The Systemic Lands
Chapter 640: Day 5,187 – First Tower

The airboat was almost out of points as it circled around as it sped towards my target. While tempting to try and climb the outside by hand or skills, there was a lot of risk involved. The longer a person climbed a tower, the more monsters appeared.

The tower was in view in front of me. It was the one to the South of Purgatory and Southwest of Neo Brasilia. There were some low-level monsters behind me, but I wasn’t that concerned about them. The highest was level 5, which was less than the boss at the top of the tower. The main concern would be the sheer number of monsters. Still better than the number that would appear climbing up the outside of the tower.

I adjusted the flight path slightly. There was some kind of triangular fractal based monster at the top. I really was flying way too quickly, but there was no more time to adjust my speed with my ballistic trajectory. I left off the side of the airboat ahead of the tower, since I kept my momentum.

Air Burst. I used the skill multiple times to slow down. Force Beam. Radiant Beam. I unleashed the combination attack blowing away the boss monster before I touched down. I spun and unleashed more ranged attacks at the monsters chasing after me. They were quickly dusted. If it wasn’t a level 7 monster, it was just too easy.

There was the golden pillar. I put my hands on it and claimed my third tower vote.

Tower 36 of 40

4 Towers Claimed

2 of 2 Cities

2 Cities Claimed

It was interesting that the towers were numbered like they were. The one by the Free City of Hong Kong had been tower 30 of 40. The System was clearly counting from West to East. I knew of a tower in a level 4 zone between this tower and tower 38, the first one I had beaten so long ago.

I didn’t exactly understand the stuff about the cities, but it appeared that there were 2 cities and I had claimed both. I also noted the quorum counter had gone up from 21 to 22. That showed that maxed out cities increased the total vote count.

With 40 towers and 3 cities, that put the vote total at 42, which made sense why the quorum count had increased by 1. Both Purgatory and The Abyss had been upgraded. I needed to upgrade New Kochi, but that had been put on hold due to everything happening.

I could get 6 more towers in level 3 zones if I covered the entirety of the Systemic Lands. That would put me at 11 votes. Upgrading the remaining 18 cities would bring the vote count up to 60 while giving me at 29 votes. I would need to clear some towers in level 4 zones if I wanted to reach the quorum number.

There were 3 towers on the East side of the Systemic Lands and an unknown number on the West. Probably 3 or 4 there as well. That was more than enough to get the votes for whatever voting did. But better to do it now, before someone else claimed the votes.

While I could kill people to take their votes, that would be a massive headache. It was too easy to hide if someone wanted to hide. Tracking them down through countless zones and cities, was something I didn’t want to do. As the tower sank into the ground beneath me, I glanced at my airboat flying off into the distance.

I hadn’t crashed it, but I hadn’t been able to slow it down. It would fly off until it was ripped apart by turbulence, since it was going too fast to be easily caught by a monster. While not a complete waste of points, it still made my soul hurt quite a bit.

Well, the goal was to clear out all the towers in level 3 zones. And I might clear out the level 4 zones towers after that as well. Even if they had a level 7 boss monster, I was confident about beating them. I couldn’t let any more votes be lost to others. My thoughts drifted to the sword, and I could only shake my head at the fact that it had garnered a vote.

A problem that wasn’t in search of a solution at the moment. I had enough headaches that I didn’t want to go digging up more trouble at the moment. Eventually I would deal with the sword, but not until the threat of the sphere was taken care of. One enemy at a time. Unlike a game, I could easily be overwhelmed if I didn’t pace out my high-level fights.

Looking in the distance, I saw the Crystal Vortex slowly approaching. I hadn’t been expecting the fight to take any time. It was amusing in a way how easy beating a tower now was, compared to my first climb. Now that had been a struggle. I had been a complete wreck then. The Divine Empress had done quite a bit of damage to me before my climb.

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The tower stopped at its base, and I kicked into the air. Air Burst. I landed on the bridge through the open door. It kept moving towards the next tower. No need to slow down when I had places to be.

“That was quick,” Michelle said.

“It’s the sheer power difference. The fact that I don’t have to worry about what the enemy monsters are going to do means I can just instantly win by attacking first,” I replied and sat down. A soldier handed me a glass of water.

“As long as we don’t have to climb again. That once was enough,” Michelle said. That had been my team’s first and my second tower. It had been a massive headache that none of us ever wanted to repeat.

“You don’t like endless corridors, monsters, repetitive maze structures?” I asked Michelle.

“And the traps. The moment I summoned anything, there was a trap. And we had to keep moving. It was exhausting. Run through the maze, get to a saferoom, repeat,” she said.

“It was endless fun,” I said with a smile, and she rolled her eyes.

“Then you go climb up the inside of one,” Michelle said. That was never going to happen again. I loved a challenge, but climbing up the inside was mind numbing.

“On track for the next tower?” I looked over at Captain Francis.

“Yes. Southwest,” he said and listed off the coordinates. That put it just South of the Forbidden City. I looked at the second airboat attached to the side of the much larger airship outside the bridge.

“I am thinking we go straight there,” I said.

“You know, we can’t get close, without risking higher level monsters trigger,” Captain Francis said.

“We just need to go fast and get in sight of the tower. Then I can fly the rest of the way over. Not as fast or as safe, but with how easy the last tower was, I don’t think we need to worry about low level towers so much,” I replied.

“At the end, we will need your help in cleaning up any trailing monsters,” Captain Francis said, and I nodded at that.

“That is fine, better than losing airboats. Any of the towers in higher level zones, wouldn’t be worth the risk,” I said.

“Are we heading for them?” Captain Francis asked, and I shook my head.

“No. For now it isn’t worth the risk or headache. We claim the low level towers and that is it. Then head back to Purgatory to regroup. It shouldn’t take that long, we should be done by day 5,200, right?” I asked.

“Yes, it will be a bit close. And we will be burning a lot of points, but it is doable,” Captain Francis said and I nodded at that. The main issue would be pathing, are we going to head in a straight line and over some unknown areas. The Western part of the Systemic Lands has a large gap cutting off the Leader’s Domain from the Holy Kingdom, forcing us to circle around,” Captain Francis said. I knew what he was talking about.

“And going straight would reveal more of the terrain, but the risk would be high. We circle around. Even if we add an extra day or two, I don’t want to lose another airship,” I said and patted my armrest. Better to go slightly slower and not take the risk. I then sipped my water and looked out at the terrain zipping past under the airship.

“I am still annoyed you made us make that climb as a team when they could be so easily cleared now,” Michelle said with a joking tone.

“A learning experience. At least we won’t have to climb another one. I am more interested in what will happen once I have enough votes. This trip around won’t be enough, but clearing out towers in level 4 zones should be. Once that happens, we might finally get some answers,” I replied.

“That is one way to look at it. Or it could be a free meta-point,” Michelle said. I shook my head at that.

“Those are incredibly rare. No way the System will let people vote for one. That seems like way too much work for all the towers,” I said.

“Maybe, but it is hard to figure out what the System is going to do sometimes,” Michelle said.

“True. The main thing will be finding level 7 zones once I am healed up and checking all the zones out West. Something that still needs to be done,” I said.

“I heard about the Holy Kingdom, sweeping the other nations away. Are we going to intervene?” Michelle asked.

“No. It isn’t our problem. And we have enough problems. The main focus needs to be the sphere and aftereffects for now. Once we can rule out a repeat energy event, then I will focus on gathering strength,” I replied. I needed more strength, a lot more. Just when I thought I could start relaxing, I needed to speed up even more to stay ahead in terms of power. “Thinking about harder monsters?”

“Just about how I will keep up. I will need to grind a lot more in level 6 zones. And even that is pushing my abilities to the very limit,” Michelle said. She wasn’t able to take on the level 7 boss, which made grinding the zones difficult.

“Well once you can beat level 7 monsters, there are no more field bosses wandering about. Less to worry about. If you can kill one level 7 without too much hassle, you can clear the zone,” I said.

“That is a long way away. While you might have that kind of strength, it isn’t going to be simple getting that far. I might need some assistance upgrading my skills,” Michelle said.

“Something we can work out after the sphere is taken care of.” It would take her a long time to get to my level since she didn’t have a meta-point multiplying her stats. It was a shame, but with my strength, my team had become more moral support than practical combat support.

But there was nothing that could be done. I wasn’t about to slow down in terms of getting stronger. I would grind higher level monsters to bring in those points as rapidly as possible to increase my stats.