I was exhausted. Screw the super slimes with a rusty stick right up their rear. I knew slimes didn’t have a rear, but it was honestly getting a bit ridiculous at this point. The city wall was gone, and there was not a city trench instead.

The super slimes chasing me, slowly melted into the gray city stone. While it hadn’t been that much at first, after ten laps it was noticeable. After twenty laps, it was officially a trench. A day and a half of just running around this city was not fun. I spotted the occasional person in the distance, but no one came close.

Acid Shot x10. Acid Shot x10. Another super slime down. I had tried to time my attacks when they were the opposite energy type to use an annihilation reaction. The super slime retreated when that happened. Another behavior to watch out for. While they were content to tank my little attacks, they got really scared at annihilation attacks.

That meant there were no shortcuts that I could think of. It was not longer a wave of slimes, but a tsunami of slimes. That was the official name for a large group of slimes. It might start off as a wave, but once you had enough that you had to fight for over half a day, it was a tsunami.

I was only done with about a quarter of them so far. I wasn’t even bothering to keep count at this point. I was counting the days, not the slimes now. This was when Clarissa was supposed to show up. Well not to worry, your Emperor is putting on a show, running away from a tsunami of slimes.

My mood had become depressed when I realized the slimes were relentless and it would take forever. But after a day of just running, I had come to accept it and was in a bit of a Zen mindset, channeling my inner peace. It wasn’t a tower at least. That was all I had to tell myself to cheer myself up.

I saw a group of people gathering in the distance in front of me. I was doing large leaps, instead of staying close to the ground. I wasn’t trying to outrun the slimes, just keep them at the same distance. I counted twenty people and energy began to gather. Beam attacks, of course.

Staying at the bottom of my trench, I spun mid-air to see how the slimes reacted. The beam attacks just tickled them a bit. They were probably level 3 beam attacks and not upgraded. These were level 5 monsters. I was using level 4 attacks, fully upgraded.

While they took some damage, it just wasn’t enough. That was when there was another round of thirty beam attacks, focused on the already damaged slime. That finally killed it. I noted the group of people retreating. Well, that saved me about an hour, so thanks soldiers.

I kept running along the trench and checked to see if any of the slimes chased them. They didn’t, but it was smart to set up in front of me, so I could see the beam attacks coming and was between the soldiers and the super slimes.

It was probably Clarissa who was rolling her eyes at my antics right now and a bit frustrated that the future capital city was a mess. Who would have guessed 100 level 5 monsters? It was incredibly stupid and frustrating.

What would a level 7 city upgrade look like? Would there be 10,000 level 7 monsters? That was never going to happen. There would be no way to win against something like that. Even if the Divine Empress, Astrologer, Protector, and the Ritualist were all alive and united, with everyone being at the Divine Empress’s level, it just wouldn’t be possible.

At a certain point, quantity trumps quality in terms of threat. This was probably the tipping point. No wonder why no one upgraded cities. They probably knew and spread the word. There hadn’t been anything from the Dragon Empire beyond the Divine Empress not allowing Lords to upgrade their cities.

I could see why, since it was an extinction level event. Another hour, and enough energy to wipe out another super slime. I spun around and melted one more. Anyone but me would have been wiped out instantly with how fast these things moved and their size.

Just thinking about level 5 zones gave me a headache after seeing this. A loop around the city took about two hours, and the soldiers unleashed the beam attacks in the same spot. That meant their help knocked down the remaining time I needed to do this from about three more days to two more days.

At least Clarissa was smart enough not to send anyone else in to try and help. That would just be completely pointless and a death sentence. The people watching at a distance probably got the message with how little the beam attacks did, confirming that I wasn’t just running away for fun.

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On the third loop, I noted a large number of bombs had been set up and partially buried in the ground. That was probably so they survived the slimes initial rush. There was a clear path down the middle at least, which was considerate.

I could have leapt into the air, but Clarissa probably didn’t want to stress me out by placing bombs directly in my path. I raced past the bombs and turned around in mid-air to look at the explosions. They were impressive, and there were various annihilation reactions.

The soldiers with the beam attacks, came out right after and unleashed an attack into the slimes. I slowed down and unleashed some Acid Shots on the most injured as well. That round of attacks took out 10 of the super slimes.

A small dent in their impossibly huge numbers. I went back to running again with a sigh. There were no more bomb attacks after that. Just the occasional beam attack, taking out one slime per loop.

It was morning of day 871, two days later, when I finally melted the last super slime. “Finally,” I muttered in relief as I came to a halt. I just stood there looking at the trench I was in. The depth was probably around the height of a six story building. I had done a lot of loops and the slimes and destroyed a lot of terrain.

Kicking off the ground, I made my way up the slope and past where the wall once was. It was just a slight ridge in the ground and there was a small trench on the other side. I hesitated and then let out a sigh. I needed to know how made it was. I looked at the center of the city and it was like an island. There were still buildings around the plaza, which had only been partially melted.

Kicking off the ground, I made my way towards the plaza. I finally reached the pillars. They were slightly damaged. “Please, Almighty System, show me some kindness,” I muttered out loud. I didn’t believe my prayer would work in the slightest, but there was a faint bit of hope.

I put my hands on one of the pillars and closed my eyes to stop myself from crying.

Critical Damage. Upgrade canceled. Hundred million points for repair.

It was ten times higher than the previous cost for repair. Of course. I paid a hundred million, wanting to see if it would be all pillars or just one. It was just one of course. Of course, it was just one pillar. This entire thing would cost 810 million points. There were the 10 million points for the upgrade, and then 100 million points per damaged pillar.

I purchased a restoration, which was only around a hundred thousand. We would never be getting a level city. Well, if we did ever make the attempt, we would need a lot of cannons, and a lot of points to fire them. Failing an upgrade was far worse than just investing in structures to stop this kind of thing from happening.

I should have purchased a City Shield in hindsight. I just didn’t think there would be 100 level 5 monsters. There was nothing I could do to protect the pillars either. They were too large and came from all directions. That made it impossible to draw them away from the pillars.

No matter what direction I went, some of the super slimes would have moved over the store pillars no matter what. They were just too large. Even if I killed two, ran back, there still wouldn’t be enough of a gap, to pull them all without damaging the pillars.

Running to the edge of the city had been the best decision. I let out another long sigh. Easy come, easy go. At least I did this before we made this the capital and built up buildings and had civilians. The knowledge of the disaster waiting behind the store upgrade was priceless. While the outcome was bad, it could have been far worse.

Letting out another long sigh and shaking my head, I turned towards were the soldiers had been retreating to. There were other people there as well. I turned in that direction and set off through the ruined city of Purgatory. While it wasn’t totally destroyed, it got wrecked a second time.

It didn’t take long to find the camp that had been set up about a mile away from the city itself in the grassy plains to the East of the city. I was quickly waved past the soldiers standing guards and came to a makeshift camp that had been set up with tables and chairs. I noted a lot of paperwork. It was nice that the days were always sunny, so you didn’t have to worry about excess wind or rain ruining an outdoor set up like this.

Clarissa quickly stood up as I approached along with everyone else. She bowed along with everyone else. “Rise,” I said and waved my right hand a bit. Bowing was good. I wasn’t going to have people kneel or kowtow. Handshakes were way too dangerous. So, a half angle bow was acceptable. One of the minor things I had worked out with Clarissa after insisting on the title of Emperor.

“Emperor Michael, congratulations on winning that battle,” Clarissa said and gestured towards a larger chair next to her. The flag of Purgatory was draped over it. Eight dots in a circle with a larger circle around it. White dots on a dark blue background

I took my seat and then everyone else sat. “Thank you, Clarissa. It was long. A 100 level 5 monsters for the next city upgrade,” I shook my head at that.

“A good thing to learn ahead of time. Level 6, that will be impossible,” she said.

“Maybe, but anything beyond will be impossible. There will just be too many monsters if the amount increases by a factor of ten each time and they increase in level as well. More bad news, all the pillars are damaged and will need to be repaired. Already did one. The remaining seven will cost seven hundred million points,” I said.

There were some gasps at that but people didn’t say anything. “I see. You want to divert city funds for the repair?”

“You already have discussed the taxes and everything else?” I asked.

“There are some minor changes that require your approval, but the tax rate is settled at thirty percent with the split we discussed.” I nodded at that. At least people weren’t trying to get one over on me while I wasn’t present. That would have really pissed me off.