I woke up feeling a lot better. Death, today is not your day. You might be completely overpowered, terrifying, and chase people into cities, but I still won. I felt a cold chill run over me and shivered. I shook my head. That had been too close.
Let’s not mention the almost 300,000 points I had to spend for a regeneration. That was not cheap and while I was not completely broke, it was an insane amount of points. It was honestly kind of hilarious. I let out a soft chuckle slash groan as I swung my feet off my bed.
My father always made me get up saying good morning to him right away. No slow starts, or mumbles in the morning. I smiled at the memory. It hurt, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything right now. I needed to cherish those memories the good and the bad. I rubbed my left arm for a bit. After just standing there thinking for a few minutes, I turned on the light.
I noted Naran had cleaned my armor and set it on one side of my table. I was missing an armguard and a portion of the chest piece around my left shoulder. I needed more furniture or an armor stand. My clothing artwork was stacked neatly on the other side. My town outfit was draped over my chair. It smelled clean and fresh. Maybe Clarissa instead of Naran, if so, I was impressed.
It was nice of them to handle these things. I could do it myself, but I just felt wrung out yesterday. Even though the restoration healed my body, my mind just wasn’t able to focus well. Probably the pain and whatever else Death had done to me.
I got a shower first and then came back to my room. I put on my town outfit. Naran had arranged a sword as well, or Clarissa. Well, someone was trying to earn bonus points from me. I went out to the main room and the cart was there and sorted.
I nodded at that. I heard movement and saw Naran and Clarissa walk into the room. “Good morning, Michael. Feel better?” Naran asked.
“Yes, and thank you. I mean it. Getting me back here could not have been easy.” I owed him my life. It was a heavy thought.
“You’re welcome.” At least he didn’t try to push aside the debt I owed. It was something I would have to sort out.
“Good morning. We have a lot to do,” Clarissa cut in. “I have prepared your itinerary.”
“I have an itinerary?” She sent me a death glare. I was immune to it, but I still felt it. “Got it. I won’t cause too many problems.”
“My livelihood is in your hands. I will be briefing you shortly on what has been happening in your absence. Right after that will be breakfast with just you, Tyrese, and Ken. Following that will be the morning session of the convention. A break for lunch with the other delegates. Tyrese and Ken might show up now that you are back.”
She didn’t pause and kept going. “Then there is the afternoon session. Following that will be a dinner with Laura and key members in her Union. In the evening there will be a meet and greet to talk to people who wish to speak with you. I have already screened them, and they should not cause issues. Questions?” I shook my head and she kept barreling forward. I was grateful I didn’t have to talk about what happened and welcomed all of this.
“First, there is pressure on the farming of level 1 monster crystals and who gets to do it. Level 1 monsters are limited, so this is a major concern. Second, there is a push for a unified church, or at least allowing the Meeting Hall to be used for religious services. Third, the crystal drugs, or potions as they are sometimes called, are in high demand. Ken is keeping the process under tight lockdown. He is willing to show you, but no one else.” I nodded at that.
“Fourth, Tyrese is prepared to transition the Red Dawn Guards into the Red Military Police Force. There will be uniform updates and set standards, for entering, duties, and salaries. Fifth, there has been no news from the other cities. We still maintain a monopoly on intercity travel.”
“Sixth.” I was honestly both impressed and scared with how she just kept going. “There is a lot of pushback with the constitution, specifically the Immortal Council portion. Right now, the process stands at calling these people citizens, and it being a citizen’s council.” I frowned at that. “Question?”
“Who is part of the convention?” I asked.
“There are 20 delegates, but there are four main factions. The first faction is ours, which I am in charge of. I have five other delegates on my side. This support comes primarily from the Union, with a bit from the businesses and community that has any kind of wealth. I would call us the power faction.” I nodded at that. We had 30% control, good to know.
“Another six delegates form the democracy faction. They are focused on spreading the power around. They are led by Rick, one of Ken’s appointees to the convention. They are our strongest opposition.”
“Why?”
“It is the idea of the Immortal Council that has them up in arms. They can’t accept inequality. This brings us to faction three. The religious faction with five delegates under Pastor Charles. Their support comes from the people, mostly the destitute and those struggling to survive day to day.” Why were these people given a voice? Probably to stop complaints and my request we bring in people from each group in Purgatory. That was already biting me in the ass.
“That gives them 11 delegates.”
“It does. Give me a second and I will explain how things work. The last faction is Tyrese’s guards, the order faction, led by Chris. They tend to side with us and have four delegates. As for voting, everything has been just suggestions so far.”
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“There are the 20 delegates, then you, Ken, and Tyrese, will get one vote each as well. Putting the total at 23 votes. 16 votes are needed to ratify anything. That means that 3 factions are needed, preferably more, to move things along. I have the most recent draft prepared.” Clarissa handed me a sheet of paper with tiny, neat script.
“You write this?”
“Yes.” I wasn’t surprised. It was neat and orderly. I couldn’t write like that to save my life, and Clarissa seemed the person to like order. I read through the draft and frowned at several parts.
“I need to think this over. It is thick and complicated. I was hoping for something a bit simpler and easier to read.”
“Yes, it is complex, but that is where things currently stand. That about covers it, unless you had questions.”
“Do I need to take the lead in the convention, or do you have things planned?”
“I need you to look threatening. If people say things, call them out on it. But don’t threaten violence directly if possible.” Threatening violence was my go-to option.
“Alright, a bit tricky, but I think I can figure that out. Good job by the way.”
“Thank you. That does bring up one last point. Your current expenses, revenue, and operating costs. You are now paying me 1,000 points per day.” I gave her a stare, but she just stared right back.
“I thought it was 100.” Someone was feeling quite self-important and bold to give themselves a raise like that.
“With what I am doing, it is a 1,000 points a day minimum. That also covers my expenses, like clothing, supplies, housing, and food.”
“If I fire you for overstepping?”
“Then good luck. You will need it.” I considered her request slash demand. It wasn’t unreasonable and I would get rid of her if she disappointed me. I wasn’t disappointed so far and the information summary was well done.
“No separate expense account then and I reserve the right to fire you at any time.”
“Fair enough. Let me break things down. I am owed 30,000 points. You have used up 50,000 points. You were owed 450,000 points from contracts, which is now 370,000 points.”
“Just stop. Take over the contracts I hold with the Union, get your pay from there. That is what, 370,000 points. So, 370 days. You don’t have to bother me until day 600. But realistically, I expect someone of your capabilities can use my endorsement to make points in some manner.”
“You are letting me have free reign over your name and presence in the city?” If she was making itineraries for me, she was already speaking on my behalf.
“Over things happening within the city. Yes. I don’t want to deal with it. That doesn’t mean I won’t check the books from time to time. I want a proper accounting ledger, not this verbal report going forward. Also, a much better information network within the city. Understood.”
“Crystal clear.”
“Good. Your new task is to come up with a cost to fix this place up. If we are going to live here, I don’t want a hole in the ground that this place feels like. I mean an itemized list and a sketch of where things go. Simple, yet classy.”
“I will work with Elise to figure something out. There is the matter of the outfits you commissioned from her, two of them.”
“I have no spare crystals at the moment.” I was both rich and broke at the same time. It was honestly hilarious in a depressing way.
“Yes, thankfully the auction for the city dungeons for Truth and Neo Brasilia has occurred, 8 times. The total points you have earned at two fifths is 384,000 points. It is currently all pending on contract.”
“Save them and use them to fix this place up.”
“I was thinking about investing in a potion den, a drug den,” Clarissa said. That sounded like a bad idea.
“No businesses. I don’t want to get involved in businesses directly. Leaves me too open to manipulation and being sucked into drama. Property speculate instead. This city will become packed. I want to start gobbling up all the buildings near me.”
“That brings up the issue of ownership. You can set an heir and permissions via the store. I would suggest full permissions for myself.” I waited and she didn’t say anything. At least she had some sense not to suggest to be made my heir for the properties under my name.
“You won’t be made heir. I will name you administrator. All the property will go under my name. That is possible if I am not here?” I asked.
“I can assign them under your name when I purchase them, but have you will designate me as an administrator when you can access the store. There is no way to transfer anything at the moment.”
“I am sure the Almighty System will have something with the next upgrade or one of the city upgrades. I want you to start buying all the property you can. That is more important than furnishing this place beyond the basics for now. I trust you can figure it out.” Clarissa nodded.
“Understood. That is everything.”
“Perfect, breakfast then?”
“Yes, it is almost time we can head out now, we can discuss specifics on the constitution as we walk,” Clarissa said.
“I am just going to be relaxing,” Naran called out as I left. Lucky bastard. Still, he deserved that and more.
Honestly, I didn’t argue with Clarissa, because trying to learn all this myself and manage it would be a nightmare. She just made things more efficient, which explained how she was a secretary for a top company. Her carpe diem attitude, or seize the day attitude, was refreshing and direct.
Letting her handle my assets in the city would let me live comfortably without having to worry about the cost. I know I was just giving up crystals and points, but they were all future earnings, and she could earn more under my name.
That way I could return to a comfortable home and not have to worry about the details. Trying to do everything myself would be too exhausting and stuff would slip through the cracks. Better to focus on what I was actually good at. With my upgrades I had confidence that I could find another level 3 area and grind far faster than I did the blue rats in the frostlands.
It was unfortunate I wasn’t able to upgrade Regeneration anymore, but that would come next time. At the moment, I could fire one Acid Shot every 5 minutes with its 10 energy cost. If I kept up that pace for 14 hours a day, that was 168. Multiply that by 450 points per level 3 crystal, and that was 75,600 points a day.
To get another 1,000 stat points was around 7.6 million points, 7,597,000 points, but I just rounded and would probably do that going forward since the numbers were getting quite large and a couple thousand of points no longer mattered that much. That would take 100 days of grinding. But that was what I wanted to do. Grind up all those points, turn them in, get 1,000 stat points.
I would then double all my existing stats. That would put me in a nice position to grind even faster and possibly check out some of the more dangerous areas I had written off. The East with the summoner ants was a possibility.
I just needed to find one city, to get two dungeons to get 10 upgrades for Acid Shot. Once it was gestureless, then it would be an incredibly overpowered skill.
That was what I was hoping for. I had no doubt something would happen. I hadn’t expected Death to show up and ruin my day, but it did. There was bound to be other things. Man plans, god laughs, or in this case the Almighty System.
I still was deeply concerned about that. A roaming, level 4 monster. With how tough it was, I was honestly a bit scared what a level 4 boss or area would be like. Hordes of Death monsters gliding towards me. I shuddered a bit at that.