After returning to the planet, Almond put back his Bloomshard Castle and other buildings in their previous locations.
He also opened a gate to the spirit realm so that the Spirit Lords could get out once they were done training there.
Afterward, he woke up Lily briefly and both of them had a quick shower and refreshment before going to sleep. They were exhausted.
Several hours later, they woke up feeling refreshed and did some morning activity in Hyper Plane by going all-out against each other.
And then, they finally checked out the rewards.
“So the Wish Stone can grant any means as long as we think of an end,” Almond blinked as he inspected the stone.
“If I ask it to get my Darkness elemental mastery to Ascent rank, it won’t fulfill that wish,” Lily said with a nod. “But if I ask it to get me a place that would allow me to reach Ascent-rank in Darkness elemental mastery, it will work, right?”
“Yeah,” Almond nodded. “And we won’t have any time limit as well, but there could be some other tricks.”
“What about Recruit Ticket? What does it do?” Lily curiously asked. “Only the top 5 in the quest leaderboard got them.”
“It’s a bit weird,” Almond said, taking out the recruit ticket. “It shows me a list of people with details about their arsenal of powers.”
“And apparently, these people are dead Supreme Emperors.”
Lily was surprised. “So you can recruit a Supreme Emperor as your follower?”
“Seems like the case,” Almond nodded, his eyes glinting. ‘Grimworld Tree must be keeping souls of Supreme Emperors because they easily have the potential to become even stronger.’
Almond knew Grimworld Tree’s true nature now. It was here to get stronger and get more nutrition, but it was already such a powerful existence that for it to progress even a bit, it would need a supremely powerful and sublime resource—a powerhouse that has cultivated and reached the peak of possible power within its world.
So it created a world for people to get stronger by using its own and Grimverse’s power it could access.
But Almond still didn’t know what level of powerhouses it consumed. He didn’t know how strong he had to become. What were the seven thrones? Were they the ones getting consumed? But they were the ones who handled the Grimworld Tutorial, right?
Or maybe, nobody ever knew the truth about the third layer, the seven thrones, and the true nature of the Grimworld Tree. Big D also didn’t know, and whatever he knew could be false or altered. People just believed whatever they were fed, but surely the answers would start to get clear after entering the third layer.
Almond couldn’t see the true ceiling of power yet, so for now, he had to continue getting stronger.
Looking at the recruit ticket, Almond said, “There are a few hundred Supreme Emperors on the list. I’ll pick someone suitable for our force, depending on which department we are lacking.”
Lily nodded and took out her wish stone. “I want to use this, but you should use your wish stone first and tell me how it works regarding accessibility. If it’s something like we can enter only once, however long we like, and if we leave, it’s over, then I have to use it carefully.”
“That…” Almond wryly smiled. “Hearing you say that, I think it could be possible, but let’s hope that’s not the case.”
“Let me use the ticket quickly, and then I’ll use the wish stone to see how it works.”
Almond began checking the list and soon found a Supreme Emperor.
It was a beastfolk race powerhouse with elemental mastery of Time at Ascent-rank, and one Exotic Element called Terranova (Metal x Earth x Light) at Ascent-rank.
Almond felt the Terranova exotic element could pair well with Neo’s expertise, not to mention this Supreme Emperor also had Time elemental mastery.
Locking in, Almond used the ticket and soon, a burst of energy gathered before Almond out of nowhere.
“T-This…” Almond’s pupils shrank as he sensed something familiar in the energy alongside Prana.
“What happened?” Lily asked upon seeing Almond’s reaction.
“I can sense a familiar energy in this. I felt the exact same energy from Hollow Defilers after I harvested their powers. All Griminions were full of this energy, the corruption.”
“What?” Lily was taken aback and looked at the humanoid figure that was in manifestation. “So…this powerhouse is corrupted or what?”
Almond’s Unbound Eyes were fully activated as he focused, trying to unveil anything he could.
But as the powerhouses fully materialized, the presence of that energy gradually disappeared.
Two minutes later, it was completely gone while a humanoid with a single rhino horn on his head stood at a height of 2.6 meters, wearing light armored fancy full-body armor of red, green, and black colored scheme.
He had unique semi-scales over his body, glistering with a metallic sheen and yellow-golden hue.
Confusion was apparent in his eyes, which were streaming with information infusing in him.
Almond and Lily just watched him silently, waiting to see what he would do.
Several seconds later, the powerhouse opened his mouth, appearing shocked, “I am alive…”
“You remember things of your past life?” Almond was surprised. It felt like this powerhouse also got back his memories and complete will!
He expected a sort of puppet of the Supreme Emperor, but the Grimworld Tree indeed revived a soul.
“I remember…I died in the third layer, but my memories are fuzzy,” the rhino-man scratched his horn. “Moreover, I am seeing something and it seems I am your subordinate and can’t deny your words, can’t produce attack or killing intent against you, and can’t disobey you or your people.”
“Sounds good,” Lily nodded.
“What’s your name?” Almond asked.
“It seems I was known as Krala of the Raging Temporal Fortress.”
Looking at his hands, Krala continued. “I’ve heard this was possible, but damn…So I really was revived by the Grimworld.”
“Krala,” Almond nodded with a smile. “Welcome to the House of Regalon.”
Krala blinked and narrowed his eyes, “You two are Immortals….but you both have developments of Genelines with you as the progenitor source. Wow. Looks like I was revived by a couple of prodigious powerhouses.”
“Yeah, you’re in luck,” Lily smiled.
“Hold still and don’t resist. I want to check something within you. Your will is complete, and you are revived fully with some commands in your soul to make sure you stay loyal, right? I want to check you thoroughly,” Almond narrowed his eyes.
“I can’t disobey, boss. Go ahead.”
Almond began checking him with his Unbound Eyes, storing his status data first before diving deeper.
[Krala, the Raging Temporal Fortress]
Lifeform Rank: Supreme Emperor
Geneline: Chronomite Titanlord
Ability Power: [Omega-One]
Prana Sea: 10,000
Soul Sea: 10,000
Stats:
— Body Constitution: 10,000
— Mental Constitution: 10,000
— Soul Constitution: 10,000
— Arcane Constitution: 14,316
Innate Talents:
1. Chrono-Bastion Heart.
2. Gilded Eternity Pulse.
3. Parallax Dominance.
Prime Energies:
1. Gaiaflare Vormir Stream (Offense)
2. Chronoquartz Pulse (Defense)
3. Sundering Epoch Drive (Movement)
Intents:
—> Temperline Monolith.
—> Stasis Pulses.
Elements:
—> Terranova at Ascent-rank (Light x Metal x Earth)
—> Time at Ascent-rank.
—> Light, Meta, Earth at Ascent-rank.
‘Wow, he is more powerful than all Supreme Emperors I’ve seen so far,’ Almond’s eyes glinted.
Almond had yet to see anyone who had reached 14k in Arcane Constitution.
Although there wasn’t a limit to increasing it, the difficulty was higher the more one developed their Arcane Board, making it harder to increase Arcane Constitution.
After measuring and identifying Krala’s powers through his own memory and data, Almond went deeper, into the main thing.