After a long moment of silence Ruth spoke up. “Ritualist, what exactly are you trying to accomplish?”

“Have you found another city?”

“Yes. To the East. New Cairo. They apparently had a full reset recently, so it shouldn’t be too hard to take control.”

“Good. Then we have our fallback location. First, we need to get my supplies and then I need access to the store.” My mind was already spinning and coming up with a plan. My focus was completely on my revenge.

“Alright. I can put the guards and people to sleep. Lead on.” Ruth followed me as I went back to the research building. The guards were quickly put to sleep along with Jerry and Sam. I recovered my packs filled with crystals, crystal powder, blood powder. We loaded up the packs on the wolves and made our way to one of the buildings I had stashed a cart.

They didn’t disappear like everything else. I loaded up my supplies but kept a pack of 5-point crystals. Using 50-point crystals would draw unnecessary attention. “I need a cloak.”

“You will have to show your face to the guards at the store,” Ruth said. I didn’t know that.

“That is fine, they aren’t Carlos’ men.”

“It is a risk Ritualist.”

“I need to heal. Unless you have a healing skill?”

“No, I don’t. So, I just wait?”

“Yes, my monsters will protect you.” Also, to keep you from running away. She handed over her cloak. It was a bit small, but it was enough. I set off for the plaza. The sun had set, and it was quite dark.

I reached the plaza and walked confidently towards the pillars. I stopped at one of the tax tables. “Hood off.” I took it off. The guards looked at me but didn’t say anything. I normally didn’t talk to any of them, and this was a different time of day than when I normally showed up.

One of the guards took my pack and divided the crystals into four equal piles. “Pick the one you want to be taxed.” That was certainly faster than counting. I picked one at random. The rest went back into my pack while the guard pushed the crystals in the chosen pile into a waiting chest.

I went to one of the pillars and set the pack on it. It took 4,742 points to heal. I was glad to have points in reserve, since the crystals in my pack wouldn’t have covered that. I let out a sigh of relief as my hand healed and my nails returned.

This place was truly run by idiots. I made my way back to Ruth who was nervously looking at the monsters. “Healed up?”

“Yes. Now we need to plan. We will take the crystal stockpiles of the city when we flee and lay a trap for Champion Michael.”

“Ritualist, I can’t stress enough, how a trap is not likely to work. Also how Champion Michael will melt us.” I frowned at that.

“Even with hundreds of monsters?”

“Those mean nothing. All level 1 and level 2 right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, they will be mowed down. Or liquidated. Regardless, it is a fight that can’t be won. He can move too fast and reposition faster than your monsters can move. Even if you wear him down, he can just retreat and gather more energy. With his stat upgrades, his Regeneration stat must be quite high.”

That was clearly true from what I had sensed of him. I was not about to run off half-cocked and throw my life away.

“As for stealing the city treasury. That place is heavily guarded. I have taken a look myself. But after Ben stole the treasury once, there are two separate reinforced doors and five guards always on duty. At least two of these guards are elite, so I can’t just put them to sleep either since they have stats.”

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Her information network was impressive regardless of the difficulties ahead of me. A useful person to have by my side. “There is the announcement and full vote on the constitution they are doing on day 250, before the arrival. We can use that period of time.”

“I will send a swarm of monsters to attack the plaza, then we both head into the treasury and loot it.”

“Carrying out the chests? Each one requires two people. There will be around 7 chests, each with 10,000 crystals. The treasury is on the second floor. People need Body stats to move them. Your monsters, don’t have the strength or the hands Ritualist.”

I considered the problem. “Round up vagrants to help.”

“They won’t do something like this. Passing information is one thing. Killing-“

“Wait, there are people approaching. Come.” I walked to a back room while dispersing my monsters into the shadows.

Four-armed people entered the building. “You sure, she came in here?”

“Yes. Ruth, come out we want a chat.”

“Shit, Michael,” she cursed. She really was a criminal of some kind. And on the run from Michael as well. How interesting.

“We move as a group. Clear the rooms one by one. Stay alert. Ruth if you fight, then someone is going to get hurt.” She looked at me.

“Don’t worry, I will deal with this as a favor to you,” I whispered. Brown slimes dropped down from the ceiling on their heads. Wolves rushed in and ripped their legs apart. I walked calmly back into the main room. All too easy.

There were four melting corpses as blue slimes moved through them. Ruth didn’t make a sound. It was disgusting, but I had long gotten used to my monster ripping into the flesh. It felt like I was ripping into the flesh. Melting it. There was a smell in the air.

I shook my head. I couldn’t hesitate. My path was set. My old life of being ordered about was truly gone and I had to embrace the new. I had to be the Ritualist in mind as well as in body.

“Let’s move to another building. We were talking about the chests with the crystals,” I said.

Ruth let out a long breath before speaking as we walked to another building. My monsters patrolling the area around us. “We can get to the chests, but it will take at least half an hour to move all of them. We need to be gone in under 3 minutes, otherwise we will get caught. Even 3 minutes is generous.”

“You can’t bribe someone to help?”

“No chance. Anyone besides you and me would go to Champion Michael for a reward and sell us out.” She seemed awfully confident about her assertions, but the team after her gave validity to her claims she didn’t have before.

“Where exactly is the treasury?” I asked.

“Right on the other side of the public office that Red Dawn has. The buildings form a sideways ‘T’ if you look at it from above. The treasury is in the middle of the top of the ‘T’. Facing the plaza. Also, where the main administration is located, and Tyrese spends most of his time.”

“When do they deposit crystals?” I asked my mind racing.

“Every shift change.”

“We can go over the roof tops and melt our way down, then escape that way.”

“There are two guards in the room at all times. In case of teleporters. Three outside the two locked doors. If there is any commotion one of two bells right outside or inside the treasury will be rung. The guards will then swarm over the location. Hauling the chests up on the roof is impossible.”

I thought over the problem. “That still leaves the issue of Michael. I will not fight him, no matter what.” I looked at Ruth.

“Don’t worry about that. I already know how to kill him. In fact, why don’t I plan to kill him and then we kill the rest of this city?”

“Almost the entire Union is here. People with skills and stats in the four hundred to six hundred range. People will hesitate against other people, but with monsters, they will rally. Perhaps, we can leave the theft for another-“

“No! I will take what I am owed. I will take it all. Also, I will need those crystals.” Several of my monsters shifted at my outburst and I quickly stilled them.

“You can’t spend points if you are dead.”

“True, but there has to be a way. We just have to think of it.”

“We can get in and out quickly enough, but the problem is the number of chests and the weight. Moving them onto a cart in under 3 minutes is the main bottle neck. Everything else can be dealt with in that timeframe.”

“The solution is simple. We don’t need a complicated strategy. I will force people to carry the chests for us. With monsters threatening them, they will move quickly.”

“That could work. But we need to escape to the East. The treasury is on the West side of the plaza.”

“We can loop through the city. Yes, this will work. I will need to summon more monsters. But we will act when the signing ceremony happens. I will order monsters to attack from the East. We then attack the treasury, and my monsters will force people to carry the chests and melt through the doors. You put everyone to sleep possible.”

“Once the chests are loaded up, we flee to the West and then loop around to the South and exit the East gate. From there we go to the city you found, New Cairo.”

“And your plan for dealing with Michael.” I smiled.

“It is simple yet brutal. There will also be no escape. With him dead, the city will fall into chaos. Yes. It is perfect.”

“I need details, just to make sure there aren’t any problems that might come up.”

“Fair enough. Let me explain how I plan to kill him.”