The Systemic Lands

Chapter 205: Day 499 – A Late Night Return, A New City

We arrived late at night, the wood and metal gates on the inside of the tunnel were closed. I knocked heavily.

“Champion Michael, returning,” I called out. I heard movement, and then the gate opened up a minute later with five soldiers of the RMPF there along with a Captain I recognized by their uniform. Once they saw it was me, they quickly opened the gates the rest of the way and saluted me.

“Champion Michael, welcome back,” the Captain said.

“Thank you,” I replied and noted the buildings had been moved.

“Ah, yes, there have been recent changes to the layout to the city. Just follow the road straight to the plaza,” the Captain said.

“Thank you, keep up the good work,” I set up with Naran and Fethee pulling our cart behind us. The road back to the plaza was three building plots wide. Each plot was about 40 feet or 12 meters square. So quite a wide road back to the plaza. It was nice not having to remember all the twists and turns through the buildings.

I noticed the Airship Port dead ahead. “Clarissa has been making changes,” Naran said.

“Good changes. I like this wide road from the gate right back to the plaza. Must have cost a lot of points,” I added.

“Probably. Well we have a long break so you can poke about,” Naran said.

“Not interested?” I asked.

“You will tell me on our trip, I have no doubt. No need to ruin the surprise,” Naran answered. He was right. It was one of the topics I liked to speculate about. We made really good time back towards the plaza.

Once we got close, I noted there was an extra wide street, two building plots wide to our left and right. In addition, there was a row of buildings around the outside. The buildings still had windows, but there was no clear gap except the one right in front of us leading to the plaza.

The buildings on either side of the main road had red buildings with the flag of Purgatory hanging down on the outside. I also noted two soldiers guarding the entrance to the interior of the city.

“Identify yourself,” one of the guards called out. Other people didn’t have my Perception stat, which made the dark harder for them to see through.

“Champion Michael,” I replied. They quickly came to attention and saluted. I returned the salute and made my way into the interior. The entire layout had changed. Everything was in a grid pattern, from what I could tell.

We made our way to the plaza and I looked around. There was a building with dark blue banners and a golden dragon on them, with the flag of Purgatory next to those banners. I made my way to that building and there were two guards in blue uniforms outside.

They quickly saluted me. “Champion Michael, welcome back,” one of them said and they both opened up the entrance. “The building has changed, I will be happy to show you around. Do you wish to notify Chief Administrator Clarissa of your return?”

“I plan to get a shower and sleep. But I am sure she will want to know I am back. I will meet with her tomorrow morning for breakfast,” I replied.

“Very well, your cart can be left here. My companion here will show Naran to his room,” I nodded at that as Naran and Fethee both followed the other guard.

I was soon led to my room on the third floor, which was quite big. About double the size from before. The private shower was amazing, and I drowned myself to wipe off all the grunge. After that I collapsed into my large bed and fell asleep. It was good to be back home.

I woke up the next the day and stretched lazily out like a cat. I got another shower and then got changed into some city clothes. I left my room, and a guard was waiting to show me to Clarissa for breakfast. It was a semi-private dining area on the second floor overlooking the main mess.

“Michael, welcome back,” Clarissa said with a slight smile.

“Clarissa, or should I say Chief Administrator Clarissa. The title suits you,” I replied.

“Just a minor name change, sit,” she gestured at a seat at the table. I sat and fresh bread, chopped fruit, and butter were brought out.

“Butter?” I asked.

“It took a while, but we got there. Food research is quite popular. But still prohibitively expensive for most people. We are subsidizing the research efforts, so don’t hold back,” Clarissa said.

“I won’t,” I replied as I lathered a thick amount of butter on the warm bread. “Naran?” I asked.

“Ate and went wandering after that,” Clarissa said, and I nodded at that. At least she wasn’t having him followed. That would have annoyed me. “I heard about Gertrude and your appointment of Sam as Governor General of Neo Brasilia.”

I took the time to explain what happened and how Sam was struggling to maintain control. “What about Gerold?” I asked.

“He is maintaining things, but it is also a struggle. He has been paying his tribute. Sam recent paid as well, but quite a bit less. No issues from either city as far as I can tell at the moment,” Clarissa explained.

“What about exploration and crafting and the city? It appears I have been missing quite a bit?” I asked.

“Exploration wise, there is nothing new that has been reported. We have thirty Union teams, but only five of them would be what I consider senior teams capable of tackling and exploring new areas. Even then they are hesitant to do so,” Clarissa said while enjoyed the crunch and taste of warm buttered bread.

“What about the Immortal Council? Anyone step up?” I asked.

“There are people in the Union with over one thousand stats, but none of them have tackled a level 4, once word returned through Sam’s team about what happened to Gertrude. No one wants to take the risk. But I am ready. Buildings have been set aside, and people have been employed to handle anyone who steps up,” Clarissa said.

“Good. It is nice to know that I can trust you to handle the city while I am not around. Thinking ahead is important. No issues?” I asked.

“I have lesser Administrators that handle the day to day with regular audits. Just needed to make a couple of examples to some corrupt people and things have been running fairly smoothly. The current complaint is the high attrition from hunting camps set up to tackle level 2 monsters, but before people have the stats to join a Union team,” Clarissa said.

“Isn’t that a good thing? I mean, it reduces pressure on the city?” I asked.

“It does, but people become skittish. The population inside Purgatory would be a lot higher, if people aren’t kicked out to the hunting camps. If they aren’t hired by an organization, then they need to get crystals to return. Very strict rules on vagrancy as well. So far it has been working out.”

“But the deaths have been quite high. The spiders in the swamp and shadowlands to the South have been brutal. The chameleons are hard to spot, even with spotters, but they are the best option. The black pigs to the West and the Scorpions to the East, have both been incredibly hard to kill, even with spears and teams,” Clarissa said.

“Well, if it works, it works. I trust you to manage things. Even with hunting camps, it is that bad?” I asked.

“It is. In time we will have more of a safety net, but we don’t want to hand hold people too much. Otherwise, they will lose their nerve in the first real combat. Tax revenue is secondary with the hunting camps, but competent fighters we can form teams with. There would be much more hand holding if it was just about the points,” Clarissa explained.

“I would agree with that choice. People get hand held for the first 40 days after they arrive with the rotation strategy through the monster types. It makes sense to put their feet to the fire in the hunting camps. And it gives time for organizations to pick the best out of the bunch,” I added.

“Most organizations only want people after they have passed through the hunting camps and have 100 stats at the very least. The RMPF is raising their requirements to the same level of the Union. The Union snatches up people who push more heavily and form small teams,” Clarissa said.

“The businesses and the economy?” I asked.

“Dominated by a few large businesses. Getting the capital to set up a business is not easy. I am also curating the businesses approved. We want the best of the best here in the inner city,” Clarissa answered.

“I noticed that the layout has complete changed, a grid pattern. That most have cost a lot?” I asked.

“It did. But the number of crystals coming in is a lot. After the restructuring of the city, I made an executive decision to make the million-point purchases. No store upgrade.” Clarissa held up a hand to forestall me from interrupting. “You are probably going to ask what was purchased, here is the list.”

Clarissa pulled out a sheet of paper and pushed it across the table towards me. That was a lot of points as I looked at the purchases. The first purchases had been upgrading the Rod of Control for 1.5 million points allowing the holder to transfer ownership, move property, and ban people from the store.

After that was the purchase of four more towers along the wall for 1 million points at 250k each. Probably at the mid-point between the gates. “The towers at the midpoints between the gates?” I asked.

“Yes, to provide better patrols on top of the wall. Some fitness nuts like to run the wall as it is called. I have allowed it, since General Smith says it keeps the guards engaged and paying attention. Anyone caught sleeping on the job is punished the first time, and let go from the RMPF the second,” Clarissa explained, and I nodded at that.

The next purchase was six more communication stones at 250k each for 1.5 million points. “Communication stones?” I asked.

“In the RMPF Headquarters across the plaza. It makes it a lot easier to send alerts. Need to man them constantly, but we can now issue orders to all towers and gates at the same time. In the event of an attack coordination can be handled much more quickly,” Clarissa said.

“Is the RMPF still running drills?” That was something I demanded when Tyrese was killed.

“Yes. Once every ten days or so. The exact timing is kept secret so the drills are treated as real. I can get the exact schedule if you want it?” Clarissa asked.

“No, that is fine. Just wanted to be sure they kept the drills up. There is a reason drills are done, so people aren’t running around like headless chickens,” I replied. I looked back down at the sheet.

The next round of city purchases had been upgrading 7 processing tables to level 2 and then 8 to level 3. The upgrades cost 100k and 250k respectively, costing 2.7 million points. The next purchase was doubling the number of processing tables.

“The processing tables?” I asked.

“An investment into trying to work out crafting crystal types. Elliot can explain much better than I can. But the extra tables were needed to handle all the work that is being done to work out the type chart for crafting crystals,” Clarissa answered my question. I knew I would be following up on this.

The next purchases were upgrades for the Training Hall, a purchase of 100k for 10 monster types, then 250k for 25 monster types, and then 500k to handle level 2 monsters. “The Training Hall?” I asked.

“Monopolized by the Union and focused on level 2 monsters. It is booked quite heavily so teams can get experience fighting a wider range of monsters in relative safety,” Clarissa explained.

“Only thirty teams? That seems low. I would have expected fifty or so by now,” I asked.

“The issue is the danger and attrition. While lower than the hunting teams, teams still just vanish occasionally while poking new areas. Or just at random. I suspect it the one million point limit,” Clarissa said.

“Well, you clearly don’t mind that, since all the remaining purchases are over one million points,” I said while giving Clarissa a look.