I felt up to it. There weren’t that many level 6 zones, and I had no doubt there would be even less level 7 zones. Or they might be separated by the void.

While it might have been a concern if there were more high level people, I was the only person who went into level 5 zones and higher. As far as I could tell there was no one else who did such a thing. Something I would have to confirm when traveling out to the West. Help with the expansion, and then a political tour, combined with exploring.

I had been hesitant before to make that decision, but that seemed like the right course of action. It wouldn’t take long to sweep through the zones and confirm where various towers and cities were, especially on an airship. I was curious if there were people grinding level 4 zones in the other nations.

That was something I highly doubted and a huge part of my popularity. I had charted out the monsters and their abilities across a wide portion of the Systemic Lands. So, when people had to go into a new zone, they weren’t doing it blind. That was one of the leading causes of death out in the wilderness. People trying to handle something unexpected.

Among the top level grinders that was a huge source for my popularity. While it was attributed to my team and Michelle got top billing, I got credit of course. I was the face and the name people talked about when explaining things to new people, or they purchased sheets of information on a zone and its monsters.

I remembered my starting days, frantic at each new thing that I ran into. Worried that the next monster would be my last. How very few people were willing to brave the unknown. I knew a lot of people imagined they were me, but I doubted they wanted to deal with all the hardship and suffering to get to this point.

Even now, I was the person who had to deal with the unknown and crazy stuff. There was no comparison back on Earth. Terrain, creatures, and quite a bit were known for the longest time. There was no worry they wouldn’t be strong enough. Maybe in antiquity, when the best weapon was a wooden spear. But there were no true predators of human beings.

This kind of exploration, the kind I had done, and still did, was terrifying if one wasn’t mentally prepared. I couldn’t tell if I was looking forward to it being over or not. This last push of exploration, would most likely be the last one for a long time.