The white bear sloth rushed at . It felt like it was trying to drive nails into my head. Acid Shot. The monster lted away. I picked up the crystal, wondering how Ken was breaking them down. I had tried a couple of things, but they were remarkably resilient.
Naran ca up behind with the cart and took the crystal from . “Ah, so that is why you stopped.”
It was the morning of day 219, our third day out of Purgatory. We had only been traveling for a little while and I had co to a stop. Ahead of the landscape changed from shadowlands to flowerlands, or flower fields.
The only other place I had seen flower fields was next to Truth. “Well, the city should be at the center of the zone, and there should be two dungeons as well.” I was speaking more to remind myself than to Naran. I was trying to think of anything else that might be relevant.
I advanced forwards. I hated new monsters. The most dangerous attack was the one I didn’t know about. That was when I spotted a group of people co over a nearby hill, killing blue beetles that rose up from under the flowers. The beetles were the sa size as the venom flies. About the size of a person’s head.
I noted the people were wielding clubs. The beetles spit out a fluid, acid if I had to guess. The target would dodge while another one flanked the monster to hit it and kill it. It was impressive teamwork with how well they worked together.
I ca to a stop where the flowers began. The people finally noticed . There was shouting and pointing. They slowly made their way over killing the monsters while I waited. Ti to stretch my non-existent diplomatic muscle.
They finally ca to a stop in front of . I spoke up first. “Hello. I am Champion Michael, from the city of Purgatory.”
“Hola no hablar. Español?” Oh no.
“Sorry. No Español. English?” I asked. They all shook their heads. I knew Naran didn’t speak any other languages. Well just great. Everything else I knew in Spanish, wasn’t very polite, so only good if I wanted to insult their mothers before killing them.
Think. Ah! “Jefe.” I pointed to myself. I then pointed behind them. “Jefe.” They began to talk in rapid fire Spanish, which I didn’t understand one bit. After a minute they stopped and gestured for us to follow them.
I followed them. “You think it is safe?” Naran asked.
“Yes, and they probably know better English than they are letting on. So don’t say anything.”
“Got it boss.” A fourth city, at -3, -1. They were packed in tight in the grid on the map. It made wonder if there was a city to the East past the ants. The fights over monsters would quickly pick up as cities tried to push one another out over hunting areas.
Well ti to see how much of a threat this new city would be. We reached the city at mid-day. There were guards at the gate. The hunting group pointed at us and spoke to the guards rapidly. Finally, one of them ca forward to speak with .
“Hello. Na Mateo. Forgive. English not good.”
“Hello. Jefe Michael. I speak to jefe here. Better English?” I asked. The guard winced.
“Very few people, if any English.”
“Jefe? Boss?” I asked.
“I will take you. Long walk.” I nodded at that. Naran and I followed Mateo through the city to their plaza. I paid careful attention to the route. Once there we were led to a building. There were more people, and several guards. I noted that there wasn’t a lot of trash or any screaming happening.
Both of those were good signs that this place was decently run. Several people were staring at us, but no one ca up. Eventually Mateo ca back out with three more people.
“Hello. My na is Luis. This is Juan, the leader of Esperanza. I will be translating. Short sentences please, I am not the best at translating a lot or quickly.” No ntion about person number three, but probably an advisor or another key stakeholder in the city.
“Greetings. I am Champion Michael of the city of Purgatory. One of the three leaders of my city.” Luis began speaking in Spanish. Could I get an auto-translator from the store please? Please?!
I began to make shapes with my hands at my side, to see if anyone grew concerned.
More incomprehensible Spanish back. “Do you know why we are here or what this place is?”
“No. Just guesses. It has been nad the Systemic Lands. How long have you been here?” I nad it myself.
“Only 80 days. Where are you from?” Well, we had a huge head start on them. To share or not to share? Short term, there was a tactical risk, but longer term the information would be found out. Better to share and get more information out of them, hopefully a dungeon.
“To the East.” I wasn’t about to reveal the grid pattern. I was not that stupid. “I am open to trading. There should be two unique areas near your city. I want to enter each of them twice. Once today. Once tomorrow.”
“People have entered but they have all died. What is their purpose?”
“Skill points. I want to collect four of them. Your people can follow and see what these places are like, so they can clear it themselves after I leave.”
There was more discussion in Spanish before the translator had to translate again. “What are skill points used for?”
“Skills. Which are necessary to go beyond the basic boundaries of your city. They are useless to you right now, but you trade, then you can make use of them.”
“I no idiot gringo. Very valuable, you think you can steal?” Juan spoke up.
“Not steal, trade. Information is paid in blood and lives. You don’t want to trade. That is fine. I will just go and find the places myself and you won’t get any information.” More translating and discussion.
Luis the translator spoke up this ti. “We also want to know about the second store upgrade and more information on skills.”
“After I clear the dungeons, then yes. I will answer those questions as well.” I held out my hand. Juan shook it.
“Boss Juan invites you into his ho to rest. Your cart won’t be touched,” Luis said. I wanted to leave right away, but I also was curious if they would try and pull a trap. If they knew the value of skills, they would never have agreed. Also, I had been watching carefully, and none of them had reacted to any of my hand motions. Anyone experienced in skill combat would have imdiately been concerned.
That was why I decided to accept. To see what they would try and pull. If they did try anything, I wouldn’t feel bad about killing all of them and leaving the city, to find the dungeons on my own.
“Very well. Naran, leave the food packs.” It took him a second to get it and then he nodded. He grabbed the packs filled with 50-point crystals.
We entered the building and sat at a table. There were only six chairs. One was left empty and cucumber with salt was served. I took a piece and ate it and sipped the provided water. I didn’t taste or sll anything unusual. I guess it was the new dish of the Systemic Lands. One cucumber to unite all cities. Our hosts did the sa.
“You said Purgatory, is that your city?” Luis asked.
“Yes. Very similar.” Talk about identical besides the random street layout.
“Have you co across other cities?”
“Two other cities besides Purgatory. What about you, what monsters have you found?”
“We have beetles and cats around the city. Then there are bugs, moving trees, large rats, and giant bears in the areas beyond the grasslands and flowers. Any news from Earth, or a way to leave this place?”
“Nope. Better get settled in. The last Earth day you rember, September 1st?”
“Yes, sa for you then.” I nodded at that, and Luis let out a sigh. “One mont.” He began translating again for the rest of his group. He then turned back to . “It is a long walk to the locations. Do you want to rest here for the night?”
“No. Let share sothing with you. They reset once every 10 days with the arrival. That is why I would like to clear them each twice. Then in 10 days you can do it yourselves. But we should get going. Night travel is a lot more dangerous.”
There was so more talk, but eventually Naran and I left, along with Luis, Juan, the third person, and three guards. I checked the layout of the packs and our cart appeared to be unmolested. “West first?” I asked.
“Cats are the easiest to kill. Just need to focus they are a bit tricky. You must camp outside the city, it is safe?”
“A bit, if you are careful and don’t move around. The monsters co back during the night.” That was obvious to anyone out grinding. The exact timing was sothing I didn’t plan on sharing. The trick of this entire conversation was to be polite and seem forthcoming, while not giving anything useful away.
The unfortunate fact was, the longer this city took to advance, the stronger position Purgatory would be in. With the hard limits on the number of monsters and skill points, specific groups would be losing out. This was a zero-sum ga.
That ant there had to be winners and losers. It wasn’t possible to create a stable solution long term that didn’t result in suffering and death. This place was too small, and Earth was too big. The one question I had, was what day was it really?
It was day 219 for , but was it really day 219? Esperanza here was only on day 80. What if another city was on day 500? How powerful would the people in that city be? I wasn’t afraid of soone catching up to , but soone with a head start. That would be rough, very rough. I didn’t want to be put in a position of weakness again.
“How far is your city?” Luis asked. I held back a wince at the question. They wanted more information and to dig deeper. I had to be extra careful going forward. Ti to launch plan B, for boisterous.
“A couple of days’ worth of travel to the East. Let tell you about so of the interesting monsters I have seen. Blue slis, well they are quite interesting. Their outer shell is a semi-solid, but it can leak a bit if struck. The key thing is to be careful…”
We kept walking and I kept talking about slis.
“…in comparison to the brown slis, you can see a positive correlation to the bio and the monster type. Still, I would be hesitant to call it a direct relationship, more casual if I had to guess. Similar to how shark attacks and ice cream consumption go up at the sa ti. There is a third underlying factor of sumr. I suspect that might be the case here. By extrapolating the monster types I hope to…”
My improved stats allowed to keep going and going.
“…the conjunction of the sun, with the horizon, doesn’t prove that it isn’t a light source. The physics of this place could be non-Euclidean in nature, leading to a weird topology. I hope to consult an expert on such matters but finding soone with a useful PhD is all down to luck. Still, I am hopeful, and it is sothing I ponder…”
I could tell they wanted to interrupt, but I didn’t stop.
“…the point distribution is decidedly unfair, but that just puts the prospective of further expansion into perspective. I have a small amount of hope that resources can be harvested in a sustainable manner, but the trees outside Purgatory are incredibly resilient to damage as is the rest of the terrain. Perhaps high-level skills or stats could make the difference when you factor in tool usage. Still, I am hesitant to concede that it is impossible to…”
Even my brain began to bleed and cry at this point.
“…astrology might be useful. While I have not observed any known constellations, I have been hoping to spot a difference or any type of clue in the stars. That is why celestial alignnt is key to keep track of. I have not observed a moon, or the possibility of another planet, but without a telescope I hesitate to make any substantive claims…”
After an hour and a half, we reached the edge of the city.
“…that is why you need to consider math as a fundantal form of combat. By using statistical calculations of optimal distribution and tabulating the results across various areas. You can co to an actualization about the overall grind rate. Which is sothing I realized early on with the blue slis and continue to use. I hope that helped explain things?”
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