The Systemic Lands

Chapter 319: Day 729 (2) – Pets And Gear

Chapter 319: Day 729 (2) – Pets And Gear

I had purchased the Rod of Taming. It had been an impulse purchase, but for a million points it wasn’t that much. I had been focused on the Sense stat so much. The Rod of Taming was a letdown. I could tame any monster as long as I held it to them for 100 minutes.

A hundred minutes?! I could have one pet per rod and control them through the rod. Just simple commands and movements. It was enough to want me to puke out blood. But I honestly wasn’t surprised. The Almighty System never gave handouts or made things easy.

I needed an airship monster. Then I could just fly everywhere. Or a cart monster. All of them would be good options. Holding the rod also indicated the difference between a pet and a summon. A pet could die permanently and there was no upkeep cost. A summon required energy and could be brought back over and over.

So, it was like Nuzlock Pokémon, basically iron mode. You give the pets names and if they die they stay dead. They could use their skills like a regular monster. But like a summon it required mental focus and a person to be holding the rod in their hand.

That meant that a person could control two pets at a time. The rods could issue long term simple orders. Like follow, or go to that location. There was a range limit of half a zone. So not much further than actual summons. Maybe a bit more, but not a lot.

The issue would be with a mimic type monster, having to hold the rod and if it could disguise me? I could even see some people trying to graft these rods into them like the Ritualist had with crystals. First rule of the Systemic Lands ‘don’t go full Ritualist’.

It was nice to have. But it wasn’t that useful. I could move faster than level 3 monsters. I thought about trying to tame a level 4 monster and wanted to cry. Touching a monster with a rod for 100 minutes was a lot harder than at the moment of its death for the Processing Rod.

Also, the damage that was dealt to the monster wouldn’t heal either. It really was just a pet tool. To get something large enough to fly or move would be hard. Maybe a monster to pull the cart and just have it wait at camp.

That would be useful. “Bao Wang, does the Dragon Empire use pets?” I asked.

“Pets? No. Wait. There is a group of people within the Black Talons that uses pets. But I don’t know any specifics. I just remember a conversation about them once.”

“Why does the Empress allow the Black Talons. It would seem like she would be worried about someone challenging her?” I asked.

“Who? I mean you have far more stats than any single one of them. And their stats are strictly monitored. They use up skill points since the Divine Empress doesn’t want the general population to have skills,” Bao Wang answered.

Well that wasn’t a surprise by how much she oppressed everyone in her evil empire. “Only a thousand in the Black Talons?” I asked to confirm that 10,000 soldiers weren’t about to pour out of the surrounding buildings.

“Their recruit numbers vary, but that is the amount for their main force. But most of the recruits don’t last that long or would have the stats. Only when they pass and are inducted, do they get stats and skills.”

It would still be a fight. A lot of fighting and I could get dogpiled by the sheer volume of attacks and numbers. That is why I needed to up my Body once I got the rest of my stats up to 1,000. The start with Sense had been good, but I wanted to see what the 1,000 stat amount would unlock.

That would give me a much better idea at how good people who had large number of stat points in this stat were and if my counter ideas to the stat would work. I was less worried about the combat than I was about sneaking in.

My fighting skills were good enough for everyone but the Divine Empress, but the dogpile issue was concerning. Well, my increased Regeneration stat would help there. At 23 energy per minute, which was an Acid Shot per minute and I had more than enough Spirit stat for explosive combat.

“So, they just stay in the city all the time?”

“As far as I know and go out and clear dungeons. They often have 5 people per dungeon and then head back to their base in the nearby city once they have gotten the skill crystal inside. These groups are rotated out, but they have their own funding and management.”

“A Lord couldn’t command them?” I asked.

“No. They are a separate command structure that reports to the Divine Empress and nominally the Lord General and the Envoy as her subordinates. But their loyalty is to the Empress. They also don’t hang out with the other soldiers either. So not much is known besides gossip.”

“That seems fairly bleak.”

“It is the Dragon Empire. Why do you think no one wants to be a part of it? By the time people realize they should kill themselves it is too late. I wouldn’t have been so agreeable if it wasn’t awful.” I kind of already picked up on that, but thanks for the confirmation.

“I am just trying to think of everything. Wait? How will you disguise yourself with stats?” I asked.

“I am going to pose as a Lord, some have stats.”

“Yes, you mentioned that. From their income.” I was going in circles already hitting on questions that had already been answered. I had a very good sense of the evil empire now. Just not the language and the more specific cultural and social nuances.

But that was why Bao Wang would smooth everything over and I was bringing him along. I almost wanted to call it luck he was a translator, but it made sense. Bao Wang was picked for his talent and murdered his way up the command chain until he was under the Lord in charge of his city.

Some work there and he gets recommended to take the position as Lord in a newly conquered city. He would owe them a favor and it was a way of building up prestige in a place that upwards mobility was very hard.

It made sense from what I knew about Chinese culture in terms of owing favors, but the rest of it was complete insanity. It only worked from the sheer might of the Divine Empress. I was still hoping she had died and all this planning and speculation was for nothing. But she had that presence about her, that said she wouldn’t go down without a fight.

That was a pointless circle to think on and I thought on the crafting crystals. The Bulwark Shield had given me level 4 silver crystals which were construct-machine type. The labeling was weird, but that was what the good doctor had come up with.

That type would boost physical and energy resistance. So not directly harmful, but I needed to figure out the opposite type to make annihilation bombs. Then I needed to kill a level 4 monster of that type. Both of these tasks were huge hurdles to overcome.

Each level 4 monster so far had been work. The Bulwark Shield had been easy, but I had been led directly to it by the Astrologer. Checking hundreds of level 4 monsters and passing through level 3 zones was not simple or easy.

Was bright red flesh-self opposite? It might be but I had no clue and was not about to guess. It could be sound-vibration for all I knew. I really wished the Astrologer had taken the time to explain the type chart and its layout. But it was just another breadcrumb he was dribbling in front of me to lead me into his trap.

Stupid Divine Empress for showing up early. She needed to wait another 300 days. Then everything would have been perfect without all this headache. I would grind up in peace and get a lot of knowledge. But, then there wouldn’t be the opportunity of the treasury.

I had asked Bao Wang, but he knew nothing. Crafting crystals weren’t used in the evil empire and if they were it was just the Forbidden City. It was clear that the Divine Empress really was like a dragon wanting to horde all the good stuff to herself. Not even just the good stuff, the basic stuff.

My gear was something I wanted to update, but it was just so annoying without an infrastructure and knowledge ready to go. Just getting the crafting crystals of the right type would be a massive time investment. I would have to search through the level 4 monsters to find the right type.

While it was unfortunate, my gear was probably going to have to wait until after the tower and I had no time commitments or pressing issues to deal with. No upgrades was better than poor upgrades in my mind. I was probably wrong about that like so much else, but I wasn’t willing to sink in the time to make it happen, when stat points were far more critical.

It was also a shame the treasury wouldn’t hold crafting crystals either. Since they couldn’t be cashed in, they were probably held somewhere else if they were held at all.

My personal guess was that the Black Talons gathered crafting crystals from the monsters in the dungeons. There was a wider range of monster types in dungeons than there were in the surrounding wilderness.

It would be combining two tasks into one. It also meant they probably had enchanted equipment and had optimized. From what Bao Wang had said, their gear was rumored to have special properties.

The fact that the Demonic Babies had enchanted clothing that didn’t get dirty was all the proof I needed to show that her evil empire wasn’t slacking in that area. Also, to get the best gear for herself of course.

Since I could transverse level 3 zones, I had a lot more to explore now. The thought hurt my head. I hadn’t even explored all of the East part of the Systemic Lands and now I had even more to check out. That would be the project after the tower climb to the Astrologer.

He was probably having tea and crumpets at the top. If he was trapped for this long and still alive, how bad could it really be? It made me wonder how he handled his food and waste, but I am sure he did some energy manipulation somehow to sustain himself. That would be an Astrologer move for sure.