My protection detail and I had gone North from First Seoul the previous day. We crossed into a level 3 zone and stopped when it had turned from frostlands to stonelands and set up camp. Now that it was the following morning, I had set off before dawn to head North.
I wanted to poke so more level 4 zones. They were honestly interesting. I still wanted to find a level 5 boss and kill them and look at level 5 zones. Kicking off the boulders that made the stonelands, I easily made my way North.
Dammit, mushrooms ahead. I headed right for them. Might as well see what monster was lurking about before going East or West to the corner of the zone. It was probably going to be East. Since there was a void zone to the East of the level 3 zone, but there was also a void zone to the West of the level 4 zone to my North.
If I went West, I wouldn’t get to see another level 4 zone. If I went East, I would hopefully run into another level 4 zone. But that was for later, since right now I had deal with the mushrooms. I already felt a headache coming on as the mushrooms grew and collapsed as more mushrooms replaced them. The entire terrain was undulating.
I saw mushrooms moving towards . No, not mushrooms, but figures in cloaks that were covered with mushrooms. I counted three, then seven, then fifteen. Once they felt they had enough of a force with twenty of them, they rushed at .
A skeletal hand gestured towards . The finger bones twisting in weird ways. Air Burst! I quickly retreated backwards as hundreds of mushrooms suddenly grew in the air and then collapsed to the ground. More attacks were unleashed at range.
A mushroom skill from this group. With the robes they were clearly a cult, a Cult of Shrooms with that skill. I touched down on the ground and quickly dodged as more attacks were unleashed. With the mushroom terrain, it was near impossible to make out their skills.
I retreated backwards to the stonelands. The Cult of Shrooms dispersed and went back to hiding in their terrain. That was a headache to fight. That was why level 4 monsters sucked. They had teamwork. It was incredibly frustrating to fight.
At least I gained new information about possible tactics. They grouped up first, and then attacked as a group. They were also willing to retreat to stay in their zone or terrain where they had an absolute advantage in terms of blending in. Getting hit by a shroom explosion sounded like a terrible idea. I really needed to fix my skills to handle groups like this with a tidal wave of acid.
Perhaps changing my skill when it leveled up, to Acid Beam. It was possible to adjust a skill each ti it leveled up. The one issue I had with the beam attacks was their charge ti regardless of upgrades. But they were quite strong. Sothing I would need to think a lot more on once all the cities were under my control and the curse damage removed from my body.
Kicking off the ground, I made my way to the East. It didn’t take long before I found darklands. Hopefully it had a better monster type than the Cult of Shrooms. Dawn had already arrived, so it was no longer pitch black. I entered the darklands. More cloaked figures, which blended in with the black of the terrain.
This ti the robed skeletons rushed at in groups, trying to touch . Acid Shot x5. My attack only partially lted so of the monsters. In fact it healed them as the skeletons began gaining flesh around their boney hands and from the portions of their skeletal body I could spot under the lted portion of their robes.
Even while lting, my attack was healing them, or boosting them. The ones I had attacked beca more animated. This was clearly a Cult of Flesh. Since they craved mine with the way they chased after and their bodies gained flesh when I attacked.
I retreated to the stonelands, and the twelve chasing followed . Acid Shot x10. Acid Shot x10. The skeletons were overwheld by both attacks. Acid Shot x10. I was out of energy, but managed to kill them all off. Just needed multiple consecutive attacks to overwhelm them.
Again, easily beaten, but their numbers and unique ability posed a challenge for grinding them in large amounts. I had to give credit to the Astrologer’s homunculus for directing to the Bulwark Shield, the one nice level 4 monster to grind.
This was frankly getting a bit ridiculous. It almost made want to start punching things like the Divine Empress, but I resisted the urge. I wasn’t the type of person to run up to dangerous things and punch them in the face. Just the thought sent a shiver through .
I decided to keep going East to the corner of the zone. My heart fell as I saw a jungle to the Northeast. I wondered what fresh horror was in there? I entered the jungle zone while keeping a clear idea on the way back.
Sensing danger, I quickly dodged back was a translucent spider, the size of a dog, leapt down where I had been. Acid Shot. The spider leapt towards and angled the top of its body to face , my skill bounced off the spider and back towards .
Air Burst. Oh, hell no. I dodged backwards. Air Burst. Acid Shot. Air Burst. Acid Shot x3. The Reflection Spider finally died after I out flanked it, since it could quickly alter its orientation. No other monsters showed up. Small rcies.
After thinking on it for a mont, I made my way North between the darklands with the Cult of Flesh to my left and the jungle with the Reflection Spider to my right.
The jungle transitioned into more darklands halfway through transversing North through both zones. I checked it out. Cloaked skeletons, that walked towards slowly with knives in their hands. Acid Shot. I killed one of them and the knife fell to the ground. No point crystal. The monster wasn’t dead. Acid Shot x5. I killed the other five monsters approaching slowly. Each of them dropped a knife.
If I was a wet behind the ear’s super noob, then I would think that knife was loot. But it was clearly a trap of so kind. Obvious traps are obvious traps. Acid Shot x5. Force Wave. I targeted the cluster of knives with an annihilation attack.
They were only partially worn down and cracked from the attack. Okay, those knives were super bad news. At least the monsters weren’t that fast or troubleso. I wasn’t even sure what to call them. Maybe the Knife Cult, but that didn’t seem right.
Hmm, well I wouldn’t complain too much. It was a sha they weren’t grindable, but at least they weren’t a threat. I kicked off the ground and kept making my way North. I really wanted to see a level 5 zone. Staying in the boarder between zones, I erred to the side of the knife wielding skeletons rather than the Cult of Flesh skeletons.
I really wanted to touch one of those knives, but that thought clearly was unnatural in origin. I could spot the subtle ntal effect. It wasn’t an attack either which made it incredibly insidious. The Systemic Lands and the Almighty System in charge made everything miserable, including the loot.
I still wanted my death sword of dusting. That had stuck in my mind. Just vaporizing enemies. Even better than a lightsaber, since there would be no ss afterwards. Just dust, which quickly disappeared. Could there be a better lee weapon? Probably not, since dusting things would be amazing. The beat stick was pretty good, but dusting was definitely superior.
A small smile ca onto my face at that thought. I would have to discuss with Clarissa, about adding a hall of fallen heroes to my palace, or a public statue for fallen heroes. Naran would get a statue holding a beat stick. It would be a good way to honor his mory.
Even after all this ti, I still missed him, and his death weighed on . It was a bit less every day, but it just felt so arbitrary. But that was the nature of this place. With its clear rules, weird monsters, exhausting towers, and gray cities.
I slowly felt my anticipation build and my thoughts drift to what a level 5 zone would be like. My personal guess was lava, or ice. Maybe an ocean or a desert. I had a lot of guesses, since there was a lot of terrain that I hadn’t seen yet in the Systemic Lands.
As long as it wasn’t like the mushrooms or the jungle I would be kind of happy. But I had no doubt it would be so kind of hell no matter what. Each level of zone had three types of terrain as well, with little to no relation between them besides their level. That ant there were probably three types of level 5 terrain, since that pattern had persisted through four levels of zones.
My secret hope was a cake zone. It was very unlikely, but I could see it. Kill people exploring, by having themselves eat themselves to death. Make the cake super addicting and tasty. Death by cake consumption. Eat until your stomach exploded from the sheer amount of cake.
As ways to die, it would not be the worst one. At least a person would die full and happy, eating cake. Honestly the idea of a zone like that scared , since anything could be possible. I frowned since I should be approaching the North end of the darklands zones.
The obscuring effect at a distance was really strong it appeared for level 5 zones as there was just a blur in front of . Well, I would get close enough to take a peek. Curiosity might have killed a cat or two, but satisfaction would bring them back. I had waited too long and wanted so new information I could think on.
Co on cake zone! I really want cake. I would carve out a piece, to take back with to Purgatory. Test it on soone else, before having a single bite. It was probably a bad idea I was this caught up into thinking about cake, but new zones ant completely new possibilities for the terrain and I wanted sothing nice.
The closer I got the more my heart began to fall. Oh no, oh hell no. The blur continued to remain and only got stronger. A level 5 zone was clearly so fresh kind of hell. Who would co up with sothing so disturbed as this? The Almighty System proved itself to be the supre lord of frustration. It wasn’t a cake zone unfortunately, it was sothing much worse and much more irritating in every way possible.
Reviews
All reviews (0)