I had cleared two more dungeons, fully upgrading Air Burst with gestureless and picking power as the first upgrade for Force Wave. The cost of Air Burst was now 800, which made me wince, but I considered the tradeoff more than worthwhile. I needed my skills to be silent and gestureless, otherwise they were just too slow in high level combat.

After a bit of thinking and getting annoyed at myself for mentally going in circles I had changed course. I was making my way to Esperanza right now and planned to get back to skill upgrades after I got a more comprehensive status update.

The meeting with that grinding team had left a bad taste in my mouth. I wanted more concrete information on what the Divine Empress was doing to get a better understanding of her mindset. Was she randomly hunting people down? Was she clearing out zones and cities of all life one at a time? Has she disappeared and was attempting to track down me or her kid covertly?

Honestly, I had not good way to judge what she would do, since I didn’t know exactly what I would do in her position. I had a lot of guesses and more than enough time to think of them, but I wanted information and a general sense of her location.

While I doubted it would be up to date, it would let me know where not to be. I wanted to keep at least one zone between me and her at all times. Still, if there was a fight, I should hopefully be able to hold my own. If I could survive the initial exchange but wasn’t winning, then I planned to head right into a high level zone to make the fighting chaotic, or a tower if one was close.

I would have about half a day, depending on the time, until the doors reopened. I could rush in and leave the Divine Empress trapped outside. It would put me in a very tough spot, but it was a possible escape plan I had come up with. It was important to think of these things ahead of time in case things got complicated.

After clearing the next hill, the city of Esperanza, came into view ahead of me, or at least the city wall did. I quickly made my way inside. There was no one at the gate. That wasn’t too surprising. I went up on the wall and gained a bit of altitude and didn’t see anything unusual, even with my Sense stat.

The big danger about a city were the number of places a person could hide. Also the walls blocked my Sense stat to a large degree as well. While not perfect and I would be able to see large amounts of energy, it was like looking through tinted glass and trying to make out things on the other side.

I reached the plaza and there was no one there. I had showed up quite early in the morning and the light source was just coming up over the horizon. But to not find a single person was quite surprising. I shrugged and got a restoration and restocked my supplies. Another reason to come to a city.

While I didn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep as much with upgraded stats, I still needed some sustenance. I was also traveling very light. Since I wasn’t going to spend a long time grinding, having a simple pack was more than enough.

I considered upgrading the city, since it would be nice to have some meat. I had no way to cook meat. Well I could buy a building, a stove, and then cook meat there. It would be an incredible hassle, but I was honestly tempted.

In the end I decided not to. Even if I wanted to eat meat, I could do that once I was the undisputed ruler of the Systemic Lands and the Divine Empress was dead. Until then, I was on my fruits and vegetables diet.

The final reason I had come to the city, was that my stomach had been bothering me again. Probably from the travel and lack of decent food and sleep. Thankfully a restoration took care of the issue. As I finished putting my supplies in my pack, I noticed a single man approaching me. They had very low stats.

“Yes?” I asked as they got closer, curious if they would have actual information.

“Champion Michael?” the man asked, and I smiled. Finally, someone knew me.

“Yes,” I said with a nod. The man let out a sigh of relief and sagged a bit.

“There is a safehouse in the city if you would like to rest,” he told me. I nodded at this and followed him.

“How are things going?” I asked.

“Let’s speak in the safehouse,” he said. I kept an eye out for traps and ambushes but wasn’t that worried. I followed the man away from the plaza and a couple of streets later entered a building. He rattled off some numbers and letters after entering.

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I noted this building was blocked off by other buildings on either side so there were very few windows. He led me to a back room, which had a cloth door. One of those blankets that Clarissa used to hide people from the Sense stat. The man pushed the blanket aside and it wasn’t one but three. I followed after him and entered a room where there were blankets on all the walls.

There were several other people in the room and several chests of crystals. The people were sitting down at a table playing a game of guards. The man let out a sigh of relief once we entered and we went to another room.

“Commander, we have an important visitor,” my guide said. I entered the room and there was Commander Abdullah.

“Champion Michael,” he said with a smile.

“Commander Abdullah, surprised to see you here,” I replied. He stood up and saluted me, I returned the salute. While everything was neat and clean, he appeared quite worn.

“Come sit, sit,” he said. “Do you want anything?” he asked.

“Water,” I said.

“Please get some water,” the Commander ordered my guide.

“At least you recognize me. Ran into a grinding team that didn’t. That was annoying. So how are things going? I take it the information got back safely?” I asked. A cup of water was handed to me and the man left, leaving me with the Commander.

“The information got back safely. I handed it to Chief Administrator Clarissa myself. Now I am in charge of this entire city and the surrounding zones,” he replied.

“From here?” I asked.

“Yes. Have fifty properties I own in the city. We move occasionally, but they are hard to find, thanks to the blankets blocking the Sense stat.”

I nodded at this. That was a decent strategy. Even if someone checked the purchased property, searching them all would be a pain and it would also send up alerts, if those properties were watched. “New arrivals sent out to grind?” I asked.

“Yes, that is what most of my force is doing. The people who stay behind, we get rid of. All the cities are being completely abandoned after what happened to New Beijing.”

“I have been out of the loop, what happened?” I asked, knowing it couldn’t be anything good.

“A good portion of the city was leveled. The Divine Empress showed up. Crushed the gates to stop people from escaping that way. Then she went on a rampage, killing and torturing people. She asked two questions. Where is Champion Michael? Where is the Astrologer? Well, it was a bloodbath. Some escaped, but not many.”

“Word eventually got back, now we have a permanent dispersal order. Each grinding team is responsible for an area, has a drop off point for crystals. They leave a cart and pick up one full of supplies.”

I nodded at this. “It is kind of working, but it is rough. But it is the only way.”

“When was New Beijing destroyed and any other update on the Divine Empress?” I asked.

“It was wiped out on day 805 I believe. That is about seven days ago. As for where she is? The emergency reports indicate that she is going from city to city, but we aren’t too sure. Get too close and she kills you. Too far away, and her speed, it is hard to say.”

“But there was a swath of disappearances on day 806 leading from West to East through this city’s zones. So, it is assumed she is heading East, looking for you,” Commander Abdullah explained to me.

I let out a long sigh and sipped some water. “That is good to know. What a headache,” I muttered thinking about the Divine Empress’s actions. “What about the Dragon Empire, how are things progressing there?” I asked.

“Very well last I heard. Our combat units are sweeping through their tribes, in what can only be called a massacre. If it wasn’t for the Divine Empress, we would have complete control over the entire area.”

“There was no follow up to Normandy?” I asked and Commander Abdullah winced a bit.

“The rest of the units were sent back, but I delivered the information and there was a need for someone experienced to manage this city. It is a key link between the East and the West with the road through the level 3 zones. We can’t afford to lose it.”

I nodded at that. It made sense. That long road that had been built, connected the evil empire to my empire. It was key that we didn’t lose control over both sides. “We still have New Beijing?” I asked.

“Yes. We were using a lot of locals to help build up, but our people are experienced. Well, they try at the very least. If you don’t mind me asking sir, can we kill her?” I didn’t need to be a genius to know who he was referring to. The fact that he was asking this question and the depressed attitude of the people here, showed that morale was low.

That wasn’t a good sigh, but there was nothing I could do unfortunately. “There are plans. That information will help going forward. But it isn’t simple Commander. The number of stats and combat experience she has, it isn’t even a coin flip. Maybe five to ten percent chance of winning,” I replied and he nodded at that.

“I see. Well, I will keep soldiering on. Hopefully something gets worked out. It is a nightmare trying to run things like this. But if we go outside casually, then she could show up and instant death,” he replied with a sigh.

I could only nod slightly at this and sip my water. “Do you require any assistance?” he asked me.

“No. I just wanted an update on the current situation to understand the Divine Empress’s movements. That was the most important thing. If she does show up, you are welcome to tell her I went back to her Forbidden City. Not that it will help. Or you could call her an old hag. I did that once. She wasn’t happy about it.”

“Really? You called her an old hag?”

I nodded at this. “Yes actually. Right before Purgatory got destroyed, we fought. We talked a bit before fighting.” It was more of a beatdown, but these people needed hope. “I called her an old hag and she punched me quite hard,” I replied. I think I had told this story to his group before, but I could see him humoring me, his commander in chief. Like when a boss tells a joke or a story you have heard for a thousand times, you just smile and nod.

“Well, I should get going. Thanks for the update, Commander Abdullah, stay safe,” I told him.

“You as well. We are all praying for your victory,” he told me, and I smiled a bit at that.