The Systemic Lands

Chapter 512: Day 4,803 – Viewpoints 46

Clarissa

The Crystal Vortex had arrived late this evening. My sworn shadow soldiers swept the hallway ahead of me for any traps or assassination attempts. After the monster battle arena, they had only increased against me. I was Michael’s weakpoint and he was seen as unkillable.

It was only slightly annoying. That was I had my shadow soldiers, cloaked with skills and personal skills. Only the most loyal and the most skilled were accepted into their ranks. I personally interviewed each one and they also went through subtle reconditioning before being trained up to ensure their loyalty along with more overt means.

No matter how well they hid I would always be able to sense each and everyone of my shadow soldiers. With their creation, the number of attempts on my life had drastically reduced. The mask, cloak, dress, gloves, and boots were all enchanted to block out passive scans from the Sense stat. If I left the Imperial Palace I would have body doubles.

My shadow soldiers stopped outside Michael’s personal apartment. He hadn’t complained about them, but refused to allow them to ‘swarm nearby’. It was sad that the only person I could trust was him. But if he wanted to kill me, he would have just battled his way through. His protection detail were on par with my shadow soldiers.

His protection detail opened the doors for me without question. I felt slightly exposed without my shadow soldiers, but poking Emperor Michael was a bad idea. Especially since one of his protection detail had brought me word he had been wounded heavily during a battle with a level 7.

Foolish! But I was also grateful he was pushing the envelope to find a way to leave this place. The Avatar would only speak of portents of doom when pressed. It was unsettling. I had a go at trying to get information out of her broken husk, but she refused to give specifics about this place or the Almighty System.

Captain Francis was outside the anti-curse chamber. I would not be able to walk past him. “Captain, what happened?” I asked.

“He was forced to draw on environmental energy to counter the level 7 monster. It was…if he hadn’t done that, we would have all died,” he final said.

“It is not my place to criticize you, but he cannot die. He is the fulcrum upon which the Empire rests. His death would plunge everything into chaos. Now, can I speak with him?” I asked.

“He is quite irate at the moment and in a great deal of pain. So, keep that in mind, Supreme Governor Clarissa,” Captain Francis said. I nodded at this, and he opened the door. He told the two soldiers standing at attention to let me pass through the next doorway.

I entered and heard a grunt from the large tub of water that had been set up. Water was pouring into the tub and slightly overflowing onto the ground and into a drain. “Michael,” I said to announce myself.

“Clarissa, come in. And toss in another cold type crafting crystal,” he said tersely. I walked over to a nearby table next to the large tub of water he was submerged up to his face in. I picked up a cold type crystal on a nearby table confirming it with the rod laying on the table and tossed it in.

He let out a sigh of relief. I saw the energy break apart and spread through the water in the tub. What should have caused the water to instantly freeze, only cooled it down by quite a bit. “Turn off the water, and grab a seat,” he said.

I did just that. “It seems quite bad,” I finally said.

“It is. I could have probably gotten away with half this much damage, but I had to be sure it was dead,” he said with a sigh. “The curse damage is deep, and trying to explode and overheat my body. The restoration took care of the physical issues, not that were too many. But the curse damage, its going to take a while to heal.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Planning the city upgrade already?” he asked with a teasing tone. Well at least he was in kind of a good mood and not dead or completely crippled.

“Yes. There is a lot of planning that has been going into it,” I replied.

“Well, I should have the worst of it cleared in the next ten days. Another crystal please,” he said and I tossed in another cold type crafting crystal from the table into the water. “But looking at a hundred days to fully remove all the curse damage,” he said with a sigh.

“Then I will make arrangements for day 4,905 for the upgrade. It must happen. You killed your level 7 monster like you wanted,” I replied.

“I did. It could communicate through energy, Clarissa. There was also a massive jump in power. The endowed name came with titles as well. It was the Molten Centipede of Fear And Destruction.”

“You think there will be a special skill in a level 7 zone? Could you even handle multiple monsters like the one you faced?” I asked.

“No. Not for a while. You know, I had a bit of hope,” he muttered. A sore point between us, meta-points. I wanted to tell him those people couldn’t be trusted. They had to be killed and disappeared. He just saw it as lost potential and he would be able to handle them if there were issues. The delicate power balance couldn’t be upset with people who were unstable.

“It is what it is. So, the skill point?” I asked out of curiosity.

“A single skill. Empowered Destruction Beam. I didn’t take it, even though it was tempting. My sixth skill slot will remain free for a bit. Joyo took it. It costs 50,000 energy at its base. Not practical, but it is good to know that the costs don’t spiral up as much as points do. Another crystal please.” I tossed another one into the tub which had begun to steam.

The water quickly cooled down again. “Is this helping?” I asked.

“It mitigates the effects of the energy I am purging. Like a sticky glue, stuck all over me, I have to scrap it off. The opposite type, cold, helps break it down more quickly. And stops my surroundings from becoming painful. Doctor Katz is going to have to exhaust his reserves unfortunately. I will have to impose,” he said.

“It is fine. I will make arrangements to sweep up the cold type crafting crystals for you to use. Killing a level 7 monster is quite impressive.”

“Not impressive enough apparently. I will be staying in the city until the upgrade to recover. No use risking another level 7 fight like this,” he said. I nodded at this.

“So, what do you plan to do afterwards or during this time?” I asked.

“Looking over the books. It has been a while since I did a full review of our accounts.”

“I look forward to it. I have been passing you the summary reports, but you are welcome to dig into any of them,” I replied. I had nothing to hide from him. He gave me a look from his tub which I returned. After a couple of seconds, he spoke up again.

“Alright. Well it will be mostly a vacation anyways. Afterwards, probably grind a level 6 monster really hard or do another tower. If I do it well enough, I can probably kill all 400 in a terrain type. So make it 800 per day, if I pull from two terrain types. So about 120 million points per day. Let my team and soldiers bite down on the level 5 monsters,” he replied.

“You can do that without pulling a level 7?” I asked.

“If it happens, it happens, but I am not that worried anymore. I beat one, I can beat another. The tricks they might have can’t really surprise me after all the level 4, 5, and 6 monsters I have seen. Just more powerful craziness. That is why I wanted to test myself. The first time is always the worst.”

“The lack of information, it is understandable. How many stats are you thinking in order to clear level 6 zones fully?” I asked. This was something we discussed, since he was trying to push the boundaries of our knowledge.

“Realistically, I could do it now, maybe. If I was careful and had a good matchup. Realistically, to be safe I need to double my stats, except for Body,” he replied.

“So, another 200,000 stat points? That would be what? A 150 billion points?” I asked.

“About that. With the 70 million in passive income, and another 120 million from grinding, I am looking at 190 million per day. So, two years of hard work to get there.” We were silent at that. I reached over and tossed in another crafting crystal into his tub without him needing to ask.

“We could increase the tax rate, claim that we need it to fight treats,” I replied.

“It has been quiet? No issues?” he asked me.

“Nothing serious. But if we raise the tax rate, I could handle the suppression,” I replied. It would be a headache, but it could be done. If he was sitting on his ass all day and lounging about, I wouldn’t have even considered suggesting this idea. But he was out there fighting constantly, putting his life on the line to expand our knowledge, my knowledge.

I could respect the courage it took. The risks he took. While I knew Michael did it for selfish reasons, that still didn’t change the fact that we needed someone like him to push the envelope. We couldn’t just sit around like fish in a bowl. My other probing attempts had all failed over the years. While they had been lackluster, their failures cemented the fact that only Michael had the chance to really get to the farthest reaches of the Systemic Lands.

“Can’t we increase zone clearance?” he asked me.

“Not easily. All the remaining monsters are ones that are difficult, or in rough terrain. Mushrooms, jungles, and so on.”

“Screw those stupid mushrooms and the jungle. And everything else is being done?”

“It is. We have reached carrying capacity in terms of grinders. While there might be a few more percentage points of efficiency I can squeeze out, it isn’t that simple or easy. All the low hanging fruit has been plucked,” I replied. We had this conversation before, but it needed to be said again. It was easier to raise taxes than to waste lives on cursed zones.

“I guess I will be back grinding. Never thought I would be focused on grinding again,” he replied.

“A day of grinding is good for the soul, isn’t that something you have your church say?” I asked.

“Yes, yes. Perhaps I will give that some attention as well,” he replied.

“Also, XLR8 asked for an interview with you. You have been putting it off. The people are a bit more restless. It wouldn’t hurt to talk about level 7 monsters. Not like anyone but you will be able to beat one anytime soon,” I replied.

“My poll numbers?” Michael asked.

“Still holding in the mid eighties. You are universally popular. The Imperial Government is holding at 55%.”

“Looks like I am still winning,” he said with a grin. I rolled my eyes. It was an ongoing joke since I started getting poll data to keep track of the mood of the people. No one would dare disrespect the Emperor. There were enough rumors and actual occurrences of people disappearing. That was 86% strong support, 10% support, and 4% undecided.

The people who didn’t support him didn’t last long. I couldn’t have some random Karen triggering him in some way. Better to kill all the useless people when they arrived before they were important enough to make a fuss. And for those who made a fuss later on, that was what I had my auditors and shadow soldiers for.