‘I still don’t know why Kane didn’t come here yet.’
‘Did he enter this place and get caught by the Nightmare Tree, or does time flow here faster than outside, and not much time has passed in the outside world?’
While deep in thought, Neo’s hand moved with practiced ease, and he cooked food.
Zera and Elizabeth both liked his cooking.
He was happy to cook for them.
In the Abyss, they could only train or move towards the tree. The same sight every day put a great burden on their minds.
Neo’s cooking was one of the few things that lifted their mood in the bleak environment.
“What are you thinking about?” Elizabeth asked, approaching him while he was deep in thought.
“I was wondering why the Sword Saint hasn’t come here. A year has gone by, but there is no news of him.”
“Maybe he was caught in the Nightmare Tree?” Elizabeth asked.
As the duo spoke, she grabbed some vegetables and started cleaning them.
She had been completely clueless about cooking a year ago, but after watching Neo cook and learning from him, she had gained impressive skills.
“I doubt that. The Sword Saint seems to be comparable to or stronger than Dragon Clan Leaders. Zera is a Dragon Clan Leader and couldn’t be caught by the Nightmare Tree. I think the Sword Saint shouldn’t be caught either,” he said.
“But other Dragon Clan Leaders are still in Nightmare, no? You need to understand Zera is exceptionally strong for a Dragon Clan Leader. She came to Tartarus and seized the position with pure strength.”
“I suppose you are right.”
The corner of Neo’s lips rose ever so lightly.
Elizabeth always gave good advice and helped him clear his mind.
She spoke again, “Though I think the time outside the Abyss and inside flows differently. A year has passed for us, but for others who are outside along with the Sword Saint, only a few days might’ve passed, and the Sword Saint has yet to enter the Abyss.”
Neo frowned when he heard her.
“Why do you look worried?” she asked.
“Temporal difference between the outside and the inside,” Neo explained. “Doing that would cause a huge amount of Time Elementals to move around. I can’t sense anything like that with my Time affinity.”
There were two possibilities for such a scenario.
Both were spine-chilling.
While Neo stayed silent, Elizabeth decided to give words to his thoughts. After all. talking to other about your worries could ease your mind.
“The first possibility is that Tartarus is a Stage-4 World, not Stage-3 like everyone believes. As it’s far stronger than us, it makes sense we can’t detect it using its Time powers.
“The second possibility is that Tartarus is a Stage-3 World, and it’s not using Time Elementals to make time flow faster. But….”
“That doesn’t explain why the Sword Saint hasn’t come inside yet,” Neo completed Elizabeth’s sentence.
The unknown had been giving him a headache.
If Tartarus was a Stage-4 World, then they might really have no hope of defeating it.
Fortunately, such scenario would likely not come true.
If Tartarus was Stage-4, at least one inhabitant should’ve gone beyond Fabled rank and reached the next rank.
But that never happened.
Fabled rank was the limit for the inhabitants of Tartarus.
‘What the fuck is causing the time difference if Tartarus is not using Time Elementals?’ Neo felt he was overlooking something.
‘Or maybe Tartarus has a way to stop others from ranking up?’
‘This might be a game over if it’s really a Stage-4 World.’
“It’s okay. We can think it through. Don’t worry too much about it,” Elizabeth said to him as she stood beside him, chopping the vegetables.
A spicy aroma filled the house after the food was cooked.
Ava and Zera came to the living room and sat at the dining table.
Ava gulped, smelling the aroma.
Neo chuckled when he saw her like that. Ava’s true personality was quite different from what she showed when they first met. He supposed she was acting mature as Neo and others were her father’s guests.
But now that she had become familiar with them, she dropped all pretense.
“It’s delicious,” Ava muttered, taking a scoop. “It’s at the level that only the royal cooks of the Blood Dragon Clan can cook.”
Neo smiled faintly, listening to her praises.
After lunch, Neo left the house to train.
During the past year, he had made tremendous leap in strength.
Both of his Traits had reached 100% progress.
Crownless King’s experience points increased as Elizabeth grew stronger. Empathic Transcendence was harder to train. He couldn’t talk with Elementals.
It was only when Elizabeth gave him a clue that he could train it. Empathic Transcendence helped him ‘converse’ with everyone.
Simply put, he could talk with Zera, Obitus, Beelzebub, and Elizabeth with the skill.
After a year of relentless training, his progress had reached its peak.
Neo could finally make a breakthrough to Grade 1 Paragon in both Traits.
But that was not all. His biggest achievement was something else.
He checked his status with a look of appreciation.
[Obitus]
[Type: Sacred Treasure (Incomplete)]
[Essence: 1000/1000]
He could finally make Obitus a complete Sacred Treasure!
Coupled with the Primordial World Core Condensation Technique, he could create a World Core and break through to the First Step Heavenbreaker rank.
“I hope I can get a qualitative gain in strength after creating my World Core and reaching First Step Heavenbreaker rank. Just a simple boost in rank won’t be enough to defeat Tartarus.”
Neo entered his Shadow Space.
The others had asked if he needed help, but he had refused, saying he wanted to do the breakthrough alone.
He walked over the barren land and sat cross-legged on the ground.
This piece of broken mountain was the only land left inside his Shadow Space after he had thrown the destroyed Earth at Bael, and Bael wiped it out with a snap. The First ranked Grim Reaper had been impossibly strong.
‘If I could open a portal to the Underworld, then conquering Tartarus would have been easier than stealing a lollipop from a kid.’
Unfortunately, they had found no way to escape the Abyss, let alone Tartarus.
Zera had told him that Ava was quite knowledgeable, and she might be able to find a way out of the Abyss given time.
But Neo was not placing much hope on it.
…
Author’s Note: The second chapter of the day will be a bit late