“The first item. The omnidirectional headlamp, for fighting in dark areas.” Clarissa handed me the piece of gear in the conference room. I looked it over. It was basically a reinforced headband with eight small boxes around the outside.

I carefully engaged the belt like clip and flipped open each of the eight small compartments. “We have no elastic, so we had to come up with a cloth and metal work around. The lights are all level 1 light passive light enchantments.” I closed the compartments up and took it off.

“The next piece of gear, is the life and flesh flask. There is a flesh-self type crystal and a life crystal inside. Just turn them into powder and pour it on a cursed wound or severe injury. We have made two of these flasks with level 3 crafting crystals.” Clarissa laid them out on the table.

I would need to adjust my gear to keep them at my side like the Processing Rods at all times. This was the counter to curse damage that the good doctor had developed. The fact it was put into a flask to be kept on me at all times was huge. If I ever got curse damage or a serious wound, I would have a chance of surviving until I got back to the store.

Now this was a potion. Not the junk the Ritualist made or the near useless garbage from the Alchemical Hall. That wasn’t fair, but I hadn’t heard anything about the stuff, so I wasn’t holding my breath. This was a genuine life saving potion.

“The final item, is this. The most compact powerful bomb Doctor Katz could develop. Using four level 3 crafting crystals. The crystals are designed to be opposite each other and it is designed in such a way to maximize the annihilation effect when it is detonated.” Clarissa passed over a soda can sized bomb.

“You unscrew either end to prime the crystals.” I carefully unscrewed an end, and the crafting crystals had their own slots. “They are the optimum distance apart. Too close, and the annihilation effect is not as large for some reason.”

I carefully put the bomb back together. I wasn’t about to prime the crystals right now. “Thank you Clarissa. I really appreciate the items,” I said.

“Well it is part of the ongoing development we are doing. Still no idea what to make of the astrolabe. It has everyone scratching their heads on why it works. Like jumping two or three levels in the tech development ladder. It is like getting an iPhone, when we still have rotator phones. We skipped regular land lines and flip phones,” Clarissa explained.

“You can say the words and get what it is doing but working out everything behind it is the tough part,” I replied.

“Yes. We haven’t even worked out the type chart and it uses an axis of some kind. Well we haven’t turned any on, but the moment the city falls, the message will go out,” Clarissa said.

“Good. Well I need to redesign my gear and then I will set off tomorrow. Probably have breakfast first for a bit of a late start. Finally get some eggs and bacon.” My mind drifted off as I thought of all the wonderful types of meat.

“There is going to be a celebration, will probably have burgers served up. We finally got cheese working as well, so cheese burgers,” Clarissa said.

“Count me in. A celebration sounds perfect right now,” I replied. I put the gear Clarissa had given me back in the pack and went out to the store.

People were taking a look, but a spot was immediately cleared for me. I spent some time thinking about the exact kind of utility belt I wanted. I needed to keep my maneuverability high. One Processing Rod and one anti-curse flask on each side. A place for a sword and on the opposite hip, a pouch for the bomb.

I purchased the new belt and switched it out. I carefully put in my gear and moved about a bit. I had my full range of movement, perfect. I left the store and went over to the several tables Clarissa had set up in the plaza. I was able to cut in line. Champion privileges and I was the guest of honor.

I noticed there was a grill to cook the burgers. A portable stove! I needed a cart cook now. Burgers every day. I carefully got a burger and some oiled cooked fried and took a seat next to Clarissa at a table with guards standing around to keep the riff raff away.

“You didn’t need to grab your own food,” Clarissa told me.

“Old habits die hard,” I replied. I took a bite. It was delicious. Clarissa you are a genius for getting this all arranged. People were laughing and smiling. I wanted every day to be like this. I wasn’t tired of fighting or grinding, but it was draining in its own way.

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“Well you demolished that,” Clarissa said as she took another dainty bite, while I ripped into the fries.

“I have always been a fast eater. Also, it was too good,” I said. There was a limit of one per person based on the sign and I wasn’t going to ask for another. I didn’t want to eat and get sick. This food was too good to throw up. I sipped the fruity alcoholic beverage that had been provided in front of me. “Also, amazing work with all the food.”

“Thank you. It was my dream as a little girl to be the CEO of McDonalds. A bit silly, but I just thought it would be so cool to own all the burger places,” Clarissa shared.

“I wanted to eat all the McDonalds instead,” I replied, able to joke about my weight now that it was far behind me.

“Not President?” Clarissa asked me.

“Every kid dreams of being President, like they do about being an Astronaut. But my dreams are just that, dreams. I prefer to focus on the present. But it is nice to be in charge,” I said with a smile.

“Well for a boss, you aren’t half bad.”

“Only half. What about the other half?” I asked.

“Questionable,” Clarissa said in perfect deadpan. I knew she was teasing me, and I smiled.

I looked up at the light source as it was making its way across the mostly clear sky. The occasional puffy cloud and light breeze passing through. Also, the smell of cooking meat. There was singing going on in the distance.

It would be the last time I would be seeing Purgatory for a long time most likely. Most of these people would probably be dead as well. Dark thoughts clouded my mind as they turned back to the threat of the Divine Empress.

Her presence was like a meteor heading slowly towards me. I knew about it, it was a massive disaster, but there was no good option to stop it from impacting and doing immense damage. I wondered if this was how other leaders felt when they knew impending disaster was about to strike their country.

I might not like the day to day stuff, but being in charge was nice. No one telling me what to do. That was the peace I wanted to protect. My peace of mind. I let out a long sigh.

“Worried?” Clarissa asked me.

“Yes. The future. Well you know,” I said not wanting people to accidentally overhear what we were talking about.

“Everything is in place. Now the only thing we can do is build up strength while we wait.”

“I was never good at waiting. I prefer to be proactive. While you might not lose staying on defense, you can’t win either,” I explained.

“Well, you managed everything else so far. Who knows, I might find a solution before you. Many hands make light work,” Clarissa replied.

“I don’t expect things to be that easy. It is going to be a David versus Goliath situation if I had to make a guess. The one thing that parable never says-“

“-are all the Davids crushed by Goliath beforehand.” Clarissa finished for me and I nodded.

“Exactly. Being in a position of weakness is hard. Especially since our only help is the most untrustworthy person possible.” The Astrologer was staying on my sus list no matter what. You don’t put a bomb into a person and expect everything to be good after that.

“Should I consider dispatching a team into a tower?” Clarissa asked me.

“And lose people? The Astrologer said it is a one way trip and that is probably not a lie. But it makes me curious how he got his thing, out of the tower.”

“Well, he is an interesting person. And is ready to be moved with me once the signal is given,” Clarissa said and I nodded at that.

“Good, we can’t lose him or let him get taken. No matter what.”

“Arrangement have been made. You really worry a lot you know,” Clarissa told me.

“I know, but I can’t help thinking that I am about to have a test, that I haven’t studied for. Well I did study, but I am still not ready,” I replied.

“That is the pressure of a high level leadership position. You have to press forward regardless.”

“Make a decision, any decision, even if it is a bad one,” I said quoting the bit of management advice I had picked up over the years.

“A decent philosophy to have,” Clarissa replied. “The main thing are the people and knowledge. That stuff can’t easily be recovered. A city is just points and points are one resource that is renewable.”

“Not people?” I asked teasing Clarissa a bit.

“No. I refuse to try and build up another organization from the ground up. My hair is going gray Michael. Even with restorations, I have been getting gray hair. How you handle the stress is beyond me.”

“I ignore it all and have you deal with it. Hence your massive salary,” I replied.

“If we come out of this alive, I want a raise,” Clarissa said.

“How much?” I asked.

“Twenty five per day,” Clarissa said. I could earn over 2 million in one day, so it didn’t seem like that much.

“That is fine.”

“Really?” Clarissa asked me.

“You are the best. Which means you deserve a salary fitting that. Honestly, all the stuff you arrange is beyond impressive. Like cats?” I asked, inferring all the people she had to wrangle and manage.

“On catnip,” she answered. “But I am used to it. Also dropping your name to get them in gear never hurts.”

“The joy of a dictatorship. Scaring people into compliance.”

“Well your popularity is actually quite high. You rate at 69%. The overall direction of the city and organization structure came in at 53%,” Clarissa said.

“We have polling?” I asked.

“It was something I was working on. One of many projects. These things take time. I need to find a competent person. Explain what I want, correct any mistakes, review their work, and supervise them. It adds up. I try to offload as much as I can, but it never ends,” Clarissa explained.

“No arguments from me. Just surprised that we have it.”

“It is good to establish baselines early on. We even have exit interviews for when the rotation is done,” Clarissa said and I shook my head in bewilderment. I would have never thought of things like this. I would just say ‘do this’ and expect it to get done. But that was why I had put Clarissa in charge of the day to day.

Now there was a thought. I needed to kill the Empress’s Clarissa. That would create cracks in her Empire.