The Systemic Lands
Chapter 645: Day 5,212 – Limited High Level Zones

I looked at the map laid out on a table in the eating area between meals on the Crystal Vortex. This place was used for looking at the large map we kept. While there were smaller sections that were used for specific areas, having one large map let me have a better understanding of what was going on.

One of the soldiers on the airship was responsible for updating it and working with Michelle to make sure the names were all correct. She recorded the monsters, and their various skill sets on her own to develop her summoning abilities.

I knew that high level zones began rapidly began dropping after level 5 zones, but the drop off rate was much higher than expected. We had started to the South of Purgatory and were exploring counterclockwise around the Systemic Lands.

The West side of the Systemic Lands had much less information on the outer edges, but I didn’t expect things to change that much. The biggest headache was that it took time to check zones. To see if there was a level 7 zone, I had to clear out the level 6 zone before it and check the edges of that lower-level zone just to be sure.

The areas I had cleared before to the Southwest of my Empire were an exception with how the mapping worked. The Rift in the center of the Systemic Lands created a place where the zone levels increased at a very high rate near a city.

I had barely gotten enough level 5 zones to level up my skills, but now there were nowhere near enough level 7 zones. In fact, there didn’t appear to be any so far. I looked at the Southeast and Northwest portions of the map. If the Systemic Lands was a rectangle, then there were areas that could only be reached by crossing the void.

The problem was that this airship would not survive easily, making such a crossing. While I would live, it was too big to protect. A small airboat would not survive the turbulence. I looked at the edge we had been moving along. We were to the East of East Bastion now. Clearing about a zone or three every day.

It was good progress. It would take another 200 days or so to clear all the edges. There would be more to investigate on the Western half of the Systemic Lands for level 4 and level 5 zones as well. There was a need to locate all the towers.

I had the total count of the towers and the numbering scheme used by several of them. It was easy to estimate where the remaining towers were located based on their numbering schema. If any towers were hiding on an island in the void or in a higher-level zone, I would be able to realize they were there and look for them.

Checking the edges of the map was a tedious task, but an important one. “You are thinking way too much,” Michelle said as she came up next to me. I glanced over at her and then back at the map. “You have been staring at it for hours.”

“Nothing else to do and I am trying to imagine where higher level zones could be. I was hoping we would find a path to the Southeast and high-level zones there, but that isn’t the case. There might be nothing there, but I doubt it,” I replied.

“You think it is a rectangle?” Michelle asked.

“It feels like that would be correct, but I could easily be mistaken,” I replied and shook my head. “My concern is that there are no level 7 zones. I mean there aren’t a lot of level 6 zones, but we have been checking extensively,” I replied.

“If there are none?” Michelle asked me and I just shook my head in frustration. That was quickly becoming the reality that I would have to face.

“It will make high level combat a lot harder,” I muttered. While I had beaten level 8 boss monsters, I was concerned that that I wouldn’t be able to handle a large number of them. A one on one fight, was winnable, but my skills struggled. Against a large group and against higher level monsters, it would become a lot more difficult to just do any kind of damage with skills.

Michelle and I both looked over the map. “We can check the North end of the Rift,” she said and pointed at that portion of the map. I nodded at that.

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“We will get there, but better to do this methodically. Rather than rushing about in confusion. It is going to take a lot of time to check the entire edge of the Systemic Lands. A couple hundred days at least. But then we should have things worked out for the most part,” I said.

“Well there is probably something in the Northwest, there is a very clear gap there. But there isn’t a gap in people arriving from Earth?” she asked.

“That has been double checked. All the people of the world or at least regions are accounted for. Doesn’t mean there aren’t other lands with repeat cities or something. But the thirty-six cities appear to be global in scope with their arrivals. So, no hidden cities,” I replied.

“An island city would have independent development, but would be hard pressed based on the limited number of zones to improve beyond combat level 4 or 5,” Michelle said.

“Well, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Though a tower might exist out there or something. That’s the other thing we need to locate. Finding all the towers. A tower in a level 7 zone gives me nightmares,” I replied.

“And if there is a tower in a level 8 zone?” Michelle asked.

“That would be an interesting thing that will almost never be investigated. A level 11 monster at the top. What would that even look like? Based on the pattern of things, there should be a jump at level 10 which is the top level out there based on the point progression for dropped crystals,” I said.

“Maybe it directly drops stat point crystals?” Michelle suggested.

“Now that would be interesting and useful. Also, insanely valuable at that point. I am almost tempted to have us go back to the level 7 zones in the Rift and just grind up points instead of checking the edges,” I replied while looking back down at the map.

“Well, more points never hurt. A shame that higher level monsters can’t be summoned properly,” Michelle said.

“With techniques using raw crystals. Your skills have an avenue,” I replied.

“And upgrading them isn’t simple, you know that. If anything, I would want to get upgrades from level 7 zones. That would be the most efficient. Skip redoing them,” Michelle said. I nodded at this. Her combat ability was a big help when we teamed up.

“Something to look into once I can clear those areas safely. Also, the energy density would be rough on you. You need more stat points,” I pointed out. She nodded at that.

“I am working on that. Just a lot more grinding,” she replied. I could understand her frustration. Any increase in power was not measured in days, but in hundreds of days. I had been hoping for a lot of level 7 zones to easily upgrade my skills, but I had been underestimating how little there was.

I felt hemmed in and enclosed in a way that was hard to put into words. Living on Earth, one did not think of the planet as a prison or a cage. The same was true for the Systemic Lands up until this point. Now everything just seemed so much smaller.

There was a sense of nostalgia for the old days, when I had to worry about higher level zones and monster types. Now it was having zones to kill monsters in. It was a change in mindset that had been building up for a long time, but now it was finally hitting home.

“For he wept, for there were no more lands left to conquer,” I muttered.

“What?” Michelle asked me.

“A quote I was just remembering. About Alexander the Great. He conquered so much, that once he was done, there was only melancholy left behind,” I said softly.

“You don’t think this is it? I mean it can’t be it? Something had to have created the System and that sphere,” Michelle said.

“True, very true. But our little slice of reality here is all we will be dealing with for a long time. I could be wrong, but it all seems so small and limiting,” I replied. We both looked back down at the map.

“It would have been nice if the zones continued out much further. Get a thousand cities instead of thirty-six, and then you have a much more complex situation. A lot more low-level zones that aren’t near cities as well,” Michelle said.

“That would be better, but our master, the System is not so kind.” It was no longer almighty in my eyes. It had lost a lot of prestige lately. Regardless of its whims, all that we could do was keep moving forward and hope for more high-level zones. Trying to find them was turning into a major hassle and a realization that I was running into a soft power cap.

I would need to be incredibly selective with my future upgrades. I had been careful before, but I would need to put extra thought into my choices going forward. With an extremely limited number of level 7 zones, I would be lucky to max out all the upgrades on a single skill. I couldn’t afford to make poor decisions regarding my upgrades.

“Well, you never know. There might be a cluster somewhere out there of higher level zones,” Michelle pointed out. I could only hope that was the case. But I wasn’t going to be holding my breath or counting on them.

“We will see. We should be moving soon,” I replied as I heard people getting up. We had stopped for a bit to take a longer rest break from our rapid exploration pace. I began packing up the maps. I would just have to keep looking for now. I had decided this was the best thing to spend my time on, and I wasn’t going to just change my decision because it was a hassle. If anything, it was more important than ever to keep up this exploration for level 7 and higher zones.

I needed to get my skills upgraded as quickly as possible for any future battles. Depending on the Avatar still left a bad taste in my mouth.