The Systemic Lands

Chapter 171: Day 356 – Testing the Tower

Chapter 171: Day 356 – Testing the Tower

I had made quite a lot of powder from level 3 monsters using a barrel of blood Naran had prepared. It had taken a couple of days to evaporate. But now I could finally poke the giant gray tower without feeling like I was about to sacrifice my life.

I had carefully cleared the monsters up to its base. The giant boulder field was to my right. I still hadn’t seen any monster present there. I also knew my escape route back and even did a zig zag pattern on approach. Hopefully that would be a large clear path of retreat back if something happened without pulling additional monsters.

Getting close to the base of the giant steps leading up to the tower, there were no monsters on them. The tower loomed above me like a skyscraper. I felt like an ant in comparison. I had left very early in the morning to have as much time as possible for this test. I didn’t want to be in a level 3 zone in the dark.

I laid a flat piece of wood on the ground. The cold was digging into me, but now I needed to focus. I carefully made three circles with the level 3 red powder with a level 3 crystal in the center. I was summoning out here for two reasons.

The first was to see if anything happened. The second was to keep the process away from Aahan and Oscar. They might be members of the group, but the summoning process was still a strategic asset I wasn’t going to give away willy nilly.

It was more of the first reason, than the second. If summoning could act as a lure, then it could make grinding more efficient. My energy plummeted. From level 1 and level 2 summons, the cost pattern was quite clear. The cost to upkeep ratio was 10 to 1. A level 3 summons would take 1,000 energy and have an upkeep of 100 energy.

Still, it was like crafting. Something that didn’t escape my notice. The circle was the most obvious relation. Why a circle? Or why not a circle? Perhaps it was something fundamental to energy, like the golden ratio was to nature. I could understand a sphere, but why a circle?

Then there was the transfer of energy. For enchanting, it used crystals on the outside of the circle, which was just an indentation, but it wasn’t huge leap to think they were using up their innate energy, just like I was using my personal energy to summon.

The big difference was the lack of hand holding for summoning. It made me wonder what would happen if blood powder was used in combination with a crafting crystal instead of a point crystal. White powder, red powder, and crystal types with the various procedures all needed to be done and a chart needed to be made.

It made me wonder if someone could do raw enchanting. To enchant without an enchanting table, bypassing the handholding of the Almighty System used to come up with something even better. Someone else could take those risks and poke those low hanging but dangerous fruit on the tree of research.

I was going to poke something much more dangerous. I kept my head on a swivel as I kept looking around for any monsters approaching. If there was even one, I would stop what I was doing and retreat until I could use Acid Shot.

There was a risk, a large risk, but I wanted to poke things just a little bit. Like dipping one’s toes in a dark lake and hoping a shark or a giant tentacle monster wouldn’t leap out to eat me. It took a bit more than 3 hours to finish the summoning and nothing happened during that time.

A blue gargoyle formed in front of me. I felt the mental connection. I closed my eyes and focused on using the eyes of the monster. It was a bit blurry, but I could see and sense through it. There was a haze that I could also sense. Perhaps this was energy sensing. A level 3 monster had this sense, interesting, very interesting.

If it wasn’t for the 100 drain on my regeneration, I might keep the monster around full time. Unfortunately, it would cut into my grinding speed and focus. I opened my eyes and retreated from where I had summoned the monster back on the path I had cleared. I only went about 100 feet or 30 meters.

Still, more distance was better than no distance. I looked around again. No activity. So weird, but I wasn’t about to complain, even if it was unsettling. I ordered the monster to advance and touch the first giant step.

No reaction. I had it leap and clamber up to the next step. It didn’t escape my notice that I couldn’t use its ability of creating a force wall. How was the Ritualist able to use abilities?

I focused on the monster while it stood on the top step. The Ritualist had only used mental abilities. There weren’t that many active abilities to level 2 monsters. Barrier, force shield, force push, I mentally tried several commands. I forced the level 3 monster to move its arms.

Then it clicked, Force Wall, a wave of force was generated from the monster and shot forwards. How incredibly broken. Using skills like this. Still, I could control 4 of these monsters at the same time with the energy I had. I would be hard pressed to win if I played it safe. If I spammed Acid Shot, I would wipe them.

I guess that was the difference between a level 2 skill and a level 3 skill. The difference in raw power and the number of attacks that would be needed. Still no reaction from the tower. I had the monster clamber up to the next step. Still no response.

There were a lot more steps to go to the top. Still, I took my time to keep checking my surroundings as I ordered my monster to climb upwards, step after step. That was the ground shook. I quickly looked around. The last time this happened Death appeared.

Movement! I quickly looked at the two large doors on the West side of the tower at the base. They had begun to open. Figures began to exit the tower. They were humanoid, large silvery or metallic looking. Very blocky. No robes, nothing like death.

More like golems or giant silver Lego people with silver features, no head, and four legs. It was their block nature that made me think Legos. Ten of them exited the tower and then the doors swung shut. The silver golems had lined up at the top step.

I thought about what to do next for a long moment. I was quite far personally from the silver golems. It would be a chance to probe their combat strength to see what level they were. I wanted to guess level 4. Even if they were poked, I was far enough away, with their lumbering speed, they would never catch me.

After weighing the risks versus the potential information gain, I forced my monster to keep climbing. That was the usefulness of summons, poking very dangerous monsters and then escaping to evaluate their combat ability.

My monster made it two thirds of the way up. When one of the golems leapt into the air. Its giant block body made it seem like they would be lumbering and slow. Also, the way they walked out of the tower. The jump by comparison was fast. Its body was aimed at my monster.

Force Wall! I had my gargoyle dive to the side. I felt the ground shake from the force of the impact as I heard the giant bang sound across the zone. The giant staircase wasn’t even cracked. My monster was still alive. I didn’t even see what happened next clearly. One moment the monster was there, the next it was dust.

Something seemed to retract back inside the silver body of the golem. The remaining 9 at the top step didn’t move. The one that killed my monster didn’t move for a couple of seconds. Then it slowly moved its stubby block legs to turn towards me, with what I could only assume was its front.

I slowly began backing away. The monster didn’t hesitate. It leapt up into the air, in my direction. I quickly retreated from my position back towards my camp. The ground shook when the golem impacted the frozen ground. That leap had to have been about a quarter mile or 380 meters to where I had been standing. That was insane.

I kept retreating and the golem leapt into the air again. Acid Shot! I kept running while using the skill. I glanced behind me as the golem and the skill moved towards each other mid-air. An outer surface of the golem’s main body which the legs were attached to, shot outwards.

The panel, impacted the Acid Shot, completely intercepting it. The golem landed, underneath the side was a much darker silver color metal, darker gray, than silver. The side panel of the golem covered in acid, hit the ground near me turning to dust.

The depression was rapidly filling up with silver metal, covering the darker interior. Oh great, it was a terminator golem. Only it could waste its outer coating without restraint since it could regenerate. With its power, speed, and combat ability, it was a level 4. It leapt again. I kept running. At least it was simple.

After ten minutes of running, I wanted to take that back. The pursuit of this monster was relentless. It just wouldn’t stop chasing me. Most monsters, well all of them except Death, would give up after a while and go back to their positions. They didn’t like intruding into the domain of other monsters or crossing zones.

Level 4 monsters, said ‘screw that, we are going to hunt you down’. Mister golem was an unstoppable leaping force. Well maybe it was a missus, but I didn’t think it wanted to discuss its pronouns with me. The ground shook as it impacted the frozen landscape behind me once again. It wasn’t speeding up, but there was no way I could outrun its ability to leap.

I kept saving up energy as I moderated my running speed, to remain at least 30 feet or around 10 meters away from its body when it landed. Like Death, I would need to unleash a single massive attack to overwhelm its defenses.

I noted that I would be getting back to the campsite fairly late, so everyone else would be there. Naran would be able to help me a bit, hopefully, if things got really bad.

Alright, time to take care of this level 4 monster. Acid Shot! Another side panel was ejected from the monster to intercept the attack. Acid Shot! The golem spun in mid-air and ejected another side panel to intercept my attack. It landed on the ground.

Acid Shot. A giant metal pole formed from the monster and impacted my skill in the air. It deformed and acid splattered everywhere, but short of the main body. The pole ejected the rest of the way, but I had already dodged to the side as the melting zoomed past my head and slammed into the ground behind me. Far closer than I would have preferred, but I had the distance to dodge, just barely.

Everything was still within my range of my predictions. Acid Shot. What happened next boggled my understanding of physics and what a giant blocky silver golem could do. It performed a backflip and ejected one of its back panels at me.

If it wasn’t from my experience with the blue gargoyles I would have been crushed by the flying silver panel coated in acid. I kept moving no matter what and didn’t stop to admire my attack.