The next day we set off into the frostlands. There were dark blue centipedes that emitted blasts of freezing cold. Dangerous, but not that hard to dodge. Much easier than the force wall gargoyles for sure. Naran and I took turns killing them and turning them into crafting crystals.
About halfway through the zone, I paused for a mont. Why was I doing this? It was pointless. Naran suddenly ran past and smashed a pink spider monster the size of a very large dog with his massive sword. “You okay?” he asked.
“ntal attack. I would say depression or sadness. Not bliss like the white monsters,” I replied and shuddered a bit. What a horrible type of ntal attack. At least with bliss, you felt happy and lost your sense of self. This ntal attack made it so you didn’t even want to continue.
“Want to take the lead?” Naran asked. I seriously considered the idea. He had twice my Mind stat.
“Alternate. I need to get used it and recognize this type of ntal attack like the other kind,” I said and Naran went ahead to kill the next pink spider monster. ntal attacks were sothing that could be trained up to better deal with.
While their main incapacitating effect was pass or fail, that wasn’t the end of such an attack. It lingered or left an impact. One had to train to recognize and ignore the thoughts and feelings that ca with such an attack, or the headache.
Like learning to ignore an annoying noise in the background, one would be distracted and caught up with the noise at first, but in ti, it would fade into the background. The noise never went away but had less of an impact. This was the sa concept for the ntal attacks. Only a high Mind stat could negate them, but one could learn to ignore the minor effects.
It wasn’t easy. Each pink spider made feel depressed and frustrated. It was a ntal struggle to keep going and I had to force myself to kill monster after monster. We did manage to get a pink crafting crystal.
It made wonder if one could depress a monster enough to kill themselves. I was also going to turn this into a bomb to use on the Ritualist. Summoners had a weakness to ntal attacks and level 3 pink crafting crystals of sadness seed like a great counter. Maybe it would make the Ritualist slit his own wrists if he showed up again.
ntal attacks were insidious like that. If you didn’t know about them, or weren’t prepared, they would sink into your mind indistinguishable from one’s own thoughts. The Mind stat needed to be a priority for when a level 4 monster with ntal attacks showed up.
If it specialized more into its ntal attacks than other aspects, it would be devastating. The fact that there was other things besides the white monsters out there, implied there might be even more types of ntal attacks.
It seed like depression was the opposite of bliss, but I wasn’t so sure. This was why I needed a type chart to reference and to work out the interactions of energy types in more depth. If bliss wasn’t the counter, than drinking a potion to counter depression, could make one gleefully depressed.
While there was little sense in such a combination, it was too much of a risk to not upgrade my Mind stat. Depending on common sense with skills and monsters seed like a bad long term plan.
Light yellow crafting crystals were fear and illusion. I had almost forgotten about them. There was probably a fourth ntal effect, if there were three. Maybe. Four seed more balanced than three, if types had opposites. Maybe if all four were used at the sa ti, it would explode a person’s head or sothing equally horrible.
“Hold up,” I called to Naran after he killed another monster. I pointed to the East. There were several large rock pillars in the distance, barely visible, in the stonelands. “I think that is our terrain feature and it is not a tower,” I said.
“Thinking about it?” Naran asked.
“No. The terrain is terrible, and I am not poking a level 4 monster. Let’s keep going,” I said and Naran nodded. I took point to take out the next monster. We kept traveling South, it was a lot slower than a level 2 zone where we could rush forward without a care.
I was about to call it since it had just reached midday, when Naran ca to a stop after killing another pink spider. I ca up on the hill next to him. I looked out at the sight before us.
Calling the forest in zone 1 a forest and calling the swamp in zone 2 a swamp was nothing like what was before us. Trees towering ten stories or more. Vines, dense foliage underneath, and just a trendous amount of plant life despite the tree cover.
I would call the terrain type a jungle on steroids. The massive trees with stick branches, close to each other and all the green and lack of light would make the terrain a hell. It would be too easy to ambush a person from any direction.
Looking to my left, across from the boulderlands, was another type of terrain. Mushrooms, lots and lots of mushrooms. So were the size of houses. Others were the size of a finger. They were everywhere. Mushrooms on top of mushrooms. Where the jungle was a wall of dark green, the mushrooms were like the rainbow. Every possible color, even neon. There were so many colors it gave a headache as so of them even seed to shift.
There was also a haze in the air. Probably so terrain effect based on spores. Entering the mushroom terrain clearly would have the effect of being high out of one’s mind. Multi-colored mushrooms and a haze of spores, it was so obvious that I suspected there might be sothing else if that wasn’t already terrible.
We stood there quietly, looking at the two terrain types, barely breathing and not daring to move any closer. We stayed there for a couple of minutes taking it all in. I noticed so more details like how the jungle was very wet. There was water dripping down, but the ground was too covered in plant life to be a cesspool like the swamp terrain.
The mushroom terrain appeared to undulate slightly over ti. Shifting and changing in height. Mushrooms burst into spores, not dust, and new mushrooms quickly grew. Then they were static while other areas shifted. It would be a nightmare keeping track of one’s direction based on the terrain.
I looked up at the sky. It was hard to tell what the cloud cover would be like in those terrains without experiencing it first hand or getting a lot closer, which wasn’t going to happen. Most likely the light would shift rapidly in the mushroom terrain while being overcast and drizzling in the jungle terrain if I had to guess.
We slowly backed away until the zones were out of sight. “What do you think?” I quietly asked Naran.
“Completely ssed up. I think I am still seeing spots from looking at those mushrooms. Then the jungle, there is going to be a lot of three dinsional combat. Ambushes from every direction. What a nightmare,” Naran replied. I nodded at that as we made our way back to our cart. At least on the return trip there were no monsters.
That was another thing, a level 4 zone might have different monster dynamics for movent and interception. The frustration of how much ti it was taking to overco level 4 monsters and terrain niggled at my mind.
“It makes wonder what fresh hell the third terrain type will be like,” I said.
“If things keep to that pattern. Anything that carries through to level 4 will continue beyond that most likely, maybe. I have no doubt that haze is spores, which will have crippling effects,” Naran pointed out sothing I had already recognized.
“I saw that. The terrain was changing too, which would make traversing the zone a nightmare. Any guess on the stat requirents?” I asked.
“At least 1,000. But probably 5,000 to 10,000 just be safe. Not sothing we can touch for a long ti,” Naran said with a sigh. I agreed with him and felt the sa way.
“So Southwest tomorrow?” I asked.
“Hmmm, I guess, not a big deal unless we are grinding,” Naran said. I frowned, Naran’s ntality was clearly being affected in so way. That was quite concerning.
“What do you think we should do?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Naran replied.
“Naran, are you alright?” I asked.
“Stop bothering !” Naran shouted. He then ca to a stop. “Sorry.” He then rubbed his face. “Just feel stressed, about a lot of different things, from combat to exploring. It isn’t easy,” Naran said.
“That is why I asked. We can take a break. Returning to Purgatory for a while isn’t a huge deal. ntal health is more important,” I replied and ant it. I couldn’t have Naran being off kilter and not being at one hundred percent.
“That may be for the best. A day to get back?” Naran asked.
“Depends on how close we cut the corner on the void zone and if we stop in Heaven. We can get back fairly quickly without much hassle. The monsters aren’t that big of a concern,” I said.
“A longer route might be better. I just feel tired and irritable. Too much of the void zone. There are clearly effects, I can’t think of anything else,” Naran said. I agreed with that and the most recent pink spiders didn’t help matters either.
The last vacation ended in a life and death battle. “Let’s plan for eight days. Take your ti, no rush. Don’t worry about the cart. We will get back day 517 and can leave on day 525. No upgrades, no stress,” I said.
“That would be a good idea. What about you?” Naran asked.
“I can look through Clarissa’s accounting and inspect various aspects of Purgatory. Might do a day trip to the swamps North and South to clear those dungeons for the skill points. That way you can skip them,” I replied.
“You will be okay?” Naran asked .
“Don’t worry about it. I an it. Rest, get your head on straight, then we can grind up stats a bit, before exploring a bit more,” I replied.
“That sounds good. Sorry to cut the trip short,” Naran said.
“It isn’t a big deal. Not that worried about delaying our exploration. Already ca out quite well already. Got a huge chunk explored to the Southeast of Heaven and three skill points. If I clear the swamp dungeons near Purgatory, that will add a couple more,” I said.
“We need to do a lot more grinding,” Naran said with a sigh.
“We already knew that. Nothing has changed. With how much of a slog it is, I am hopeful that there will be common ground found if we run into other high stat people about the situation,” I said.
“Not kill on first site?” Naran asked.
“I am going to channel so optimism for once. Also, with the knowledge we are bringing back, we are probably fairly close to working out all the types,” I said.
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