I sat with Clarissa inside a small conference room. The discussion had been going on for a while. The topics were ones I had already discussed with Clarissa. For the most part there was nothing new to consider.

“I think, we should consider expanding,” General Abdullah, the Director of Defense, said. “A long term war might be in our best interest.”

“It would resolve our population issues,” the Director of Social Responsibility Doctor Gretchen replied.

“With the upgrade done, our treasury can handle such an expansion,” Director of Finance, Lin Taylor added in.

“Our intelligence is non-existent. We would need to look at upgrading the cities to our West,” Director of Intelligence, Mitchell suggested.

“I object,” Doctor Katz, who was also the Director of Research replied. “The suffering will be quite great, including deaths.”

“The other option is to throw them into the monsters, which we are doing. But people without stats cannot grind against level 3 monsters effectively. There is no more room in the level 2 zones and people aren’t increasing their combat level fast enough. The reality we are faced with is the limit of effective grinding spots, and there are no more secondary jobs,” Director Gretchen said.

“Doctor Katz, you know the problems as well as anyone else. What suggestions do you have?” Clarissa asked.

“Force people to move up to level 3 zones,” he replied.

“That isn’t possible. The good level 3 zones and level 4 zones are taken. Pushing people to higher level zones before they are ready leads to high attrition and dissatisfaction. We would be looking at social unrest. My current projections indicate that if such a move was made, feudalism would take root within society. There would be a rise of warlords,” Director Gretchen paused to sip some water before continuing.

“That would require intervention. Intervention we can handle but would ultimately be self-defeating. There is a glut of low-level people at combat level 2 and the bottom of combat level 3. We can force people to more difficult zones, or level 4 zones. The result would be deaths.”

“In addition, our attempts to boost people to combat level 4 has not worked out well. Even with handholding, level 4 monsters are a huge divide in ability and power. We cannot afford the resources to uplift more people,” she replied.

“A war would mean death. A level 5 zone would have to be crossed. That means a road would be needed at best, or airships at worst,” Doctor Katz replied.

“We pack them in and deploy them in mass. They would sweep opposing zones of all other people. To cripple their grinding ability. Our elites would move in on the cities and scout,” General Abdullah said.

“Are we going to adopt a policy of declaring war?” Clarissa looked at me at Doctor Katz’s question along with everyone else in the ruling council of the Imperial Government.

“Doctor Katz, you have my utmost respect. But people are going to die regardless. Rather than killing each other, the only option is to unleash people at an enemy nation. This decision has been held off for as long as possible. But with the most recent upgrade, there is no more room for hope,” I replied.

“You want a war of aggression? To unite everything under your banner then?” he asked me.

“It would not be my first choice. If there were aliens out there or zones humans could survive in without instantly dying, I would pick those over other humans. But we are constrained by the reality of our situation, unless you have a solution?” I asked.

“I do,” he said, and everyone perked up at that. “We can begin farming operations. Using life energy on seeds, to grow the plants. We are currently testing at a small scale, but we can move full scale with such a project. We purchase buildings and put people to work, harvesting and maintaining a food supply,” he replied. He then pulled out several papers and handed one to each of us.

The summary of his research and projections for a farm set up. “It won’t be easy, and require investment up front. But this would ultimately let us quadruple our population carrying capacity. With the increased heights of buildings and the way the lights never run out of power, we could expand upwards,” he replied.

My respect for the good doctor went up several notches at this. He had taken my words to heart, finding solutions, not just pointing out problems. “What do you think Director Taylor?” Clarissa asked.

“Financially I will need to check things. But if the research holds out, we are looking at converting crafting crystals into food. Or using passive enchantments on pots to draw in life energy. No issues with eating this food?” she asked.

“There has been a slight difference in taste, we have only been observing the effects of eating the food for the last 200 days. And have kept specific individuals on a grown food only diet. There have been no abnormalities found. I was hoping to delay full scale implementation after a minimum of 1,000 days of observation to just be safe,” he replied.

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“Isn’t that excessive?” General Abdullah asked.

“No. Better to be on the safe side just in case there are issues,” Doctor Katz said.

“The safety precautions are warranted with something as critical as food supply,” Director Gretchen replied. “We need to give assurances and not allow our word to come into question if we implement this.”

“Emperor Michael, you are frowning,” Clarissa pointed out to me.

“Indeed I am. This solution is useful, but it does nothing long term or deal with possible threats. But it is good.” I weighed up the various long-term issues in my mind. “I will support an implementation here in the capital for the next 100 days, to test out this farming method on a large scale. There could be unforeseen issues. Specifically in the harvest, transport, and processing of the food. There will be issues that need to be worked out.”

“Secondly, we need to expand our knowledge and prepare for war. While I won’t declare one unilaterally, we can no longer look at other possible nations as not being a threat. That means we need to look at building a connecting road and upgrading the cities on the West edge of the Empire,” I replied and there nods at that. Doctor Katz let out a sigh, but I was holding off mobilizing for now.

War would come, it was a question of if, not when. We had been ignorant for far too long. “I would suggest we consider the Portal building. If it allows for transport, it would simply logistics. We could capture a city, rapidly upgrade it to level 5, and then secure it,” General Abdullah suggested.

“Michael?” Clarissa asked me again. She was asking me, since I would have to deal with any issues that came through.

“Buy it tomorrow. We should have the points on hand. Ten billion?” I asked.

“Yes,” Director Taylor said.

“Then we buy it and any upgrades. After that I plan to head off grinding and focus on improving my stats. We need more level 7 crystals as trump cards in any future battles,” I said and there were nods at that. “Also, I am thinking about clearing more towers.”

“From the air, or the ground?” General Abdullah asked me.

“From the ground, since the air is a nightmare. But that will come in time. Also, I want a maximum size airship,” I said.

“You want to explore in the future?” Clarissa asked me and I nodded. That and more room. It would be an even bigger crystal sink, than the Crystal Vortex, but we had procedures worked out for a large airship. Better to learn how the biggest ones worked while not in combat. I had no doubt the procedures we came up with would have to be adjusted.

“Yes. Also, is the training my people are giving others working on the test airship?” I asked General Abdullah.

“It is working but taking time. The biggest issue is that everyone needs high level beam skills and a pilot or Captain who can manage flying at the right layer,” he responded.

“We can’t allow knowledge to be lost. For now, we will plan the farming outlined by Doctor Katz and announce it at the 5,000 day celebration. We will engage in knowledge gathering for the next 1,000 days. With upgrade requests prioritized to the West side of the Empire and possibly other boundaries. A full reassessment should be planned on day 5,500,” I declared.

It was important to lay out dates. While far in the future, the main resource that would be used up was my time. After a long time of exploring and improving my combat abilities while depending on passive income, it was time for me to go all out.

“We should begin stockpiling crystals. I recommend 1% of the tax revenue, over the next 600 days. That would allow us to operate without tax revenue for a while if needed and provide an operational cushion,” Director Taylor suggested.

“Also stockpiling crafting crystals, for bombs and enchantments. I would like to move up the standard kit from level 3 to level 4. And to expand the Imperial Army from 300 to 600 and the Imperial Fleet from 6 Medium Airships with 3 Large Airships,” General Abdullah said.

“The cost would be quite large and strain the budget with other priorities,” Clarissa said.

“It will, but getting people up to speed, isn’t something that can happen overnight. Training takes time. If we need to protect our territory and to attack another, we need at least that many. And not just the garbage the governors have on hand,” he said.

“We would have to eat into the city budget and would not be able to stockpile crystals,” Director Taylor said.

“We can offload the cost. Each city can take 20 Imperial Soldiers on their payroll. That would be 360 soldiers, not counting Purgatory. They would be elites. We could offer the governors to allow them to nominate 20 people to these positions, but they would be split up,” Director Gretchen offered as a solution.

“Draft that and I will propose it at the next meeting,” Clarissa said. “As for the general savings, we will implement that as well. The expansion of our Fleet, will be authorized to a single large airship. Train people up, but the investment into a single one is massive and too large of an ongoing expense.”

After that it was just hammering out the details and Clarissa took charge of the meeting for the most part while I went back to passively listening in. I had made my declarations. I wasn’t happy with them, since they weren’t solutions, only pushing out the issue.

We had been passive, hoping someone or something would come up with the other side of the Systemic Lands, but nothing had happened so far. It was very concerning and reassuring at the same time. Concerning, since it made me question what the hell they were doing. Reassuring, since they weren’t clearing towers or invading our half of the Systemic Lands.

With the ability to grow our own food, we had a much bigger buffer. That was why I put things out for so long. We wouldn’t need to mobilize immediately. The longer we waited, the more strength we could accumulate. That was also true of the other side, which was why we were going to get information proactively for the first time.

The time of waiting was over. The scars of the Divine Empress and her Dragon Empire had healed fully. The Empire was mostly stable right now. We just needed to keep that stability going forward. It might even be worth growing food underground and putting people to work as miners. It would be slow and painful, but it was an option now. We could pack people in.

I felt a bit of hope. Doctor Katz, you rekindled what I thought was long dead. For that you have my thanks, and I would look for a peaceful solution with the other nations out there if possible, out of respect for your desires.

Talk was cheap, so I wouldn’t say anything, since I would probably have to melt everyone regardless. But I would make a serious effort and not just resort to force right away and killing everyone.