Chapter 148: Day 332 – Aftermath of the Second Battle of Purgatory

Chapter 148: Day 332 – Aftermath of the Second Battle of Purgatory

I had gotten back late the night before. Now it was morning and the leadership council as I had taken to calling it had assembled once again. I sat at the head of the table. Naran was to my right, Clarissa to my left. Next to Naran was Gerold. Next to Clarissa was Bob. At the opposite end of the table was Laura.

A copy of the treaty had been passed around and eventually came to a stop in front of Clarissa who was making notes. I could see people going from relieved to pensive and then back to relieved. “Do you believe this treaty will hold?” Gerold asked.

A stupid question, but I would answer it to get it out of the way. “No. Eventually the Ritualist will recover enough to feel confident in attacking. Or I will find a way to track him down and kill him once and for all.”

“The doctor’s method?” Laura asked.

“Needs a monster for it to work. Even then it is only a vector pointing in a direction, no distance. Inside a city it is too easy to hide,” I explained.

“What about the trade?” Clarissa asked.

“I leave that to all of you. In fact, the Ritualist is no longer my immediate priority,” I said. There were looks of shock at that. It had been something I had been thinking about. “I will fight him if he attacks, but I can’t win. Instead, I will be focused on the research aspect and grinding even more.”

“So, you are letting us decide if we should trade?” Bob asked.

“Yes. Since you will be the ones at risk. Trade to make peace, or don’t trade and create barriers. Regardless, I can’t do anything about him right now. So, I am just not going to deal with it.” It was a waste of energy and frustrating.

“Very well, we have time to think about it,” Clarissa said. “What should we tell the populace?”

“The truth. I can’t win, the Ritualist can’t win. So, things have reached a stalemate for now. If people want to live, they should increase their strength and grind,” I said.

“Very well. Then there is the issue of a funeral. We have something planned for later today. We were hoping you could say a few words,” Clarissa said.

“That is fine. What else?” I asked.

“The city of Truth reached out and asked us to back off the skill point dungeons. There has been no confrontation, but they are threating to fight our teams if we don’t leave,” Clarissa said and then looked pensive.

“What is it?” I asked.

“They have captured Tom.” Ah, so that is where he ended up. “They are offering him back if we agree.”

“He can die for all I care, but the risk to the teams. Laura?” I asked.

“Large. The risk of ambush is high. We can’t remove them?” She asked and I looked at Naran who let out a long sigh and shook his head.

“No. They know what they are doing. It is the same problem we have with the Ritualist just on a smaller scale. It is impossible to track people down within a city,” Naran explained. I nodded at that.

“We have secured and repaired the entrances, but we can’t hold against a determined attacker,” Gerold said. I looked at him and he stared right back at me.

Clarissa spoke up now. “We can’t increase our strength any faster. It comes down to the issue of points and creating a sustainable process.”

“Until then, I am guessing we are severely understrength?” I asked Clarissa.

“Yes. There are two other options.” She looked at Gerold who spoke up.

“We need more people with the Radiant Beam skill. We can’t get the skill, we need your help. If we had four people with that skill, we can cover each gate.,” Gerold said.

“Fine. Pick a person. Draw up a contract. They can pay back the debt, Clarissa can work out the details. When I leave, they can come with me and then return with someone else. Any more people will have to work it out once I return,” I said.

“I will handle things with General Gerold,” Clarissa said.

“Purchasing a city upgrade if you aren’t present,” Clarissa said. I closed my eyes and thought on that.

“The repairs, how did that work for the city gates?” I asked. Was I missing something?

“The same as any other building that one has permissions for. Had to pay points for the repairs,” Clarissa said. I guess there wasn’t anything special.

“Purchase the buildings. Name me as heir. Give administration permissions to everyone in this room,” I said.

“Monster processing, first? Or more defensive upgrades. Once we purchased the gates, more options opened up. There is wall tower for 250k, communication stone for 250k, and energy gate for 1 million. Communication stone would be the preferred option.” Clarissa suggested.

“Monster processing regardless. I want to see the options for equipment. After that I want a focus on city structures. We have been delaying them for too long. Defensive upgrades can also wait for now. The city gates are enough.” Three times, three times the city treasury had been used up or stolen.

“No more waiting for me. Spend the points, purchase the buildings,” I said.

“Those points are what allowed us to survive the war,” Clarissa said.

“No longer. The purpose of this government is to upgrade the city and support high stat individuals. Everything else is now a secondary importance.” I looked around the table, no one objected. “What else?” I asked.

“Business loans have come up, what is our stance since we were disallowing interest before? Stick with the contracts?” Bob asked.

“Issue them if they make sense as zero interest contracts, with a set amount of repayment. People can go through your office to set up loans and get them confirmed by witnesses,” I quickly made a decision and Bob nodded.

“What else?” I asked. There was a long stretch of silence.

“That covers everything we needed to bring up, I know you wanted to speak with Doctor Katz,” Clarissa said. I nodded at that.

“Before we disperse, there is one last thing. This should be considered top secret information, not to leave this room. I found a giant tower in a level 3 zone.”Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through Ñôv€l--B1n.