The Systemic Lands

Chapter 361: Day 780 – The Type Chart

Chapter 361: Day 780 – The Type Chart

“Doctor Katz,” good to see you. I smiled and shook the good doctor’s hand. He was hiding out in a base just outside the East Bastion, at the edge of the level 1 zone. I hadn’t been out here in forever. Only when I had tracked the Ritualist down. This would be the perfect spot to get some skill points as well.

“Champion Michael, good to see you as well. We win?” I winced at that question. “Ah, my apologies, I shouldn’t ask something like that.”

“No, it is fine. But the main issue is that the Divine Empress is unkillable in a one-on-one fight. And there is no chance of negotiating with her. May I?” I gestured at a chair in his small office, and he nodded.

“I am sorry to say my hospitality is a bit lacking, living out in the wilderness like this. It has been a challenge. Our production facility is in a completely separate city. It makes it a nightmare to get any supplies moved out her. Operational security, Clarissa says. More like operational nightmare, but it is what it is,” he let out a sigh and set a cup of water in front of me.

“Thanks. Well hopefully your weapon will take out the Divine Empress once and for all. I managed to retrieve something that should pin her in place long enough we can blast her away. I heard you have made a lot of progress?” I asked.

“Clarissa and her timelines. We have made progress, but it is nothing so simple. The cannon design is complex, and we need to more out many technical issues with the direction and containment of the beam.”

“Containment? I knew directionality was the main issue, what is this about containment?” I asked.

“So the type chart, I have it worked out, it is the most asinine, complex, thing in existence.” Doctor Katz then got up and pulled a sheet of paper from his desk and sat back down at the table we were at. “There are a total of 26 types. We have confirmed the known opposites and the general reaction of each type.”

I began to look down the list, with each pair together.

Dark Orange (Life) – Partial Regeneration, Resolves Curse Damage

Black (Death/Decay) – Organic Material Rots or Decays

Pulsing Red (Heat/Absorption) - Energy Conversion

Dark Blue (Ice/Cold) – Freezing

Clear (Null) – Reduces Stats, Suppresses Skills

Light Blue (Sheer/Slice) - Solidified Force

Blue (Liquid/Melt) – Melts

Brown (Force/Solid) – Generates Force

Green (Poison/Nature) – Poisons, Damage Over Time

Silver (Construct/Machine) – Physical And Skill Resistance

Light Red (Fire/Energetic) – Fire

Light Green (Air/Wind) - Cutting And Breeze

White (Hope/Bliss) – Mental Attack, Lose Focus Daydreaming

Light Yellow (Fear/Illusion) - Lose sense of self

Orange (Radiance) – Blinding Light, Damage?

Dark Gray (Void) – Dusting

Yellow (Light) – Persistent Light

Light Gray (Shadow) - Hide Presence

Purple (Sound/Vibration) - Loud or Directed Noise, Hum

Light Yellow (Oil/Friction) - Reduces Friction

Dark Green (Joy/Love) - Mental Attack, Hyper Focus Joy

Pink (Sadness/Depression) - Mental Attack, Lose Focus, Depression

Clear-Gray Spots (Sand/Reform) - Resist Physical Damage, Pull Back Together

Glowing Clear (Glass/Reflection) - Reflect Energy Attacks

Shiny Gray (Metal/Resist) - Resist All Energy Damage

Bright Red (Flesh/Self) - Empowerment, Energy Resistance

The model was three dimensional. “It makes me think of an atom.”

“I have no clue,” the good doctor said. I looked up from the list and the drawing at him. “It is what it is. There appears to be higher level things going on or lower level relationships.”

“These effects, some seem to overlap like air and sheer and there is a question mark next to radiance.”

“It is how things present themselves. But the cutting application is different. One uses a wind blade, the other separates things at a physical level. I can’t tell you more than that. As for radiance, well there is additional damage. It isn’t just light. There is a blast behind it.”

“I see. It appears you have it all worked out,” I said while making sure to memorize the coloration. It didn’t seem to mean much for level 4 monsters, but it was something I needed to keep in mind. Especially if I had to get crafting crystals from them.

“That is the type chart. It was a miracle to figure it out. The big breakthrough was realizing they were laid out on a three dimensional grid. That was the only thing that could make them all line up while preserving the skill relationships. I barely had enough information, but I managed.”

“All confirmed?” I asked just to be sure.

“All the pairings have been tested and produce the annihilation effect.”

“I notice the mental effects are opposites, but only four? I would have thought there would have been eight?” I asked.

“There are possibly more. One thing this chart doesn’t take into account is monster density. What would you say is the most common color monster you have come across?” the good doctor asked me. I thought about that for a moment.

“Probably brown for force or green for nature slash poison,” I responded.

“Exactly, but some other types are rare or non-existent like oil slash friction.”

“Why the hyphenated names?” I had some idea, but I wanted to be sure.

“How the effects present. Oil slash friction creates an oil type substance and reduces friction when the crafting crystal is used as a bomb. Construct and machine has only been seen from those golems you killed, no where else.”

“I see. So just your best guess then?”

“And the focus one needs to get that outcome when combining them. The tests we have run aren’t exhaustive as I would like, but they are good enough to call it a day on the type chart and focus on other things.”

“The combinations? No issues?” I asked.

“With the type chart, no. It makes things almost trivial. But we had to work it out first. Not easy, let me tell you. The real challenge are practical applications beyond bombs and just enchanting single objects. Those astrolabes…they are beyond impressive.”

“How so?” I asked.

“It is like looking up two levels on the tech tree. Or like having a rotary phone and getting a cell phone. The principles are there and I can kind of understand it, but to develop something like that on my own? It has been very challenging. Let me walk you though how the astrolabe functions exactly.”

I nodded for the good doctor to keep going and he did. “The rings use a combination of enchantment and innate sigils to function. The sigil part are the circles. This is part of summoning as you know, but the real reason a circle is key, is because it reflects inwards and contains the energy.”

“But a circle is two dimensional, how would that work?” I asked.

“Complicated and something I don’t really understand. It works on a deeper principle or something. But it contains the energy and I suspect there might be other sigils out there. We have a spiral which disperses energy.” I nodded at this.

“Anyways. The enchantment on the circular rings are from glass slash reflection crafting crystals. This causes the rings to emit a very faint but weak repulsion field as the passive enchantments interfere with each other. It is very slight, but it is enough to make the rings of the astrolabe turn.”

“Now you put in a crystal in the center, nature slash poison and it is suspended there while slowly being worn away. Or scraped away and the energy is released in very faint amounts into the air, disturbing the natural energy and creating a large sphere.”

“This sphere isn’t a bubble, or has a definite edge, there is a lot of bleed at the boundary, and zone level and void zones impact this sphere as well, but that is why it occludes huge spikes of energy from being sensed.”

“It is genius. I can’t say that enough. The Astrologer of whomever came up with this design is about a decade ahead of me.” The good doctor let out a long sigh at this. “So trying to develop something new has been running into a lot of issues.”

“Have you tried other crystals besides nature slash poison?” I asked.

“A few, but the crafting crystals don’t bleed off energy as well as that type of crystal does. Like I said, there are underlying mechanics governing all of this, that I still have to work out. Well, one day. Right now it is all about developing a super weapon.”

“Yes. You mentioned containment and directionality?” I asked.

“The two biggest roadblocks. We used glass slash reflection type like is used on the astrolabes to crate a containment section. The problem then becomes, what type to use. You are probably thinking radiance and then combined with another cannon to unleash void to produce an annihilation beam.”

“The containment issue is that we need an order of magnitude bigger enchantment than the blast. And it was made clear to me that we need a level 6 blast. How do we contain that?” the good doctor asked and I winced.

“Unless you can kill level 6 monsters so we can make a level 7 crafting crystal, and that means we need a level 5 city. We would still need a level 5 city to make level 6 crafting crystals and the price for all that isn’t cheap. But the real hold up is the danger.”

“Only I can do it,” I replied.

“Yes. While I have full trust that you can murder and kill your way through almost anything, a level 6 monster? Clarissa laughed at me when we last spoke and I explained this. She told me figure out another way.”

“A level 6 is impossible and will be for a while,” I replied.

“I know. So, I am stuck trying to figure things out myself. How to contain a level 6 blast with level 6 material. We are trying several designs, but it is slow. We use level 3 crafting crystals, which is the level we easily combine up to. But glass slash crafting crystals are not easy to get. Then the designs need to be tested at scale and changes need to be made or a completely new protype tried out. Also, we need to stack enchantments. It gets pricey very quick.”

I winced. I didn’t even want to see the costs. “Clarissa has been putting dedicated teams onto this, but it is not quick or easy. Proper research takes time. The other team she had blew their idiot asses up. Now I am back to running the show. Seems to be how I always end up in charge, some other idiot does some idiot things.” The good doctor shook his head, and I felt some sympathy for him. But we needed a super weapon as quickly as possible.