The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

Dylan and I were taking a rest day after 25 days of grinding. While I wasn't a fan of rest days, I needed one. Clearing three zones every single day was beyond exhausting. Just the constant fighting over and over. I was really beginning to hate level 7 monsters with how adaptable they were.

Unlike lower-level monsters, they had a much more varied attack pattern, where if I changed things up, they would change things up. There was no optimal fighting strategy, except to beat them directly. Anyone relying on tricks to fight at this level would be crushed for sure.

This also made the fights incredibly draining mentally. I would most likely increase my Mind stat when I cashed in my points in the future instead of Spirit. That way I had more time to think during the fights. It would ease up on the massive headache I had at the end of each day. The environment of the level 7 zones wasn't helping either.

That was why I was laying on my bed in the air boat, with a damp cloth over my eyes while Dylan prepared a more intricate meal for dinner. "Almost done, you fall asleep?" he asked me.

"No. Still awake," I replied.

"Well, tonight we have lasagna. Using some of the very precious prepared food goods we got from New Kochi." That was another reason to have an Empire. Qi Ji Long was about to experience a massive disaster in terms of food. With my Empire falling apart, all those businesses that made food products like tomato sauce would struggle to function.

Some would collapse. Others might continue, but prices would increase. Trade would become even more difficult. That was my biggest regret over the loss of my Empire, the food. I removed the damp cloth from my eyes and got up.

Dylan brought in two pans with lasagna in each of them. "Careful, the pan is hot," he said. I easily took it, but it didn't burn me and began eating right away. So much better than raw vegetables and fruit. Dylan began eating after a minute while his lasagna cooled down a bit.

"You did a great job," I said.

"I am glad you appreciate it. This is the last of the prepared food I had been saving. The rest will be stews," he replied.

"Stews are fine. A shame we don't have bread," I said. I missed the Crystal Vortex and her actual kitchen with actual cooks. Qi Ji Long had much to answer for.

"With what we have, this is the absolute limit. I have a tiny portable oven and stove. That's it. Also our supplies are about a third gone. We are heading back after fifty days?" he asked.

"Yes. That is still the plan." I would be cashing in around 22 billion points when we did. A small drop in the bucket for how many more I wanted and needed.

"Then back out here again?" Dylan asked and I nodded at that. I could see the realization sinking in, with how this was going to go.

"After that, just five more sessions to go, before you pay back my investment into you. Think of it like a job, but with monsters, death, and monotony," I said with a grin.

"Respectfully sir. Only the last one should apply to jobs," he countered.

"Is it the fact there is no end in sight or the mind-numbing boredom of all of it?" I asked, curious to see why he was frustrated.

"The first one. I can handle mind numbing boredom. I was a truck driver. But there doesn't appear to be an end. Just get more and more points?" he asked.

"Until I can clear all the towers, yes. But it will most likely take centuries," I replied.

"Centuries?!"

"With stats and the System Store, it appears that aging has been greatly slowed or stopped. The best example are the older people who arrived and the testing done in the Dragon Empire on children. Stats and frequent regenerations aren't good for them," I explained.

"Well, I can last my 300 days, no problem. After that, I will have to think about it. There is just no music, or audio books to listen to," he said.

"True. But that is just the way things are. Nothing we say will change it. That was good lasagna. A shame we will go back to stews. At least it isn't raw vegetables and fruit," I said.

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"You ate that before?" Dylan asked.

"Yes. It was horrible. Salted cucumbers were the go-to snack food. Now we have conveniences. Warm stew and an airship to carry everything around. Back in my day, you would have been on cart pulling duty as well," I said.

"How would you even get a cart across the higher-level zones?" Dylan asked.

"Back in my day, we cleared lower-level zones," I joked.

"That will have more impact once you cross a century," he replied.

"If the monsters and the crazy people don't kill me first. I know they are trying their hardest, bless their little rotten hearts, but I won't die that easily," I said with a grin.

"Well, I am going to clean up," Dylan said. I nodded at this and went back to laying on my bed with a damp cloth over my eyes. I was resting my brain on my day off. While a conversation during a meal was fine, I wanted to actually rest and not have to engage with anyone or anything.

Once Dylan cleaned up, he got started on his new hobby he had started up. Well, he had done it before on the Crystal Vortex, since it was a common hobby, but he was doing it on his day off. Wood carving, to make wooden figurines to sell or keep was quite popular among the soldiers and he had picked it up.

Currently he was making a chess set. He had started on one before, but it had been lost when the Crystal Vortex had gone down. I had him scraping away at the wood as I lay there contemplating my life so far. That was the thing I disliked about this kind of grinding, the immense amount of self-reflection I had to go through when not out killing monsters.

"I am going to bed, you got first watch?" Dylan asked me. I slowly removed the now dried out cloth from my eyes.

"Yes. Carving going well?" I asked.

"Working at it," he replied. I got up, stretched, and made my way to the outdoor deck. The heat from the level 6 zone washed over the airboat. I checked the bottom and the sides which had become a habit. There was minor damage to the hull. We had to stay pretty close to the ground, which was lava, in order to not trigger flying monsters. It wasn't as bad as the exploding moltenlands, but it was still bad. The ashlands were too risky to go directly through as well.

At least it wasn't serious damage. I couldn't afford to have the air boat stop working. With all the points on board, there was no way I could carry them all by hand. It would be a complete disaster. That was why going with a smaller airship was much riskier.

I began stretching slowly as I looked out over the red glow on one side and the mix match of zone types on the level 7 side. The air boat slowly rotated in place. It was enough to barely notice, and also kept the view constantly changing.

Another reason I had first watch was to make sure to clear out any nearby monsters once the zones reset. The air boat couldn't be risked. If it was lost or damaged, I would lose far too much. I didn't have the special chests that had been on the Crystal Vortex, which wouldn't disappear. It wasn't as simple as purchasing a cart in the shape of a chest. You had to combine two specifically designed carts into a chest.

Looking out at the landscape, there were no monsters and nothing heading towards us. I sipped some water as the intense heat washed over the airship. I had checked our supplies at the start of the rest day. We had used closer to two fifths rather than a third.

There just wasn't enough room and we had to bring water as well. The single cabin sleeping area was packed to the gills. No bed, just a mattress, with chests under it for food, which would also be used for crystals once the food ran out.

The worst part was the smell. I had gotten used to be clean, having my own bathroom, and my own personal shower. One of the benefits of the Crystal Vortex. It was honestly hard to downsize this much. I was used to my creature comforts, but it was good to get back to basics.

I just imagined Qi Ji Long as a fussy prince, having to go out in the wilderness and being frustrated by everything. Using summons to move carts and other supplies was always an option, but it was not a good option. It was the surest sign that a grinding group was lazy, or at the very least they were less motivated, when they had summons carry all of their stuff.

They weren't trying to squeeze out everything they could. This had a much greater impact on the lower levels, than on someone like me. But even I didn't consider using summons unless it was an emergency. If the air boat did go down, then I would use summons to help carry all the points back to a city as a last resort, or a first resort. It wasn't like there were other options.

The real question I was pondering, was when I should start looking into how things were turning out with how the cities were functioning. Would it collapse into total chaos, or would people somehow form a functioning government. I doubted the second would happen.

The moment people got things working, someone with more stats would come in and wreck everything. If they were protecting the city, they weren't getting points themselves. While they could live off taxes, there were too many options and roads built. If people didn't like one city, they could go to another to turn in their crystals.

It would become a race for the bottom was my guess. Each city trying to appeal more to the grinders in its surroundings to drive traffic. Technically the best option would be a state of anarchy, where people governed themselves and there was no government. But that would lead to slavery and exploitation on a huge scale.

Once a person had power, it would be too easy to force new arrivals to work or do other things while threatening them with death. The only abundant resource in the Systemic Lands was human life. My Empire wasn't perfect, but at least I tried to protect the children and didn't allow slavery. It was tempting to go back due to just this issue.

It tugged at my heart strings, but I knew I couldn't. All those people out there had to figure things out on their own now since one person had to ruin things for everyone else. New arrivals would have no chance going forward. The low-level zones would be jealously guarded by each city. I could only hope that the people of my Empire managed to build something off the corpse of the nation I had left behind.