The Systemic Lands

Chapter 429: 49th Floor (4) – A Tale Of Complications

Chapter 429: 49th Floor (4) – A Tale Of Complications

“So, you want a story, then?” the Astrologer asked me.

“Yes. Well, maybe not a story, but a better understanding of the mechanics of what you are asking at the very least.” There was a stretch of silence after that. I could tell he was thinking, but I was in no rush at the moment. That last boss battle had been way too long and intense. I was more than happy to sit on the floor and to talk things out for a while.

I could survive a bit without food or water. It was far more important that I get information and handle this thing right, even if it delayed things by a day. I probably wouldn’t want to do any energy manipulation until after I slept a bit as well. It was too risky and exhausting. But talking, peacefully, that I could do.

While the climb had probably been twenty or so days if I had to guess, the Astrologer had been here for years. He was probably suffering from loneliness far more than me and I was already losing my mind. I was honestly impressed that he was as sane as he was.

“My Valkyries, they were my friends. My comrades for years. We fought together. Each…each of them unique in their own way. There used to be five of them.” I listened quietly. The touch of sadness I heard in his mental voice could be made up. I didn’t believe him for a moment, but I was more than happy to listen to whatever sob story he conjured up that painted him in the best light. I was far more interested in the energy mechanics that needed to be understood than his tale of woe.

“One perished in the fight against the Divine Empress. Giving me a window to strike at her. The rest. We climbed the tower in hopes of getting a meta-point, at least one more for myself. With that, I would have been able to kill the Divine Empress easily.”

“It was a long climb, as I am sure you have experienced. But we reached this floor and cleared it. Taking the elevator up to the saferoom for floor fifty. When the calamity struck, I acted and saved my life first. It was not noble or kind. But like in an airplane you put on your air mask first before helping others.”

“How did you know what to do to survive? Merging with the pillar?” I asked. That was what I didn’t get, the exact sequence of events and how the calamity and energy played a role.

“It was a wave of energy. Nothing I had ever seen. I had seconds before it hit. I grabbed onto the pillar. Hoping to manipulate the tower’s energy to form an inverse gap bubble. Ah. What that means on a technical level, is to draw in energy from the air to create a null space of energy or null energy. The absence of energy.”

“The technique isn’t practical, for the most part in combat. Since there is nothing to easily push energy into and a way to do it safely.”

“The pillars can take in energy. Unlimited energy and there is back and forth since they have a mental link,” my brain instantly hitting on that connection.

“Not just a brute I see. Good insight. Yes. The System creates a link. The transfer is small, but thought is energy and energy is thought. That is how the pillars function by the minute transfer of energy. Trying to measure the amount normally is futile and difficult due to the exchange.”

“So, this kind of defense can’t be employed anywhere else but a pillar. A great technique if your back is cornered for some reason, but risky. Damaging the pillars offends the System that controls this place.” I nodded at this. “Oh, you know?”

“I spoke with the Protector. He explained how the UCS and a Lord from the Dragon Empire destroyed a bunch of pillars and were killed. How you tried to kill the Divine Empress?” I asked. I was curious what he would say.

“I was punished. I can sense the surprise radiating off of you. While I won’t reveal all my secrets, messing with the System that controls this place is the height of foolishness and a desperate last measure. I lost a meta-point instead of my life, it was not pretty.”

Oh, that was surprising. So a meta-point was equal to a life in a weird sort of way, but one couldn’t trade a life for a meta-point. A one-way exchange kind of thing. I didn’t ask what he lost, but I considered if he lost his Word of Power Shatter or the other skill I suspected he had.

“Will that change things or how you will fix me?” I asked.

“It makes it a lot more difficult, I won’t lie. But the people liked to say that while the Divine Empress was the biggest brute, I was the most wise. I will lose my scalpel and instead have to use a knife. It is unfortunate, but I can remove what is inside of you without issue. But back to the story. An inverse gap bubble to counter the calamity.”

I had gotten us off track, but I was just too curious. And he was answering questions clearly. It boggled my mind. I thought he would be trying to drip feed me, or leave huge blanks, but he wasn’t. The Astrologer was clearly very serious about working with me and trying to show his sincerity. Or tricking me very well.

It would be impossible to tell the difference between the two. If he did plan to betray me, it didn’t matter how much he shared to lure me into a false sense of security. That was something that I was constantly focused on. The fact his body was stone, and his energy was messed up, didn’t give me any kind of clues to work with either.

“I pulled so much energy out of the air, hoping to shelter us all. My Valkyries gathered around me. Then it hit. A tidal wave will not do it justice. One could almost taste the energy in the air. The tower shuddered, the lights flickered, and the stone cracked. That should tell you how immense the wave of energy was.”

“It was too much. Even with the inverse gap bubble that I had created, it was like a child putting sand in front of a dam break. It was laughable. So, I acted to save myself in that moment. I linked my energy with the tower itself to empower my body.”

“To draw in foreign energy is the height of foolishness. I had to draw more and more as my flesh melted away. Instead of flesh it took on the nature of the tower itself. I managed to keep my energy together, which was a miracle.”

“That boundary, between me and the tower, it is something that it both my greatest work and my greatest failure. I was in a rush and managed to keep my mind intact. But my very body was fused. I had no template to work from.”

“The Valkyries, they screamed. They kept screaming as their flesh melted away. I acted, drawing on my skills to try and keep them alive even as I was saving myself. But it would not work. Their energy was being corroded. I went overboard and changed them into false copies of me.”

“One cannot just copy energy over. You have met the Demon Babies of the Divine Empress?” the Astrologer asked me.

“Yes, I have. See possessed one at a distance. Resonance?” I asked.

“That is the term. But resonance is flawed. This is why I can’t steal your body. Why the Envoy who leaps bodies using the technique, is an idiot or an experiment by her Master Fleshcrafter. Having your energy decay is like a mental disease.”

“There is no way to purge someone else’s energy from another mind. Where does your energy come from?” I didn’t know the answer to this question and missed where he was trying to lead me.

“I don’t know. I thought it came from the air or environment? Since the Regeneration stat is limited by the zone?” I suggested.

“That was my first thought as well. But that is actually not true. The energy a person generates from their Regeneration stat comes from their own mind. I know, it makes no sense. Then why the zone limitation?” I nodded at that.

“It is a power limiter. And one of the things the System checks. High amounts of energy in a low energy zone is something that causes it to investigate or look into. The lowest point of energy is around the store pillars.”

“The limitation is a completely arbitrary one I suspect. Well arbitrary in the sense it is not natural, but based on the zones level of energy that the System has imposed on this world. By dividing things into chunks, and discrete levels of energy and power, it is creating a tier structure on purpose and the Regeneration stat conforms to that purpose, or is impacted by it.”

“But, I conducted several tests, where I tested the refresh rate in various zones. The refresh rate is a lot higher in lower level zones than in higher level ones. The energy emitted by the void zones is the natural amount of energy of this place, but is artificially lowered in the cities so people don’t explode on arrival.”

“Since the refresh rate is higher, that implies the System is more focused on the lower level areas. But once you get far out, it has much less direct management. As for the mind and not the environment creating energy, creating inverse gap bubbles around people, but they still got energy inside of them.”

“If there is no energy in the environment, or it is greatly lessened, then where it is it coming from?”

“A person’s mind itself. Thought is energy and energy is thought,” I replied.

“Exactly. While it is possible, that energy was coming through the layers that exist outside of this physical plane, there were more complicated experiments done proving that this is not the case to a certain extent. Hmm, well that is wrong. The energy is being drawn from there, but it is coming through the mind. Since the mind is the link between this physical layer and the other two layers I have discovered.”

We were getting really off track, but this was incredibly insightful. “You need a physical mind. You have lost that link to draw in your own energy to sustain yourself. You need to make a brain and a link?” I asked.

“Exactly! My homunculi were damaged in their creation. They lost the link to draw in their own energy, as I overwrote their minds. Only one escaped the tower. They were things of meat and flesh, powered by my energy, but not me.”

“I could try and turn you into a homunculus, but that would not help me in the slightest. I need a new body, mind, and connection built. But how does one rebuild a brain, when they have lost their brain? That is the problem. I need a template to work of, and a way to keep my new body alive while I slowly sculpt the energy.”

“But you can’t use my body?” I asked, now back to being worried again. “Wait, this isn’t a baby?!”

“No. If you had been a woman, it might have been. But it is a cluster of uniform cells that is growing with my energy, inside of you, using a masking technique. The difference in life energy is complex between people.”

“So, you will help me construct a new body, out of the growth inside of you. Having physical material is important and a template to inspect like you is important as well. I will be doing most of the work in the first phase. Then you will need to help sever my connection as I force my energy into the body, and resonate with it without interference.”

“Distance impacts the quality of resonation. Like a signal. Too far and it degrades. Once I am over. I will separate myself. I will be fixed and so will you.”

This idea had a lot of issues with it and I had a lot more questions.