The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

I finished cashing in my points in New Delhi. The city was just South of my grinding position and was my go to city for resupply and turning in points to the store. It was also mostly deserted, only a couple of people passing through who were grinding the surrounding zones.

The new arrivals were starving and desperate in the city. Killing a couple of them made sure to send the message not to bother me. We arrived in the middle of the day. I wanted word to leak out that I was coming to this city. If Qi Ji Long made a move due to being tempted, that would only waste more of his time and amuse me.

I wouldn't purposely spread the word, since that would be too obvious, but showing up and not trying to hide my identity would be just as good. He would think I didn't care, which was true to an extent, and then plan something. The situation was too tempting for someone with his mentality to do otherwise.

300,000 (+0); Mind-60,000 (+0); Spirit-147,000 (+14,000x3); Perception-60,000 (+0); Aura-60,000 (0); Regeneration-60,000 (+0); Endurance-60,000 (+0); Absorption-60,000 (+0); Sense-60,000 (+0); Channel-60,000 (+0) for a total of 309,000 total stat upgrades, or 927,000 after my meta-point.

More energy was still the best option going forward. It represented how long I could survive combat. That was a big reason I tried to never run out of energy while fighting. While the increase was a lot, it was also just a drop in the bucket for what I needed.

Dylan also cashed in the level 6 point crystals that had been collected. He got half of them, from my nightly clears. I got the other half. There weren't many, but that was another couple million points to boost his stats slightly.

Going up one size would be nice, but ultimately self-defeating in terms of wasting money. Better to keep doing what was the most efficient grinding method.

"Awfully quiet," Dylan said as we loaded up the air boat with supplies.

"This city was part of the expansion plans. There aren't that many grinders around the city. The people this far out are anti-social to begin with. Us showing up in an air ship is a power move as well. Also, I am not hiding my stats. You don't live this long as a grinder by being stupid," I replied with a shrug.

"So, we just get left alone?" Dylan asked.

"They might not even have taxes. Just a communal agreement to not mess with the store and leave each other alone. In a year or so there might be a guild or some kind of semi-formal organization. Or we might see slavery rise up depending on the mentality of the leading grinders," I replied. I had no clue what was going to happen. It was out of my control, and I didn't want to take control either.

"And we are the top dogs," Dylan said.

"More like top dragons. There are very few things above me on the food chain. A shame there are no places to buy finished food products," I said with a shake of my head. I could really go for some fresh bread.

"We can check out other cities?" Dylan suggested.

"No. Not worth our time. Better to go back to grinding. I have a couple trillion points that I need to earn. I should have done this ages ago. But I also needed to upgrade my skills to take advantage of my newly risen stats."

"You must be pretty close to a million?" Dylan asked.

"Kind of close. I am lucky that level 7 monsters have been so easy to be honest. I am thinking about level 8 monsters, but I am hesitant to try after the boss fights," I replied with a shake of my head.

"The jump shouldn't be that large?" Dylan asked.

"One would think that based on progression so far, but there is no need to poke a level 8 zone. At least with a level 7 zone, I have solid footing I can count on. A level 8 zone is much more dangerous. The terrain plays a huge role in how easily I can handle the fights." I finished moving on the last barrel of water.

Since Dylan was in charge of cooking, he purchased the food, I handled the water. He finished loading up the air boat as well. "The hull is looking slightly cooked," he pointed out.

"I know. But it still has enough integrity for now. I am not too worried. Maybe after a couple more trips we will look for a replacement," I said.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Where would we even get one?" Dylan asked me.

"The Leader's Domain to the West of here. They have airship production buildings and I can just show up and buy one without too much hassle."

"Hey!" I turned to see someone approaching and was about to respond, when my heart froze up. I hadn't been joking about being at the top of the food chain. There were only three things I knew of that outclassed me in the Systemic Lands, not counting high level monsters.

The first was the System. It was up there in power, no longer at the very top in my mind. That's why it had lost its 'Almighty' moniker. Then there was the sphere, which was some weird out of context monster. Finally, there was the Sword of Ascalon. It had taken out my airship from a super long range.

Right now, the person who had just called out had it on their hip. It was like staring at the sun in terms of energy. It was like the sphere, but less bright. I could barely make out incredibly complex energy patterns in the hilt I could see. The rest was hidden inside a scabbard, that looked nice, but wasn't overly fancy.

"Hello. I am Michael," I said to greet the young Indian man who was approaching.

"Kumar," the young man greeted me as he closed the distance. "Are you in charge of this city?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Well you are clearly the strongest around here, and I wanted to speak to the person in charge," Kumar said. I began moving so that my back was not to my airship. While mentally preparing for a fight.

"Perhaps, what purpose do you have here?" I asked.

"The Indian Sultanate is looking to reclaim this city, but we wanted to talk to the local powers first and hopefully integrate them into our nation," Kumar replied.

"The agreement with the Indian Sultanate was to leave these cities unclaimed with Emperor Michael," I said.

"The Empire has disbanded and Emperor…oh," Kumar finally realized who he was talking to. "I suppose I will have to make sure you stay dead." The casual way he said he was just going to kill me was incredibly disturbing.

Acid Shot. Force Shot. A massive annihilation blast engulfed Kumar, the sword, and everything in the general direction I had been aiming. I didn't hesitate to push 60,000 energy into the attack. There was a loud crack and rush of air as the atmosphere rushed into fill the void I had just made.

A large chunk was carved out of the plaza, away from the store. That was why I had repositioned myself, to not target my air boat and the store pillars. There was a golden bubble formed around Kumar, who had his hand on the hilt of the sword. The portion of the ground he was standing on was floating in the air. Air Burst.

I closed the distance rapidly and pushed out energy around my fists. I landed a light punch on the golden sphere, it didn't give way in the slightest. Kumar drew the Sword. I felt an acute sense of danger as I circled his glowing protection unleash attack after attack. I noted that Dylan had gotten into the air boat and was moving it away from the plaza, good.

We had worked out ahead of time, what to do if there was a serious battle. His job was to keep the air boat intact. My job was to kill the threat.

I kept up the relentless attack. It was the strategy I had planned for a turtle strategy. If they managed to survive my first overwhelming attack, then follow up with close range melee to force them to keep their defense up. That would burn energy far faster than me. While I only had to use Air Burst and to throw out punches, they had to keep that shield up.

Acid Shot. I used the skill occasionally to coat the top of the shield with acid, to force the Sword to keep it up. I knew I wasn't fighting Kumar, but this super artifact. If I could end it here and now, that would be one less serious threat I had to worry about. After my experience with Qi Ji Long, I wasn't inclined to let any threat go. Even more so when it was clearly a danger and decided to kill me right away.

No real discussion. Just straight to the killing once it realized my identity. Kumar was just a human puppet for its power, since no one would just act the way he had unless he was crazy. No attempt at a rational discussion about interests. I had been willing to let the Indian Sultanate take the cities in return for being tax free.

But nope, not even willing to discuss things. Another thing to add to the list of enemies. I completed two orbits around the golden sphere shield while Kumar remained standing on the platform inside of the shield.

You might be a super Sword, but even you can't keep up a shield forever. I stopped orbiting and stayed behind the direction Kumar was facing. As he turned around, Sword in hand, I orbited just as fast, keeping up my attacks.

My fists were sore, since it was like hitting a brick wall, but it was enough to force him to keep the shield up. I wished I had some bombs to use. Another unfortunate side effect of not having an Empire, no useful supplies to draw upon.

Kumar brought up the Sword and spun about. Several things happened in an instant. I saw him winding up and quickly went into the air above him. As he spun the shield dropped and he was hit by a small amount of weak acid. I then unleashed a 80,000 energy based attack, using up most of my remaining energy, directly down at Kumar and the Sword.

A golden slice through the air flew out from the Sword, but it missed me as Kumar was hit by my counter attack. Air Burst. I landed to the side of where the fighting had taken place. An even deeper hole in the plaza had been created.

There was no golden shield, just a slightly smoking Sword and no Kumar. I raced forward towards the Sword at the bottom of the crater. Just before I reached it, the Sword shot up into the air and flew away. "DAMMIT!" I roared out loud. Enemies that ran away should just die! It was enraging to have it escape. To have anything escape when you were winning.

If I got another meta-point, I was seriously considering picking an anti-escape type skill. Because this was incredibly annoying. I knew it was possible, but to have it happen, again, made my blood boil. I stomped back to the store and brought up a hand. There was a small annihilation burst in the sky, signaling Dylan to come back.