Chapter 444: Day 869 – A Tsunami Of Despair

Chapter 444: Day 869 – A Tsunami Of Despair

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 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.