“The answer is simple. You clear the Grimworld’s Tutorial, and you are free. Your planet will literally move to the second layer. It will change fundamentally and fit into the second layer system of Prana. That will become your base.”
Almond’s eyes shone and then blazed.
“If that’s the case, then I am going to fucking clear all 30 Floors next month. Fifteen days of conquest,” Almond grinned. “Target—Clearing 30th Floor.”
“Not a bad idea, but there’s a problem,” Big D said, the cat’s expression looking serious. “You…can’t enter the Labyrinth anymore.”
“Huh?” Almond blinked a couple of times, his head tilting. “No fucking way, right?”
Big D rolled his eyes. “Just think. This is your clone.”
“And I am joking.”
“…”
“Hahaha, you can go ahead and clear the Labyrinth if that’s what you want. It’s not even going to be that hard because of you. Although rushing like that means you lose out on many rewards and resources, that’s fine. You can fight for resources and other things to make your lives and progress once you are on the second layer.”
Big D smirked, “After that, you’ll enter the true world of competition and race of those who want to enter the third layer. There won’t be any protection or system like this Grimworld Tutorial.”
“You’ll have to tread wisely, for yourself and your world, unless you want to abandon it and go solo, but I’d advise against that because you will need an empire to progress further and faster. Your planet and the people can be helpful.”
“You can still largely adventure with like-wise strong ones, but having a home that progresses with your help, and you get their help in exchange, which trust me, is going to save you a lot of time for many things, is only good if you properly handle it.”
Almond raised an eyebrow. “Like those slaves, I saw mining on Madam Ruby’s Planet?”
Bid D shrugged his tail, “How you develop your planet and do things are up to you. You can be a good dictator or a bad dictator, but you’ll be the dictator of this planet as their strongest. You can allow people to leave and exit as they please or keep proper control.”
“As for those slaves you saw,” Big D grinned. “They were foot soldiers of the group that joined with some traitors of her planet to kill her and her close allies.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, the time-space and fundamental dynamics of the cosmos are different on the second layer, but you don’t need to know that right now. Focus on the present and clear the Grimworld’s Tutorial, as you said, if you want to get out of this mess faster.”
“And one more thing, some rats are here, but they aren’t doing anything. The destruction of those meteors thwarted their plans, so the three here are just waiting to retreat quietly.”
“Retreat quietly?” Almond snorted. “I’ll be back.”
Almond left the Sanctuary Area and returned to Earth before his eyes glinted. Spreading the spatial pulse, he encompassed the planet’s surface, limiting the information captured to living beings with high vitality.
The spatial awareness and vision scouting depended on the amount of pressure an individual exerted onto space for their existence. There was no hiding this because as long as they were physically present in the material plane, he would be able to see and detect them…unless they used some kind of powerful camouflage skills, but fortunately, there was no one here who had high enough masteries to pull that off.
Almond immediately found three rather strong readings at one place and, knowing its coordinates, sent a spatial eye there.
The three humanoids who were clearly not humans were there. One was sleeping, and the other two were…playing games.
However, Almond sawbones and blood there, causing his eyes to turn cold as he knew what had happened.
‘Fuckers! They must have kidnapped local people without anyone knowing and…’
Almond clenched his fist and vanished, arriving directly in the warehouse.
“Hey, w-“
*Slash!*
A single wave of blurring sword and a million golden edges flowed like a river and drowned him before moving to the other two.
But they didn’t die.
He had already scanned their body with his all-seeing eyes, so he eviscerated their skins and mass, including some of their organs, and cut and shredded their limbs.
The three grotesque, limbless living bio-mess twitched, barely alive.
He had also severed their attributes along with a few other things, his will completely suppressing theirs.
Waving his hand, he gathered the three of them before him on the floor and stood before them.
‘What did you do?!’
‘Fuck!’
‘Damn you!’
‘Please spare me!’
Three different thoughts from their consciousness entered Almond, with whatever Mana they could use in their current state.
Almond’s face was dead, his eyes frosty. “If only I could inflict more suffering on you without wasting my time.”
“But I’ll make your Spirits and make full use of you against your shitty Hollowstar if they cross me again.”
*Splat!*
…
Almond returned and talked with Big D a bit before he began making his moves.
‘Tomorrow, Admiral Rudra and others will have the things I asked for gathered at the research center. Until then, I’ll finish Project Spirit Lord.’
‘And the best way to finish it in one day was by going all out.’
“Almond! What the fuck?!”
Almond turned to Natalia as she just arrived in the Sanctuary Area and rushed at him before hugging him.
“Dude, where the fuck have you been? Lily has gone mad since you left, but became very powerful.”
Almond chuckled, “I’m fine. It seems that you just returned from the Labyrinth.”
Natalia grinned, snapping her fingers as her instruments appeared, all of them more fancy and more powerful.
“I’ve been working on my specialized class, with some pointers Lily gave me, so I’ve made some powerful progress in the skills and my combat style,” Natalia said with her nose high. “You’d be surprised.”
“Wait, so tell me, where have you been?” Natalia blinked quickly a few times, curiosity welling up.
“I went up,” Almond pointed upward with a grin. “The place where we will be going once we clear the Grimworld Tutorial.”
“And we will be doing that next month.”
“Wait, what?” Natalia stared at him. “Did you just say we will fucking fuck the Grimworld Tutorial next month?”
“Except for the fucking fuck part, yeah.”
“How the fuck?”
“I don’t know. I am just going to try to clear up to the 30th Floor once the Labyrinth opens next month and clear this shit so we can be free from this system and all go up.”
“Dayum. But before that,” Natalia’s expression turned somber. “There’s going to be the usual War Event for the first fifteen days of the month when the Labyrinth is closed.”
“Since you left, we’ve been fucked hard.”
“No problem. Now that I am here, we will screw them hard,” Almond grinned.
“Anyway, where are the others?” Almond asked and fake coughed before adding. “Lily and I didn’t talk about others last night.”
“Oh, you don’t know….” Natalia sighed. “Jemma and Xavier…died.”
“What?!” Almond was startled. “What happened?”
Natalia smiled weakly. “7th floor’s Heroic Challenge. After that, we didn’t group up anymore. Grim Breakers are gone.”
“Lily went alone and cleared multiple floors in one month. She stayed the whole fifteen days in both months and now she is with others. Of course, Admiral Rudra and her parents helped her by supporting her with everything, like items, resources, and such, but she didn’t think about anything other than getting stronger like a ghost possessed her.”
Suddenly, a stream of darkness whirled around the duo before arriving beside Almond and revealing Lily in her sleek and majestic combat dress designed by Black Will Temple.
“Tell me, darling,” Lily rested her head on Almond’s shoulder as she smiled. “Did I do wrong?”
Almond moved to turn as Lily straightened her head. He looked at her and grabbed her shoulders, his eyes bearing a certain intensity of passion as he said, “I am happy. I am happy you singularly pursue power, all for both of our sake.”
“No matter what others say, you made me very happy, Lily,” Almond grinned. “Because there wasn’t a moment I wasn’t getting stronger when I was gone, and you did the same.”
“You…are my queen, and I won’t have it any other way or with anyone else.”
Natalia saw both of them looking at each other before Lily kissed Almond, squeezing onto him as they fell down while her aura burst powerfully, so much that Natalia was blown away screaming, “Bitch!”
Stabilizing herself several meters away, Natalia looked at Lily and Almond with a dumbfounded expression as they passionately kissed while a wild aura was bursting out of Lily.
“Woah, what’s going on?” Almond asked, startled as he lay back on the ground, looking at Lily who had a sparklingly beautiful fiery aura bursting out of her.
Lily got up, sitting on Almond’s stomach as she felt the aura, surprised herself. “I don’t know…something’s happening with me.”
Both of them stood up while the sparklingly beautiful aura subsided, and Lily got a notification.
[You sought a flame and found an inferno. You feared being burned by it, but you, a moth, went for it, burning brighter, burning stronger in the passion you yearned! Your love and desire to stand by your intimate other half is like an ever-growing blaze that cannot be suppressed. Nothing can stop you as long as the inferno you sought keeps burning. May your will that desires that which is the purest of passion remain bright, and your bond eternal.]
[You have awakened an X-rank Trait: Infernus Fons Intimacy.]