The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

"Your only hope?" I asked slowly. "I doubt that. You are quite capable yourself," I told the fake Clarissa. If I went along too easily then this would make the person doing this suspicious. I needed to push back a bit. The silence stretched out and the fake Clarissa didn't respond. "What is it?" I asked her.

"You realized instantly? Didn't you?" The tone was much colder. I guess I wasn't that good at lying. Interpersonal communications were not my strong suit. Well now I would get a chance to speak directly to my newest enemy.

"Can I have a name?" I asked. Fake Clarissa's head tilted at me and looked at me intently. I noted a slight golden glow behind the eyes.

"Names have power, Michael Decker, quite a bit of power." I felt a growing sense of danger and looked around. "Nice touch having no one use their last names, but your mother, well that was a font of useful information."

"How horribly did you kill her?" I asked as I forced down my anger.

"Oh, she isn't dead or being tortured. She is my guest. Which I know will frustrate you far more," fake Clarissa replied. The sense of danger was lingering around me.

"So, what do you want? Chaos? Destruction? My life?" I asked. Any insight I could get, I would take.

"Your life. Once you are dead, then there will be no one to oppose me," they replied. It was annoying that I didn't have a name or a title for them. At least the goal they mentioned was one I had already envisioned.

"Well it won't be easy. Going to try and curse me?" I asked.

"You are surprisingly resistant to resonance based attacks. Your stats are indeed impressive. I had underestimated how much your meta-point would do for you." I took a deep breath before responding.

"Since we can speak reasonably and you don't appear to be insane, isn't there a chance of cooperation?" I asked. I knew that question could be viewed as a sign of weakness, but I wanted to at least try. I had regrets about past foes and if I could turn one to an ally that would be a huge boon.

There was a stretch of silence as fake Clarissa just stood there looking at me. After a minute I finally got a response. I still couldn't tell how it was being done. The energy manipulation skills of my opponent were top notch.

"Even after everything I have done? Even if I kill your mother?" I considered those questions.

"You said you haven't killed or tortured her, and an Empire can be rebuilt. But there are greater threats out there. The sphere is the most obvious one, but I am sure there are others. I don't know what I have done to you, but I know you have at least one meta-point and are competent with your skills," I replied.

"One? I have more than one Michael Decker." I felt another wave of danger wash over me. It was greater than before. I frowned at this. If fake Clarissa tried to say my full name one more time, I would melt her.

"Two?" I asked in surprise. That would be much more concerning.

"Three actually." My heart skipped a beat at that. It could be a lie, but I doubted that conclusion. It was clear that my opponent was flexing on me. "I can't take all the credit, except for one." My mind raced at that statement. Were they like the sword? Sucking up meta-points of other people?

"That is quite impressive. But the fact you aren't willing to face me directly shows that you picked more esoteric things. I don't suppose you asked what the purpose of this place is?"

"Suffering. That is the nature of this Systemic Land as you call it. Suffering eternal. And there can be no peace. I only wished to speak with you to try and remotely curse you and to get your measure," fake Clarissa said.

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"Now I am really curious what I did to you in the past? Why are you trying to hide your identity so much? I know you aren't on the Crystal Vortex, so why would a title matter?" I asked in curiosity.

"One can never be too careful. Also, it amuses me to you flail about helplessly as your doom closes in on you." I considered that statement and shook my head. Perhaps it would have annoyed me in the past, but I was expecting this. My opponent was acting like I would. Not giving anything of worth up in our conversation.

"That is true, one can never be too careful. Since I didn't fall for this low-level ploy, how do you expect to target me?" I asked out of curiosity. By just having this conversation showed that their number of available moves against me had drastically decreased. If they could attack me, they would have attacked me already.

"I am content to wait as well. Let the world burn. If you return, I will make a move. And I am confident in my ability to grind away and catch up with you even with your meta-point." I let out a scoff at that. While I doubted many things, that was clearly an outright lie.

"We both know that is nonsense. Like you could catch up any time soon. It would take years," I countered their statement easily.

"Possibly decades, but that is fine by me. A game of cat and mouse," my opponent teased me. "You are not an easy target, but that will make my revenge all the sweeter when I finally claim it."

"Just as you grind away, I will be as well. I also doubt you are going to play the long game of trying to get more stats. No matter how many meta-points you have, I doubt you have one to increase stats." I countered their nonsense quite easily. "So an endless proxy battle? I like grinding, but I doubt you have the patience to do so. If you did, you would have waited to catch me by surprise. Instead of trying stuff like this." I waved a hand at fake Clarissa.

They went silent and I knew I had scored a major point there. While it was easy to say you were willing to grind for years, it was another matter entirely to actually grind constantly, day after day. It would be all too easy to get tired and bored.

While my opponent might think they could compete against me long term, I knew I had the advantage there. I had placed them in check with my decision to run away and grind out crystals.

"A good point, but I haven't really started targeting you constantly. You think you can just hide out forever?" they asked. I grinned at that question.

"Yes. Even though it will be annoying and painful. I will triumph eventually. But there is another option." Fake Clarissa went quiet after that and gave me harsh look. "I will threaten your mother." I was wondering when the knives would be pulled out and that particular threat would be made.

"That is honestly disappointing to resort to useless threats. She is already dead. The moment you kidnapped her, I had written her off in my mind. It was obvious this threat was coming," I replied calmly with as much disinterest in my voice as possible even though I was really interested.

"You would abandon your own mother?" I nodded at that question .

"Indeed. She would want me to live. She is like that. Anything else before I melt your puppet?" I asked.

"Just that you should be more careful-"

Acid Shot. Void Shot. Fake Clarissa took a major dent in their chest, her fake clothes smoldering away. I upped the energy put into the attack and immediately followed up. This time the torso was shredded. There was a large gaping hole as blood and guts poured out.

It quickly turned to dust and left behind a crystal. Apparently, it was a monster that had been controlled. That brought back memories of my pet rock. That thing had been both hilarious and obviously fake. I felt a massive spike of danger. I kicked off the deck of the airboat to get distance.

Air Burst. I used the skill several times in a row as the entire airboat exploded. Not going to let me have a free airboat? What a waste. But that was their choice to take me out. Even though I had acted immediately, the explosion was large enough to singe my clothes and hair.

A shame we couldn't have worked out something more. As I flew back to the Crystal Vortex I let out a long sigh. I had been hoping there would be a chance to make peace. But that was clearly impossible with their attitude. While the threats were annoying they weren't surprising and I gained a lot of valuable information.

My opponent was easily frustrated. The longer I stayed away from anywhere they could attack, the more unhinged their mental state was likely to become. Everything reeked of desperation and poor planning. While they had skills and tactical planning in spades, they lacked patience of a long term mindset.

I was concerned about the claim of three meta-points. That didn't feel like a lie and was the foundation of their power. If it really was true, then I was being scammed by the Almighty System, like that wasn't already known and incredibly annoying.

Despite everything that had been said, there was no reason for me to change my plans or move away from this location. There weren't any good ways to assault me. They should have tried to take down the Crystal Vortex while I was off grinding and looked for an opening to strike.

As long as I had my airship, I wasn't concerned about surviving long term and keeping up my grinding speed. If I lost the Crystal Vortex then things would become far more difficult and headache inducing.