The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

"Acid Shot." Another scorpion died just like that. That was it for the day. I had killed 81 scorpions as I left the shadowlands and returned to the grasslands. I killed off the nearby small wolves and set my campsite on a small hill.

I was not about to spend the night in the shadowlands. The entire place was dead, creepy, and it was a higher danger zone. I had decided to grind monsters and then return to the city for more upgrades. My pattern was the reverse of before. I would take deeper curves into the scorpion shadowlands before heading back to the small wolf grasslands to regenerate my energy and grind out what I could from the small wolves.

I had killed 359 small wolves and 81 scorpions, which put me at 5,845 points in a single day. Multiply that by 20 days, which would put me at 115,000 or just about. That in turn was enough for another 80 upgrades.

The next 30 upgrades were going into Regeneration and then 10 more upgrades into Mind, Perception, Aura, Endurance, and finally Body. That would put me at 300 upgrades in total. I looked at the setting sun and still felt full of vigor. I mentally used that term instead of energy since that was what the mental download called magic juice.

It wasn't just from being well rested. Normally, I would be a lot more tired right about now, as it got dark. I liked to joke back on Earth that I was solar-powered. It was true to a certain extent. I had my window in my apartment facing East, so I would get hit by the rising sun. It was much better than any alarm clock.

I considered each stat. I suspected this was the result of Endurance. Perhaps it was eliminated sleep, or maybe less sleep was required. It was hard to be sure. Regardless, I was done for the day. I sat with my back against the cart, looking out over the grasslands and at the setting sun. I munched down on an apple as I thought about my future path.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Think, think, think. It felt like that was all I did. I would kill for a word document or an excel sheet. Give me some pencil and paper, at least.

Once I got the next round of upgrades, I could make a deep push…Maybe. It was scary, and the fear was getting to me. I tossed the apple core to the side and began peeling an orange. My thoughts then drifted to the wolf ruins.

I…I couldn't let fear control me. The reason for my hesitation was that the scaling of the monsters was brutal, and I kept thinking about what the next level after the scorpions and large slimes would be. If I ran into something that strong, I did not give myself that great of a chance.

I needed to do the wolf ruin. Skills were key. Just barrel through the place with Acid Shot. The problem was the fog impacting visibility. It was just so much easier to fall into a rut of grinding what I knew to be safe.

I would do the wolf dungeon tomorrow night. I would sleep in tomorrow and take a later afternoon slash evening nap. I will find large wolves, shadow frost wolves, and then a boss monster or two there. It just hit me, that the boss might appear after I cleared out the area, as an event.

I would need to go in after the small wolves respawned in the surrounding area. No need to get trapped or have things come back in the middle of the night. The more I thought about the idea, the more convinced I was, that it was a good idea.

With my mind made up, I settled in for the night.

I woke up to a beep. I quickly became alert and sat up. Leather armor was okay, but still not the most comfortable to sleep in. There was no way I was taking it off, though. My garbage was still there from last night. I just double-checked to confirm what I had seen in the past.

Even with things I knew were different from Earth, I didn't mind checking them more than once. It was a good reminder that this place wasn't like Earth and not to accept things without question. Everything was a clue. Well, maybe not everything, but I would still pay attention and take note.

I stretched a bit in the dark. I looked up at the starry sky. There was no change from the star patterns. Wait…I looked at the night sky. The stars didn't move at all. It was like a static painting, not the constellations that swept through the sky on Earth.

That meant this world wasn't rotating, but then that raised questions on how the position of the sun was changing. Unless it wasn't the world that was moving but the source of daylight. It was a Minecraft world, maybe. The sun is moving, not the world. It was another guess with no easy way for me to figure out the right answer.

I got out a carrot and munched on it for breakfast as I considered this place. It was far worse than I thought. Seasonality couldn't be causing the shortening days based on the static night sky. It was a direct change in the light source pretending to be a star.

I looked at the watch I had set at sunset last evening. It was still ticking away. Were the days and nights getting shorter together, or was it just the day? I wasn't sure, but I was going to find out. I set off toward the wolf ruins.

When dawn hit, I reset the watch. The night was getting shorter as well. The day was slowly getting closer to an Earth day. It was longer than 24 hours initially, but if both day and night were getting shorter, that meant the entire time of this area was adjusting.

"Are you a self-correcting system? Administrator. Console. Root user. Code zero." There was no response. But the fact that the day and night were moving towards Earth norms when they weren't that way initially was a huge clue.

I just didn't know what that new bit of information told me. Everything was monitored constantly. That was how trash vanished and things reset when no one was around. Oh, the observation reached a wrong initial conclusion, implying that whatever was running this place had faults.

The observation and the macro-environment were connected, with Occam's Razor implying it was all a singular system, rather than multiple systems working together. "Almighty System, what are you up to?"

Since the days were longer than 24 hours to start with, it appeared it was moving towards Earth norms. I couldn't tell if this was a good or bad thing. There was no need for an astronomer or mathematician. I just needed a couple of watches, get up early, and pay attention to details. The main concern was if the time correction overshot and kept contracting. The only thing I could do was keep an eye on the situation since I couldn't exactly graph out the temporal changes with precision.

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Nothing for it but to get on with the push and the grind. I shook my head at my internal complaining. I made my way over to the wolf ruins, killing the small wolves and scorpions as I traveled at the edge between zones.

I reached the location in the afternoon and took a nap on a hill next to the ruins where I had camped previously.

When I woke up, I checked my watches. I had woken up before my alarm had gone off. I relieved myself and had a snack. The small wolves came back into existence, and I began cleaning them all up once more around the ruins.

Once that was done, I parked my cart in front of the entrance and went in again. I began a clockwise circuit around the outer wall. I used a shield and magic. One Acid Shot was enough to kill the large wolves instantly. They reacted to pain, at least initially, which was more than enough time for the spell to kill them in seconds.

I did a second circuit making a lot more noise and finished off a couple more large wolves. After that, I began going into the buildings. Two Acid Shots were enough to kill the shadow frost wolves. After the eighth one I killed, I heard a large howl. I checked out an upper-floor window.

I don't know whether it was my gut instinct or one of the stats, but I quickly moved away. A wolf's head appeared out of the mist and bit where my head had been sticking out the window.

Stumbling back, I moved away from the window and looked out again, only to see just a lot more mist. I checked above me and still found nothing. Another howl rang out. It was creepy since everything had been so silent before. The monsters didn't make animal noises, but this was different.

I went back to the first floor, and the mist was rising and growing thicker. I entered the mist and felt a cold dampness reach me through my black leather armor. My right hand was ready to cast as I moved toward the doorway. My left hand had my shield up, ready to defend.

The mist suddenly billowed away from in front of me and there was a large shadow wolf. "Acid Shot." The spell just grazed its flank as it dodged to the side, the mist moving away from the monster as it moved through the thick billows of fog.

While it made it hard to tell exactly where it was, I knew its position at least. The wolf darted in, and I blocked with my shield. The impact sent me stumbling back and a chill went up my shield arm. "Acid Shot." This time, I hit the monster on the leg. It collapsed to the ground.

"Acid Shot." I aimed at its head, and it let out a pitiful moan just before it turned to dust and a crystal. I didn't pick the crystal up but kept looking around. Nothing was around, but I wasn't so sure. After a minute, I picked up the crystal and put it in my pack.

I checked another building, but there were no wolves on the second floor. No wolves anywhere. The last spot was the well in the center of the ruin. I made my way there.

I spun around and found nothing, but I was sure there had been something moving behind me. I reached the well and mist was pouring out of it like a geyser. "Acid Shot." I cast the spell down the well and nothing. There was frustration about what to do next, but I forced that away to focus on the here and now.

Think, I needed to think. Night, mist, well, wolves, cold, ruined town, what was the key? The wolf that tried to bite off my head on the second floor. How did it get up there? I spun and looked around. The mist swirled as it poured out of the well.

"Sneaky," I muttered. I checked higher up as well. A monster that only attacks when my guard is lowered. That was incredibly troublesome.

I lowered my shield and listened. A swish there. A swirl of mist there. Danger!

"Acid Shot!" A wolf's head burst out of the mist in front of me as my spell went off. The monster collided with me, and we went tumbling to the ground. I had let my shield go in the assault.

I pulled out my dagger and began stabbing. I felt a strong pressure on my left arm and a chill. The wolf was biting down on me as I stabbed at its head. It collapsed and turned to dust. I was bleeding and my bracer was mangled. I winced at the pain as it hit me.

My left arm hung at my side, dripping blood, and I held a knife in my right. The mist was slowly fading. Above the well was a diamond crystal. I picked up the wolf's crystal first and then slowly made my way over.

That was a stupid boss. I looked at my left arm. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I poked the crystal. There were three options this time. Upgrade Acid Shot with power, speed, or cohesion. Or I could get Imbue Cold, which added cold energy to a weapon or another skill, a utility-type skill, or Shadow Concealment, which was a hiding skill to blend in with the shadows, more utility.

Since skill slots were tied to the city, I only had 2 skill slots. I already had an attack skill and neither of them had the type of utility I wanted.

Shadow Concealment wasn't a good defensive skill in my mind either. I wanted something that could make a wall, block, or deflect magic.

Imbue Cold had potential, but with limited skill slots, it was too big of a risk it invest in. I needed a movement, defensive, and healing skill. Not more attack power. Acid Shot was more than enough for right now.

That meant an upgrade. The mental download didn't give hard numbers and only the vaguest of clues as to what the upgrades did. The names provided more insight, and I frowned. It was hard to tell if it was the mental download or my own thoughts that speculated on the upgrades. That was scary.

Regardless of the Almighty System messing with my mind, I speculated power increased the speed of damage a skill did, so damage over time. Speed was how fast it traveled once cast. Cohesion was how well it maintained its form over long distances. I chose power, since I wanted even a glancing blow to be deadly. It was best as a mid-range skill, not long-range, so speed and cohesion weren't as useful.

With my selection done, I noted the mist fading away. I looked up at the sky, and saw that it wasn't dawn yet. So, the dungeon effects ended with the boss. That's good to know. The boss and sub-boss were most likely triggered from killing the shadow frost wolves. I thought on a name, and mist wolf seemed about right.

I looked at my left arm. There was no free heal after a boss like in Zelda, unfortunately. I clenched my hand into a fist a couple of times, and it felt weak. At least the bleeding had mostly stopped. I let out a sigh. I put away my dagger and picked up my shield.

I went out of the wolf ruins to my cart. I was really glad I had killed the little wolves beforehand. How stupid would it have been if a little wolf killed me after dealing with the boss? It was time to put my first-aid skills to the test.

I carefully unstrapped the bracer and pulled it off, tossing it into the cart. I then got a flask of water and poured it all over arm. I washed the blood off. The bracer had prevented the worst of the damage, but there were several puncture marks. The bone was fine, thankfully.

I held my arm up in front of my face and examined it. I then checked my left arm. The scar I had gotten from accidentally ramming my arm through some glass as a kid was gone. So was the scar from a knife cut on my middle finger on my right-hand as a teenager.

The store restoration was quite powerful to remove such old injuries. I chose to sit on my cart and let my arm bleed. I didn't have any bandages or spare clothing.

"Acid Shot." I used my left hand and it was a tad slower than normal. There were no other visible changes.

I would have to test it on a scorpion to see what the exact difference was. I watched the sun, or light source, slowly rise above the horizon. How a sun worked on a flat world was a rabbit hole I didn't want to think of at the moment.

The bleeding had finally stopped. I moved my arm and clenched my hand. Weak, but still usable. The armor had actually been useful beyond posturing and looking like an edgelord.