Almond’s consciousness returned, and immediately, a massive landscape surrounded him with tens of thousands of people at war and three suns burning brightly above.
But it vanished after a moment as he saw the painting in his mindscape.
It had only been a day, so obviously, there wasn’t any progress.
He opened his eyes and found himself in the familiar small room.
“Phew, I have enough for one trip in the Temporal Chamber facility.”
Almond immediately left as he arrived in the Central Lobby and went to the Temporal Chamber’s door.
It was time to complete the project Spirit Lords.
But just as he arrived on his island, his Spirit Kodoku within his Spirit Animation source space glowed.
The newest spirit wraith was ready, a result of 26 Immortal King Griminions, 3 Immortal-rank Powerhouses, and 1 heroic spirit—Ruined Lord Kizalor of Meltizaar.
“Perfect, I’ll start with this one,” Almond’s eyes glinted. “It’s going to rain terror on others with me.”
“Alfred and others will have to wait.”
Almond paid Academy Points and started right away.
His aim was to create a systematic ability to process brand new species with growth potential and some specific racial abilities into existence—Spirit Lords.
…
On Earth, Admiral Rudra and everyone else were transporting resources at the Joint Global Research Center, where Aarav and James developed products.
In the vast open hall 300 meters above, the resources were being placed neatly in different sections.
At the end of this vast hall, people were gathered. All old monsters, all top 10 guild leaders with vice-leaders, other heads of top organizations, and Grim Breakers. Aside from them, there were other people who brought some of their members.
These forces brought resources and other things from their coffers, while the GAA brought out things from other guilds and smaller forces themselves.
There was some discord regarding this, but Admiral Rudra and other top leaders who knew about their current grave and important situation made sure nothing was held back.
In total, roughly two hundred people gathered there, sitting at different tables.
“The clock just hit ten. Where is that brat?” A man wearing red-glassed specs said with a bit of annoyance, his eyes on a couldron-type artifact encased in a glass at the far end of the hall’s other side.
Head of the Pyr Alchemy House—Antonio Dervel. Beside him at the table were the vice president and the number one alchemist of this planet.
Admiral Rudra shot him a glance, but suddenly, a shadow kicked Antonio, and while he was in the air, a darkened wolf claw smashed him into the ground as he spat blood.
His strength drained as darkness glued him to the ground while his mana was suppressed. All four debuffs of Lily’s Dreadspire Elements seeped into him as she appeared, her heel on his chest.
“Don’t call him brat with that disrespect.”
Lily turned to others and spoke with a deadpan expression, “Those who are discontent about this…know that your lives are at stake, and the best chance you have is Almond Crowshade, the strongest adventurer of this planet.”
Turning back to Antonio, who was utterly helpless, Lily said coldly, “You are a nobody, but he is like that sun above. To you, he is a god, not a brat.”
“Alright, that’s enough, Lily.”
Admiral Rudra coughed and said.
Lily stepped back and removed all the debuffs from Antonio, but not before overloading his consciousness with her will to knock him out cold.
Silvester, who sat at a table beside Pyr Alchemy House’s table, called out, “Hey, Vice-president Humo. Why don’t you carry him over?”
“Y-Yes, right away.”
Just as the vice-president went and wrapped Antonio in Mana before bringing him back to the table, everyone felt a towering presence suddenly appearing above, pressing every single one of them.
For a brief moment, every single person except for Admiral Rudra and Lily felt reality blurring and their vision flickering as a heaviness settled in their minds.
The guild masters and all top powerhouses, including old monsters, were internally sweated. At that moment, they were helpless, and if Almond were to make moves, they would be like sitting ducks to him.
“It seems that the party is here, eh? Nice.”
A chuckle rang as the pressure vanished like it was never there, and they saw Almond at the center of the hall.
For one moment, he was at the center, and in the next, they saw him beside Admiral Rudra as if he had been there from the start.
Admiral Rudra smiled and slapped his shoulder. “Everything is up to you now.”
“It’s up to all of us,” Almond grinned and turned to the tables. “Everyone, you might know the rough gist of why I wanted everything, but I’ll tell you clearly now.”
“Once we create this facility, everyone will be able to max out their stats through pure hard work.”
“The speed of your progress will depend on the intensity of your hard work, and now I don’t want to waste any more words with anyone to waste a second more, so I am going to start my part right now.”
Turning around, he glanced at the number of Epic-rank and higher resources and artifacts as he said, “Judging by this amount, I’ll need roughly two hours before I begin redirecting you about its construction.”
“In the meantime,” Almond turned to Admiral Rudra. “We will need a good place to build this facility.”
“How about Sanctuary?” old monster Zauna suggested.
Almond shook his head. “We need a place on Earth. The Sanctuary will disappear along with the Labyrinth once we clear the Grimworld’s Tutorial. We need a place with a high concentration of Mana and Earth’s inner structure where the flow of the ley lines’ flow is most concentrated.”
“We will need our planet’s power to run this facility, so we need a place like that.”
Almond waved his hand, and a big screen appeared. “I’ve already scanned the planet, and I know the region, but we need a particular spot to build this, so I’ll leave that to you.”
His eyes flickered as he touched his wristwatch. “I’ve sent the map to Admiral Rudra.”
After saying that, Almond vanished and arrived at the center of the hall, beginning his scanning session.
“What is he doing, by the way?” Quinn asked, curious.
“He is scanning these resources and artifacts,” Lily smiled. “But his scan reveals everything down to the smallest details of their structure and powers.”
“Almond has begun his work. Let us begin ours,” Admiral Rudra said as he sent the map to everyone. “We will need to scan deep underground in this area. Let’s go.”
Everyone soon left except for a few people.
…
An hour later, Almond moved to the artifacts.
He walked towards their section and sat down, his eyes glowing as he enveloped the first one—old monster Arjun’s Surya Astra Bow- before it disappeared and entered his mindscape.
Aside from the fact that he knew for sure that this Artifact’s power would be helpful, he wanted to finish scanning this first to return it because only Arjun could bring out its full power as he had matching Flame and Light elemental variant learned from this bow, as well having Mythical-rank Elemental Mastery in both.
‘Let’s unveil you,’ Almond’s miniature soul avatar looked at the bow and entered it.