The small bunker we were in shook as impact after impact rumbled through the ground. I was absolutely quiet as dust and debris rained down from the ceiling. I absolutely did not want to fight the Divine Empress right now.
The ground shook and I heard more smashing above us. The carved out bunker was incredibly cramped and I noted in the darkness, that the sides and roof were made of wood with the initial hole in the ceiling going through a hole in the cart.
A minute passed by, and the attacks seed to grow more distant. I was ntally preparing for the Divine Empress to rip the ceiling off the hiding hole I was cowering in. I didn’t like this feeling, being forced to hide, but fighting was a last resort.
Then the silence ca, everyone was barely breathing and no one said anything. The risk of going outside was incredible. What if the Divine Empress was waiting for rats to surface? I really didn’t want to get caught up in a fight with her right now and use my new trump card. I wanted to save that for when the super weapon was finished, the bomb inside was taken care of, and I had skill upgrades.
Beating the Divine Empress would require multiple trump cards to be deployed one after another in order to defeat her. Trying to use one, and then hoping to retreat was foolish. The real risk was that even if a trump card worked she would run away and I wouldn’t be able to catch her.
I couldn’t afford to let that happen. It would be a never-ending nightmare that would just drag out. When I made a move to fight and or kill her, I wanted to attack with everything at once, and leave as little to chance, fate, or luck as possible.
That was sothing I could do as well. Just disappear into the wilderness after taking care of the bomb. I had thought about it in the past, but long term that was a losing strategy. Only with the power and resources of an empire, could one soar to new heights.
Just going into the wilderness and fighting was no longer enough. If she reford her evil empire, then there would be no chance of defeating her ever again. Her stats would pull further and further away while I stagnated.
There was nothing else to do but think and wait, even though the rumbling and sounds of destruction had stopped. I could easily imagine her waiting for a day to catch anyone poking their heads out of the ground.
Oh no. I just realized a fatal flaw with this hiding strategy. Once the city reset, it would be obvious where carts were hiding. Since there was a very minor area of effect around a cart that kept the terrain the sa. I had tested this with garbage in the past. The range was about six feet or two ters.
It had never been a huge concern before, since I didn’t hide in holes. But then I cald down when I rembered that the hole we were hiding in was in the center of the building. So, while the interior may still be damaged, we should be hidden. It wasn’t like the entire building would be missing.
But then I realized these were purchased buildings. They would stay destroyed until the repair fee was paid. The Commanders who ran these cities had several buildings they purchased under their control spread out in the city, so it wasn’t obvious which one they were hiding in. I could also imagine they were constantly setting up more buildings to make hiding even easier.
Half a day passed and no sound or noise. The silence was honestly more nerve racking compared to the attacks. The thought she could be just above us was quite concerning. I kept using my Sense stat, but the terrain of the city was very hard to observe through, especially the ground.
The wait was killing . That was the real power of the Avatar, to spy on people and get away ahead of ti. As for , I could just wait until the storm passed over . I had closed my eyes and was half resting at this point, since there was nothing else to do. Also moving around might cause soone to get injured.
“I haven to pee,” one woman whispered. There was silence at that.
“Procedure is to hide out for a minimum of half a day to a maximum two days. I was hoping for two days,” the Commander replied.
“I can’t keep holding it in,” the woman said. There was a long stretch of silence. I was tempted to tell the woman to piss herself. It wasn’t worth dying over so piss, but I was staying out of this drama. I had my own drama and things to think about.
“Champion?” the Commander asked . I was technically the highest ranking person here.
“I am going first. If the Divine Empress is around she will go after ,” I said with a slight sigh in my voice. If this was it, then it was going to be it.
“Alright, can you help push up the floor?” With a bit of shuffling in the cramped underground space I moved to the middle, directly under the false floor with the Commander. I slowly stood up and my back hit the ceiling, which was the false floor. It didn’t budge. I pushed up so more. Pieces of dust and rubble tumbled into the hiding place.
I pushed up so more with my back and then began pushing away more debris around the opening with my hands. After a minute I lifted the false floor up so more with my hands doing most of the work. I heard rubble shifting.
With a heave, I lifted up and to the side. It wasn’t so much the weight as my balance and going at the speed I wanted that was the difficult part. There was a crash and I climbed out of the hole. The room inside of the building was wrecked quite heavily.
I leapt over the chunks of rubble and saw it was night out. I quickly scanned the surroundings and listened, but I didn’t see anything or hear the Divine Empress rushing towards . I let out a small sigh of relief. I took off. I had wasted enough ti and didn’t want to stick around this place.
Sorry Neo Brasilia, I needed to get to Doctor Katz, so he could perform an ergency surgery on to get this bomb inside of out. After that, I would finish upgrading my skills and get back on track in improving my combat ability so I could get level 5 crafting crystals for the superweapon.
That was the key to defeating the Divine Empress. Still with her wrecking everything, it would slow down developnt. I would have to upgrade another city to level 4 for Clarissa and her team to use as an alternate site. Killing so level 4 flying monsters shouldn’t be that hard.
I didn’t go by roof tops in case the Divine Empress was watching. I ran through the streets. So buildings were still destroyed, but most were in their default repaired state. What a disaster. I didn’t even want to know the repair bill.
Just the thought of spending points on repairs made my heart clench. It was needed, but it felt like a waste. The Divine Empress was probably super pissed after what happened to her Forbidden City, if my gut feeling was anything to go by and her actions.
She was wrecking things, but it wasn’t surprising. If I was in her position, that was a viable option. Just move through the area and purge everyone. Move onto the next city. Eventually you can grind away at resources, people, and the nation would collapse.
It wouldn’t be easy, and would take ti, but it was doable and a viable strategy. The main issue was that it would take ti to complete since it was a battle of attrition. Once people were grinding in level 3 zones it would be much harder to track everyone down. Just from the terrain and the more limitations on the Sense stat.
Also with high enough stats it would be easy enough to camp out or hide near the void zones. Between two cracks would be a spot that no one would check unless they were specifically checking there or there was a dungeon.
I left the city of Neo Brasilia and there was no Divine Empress. Well ti to make tracks to the East Bastion. There were four level 3 zones I could stop at along the way. I would definitely pick up the skill upgrades there. That would leave with seven left, which I could get from the zones around East Bastion and poke the level 4 zones over there.
The key thing was to be where the Divine Empress was not. I had gotten lucky this ti, but I might not get so lucky the next ti. Then a fight would really happen, and I didn’t feel fully ready. I might not ever feel that way, but it was too soon for round two.
The more important question now was the best way to go about the surgery. It was pointless to speculate too much ahead of ti. I needed to speak to the good doctor and get his input on sothing like this. At least the bomb wasn’t in my brain.
I wasn’t entirely sure, but it might be possible to pull oneself together on a pillar from just a head with a restoration. If I had any faith in sothing like that, then I would attempt that. A full body restoration. That would be the best.
Just leave all the garbage behind in my previous body and get a new one. Maybe, cut off everything below my heart and stomach? That might work. Then get a new body, no problem. The more I thought about that idea, the more I liked it. Just get rid of everything so there is no chance that the bomb remains behind.
The real trick would be getting a restoration as quickly as possible after the lower half of my body was removed before I passed out or died from lack of organs or blood loss. I would keep a grip onto the pillar the entire ti while the good doctor cut apart.
It would hurt, but breaking my spine should paralyze my body. Honestly, I should be a doctor with how well I was thinking this through ahead of ti. That could be my new title, Doctor Michael. A professional on removing organic bombs implanted into a person’s body. Co one co all, and I will cut you in half, problem solved.
I smiled at having worked out the issue. That smile quickly turned into a frown, when I felt a twinge in my gut again. Well, it was a long journey, but with the four dungeons, it shouldn’t be that bad.
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