24:00 hours until the Labyrinth closes.
Two hours ago, the facility was created according to the blueprint, and the baton went to Almond as he started finishing it by installing the Vital Rampage source, as he named it.
Vital Rampage source would produce the Vital Rampage Flame, with the fuel being Mana and any other things that had magical energy.
Installing the source and making sure that the flame would work in all stages was important.
While Almond was working on it, Lily, Natalia, and other Grim Breakers cleared SS-rank Dungeons as their spawn increased, with more people reaching the 14th Floor of the Labyrinth.
Six hours later, Almond finally completed the new facility, up and running with 100 large floors.
Starting with the lowest intensity on the first floor for Bronze-rank rankers and no limit on the 100th Floor, as he had yet to check its highest intensity.
At the very top, he also built a solar energy absorber but with a significantly higher absorption speed than solar panels, making it such that all solar energy within a 250-kilometer radius would fuel the facility.
Sitting inside the 100th floor, Almond looked at the wall beside the door, which had + and – signs beside a number box with the acronym VRI—Vital Rampage Intensity—and 10 empty slots above it.
The floor was made of special metal that had complete resistance to heat, and upon heating, it would store energy that could be released for soothing and cold waves.
Standing in the center of this vast floor, Almond pressed + with psychic mana control, and 1000 appeared in the number box.
1000 Intensity of Vital Rampage Flame waves began streaming into the floor.
A normal Platinum-rank powerhouse without defensive skill protection would die in a second.
The 100th Floor was only for peak Epic-rank powerhouses.
Almond absorbed it, but the flame did nothing as it was refined to the level of 1000 Intensity of the Vital Rampage Flame.
Pressing +, the number directly reached 1100, increased by 100.
Almond felt his flesh slowly tearing and healing. This flame could burn them but also heal them with constant hours of refinement; this could increase stats fast in exchange for pain, and this was the only constant way.
Resources that could directly increase stats in High-Mortal and above were rare and costly. And unlike on the first layer, there was no leveling up to gain free stats on the second layer.
It was a ruthless world where progress meant wars, struggles, and victories.
Almond increased the flame intensity to 1200. This was going beyond his clone’s restricted power, and Grimworld Tutorial wouldn’t unseal it, so if he continued, his clone would eventually burn to death.
So he covered himself in a spatial barrier and increased the flame intensity to…1500.
The entire floor was wreathing in intense Vital Rampage flames. For legendary-rank powerhouses, they could absorb the flames and refine their bodies, increasing their stats while enduring hellish pain.
But Almond wanted to see how high the flames’ potency could go.
Naturally, he had made sure to design it in such a way that the source’s highest flame potency could increase stats up to 10,000 once everyone reached the Mythical-rank, which was the peak of the Mortal lifeform Realm.
However, he still had to check and see if it reached that level of tensity on this floor.
Once he increased it to 2000, Almond saved it on the first slot of the ten, storing the intensity level. Now, upon pressing it, the flame intensity would directly start at 2000.
‘This would be perfect to start once people reach Legendary-rank lifeform.’
Almond then gradually increased and reached 3000, and saved it in the slot as well.
He continued increasing the flame and stopped at 4000 before saving it.
Scanning the floor and facilities, he checked that everyone was fine. There was no leak or any usable flow of energy anywhere.
‘But this will burn a lot of energy at a higher intensity. We’d need a crazy amount of magic crystals and other things to fuel it for Legendary-rank and higher-rank powerhouses’ body refinement.’
Almond increased his defense and raised the bar to 5000 VRI.
But this wasn’t the end.
Almond ultimately raised it to 10,000 VRI, where even peak Legendary-rank powerhouses would burn, but it only ran for five seconds.
All the stored energy was gone, and the perpetual solar and layline energy flow wasn’t enough to sustain 10,000 VRI.
‘Well, it looks like everyone will have to dump all the magic cores and magic crystals mined from various places into this if they want to get strong.’
Almond grinned. ‘But it’s ready.’
Vital Rampage Tower!
Almond flew towards the door and exited before teleporting below in the ground hall.
“Hmm, the entry will be free, but everyone must contribute a certain amount of magic cores of monsters or crystals to enter the floor.”
“If all adventurers contribute like that, this will run better,” Almond muttered as he nodded to himself.
Looking at his wristwatch, Almond raised his index finger as it flickered with golden-blue lightning.
*Zap*
It went into his wristwatch and sent everyone a message to gather here once they finished resting.
The old monsters and top powerhouses were working nonstop for 22 hours before they finally built this tower according to Almond’s blueprint.
Now, six more hours passed by, and only 18 hours remained before the Labyrinth closed.
He wanted to take everyone and make them reach Legendary-rank lifeform so even if they can’t level up to gain stats points after that, they would still be able to train in this Vital Rampage Tower to increase their stats!
Almond clenched his fist. ‘Dungeons will be our main source of energy collection. Monsters give magic cores, and I will also wreak big dungeons to get as much out of them as possible. Yeah, I should fuck with some dungeon. Maybe I’ll learn something useful.’
Suddenly, he felt several presences coming in.
“Almond,” Admiral Rudra said, covered in a combat outfit just like ten other old monsters.
“The rest of the old fools are on their way,” Zauna said as her cursed staff artifact’s skull eyes glowed, and she smiled. “I’ve always wanted to attempt Heroic Challenge. This will be fun.”
*Swoosh!*
Suddenly, streaks of darkness arrived before they unveiled Grim Breakers.
“Grandma Okoro, it’s not going to be fun, trust me,” Natalia said while shaking her head.
“Yes…” Kira muttered, sneaking a glance at Almond and suppressing her feelings as she continued with a wry smile, “Almond, are you going to create challenges for seniors, too?”
“What challenge?” Silvester rolled up his sleeves. “We are all for it, brat. Bring them off.”
“Grandpa!” Noah shouted, causing Silvester to look at him.
Naoh’s expression was stern yet pale as he shook his head.
Almond chuckled as it rang loudly and attracted everyone’s attention. “We are going to reach the Legendary-rank lifeform and clear as many floors as we can before the Labyrinth is over.”
“What?!” Marcus shouted, his eyes trembling. “B-Boss, we spent not even three hours inside, but this time, there’s still over seventeen hours before the Labyrinth closes.”
“Yeah, captain,” Ron said with a weak smile. “Have mercy on us.”
“Yes, please…” Anya meekly said.
“Stop whining, you all.” Lily snorted as she glanced at others. “None of us will die, get your shit together. Our future won’t come without cost. We are on the verge of destruction, and whether we get destroyed or not is up to us!”