The Systemic Lands

Chapter 126: Day 271 – The Tenth Upgrade

I let Naran get the first skill point and he picked an upgrade for Minor Tremor, going with cohesion. It seemed like a weird choice, what would that upgrade look like for that skill? The answer was a more concentrated effect within its area of effect.

But wouldn’t that have been the same as a power upgrade? There was clearly something happening in the background that I was missing, and the single word upgrade descriptions along with the physical effects wasn’t enough to work it out.

I had asked him why he had chosen that upgrade out of all the others and his idea was to create a guaranteed trap for a high-level monster. Trap it and kill it with Rock Lance, to combine both skills in a sure-fire way to kill something.

It made sense and I didn’t question it. I knew that I had been affected by Death, but I never knew what impact it had on Naran. He had been completely helpless in the face of that monster. His life was completely dependent on me winning. The monster behaved oddly, so this wasn’t guaranteed for sure, but it was probable.

He was like me in that regard, willing to fight to live and being that helpless and seeing me crippled was probably quite scary. To cart my ass back to Purgatory, not knowing if Death would show up again, helpless to stop it.

Choosing his skills to confront a high-level monster was not a choice I would have made, but I could respect it. If Naran saved my life again, I didn’t know what I would do. I hated being in some one’s debt, since it messed up my thinking. It was the reason Ruth was still alive. A decision I deeply regretted.

Still, it was also something I couldn’t overlook. The moment I wasn’t grateful for people saving my life, was the moment people would stop saving my life. My life and existence were the most precious things to me. There was no way I would ever undervalue it. That was why I felt both frustrated and grateful to Naran for having saved me twice.

Once Naran got the skill point we made our way back to the deer grove dungeon and cleared it a second time. I stood looking at the diamond shaped floating crystal. I carefully poked it. The skills were offered, but I ignored them since Naran had already told me what they were.

Instead, I focused on the upgrade options I had for Acid Shot. There was silent, gestureless, and cost. Why was silent up there a second time? That raised so many questions. How would a skill be double silent? For longer skills with more hand signs, I could see them being cut down, but the upgrade was called gestureless. What was double gestureless?

This wasn’t something that would be easy to experiment with either, due to how hard it was to get a skill, let alone ten upgrades for the skill, and not being able to reverse any decisions made without resetting all progress on a skill.

Silent, silent, or double silent what do you do? This really was bugging me as I racked my brain, trying to come up with an answer. I had been set on gestureless, but never even thought for a moment that silent would come up as an upgrade option again. I had considered it, but didn’t think it very likely.

Sure, the other upgrades had shown up again, but they improved aspects of the skill, which could be further improved. The thing with silent and gestureless, they were absolute terms. What did two absolutes make? That was the question that kept bugging me as I kept hesitating to pick gestureless as my tenth upgrade for Acid Shot.

There was the small chance the upgrade didn’t do anything more than the first upgrade. It would be a waste of skill point, but the Almighty System was completely unfair and unforgiving. I could easily see an upgrade picked twice not having an effect the second time.

The decision kept going back and forth in my mind. I had time to decide, but it wasn’t infinite. I wanted to do one last loop around Heaven killing any new teams before we left. I was going to grind up a lot more and let the Ritualist stay in his city for now. Time to go back to the grind.

I picked gestureless. It was my original plan, and I couldn’t justify doing double silence, no matter how interesting the result might be.

I felt knowledge enter my head. The skill now cost 20 energy, I winced at that. That was unfortunate, but I had chosen the upgrade with that in mind, since I didn’t know when I would get back out here to get this skill upgrade.

Acid Shot. A ball of acid formed in the air and shot off to my side. Well at least this aspect of the skill was just as useful as I thought it would be. I could now attack on a whim or thought alone, while holding both a weapon and shield in my hands or keeping both hands free for my other skills.

There was one more thing that had been downloaded into my head. If I found a crystal of a higher level, I could upgrade the skill to a level 3 skill, but it would lose all the upgrades. The skill would basically reset, and I would get a higher cost but more powerful version of the skill. I also wouldn’t be able to re-earn the skill points I had used up.

“You took a while, big choice?” Naran asked as we made our way back to the cart. I explained the options I had to him.

“Double silence, I honestly have no idea. It doesn’t make any sense, but still.”

“Exactly, what could it mean? The same with gestureless and multi-cast. It isn’t something easy to research.” I nodded at that.

“No one would willingly choose something sub-optimal based on research or a chance. There has been too much investment into the skill already. Clearing 11 dungeons is no simple task,” in fact, it took forever. Having to do that all over again while not impossible was a waste of time. No upgrade could justify all the headache that would involve.

“The upgrade to a higher level of skill is interesting. I wonder if you would get a choice like a skill tree.” Now that was an interesting idea.

“Maybe. We know that skills can improve, after all yours is called Minor Temor. So there has to be a regular tremor and major tremor.”

“You plan to hold off?”

“I would need to clear a level 3 dungeon. While I will look at the options, I don’t plan to upgrade my skill. The upgrades are too useful for now.”

“That means there is a qualitative difference between skill level beyond just cost,” Naran said. I nodded at that. Since Aqua Sphere cost 50 energy with 10 energy per second upkeep and Air Burst cost 50 energy. A lower-level skill of the same type had to be more limited in some way.

I was thinking of Air Burst specifically. It had a limited effect. But was more costly than Acid Shot. “What I need are more skill slots. Three is nowhere near enough.” The problem was Purgatory wouldn’t be upgrading the store any time soon.

The risk of triggering an event was too high. I wanted all the other upgrades purchased first before upgrading the store. I also wanted to have a lot more stats. If Death came knocking again, I wouldn’t be losing an arm this time. I stopped myself from rubbing my left arm.

We reached the cart and Aahan was there ready to go. The guy really did blend into the background, but I refused to overlook him. Anyone could be a threat if desperate enough. “Let’s go. Time to sweep the outside of Heaven for any more teams.”

Naran let out a sigh, but he knew there was no other option with the total war strategy I had picked. No one could be spared. If I thought I had more than a fifty percent chance of winning, I might have gone into Heaven. But I didn’t see that happening. Sneaking in would be near impossible. Attrition until the Ritualist was forced to sleep would be the best idea.

I would need to come back with every single Union team. We made our way through the forest towards the city’s North gate. We would loop around to the East and then depart from the West gate.

As we advanced, I frowned. We had cleared the other dungeon for Naran on day 270 and made our way to the most recent dungeon and cleared it this morning. Where were the level 1 red wolf monsters?

“Stop,” I said. Everyone came to a halt, and I looked around. The monsters should have respawned. Would the Ritualist really leave the safety of the city? Or was his range longer than I had initially thought? Either way, I wasn’t ready for a prolonged battle, especially since the cost of Acid Shot had gone from 10 energy to 20 energy.

“Back the way we came. Go,” I said. We quickly began to retreat from Heaven. Something was off. Did the Ritualist trigger Death in some way? It was hard to separate the idea of an event from Death in my mind and I lumped them together.

“Michael,” Naran had come to a stop while I had been observing our rear. Werewolves and weredeer stepped out from behind the trees in front of us. I counted twenty and winced. The same number appeared behind us.

“If you see a chance, escape. The cart isn’t important. Don’t worry about me. I might be a bit reckless.” Naran nodded at me. He knew I meant Aahan was expendable. Sorry cart puller, but Naran was worth a lot more than you and he had saved my life.

More monsters began to appear at the flanks as well. We had been surrounded. He must have cleared a large number of monsters around us to move his forces into position. I noted that a couple of his monsters were wounded. Probably from clearing the monsters nearby.

Still, there were 80 monsters surrounding us. I counted several wolves hanging back with slimes on their heads. Our only chance was to break through and make a run for it, abandoning the cart. Or was it? I drew forth my sword.

“I wouldn’t be so hasty,” one of the werewolves growled out. I came to a stop. It appeared it was time to have a conversation with the Ritualist before we fought. That would give him time to move forces into position, but it would give me more information.

I was also curious what he wanted to talk about. I would also use the chance to try and work out his position. If I could find him, I could end everything here and now. Aahan would probably die, but I was confident in escaping along with Naran since we had room to maneuver.