A few minutes after Varian left, chaos ensued in the royal garden.
The teams in the forest began to combine forces to one-shot beasts. It was something similar to creating a human formation.
Overall, they were still on the weaker side, but using their wits, the teams managed to swiftly take down the beasts.
Then came the ones outside, the teams hiding in the valley.
After much deliberation, discussion, and planning, they took out the 'treasures' in their possession.
These included the treasures won in the ruins and their own treasures.
They weren't conventional weapons like swords or spears but rare items like talismans that sent attacks, accessories that created barriers, etc.
Items like these were impossible to manufacture for the current human race. That's why they were used very sparingly.
The only source of such supernatural items were ruins themselves.
In fact, they were the reason many explored the ruins.
But now…
A man sighed and retrieved a dagger the size of his thumb. "This is my best collection. It can shoot an attack equivalent to a peak level 7."
Even if it couldn't completely kill, it was perfectly capable of severely injuring any beast inside the forest.
They could then take care of the rest.
The eyes of his teammates glittered but a clear-headed girl amongst them raised her hand.
"What's the catch?"
The excitement died down and the teammates looked at the man with nervous faces.
It was common sense.
While these items had excellent effects, they weren't very easy to use in battles. Otherwise, awakeners by now should've already started using them as trump cards in battles.
"…It needs twenty seconds to activate and I need to be within a one-mile radius of the creature to mark it as the target." The man said with a troubled expression.
As he expected, the faces of his teammates darkened.
Twenty seconds was a flash in a battle for low awakeners, considerable for mid awakeners, but excruciatingly long for high awakeners.
"…It's the only chance." Another man on the team shrugged.
The team finally stood up and walked to the blue vortex.
Once they entered in, the beast they had tried to hunt earlier would sense their arrival and come out of the forest to attack them.
If they stayed there for more time, other beasts would also come for them.
So, they had only one chance to take down the beast.
"Good luck to you. But once this is over, we need to get our share." The smart woman on the team said bluntly.
"That is of course." The man nodded without hesitation, but his eyes revealed slight discontent.
Since he was the only one with an attack treasure, they could only take get one key. It'd naturally be used by him.
On the other hand, there were a few teams where two or even three members had such attack items.
They finally made up their mind to use them.
"Let's go!"
*** *** ***
Varian found himself in what seemed to be a giant corridor.
On either side were numerous golden pillars stretching all the way to the high ceiling.
The floor was made of silvery tiles that shone with a different color with each step he took.
There were mysterious carvings on the pillars, including some pictures that just hung in the air, depicting battles of weird humanoid creatures against monsters.
The deeper he walked, the weirder Varian felt.
'Is this really…' He once again spread his space sense and reached the pillars—the boundaries of the corridor.
Through the small gaps between the pillars, he saw endless darkness with occasional glitters of light.
The darkness was very familiar, especially the space power in it.
Not only that, when Varian's senses expanded further and went outside the corridor, all they found was unending empty darkness.
"…"
This corridor was floating in space.
And from the weird space power here, it wasn't the outer space, but in the boundary!
'How the fuck is this possible?'
Varian swore in confusion.
From what he learned so far, outer space and inner space were like two bubbles with the former enclosing the latter.
The space between them was called boundary space, neither the outer nor the inner.
The peculiar property of this boundary space was it'd push everything in it to outer space.
This push happened to living & nonliving, weaker & stronger, space & non-space users.
So…
"This corridor stayed in the boundary space, rejecting the push for more than five thousand fucking years? This is crazy!"
Varian kicked the floor and increased his speed. He didn't want to think about it anymore.
Soon, he reached the end of the corridor.
What greeted him were three giant doors and the people who entered this place before he did.
As he expected, the three strongest: Nora, Curtis, and Jamie were standing at the front, examining the doors.
Right behind them was Charles.
And behind him were the teams.
Their order seemed to follow the hierarchy of some sort, but it didn't matter to Varian. He stood at the back anyways.
"Huh?" Prince Curtis raised a brow as he sensed the arrival of a familiar person.
'This is the dual awakener old guy I advised to exit, right?'
Due to Curtis' reaction, everyone else also turned their attention to Varian.
The weakest ones here were high level 7 and not a mediocre one at that.
But this old man…
He couldn't even beat the weakest high level 7.
"How did yo—"
"I had a treasure I saved up in the past forty years." Varian in the disguise of an old man said bluntly.
"Oh." Curtis nodded lightly and focused his attention back on one of the three giant doors. The door wasn't opening despite everyone joining hands.
'But it's clear that the only way forward was this door. So how…' Curtis' brows furrowed and he was lost in thought.
Most of the teams were also in a similar situation.
Except for one guy.
His gaze landed on Varian and the skinny man with droopy eyes hissed.
"Old guy, give the talismans and I won't rob you."