It had taken three days to clear six dungeons after I had left the tower, looping to the South of the Free City of Hong Kong. Which I felt was very good progress. I only needed one more upgrade to max out Air Burst. I had picked persistence, silent, speed, size, prep and hold, and persistence as the next 6 upgrades.

The cost had gone up to 400 energy for each use of the skill, but that was a small price to pay in my mind for getting the silent upgrade back. I just needed one more upgrade and I would be all set for that skill. Just twenty one skill points left to get.

It wasn’t such a big deal with one or two skills that I was looking to upgrade, but with four, that meant a lot of skill points I needed to collect. I was also using this time to improve my skill use.

Just like stats I needed to make sure my skills were timed and used properly. This was even more true since I didn’t have the energy to spam them anymore and needed to combine Acid Shot and Force Wave. The timing needed to precise.

I had been practicing on the level 4 monsters I had run into in the dungeons. I considered it good practice to try and take them out in one shot at close range. It wasn’t simple or easy and I could tell there was a mental barrier blocking me from close combat.

There was a reason I didn’t like melee fighting. I hated getting hit and I liked to take my time and think through things. That was why training against level 4 monsters where there was some risk, but not an obscene amount, which made it kind of bearable.

I left the last dungeon with a sigh. I really wanted to face a level 5 monster, but there was no use running off to do that without fully upgraded skills. I had been mistaken in the belief that I could have two combat styles, a grinding style, and a PvP style.

It just wasn’t practical. I needed every once of speed I could eek out and to increase my combat sense or intelligence. One thing I had been focused on was looking at changes in energy that occurred while fighting to give me a better sense of what to look out for.

The real issue was that I didn’t want to push myself recklessly, but my improvement was not enough in my mind. It was decent, but the gap between me and the Divine Empress was still quite large.

I headed South. While that floating rock zone that I had investigated with the Astrologer’s proxy was to the Southeast, I wasn’t too worried as long as I didn’t go into the zone itself. I knew there were more level 3 zones, and my plan was to just go to the closest one until I maxed out my skills. After that I would test myself against a level 5 monster.

As for climbing a tower, I wasn’t sure. I had been going back and forth on this issue for a while now. It sounded like a great opportunity to get a meta-point but also the danger wouldn’t be light either. Then there was the question of if I should climb the one with the Astrologer trapped inside or not. His proxy had saved me, but claimed he had put a bomb in me. With the threat of the Divine Empress, it was very hard to make a decision.

I knew I needed to get crafting crystals, but I would worry about that after maxing out my skill upgrades at the current level.

After my investigation the first day regarding the tower. I had checked the tower the following day and the golems had reappeared, and the doors opened up at the base no problem. I wasn’t going to risk getting trapped inside, but I felt I had a decent understanding of the possible difficulty level.

In my current state, it would be hard, but not death defying hard. The heist had given me enough stats and confidence to make the ascent, with the main concern being my supplies.

I kept turning the issues over as I raced South into the next zone. It didn’t take long until I saw a large plateau in the center of the zone. As I approached it, I saw a group of people camped out near the base in the frostlands.

After a bit of thought, I altered my course to go speak to them. Unless it was the Divine Empress, I wasn’t worried. None of them appeared to be powerhouses either from the looks of things.

I counted ten people and all of them quickly spread out in a formation from their little camp as I approached. It was getting late, but the light source was still out. I noted a cart packed with crystals.

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“Hey,” I called out and came to a stop a short distance away.

“Hello. We don’t want trouble,” a woman called out.

“No problem. Just want to chat,” I replied, and they relaxed a bit. I walked over so I didn’t have to shout. It was boring going from dungeon to dungeon. Even if it was only the evenings, it had been nice to chat with Naran or other people. Also it would be good to get news on what was going on at the moment.

They also appeared not to be Asian, which meant they were probably from my empire. That was the crazy thing about this place, the big boss could just show up. Honestly, I could see it being quite scary when you were grinding in an area and a super strong person just rolled up.

“Purgatory?” I asked.

“Yes,” the woman replied while still being a bit on edge.

“Don’t worry. If I wanted to fight or kill you, you wouldn’t have a chance. Just wanted to get some news is all, then I will be on my way to the dungeon,” I replied. She gave me a look and then let out a sigh.

“If you are wearing shorts and a t-shirt in the frostlands, I don’t even want to know what your stats are. So, you from Hong Kong?” she asked.

“I came from that direction.” I didn’t want to give my identity away, since I found it amusing. I was wondering when they would realize or if they would even realize. “I heard the Divine Empress is back?”

They all stiffened up at that. “Yes, that’s the news at least.”

“So, what is Chief Administrator Clarissa up to?” I asked with a smile. That made them get tense. They probably thought I was digging for information. “You really don’t recognize me?” I asked.

“No? I apologize if that causes offense. But we are a grinding unit, deployed out here. Not one of the popular zones, but it is what it is,” she replied. I shook my head. No wonder why so many countries had portraits of their supreme leaders hung up everywhere.

If you didn’t have statues and portraits all over the place, then this kind of nonsense can happen. Even if it was amusing. “Not looking for anything confidential, just curious what the overall response is?” I asked with a smile.

“Grind, bring the crystals to the drop off point, and then more grinding,” she replied. It wasn’t much of an answer, and I could tell they were nervous.

“You clear the dungeon at the top of the plateau?” I asked.

“No,” she said and shook her head.

“I am Champion Michael,” I said. I could see the shock on their faces which instantly became guarded. “I just want to get more than one-word answers. I need to know how the war effort is going,” I replied.

“Um, do you have the deekly pass code?” she asked. I shook my head.

“No actually, since I am gone for extended periods of time. What can you tell me that is common knowledge? Are we winning?” I asked.

“I…if you are Champion Michael I apologize, but we can’t break protocol and reveal intelligence. Even just the casual events and overall state of the war.”

It was a good policy, but it was annoying. I let out a bit of a frustrated sigh at this. “What about under threat? Unless you all think you can take me?” I was curious about that.

“We aren’t going to open hostilities, but we can’t reveal any information,” the woman replied without hesitation. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. This situation had never come up while planning with Clarissa. Who wouldn’t recognize me?

I just wasn’t around enough. While I had been seen by some of the soldiers. That had been in my armor. Also, the risk of impersonators was also there. I just had to look at what I did to the Divine Empress to understand the crux of this issue.

Once the current war was over, I was getting a statue made, and several portraits. It would be incredibly shameless, but this was honestly a bit frustrating and annoying. But the security procedures were in place for a reason.

Trying to get around them and threatening my people wasn’t a good idea. “It is fine, I have to commend you and your people here for your focus on grinding and not just talking,” I said with a forced grin and a shrug.

“I am sorry Champion Michael. I would suggest that you go to a city to find a local contact to verify your identity to make things easier,” she said.

“Possibly. Possibly. Well, I am off then, keep up the good work,” I replied. I then walked past this unit. They gave me looks but none of them said anything or tried to stop me. I reached the cliff face of the plateau and pushed my hand in a bit.

Well time to get climbing. I removed my hand, bent my legs, and jumped. Air Burst. I kept using the skill to ascend until I only had half my energy left. The last bit was an easy hand over hand climb.

I couldn’t help but feel annoyed. I had met people who worked for me, but they didn’t know me. It was like that TV show I had seen a couple of times, Undercover Boss, except I wasn’t disguised.

My employees just didn’t recognize me. Even with my stats, they might not have the experience to understand things, or they might not even have the Sense stat. I knew that Clarissa focused on getting long term grinders more permanent stats and was trying to take them off consumption.

To have a level 3 grinding team out here, she was really grabbing up territory. But it made sense since the frostlands were the easiest to fight monsters and collect crystals out of the level 3 zones. The mistlands required a lot more stats and combat experience, and the stonelands were a nightmare to fight on and recover crystals from.

Also, you wouldn’t be able to bring a cart. That was a key point to making it easy to bring a large amount of supplies or bringing them back. I still wasn’t sure if a cart in a tower would be a good idea and how far I could take it.

Well it didn’t matter that much with the half a billion points I had in reserve. My health insurance plan was quite massive. The super deluxe platinum plan.