“Everyone, gather up! It’s time to move.”
“Where are we moving, boss?”
“Is it time to attack on others?”
“Haha, let’s go!”
Almond gestured with his palm for everyone to quiet down and said, “As you can see from the cumulative points we got, we have three allies now, but we need two more at least. There are also some hidden spots, so all forty-nine of you must split into four big teams and explore the places.”
“I got the map here, and my spirit wraiths will also accompany each group so I can observe your situation through their eyes. Meanwhile, I’m fast at traveling, so I’ll focus on getting two more tribes to our side.”
“Are you all ready?” Almond asked as he distributed the maps to everyone with a wave of his hand, creating fancy 3D maps with his advanced manipulation of Mana.
“We are ready, boss!”
“There are eight spots total in such a big area…this is going to take time.”
“I am raring to go. Let’s form the groups.”
Almond suddenly said in a loud voice, “By the way, a certain number of Grim Breakers will join each group to make each group strong and balance out.”
“Almond, even your spirit wraiths got legendary gear sets, so do you got any spare legendary items to use temporarily?” Brynjal asked with a dry chuckle.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have,” Almond wryly smiled.
“We’ll earn them in Heroic Challenge once the labyrinth opens,” Lin Yuan said with a grin. “The Heroic challenge triggering method was revealed to everyone after Earth Union brought the information in the auction.”
“Good luck,” Almond smiled. ‘In the first place, I gave that information, but I’m not even sure if the condition is really defeating a normal floor boss alone, defeating it within one minute, or just reaching a certain level of combat power within a certain rank.’
Almond had relayed all three of those methods, so people will have to try them all to see if they can really get an invitation to the Heroic Challenge.
“Anyway, you all depart after making groups. I’ll be moving ahead.”
Lily nodded at him and magic whispered, “Be careful.”
“You too,” Almond replied with a chuckle. “Don’t be reckless.”
…
Almond flew toward the eastern pillar of neon-maroon light first and teleported for roughly a hundred kilometers before the tribe appeared under his 4-kilometer radius radar.
It was a tribe of humanoid felines like, panthers, leopards, and cheetas.
He talked with the tribe, wanting to get allied, and got the task of either giving them the deity calling stone tablet or guardian deity statue of another tribe so they could repair their own guardian deity statue by sacrificing another. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire
Almond directly took out the stone tablet, shocking the tribe leader, who was a lean-muscled golden panther.
He gave the stone tablet and earned another ally.
As usual, he also created a portal leading to their base.
Afterward, he talked with the tribe chief to get any information he could and returned to the base through the portal.
The other tribe was in the west, so Almond’s space drifted in that icy blue pillar’s direction.
That tribe belonged to strange humanoid people with a variety of butterfly wings, and they called themselves Baelfers, their tribe name Baelfer.
Almond proposed the alliance. However, the tribe leader of this Baelfer tribe looked at them as if sizing him up and said, “Are you alone?”
“Yes,” Almond nodded.
“Hmm, our tribe is willing to ally itself with another force, but a group of humans arrived here half an hour ago proposing the same thing.”
Almond’s eyes glinted, ‘A group of humans? The only other humans aside from us are people of Cyberterra.’
“I will give you the same task as them. Whoever brings us the Heart of Lagoon from the mystical spirit beast—Mepis Lagoon Fae, will become our ally.”
“Where can I find it?” Almond directly asked.
“The underground lake of Mepis Lagoon in the northeast twenty-three kilometers from here. One has to go into a mountain as the path to underground is through the cavern and passages found on the mountain, leading down.
‘I don’t need to find the path,’ Almond internally thought before telling the tribe leader that he would bring the so-called Heart of Lagoon, and vanished as he quickly started teleporting.
Within half a minute, he arrived at the mountain, his eyes glinting as his radar scanned the mountain and soon found the caverns and passages.
He teleported inside before finding the way to the understanding in his radar and once again teleported directly into the underground area where he also found twelve other presences.
The group appeared in their twenties, wearing slick cyber-punk high-tech type full-body armor and wielding different weapons as they moved in this area to find the lake of Mepis Lagoon.
‘I should sneak attack since I can and deal damage to that team,’ Almond’s eyes flickered as he scanned them.
Surprisingly, he found two people with maximized stats at gold-rank.
One of them was a pink-is blond-haired girl looking in her early twenties, and another was a brown-haired man in his mid-twenties.
Although the best call would be to sneak attack first, Almond didn’t feel like doing that. ‘Show me what you got. Your power, talents, and capabilities. Then I will crush you.’
His eyes glinted as he grinned and vanished, appearing right in front of the group.
The group of twelve people were startled and immediately pointed their weapons at Almond, their energies revving.
Almond saw a spiraling spear hurling at him, crackling with indigo lightning and blinked as a small Severance Blade split it, destroying the attack.
“Why in such a hurry?” Almond smiled.
“Are you Almond?” the pinkish blond-haired girl with a slender and hot figure asked as she aimed her fancy dual-wielding guns at Almond.
“I am indeed him, and I am declaring a battle here,” Almond smiled as he cracked his index finger, causing a barrier to form within a 50-meter radius.
“The only way to leave is by killing me.”
“I’m sure that’s not the only way to leave, but we’ll fulfill your wish,” the girl said with an icy grin as she glanced at the brown-haired man. ‘Leo, we gotta go all out and finish this fast.’
Leo’s eyes flickered with indigo lightning as he said, “Team, engage with maximum potency and obliterate the target.”
“Wait,” Almond muttered, but shots were already fired, forcing him to teleport away.
‘Another group is under attack,’ Almond saw through Sylvia’s eyes upon gaining her signal. It appeared that the group she was in encountered a group of draconians.
‘Disrupt the space, Nelson! Make sure he can’t teleport.’
Almond suddenly felt wobbly and felt shocked. ‘The fuck? I can’t teleport.’
The space within the barrier became strange to him as he couldn’t teleport anymore. And he didn’t have space elemental mastery yet, so it was even more difficult to teleport now.
Several long-range attacks were also hurled at him, followed by incoming two people, one of them being Leo who dashed with his swords suddenly glowing bigger, aiming at his head.
Almond used Devouring Veil to neutralize the long-range attacks before his Lord Grimblade appeared in his hand in its slender form and cut at Leo and another guy who came smashing down from above with his hammer, masterfully deflecting both of them as they shot back like bullets.
“No teleport? No problem,” Almond grinned as he pointed his sword at them. “In one minute, you will be sliced and diced.”