185-193

Chapter 185 - First Remnant

"Dampen the lights. From here, we must rely on our other senses. Remember your training." Zorbek ordered as they moved. The space ahead of them grew increasing large.

They did not want to alarm the denizens of the darkness. They weren't here to just hunt for carcasses.

During the one-week preparation, in addition to cultivating hard, they were taught by Kasif. His Earth Pulse was a unique bloodline ability that allows him to detect the surroundings like he was seeing them with a different pair of eyes.

Under the Queen's order, Kasif did not reject and carried it out faithfully. The ability was vital to the exploration of the dark world.

The hunting team couldn't replicate the ability, but Kasif's teachings allowed them to gain some insights in the usage of their earth abilities that produce a much weaker effect.

Although they couldn't 'see' like the leader of the shadowguards, they could at least sense the movements in their surroundings.

"Yes, Captain!"

The lights from the lanterns were killed and the sunstones dimmed into a soft glow. Their vision grew smaller and the dark world felt infinitely larger as the darkness threatened to swallow them whole.

"The air is very fresh and rich here." Leon commented, squatting over by the ground.

"Your Highness?"

Zorbek took deep breath and all his pores automatically opened. He felt very comfortable, but he soon frowned, "That's strange. Normally, we would only find such concentration and purity of air in areas with vibrant plants and vegetation like great forests."

"Exactly." Leon tapped the rock-hard ground several times, before continuing, "The ground is incredibly rock solid. It's impossible for plants to grow here, not to mention there is no sunlight. Not unless… no, never mind."

There were tenacious and higher-level spirits plants that could survive in the harshest of conditions back in the Divine Realm. But what were the chances of finding one that can burrow its roots in the rock-solid ground and live without sunlight in this world?

Leon couldn't think of any other plausible explanation. However, the world was full of mysteries and many things people didn't have answers to.

Perhaps, the ancient civilization had technology that drew air from above ground and pumped it into the underground? That didn't seem likely and even outrageous, but not out of the realms of possibilities.

Continuing with his outrageous thoughts, why were the remnants of the ancient civilization only found underground? Were they the type of civilization that lived underground? Or did a giant floating landmass dropped and buried everything under?

Leon slightly shook.

The attentive Zorbek noticed and asked, "Is something wrong, Your Highness? Should we head back?"

Was the prince getting cold feet already?

"No, we continue forward." Leon shook his head and said determinedly. What he felt wasn't fear, but excitement and curiosity.

The history of this world… he wanted to know more about it!

Having experienced death once, it wasn't so scary anymore. What was scarier was the loss of a loved one.

"Yes, your Highness."

Zorbek obliged and continued leading the group at the forefront.

For this trip, they have only brought big backpacks, loaded with some food supplies and nothing else. There were no carriages nor wagons. The carcasses were secondary. Exploring the second floor and finding relics was the primary objective of their first trip.

The group proceeded with caution and limited lighting to avoid alarming the creatures lurking deeper in the darkness.

Surprisingly, the ground continues on a downward slope, the deeper they went despite already arriving at the second floor.

The second floor was much larger than Leon anticipated. However, he was curious as to what extent.

Using his [Spirit Eyes], Leon attempted to peer into the infinite darkness.

[Spirit Eyes] allows him to improve his eyesight by several folds to hundreds of folds depending on his mastery of the spirit art, whereas the mastery was dependent on his usage. The more he uses it, the higher the mastery. As such, even if he mastered the spirit art in his past life, he had to start from scratch in this life.

At his current mastery, it was no problem to see up to a dozen mile away in normal cases. However, the darkness of the second floor had heavily restricted his vision to a few hundred yards.

Over two hundred yards away, he spotted more soldier ants.

"Zorbek, we'll head this way."

Leon pointed to a different direction. It was better to avoid confrontation with the ants.

Not understanding the reason, Zorbek quietly nodded with a frown. He was the leader of this hunting team, but he still had to listen to the words of the prince.

Using [Spirit Eyes] takes a toll on Leon's eyes due to the characteristics of his pseudo-Grandmist energy, which was heavy and made his eyes drowsy. As such, he only used it briefly to scout.

Sometime later, Zorbek suddenly stopped and crouch over by a patch of blacken earth, before making a swipe with his fingers.

"What is it, Zorbek?" Leon asked.

Feeling the black smudges on his fingers, Zorbek replied, "The ground here is scorched black, your Highness."

"I see. No doubt, it must be traces of Grandpa Don's battle with the ants."

Leon reactivated his [Spirit Eyes] to observe the traces of battle in their immediate surroundings.

The side effects of using [Spirit Eyes] kicked in immediately, making his eyes droopy appear nonchalant from an onlooker's perspective.

Lilith was surprised and asked, "Could it be that you can see in the dark?"

"Yes."

Although she had suspected it, his answer still left her more surprised. Her own eyesight was also not too bad, being able to see up to 20 yards away. Wanting to compare, she asks, "How far can you see?"

"A few hundred yards."

"How is that possible!?"

Lilith's jaw dropped, while the palace guards became shocked. Zorbek turned around in surprise and noticed the soft grey glow in Leon's eyes.

"I'm using a special technique."

A light bulb seemed to have lit up in the heads of Zorbek and the palace guards when they heard Leon's answer. To think that such a method to see in the dark was possible? They immediately mistaken the grey light in Leon's eyes to be that of the metal attribute.

Leon noticed their expressions and warned, "I advise you all not to attempt at whatever it is you're all thinking right now."

However, his warning came a tad too late.

"AHH! My eyes!"

One of the palace guards cried.

"Urgh…" Leon wanted to facepalm.

The palace guards were all earth-users. There was no way they could use [Spirit Eyes] with earth elemental energy. It was akin to throwing dirt into their eyes.

"Nooo! I can't see!" The palace guard said fearfully with his eyes shut tightly.

'Ha! What can you see with your eyes closed?' Lilith quietly thought as she took pleasure in the palace guard's suffering. On this trip thus far, these palace guards had been sneakily giving her ill gazes. It's good for them to suffer a bit.

Leon inspected the palace guard, before he assured, "Don't worry, the pain is only temporarily. You'll be fine after a while."

True to his words, the palace guard recovered after a short moment.

"I-I'm fine…? Thank god I can see again…" The palace guard exclaimed, not that he could see much in this place anyway.

"Don't do it again. My [Spirit Eyes] isn't something you can replicate with awakening cultivation." Leon stated.

"Let's continue. There's a building to explore."

Fifty yards ahead of them, he had discovered a half-buried building sticking out of the incredible tough ground, but not as tough as the building itself. It was made from an unknown composition of alloys.

The only way to enter was through the large broken windows, but the group did not enter immediately.

There were engravings on the building's exterior for the group to study. Upon closer look, it turned out to be runic inscriptions.

Leon was dumbfounded. Just how advanced was this ancient civilization in runic inscriptions? Even a building exterior could be engraved with runes.

"There's some sunstones on the ground." A palace guard discovered.

"Pack it. We must bring back all the relics we find." Zorbek said with half focus as his mind seemed to be preoccupied by the previous matter.

For an instance, his eyes glowed with azure light before disappearing, but no one seemed to notice. He resumed focus on the present task at hand with a satisfied smile.

Continuing their inspection, there were several empty sockets on the exterior.

"Could the sunstones be placed into these sockets?"

Another palace guard attempted to socket the sunstone as they appeared to be of matching size.

However, his hand was quickly grabbed and stopped by Zorbek.

"What are you thinking? What happens if the sunstone suddenly gets powered by the runes and light up? Do you want to attract an army of ants over to swarm us?" Zorbek admonished. Leon also looked over with a disapproving gaze.

"I'm sorry, Captain!"

The palace guard broke out into cold sweat at his thoughtless mistake.

"Let's look inside." Leon said, seeing there was nothing else they could gain from outside. None of them understood runic inscriptions.

"Yes, your Highness."

One of the palace guards nearest to the broken windows, was the first to enter upon hearing the command.

However!

The palace guard flew back out a few moments later, tackled by a soldier ant that sneak attacked him!

Snap! Snap! Snap!

The ant made several attempts to bite off his head!

Gripping the mandibles with both his hands, the palace guard struggled on the ground as he wrestled with the ant. The soldier ant was too heavy for him to free himself!

"H-Help!"

Chapter 186 - Besieged

Zorbek and the palace guards drew their swords in response to the cry for help, but someone else responded even quicker.

Leon's black spear flew past them from low altitude before suddenly curving up and shot straight through the soldier ant's eyes and crushed its brain.

The ant went limp before the palace guard was able to free himself, tossing the ant to the side.

The surrounding palace guards became alarmed when the carcass continued twitching and movement after landing on the ground.

"It's still alive!"

The palace guards gripped their swords and made several slashes, chopping off the head and even the legs.

Zorbek looked at this scene and felt something was not right. The ant didn't try fight back at all.

"Stop! It's just reacting to stimulus! It's already been killed under his Highness's spear!"

"What? It's dead?"

Startled and confused, the palace guards halted their attacks as ordered with perplexed expressions.

Sure enough, the carcass became motionless after a short moment.

"This… this wasn't part of the information we were provided…"

The palace guards gawked with embarrassment. They had overreacted and made a fool out of themselves.

"A body that still moves even after its death... That's so creepy." Lilith said.

Her comment received many rigorous nods in agreement. Right, right? They were in the middle of enemy territory. It was normal for them to try and kill anything that moves besides them.

"Be careful of the acidic blood." Leon shook his head and reminded.

His kill was very clean, but now it became a mess with blood was spilt everywhere due to their panic attacks.

He made a grabbing gesture and the black spear flew back into his grasp.

Zorbek and palace guards looked back at the prince with surprise. The prince had been very quick and decisive in his actions.

They also noticed dissipating grey glow from the use of [Spirit Eyes] again.

The palace guards thought that by having the prince accompany them, the prince would just drag them down. But now, they were ashamed to have such thoughts initially.

He was more qualified for this expedition than any of them. He would have still made this trip, with or without them.

After being dropped into cave filled with spiders, he knew exactly how dangerous it could get if the ants start swarming them. He had to execute the ant before its cry for help.

"Your Highness, how many times can you use [Spirit Eyes]?" Captain Zorbek asked curiously.

"As many times as I want, technically." Leon answered, before proceeding to ask, "Why?"

After reaching Energy Condensation Realm, auxiliary spirit arts like [Spirit Eyes], which augments the bodily functions and not exert force outside, would not expend his energy reserve.

He's only concern in the usage of [Spirit Eyes] was the burden placed on his eyes by the weight of his own energy.

"Is that right?"

Zorbek was taken aback. Evidently, he was very surprised. It came to his attention that the prince's divine cultivation was very advanced. Perhaps, the prince wasn't really a one-star ranked awakener, but an equivalent divine practitioner.

This shouldn't have been a surprise as the breathing technique currently being practiced by the mass were provided by the prince. But with the scarceness of spirit energy, he had no idea how the prince cultivated to such heights.

"It seems that I won't be able to use it more than a few times. It decreases my divine cultivation progress with each usage." Zorbek answered with creased brows, before asking, "Is there a way to prevent my loss of spirit energy, your Highness?"

Practitioners from the Divine Realm would have answered his question sarcastically with, "You can try not using it?"

Stupid questions will always receive stupid answers. How could a mere Body Tempering Realm practitioner dream of using spirit arts without paying the adequate price?

However, this was not the Divine Realm, so Zorbek was spared the sneers of contempt from fellow practitioners.

Instead, Captain Zorbek's question immediately raised Lilith interest. She was also curious about [Spirit Eyes] and divine cultivation. This was news to her. She perked her ears, ready to listen in on their conversation.

However, she became frustrated when Leon responded with, "Oh? You succeeded in using [Spirit Eyes] on your first try?"

Selective hearing!

Her parents were not amicable and were always seen arguing with one another. Back then, she never understood why her mother would always suddenly become angry when talking to her father, but now she was slowly beginning to understand her mother's frustration. Men only hear what they want to hear!

Unaware of Lilith's frustration, Leon continued speaking to Zorbek.

"I'm surprised you would spend time in practicing that breathing technique, but it's still too early for you to use [Spirit Eyes] without paying the price."

"Alright, enough wasting time. Let's enter."

Leon ended the conversation without much explanation.

Zorbek nodded without complaint. They were on a mission.

Learning there were ants in the building, the group began entering with heightened vigilance. Inside, there were several more ants roaming the top floor they were on.

They quickly made quick work of the ants with clean kills through the eyes. However, some blood still manages to spill on floor with a 'Psh' sound. Some time-worn papers on the floor were dissolved as a result.

"Increase the lighting. It should be safer inside."

"Yes, Captain."

With the light sources brightening, a clearer picture of the building interior. Several objects and points of interest were revealed. There were runes and high-tech equipment but none of which the usage could be discerned. Few books and papers lied scattered along the dusty floor.

Leon picked up one such book without much hope of reading, but his eyes widened in surprise at the language. It was the universal language of the Divine Realm. This… This was something he could read.

His surprise only lasted a split second, before he recovered and began flipping through the book with fake nonchalance.

"There's some crystals here!" A palace guard exclaimed excitedly. The discovery of more crystal was good news.

However…

Some shuffled movements that appeared to be coming from below them soon followed.

"What was that?"

The group immediately became tensed.

"There may be more ants below."

"We need to kill them quickly before they call for more." Leon said. He closed his book with a frown. There was no time to read.

"Yes, your Highness."

The staircase and an elevator were quickly spotted. The palace guards immediately chose the staircase without hesitation. Forget about knowing how to operate something in a language they didn't understand, it might not even work!

As they headed down, the ants were found rushing up towards them.

"Kill!" Zorbek issued the order.

However, not long after the order was issued, did he notice a big problem. The staircase only allowed for two people to walk side by side comfortable, three if they squeeze together. The staircase was too narrow for them to fight effectively!

Even if the palace guard at the forefront could kill the ants by himself, with so many rushing at them, they would be quickly pinned down like the previous victim.

Furthermore, his senses were picking up several dozens of ants. This was too disadvantageous for them.

"Not good! Retreat! We can't fight here!"

The palace guard immediately retreated.

Just as the last palace guard was about to make it back up the ants weren't so lucky and had his waist area caught by its mandibles. The steel armor creaked and started bending under the sheer force of the ant's bite.

"Ah! Help!"

Being caught in his blind spot, he couldn't kill the ant with his sword. The other palace guards began hesitant as their comrade dangled randomly in front of them. They couldn't kill the ant when their comrade was being used as a shield.

"Ahhh!" The palace guard cried in pain as the ant continue to exert force on its bite, crushing the palace guard.

It was at this moment, Leon's black spear shot past. It curved around the palace guard and struck the ant dead under his metal manipulation.

"Grab him!"

The palace guard dropped to the ground as two other palace guards grabbed his arms and dragged him to safety, while the others fought off the rest.

Being in open space, it was much easier for them to fight. They fell an ant with each slash with anger burning in their eyes and the carcasses began to pile up around the start of the staircase one after the other.

"Let me have a look at him!"

Making his way over, Leon saw the crushed armor. The palace guard survived, thanks to the armor protecting him. But now, it was applying pressure on his ribs and organs.

Leon used his metal manipulation to bend the armor back into shape and free the poor palace guard from the crushing feeling.

"How is he?" Zorbek asked with concern. He wore a terrible expression. This was a result of his poor command.

"He is fine." Leon said as he gestured for the black spear to fly back into his grasp. He noticed Zorbek's expression and patted him on the shoulder with his other hand. "Don't be hard on yourself. This one was on me. It could have been worse if not for your quick judgement.

Zorbek nodded silently.

Soon, the ants were all killed, and their acidic blood began pervading the area. Lilith pinched her nose with a frown began to complain. "It's started to smell now."

Suddenly, the floor began to shake with trembling noises. The group did not get to rest before they became alarmed once more. The trembling filled them with dread and trepidation.

"What is going on now?"

"This trembling is coming from outside…?"

"Could it be an army of ants rushing towards our location!?

"What! How is that possible? The information said these ants rely on their sight. We've been inside this building for some time now and the lighting doesn't make it outside!"

"It's smell!" Leon quickly recalled Lilith's complaint, before continuing, "These ants attracted by the blood of their kind!"

Leon peered outside with his [Spirit Eyes] and his expression quickly turned heavy. A large army of ants just entered his field of vision.

"We've been surrounded! It's too late to retreat!"

"Shit! What do we do!?" The palace guards began to despair at the news. Nothing seemed to be going right since their got here.

Zorbek's mind spun for a solution, as did Leon.

"Use the ant's carcasses to barricade the hole!" Leon quickly ordered.

"This…"

The palace guards hesitated. Shouldn't they try to break through and escape back the first floor? How will they leave if they trap themselves inside here?

"Do as his Highness say!" Zorbek barked angrily. They didn't have the luxury to be wasting time!

The angry roar jolted the palace guards into action.. The heavy carcasses brought over to fill the hole one after another. They were quick, but not quick enough! Battle was inevitable!

Chapter 187 - It Should Last Us Awhile

The soldier ants were rushing at them was too quick. They only manage to place down two carcasses before the army of ants reached their location.

However, the ants did not know what taking turns meant. They tried to squeeze in at the same time and got themselves stuck in the narrow hole. Their heads became easy targets for the palace guards with their swords drawn.

The brains of these ants were turned into mush with several stabs and their carcasses became new additions to the barricade.

But it was not over.

"It's not over yet! Reinforce the barricade! Don't let them push their way through." Zorbek barked.

The barricade was weak, while a whole army of ants lied on the other side pushing their way through. Without support, it was easy for the ants to crush the carcasses of their fallen brethren and break through the barricade with brute force.

Five palace guards used their bodies hold the barricade, while the rest supported them from behind with all their strength. Sweat formed on their faces as they gritted their teeth through the arduous task.

"Arghh!"

One of the palace guards grunted in pain as the acidic blood dripped through his gauntlets and made contact with flesh. However, the palace guard gritted his teeth even harder and endured the burning agony of his flesh melting away.

Leon noticed this problem and immediately acted. His one-star flames weaved past the backrow guards and latched itself onto the affected palace guard's gauntlet like a snake, burning his melting flesh.

Being sneaked attack from behind suddenly was very despicable. Especially, when it came from a member of the royal family, whom they sworn to serve and protect. Damir, the palace guard was immediately filled with resentment.

However, resentment came quickly as it came as Damir quickly understood the prince's intention. The flame stopped his flesh from melting away and proceeded to swallow up the rest of dripping acidic blood from the carcasses.

The ant's exoskeleton was very resistant to Leon's one-star flame, but the acidic blood quickly incinerated into ashes.

The other four palace guards at the forefront were relieved when their saw this and continued to hold the barricade with all their effort.

As the palace guards continued to hold their ground, Leon began to think of better solutions. The barricade was holding out well, but it was only temporary. The palace guards weren't tireless machines. Once the palace guards exhaust all their strength, the barricade will break and the army of ants outside will begin flooding into the building.

"Let me take over!"

"Yes, Captain! Thank you, Captain!"

Zorbek switched places with the injured Damir.

Having the powerful Captain join the defence effort with his strength of four stars, it certainly took some load off the other palace guards' shoulders.

However, the main issue remains.

"Shit, how can they be sensitive to smell? It doesn't make sense! If they were sensitive to smell, we should have drawn their attention long ago when we were still in the spiral pathway!"

"That's true! We killed at least three times as much as we did here!"

"They didn't cry for help either."

Zorbek frowned in thought as he listened in on the palace guards' rambling, as they tried to distract themselves from the exhaustion they felt.

"That place stinks so bad. I don't think the ants would know even if several hundreds more of them were killed there." Lilith suddenly said with obvious disgust.

The palace guards gawked. That does seem to be the reason they made it this far so easily… If they had realized early, they could have still retreated to the first floor. But now, it was too late. There was no path of retreat. What a disaster the Grandmaster left them.

Zorbek glanced back at the idle Lilith with annoyance and said, "Why don't you try to make yourself useful, instead of just standing there? Everyone is doing the best they can. Why should you do any less than them?"

The obvious displeasure could be felt in the captain's tone.

"I am a girl. Are you trying to make me do heavy labour?" Lilith frowned, before she mocked, "Are you a man?"

"Sorry, none of that shit matters to me. I am an advocate of gender equality. Since we are in the same boat, I expect you to pull your own weight." Zorbek said, before goading, "Aren't you beasts supposed to have great physical strength? Why aren't you showing it off? Could it that you are actually a weakling?"

"You!" Lilith stamped her feet in anger at the naked provocation. "Are you looking for a fight!?"

The cultivation technique of her Desolate Crow Tribe does grant her great physical strength compared to humans; physical strength was never an inherent trait of the bird race. The strength of a Desolate Crow lies in their speed!

To assume such a diverse race to possess the same inherent trait goes to show how ignorant this person was! Hmph, hmph!

"Stop it. Don't forget the situation we are in." Leon interrupted, before he suggested to Lilith, "Why don't you go scout the bottom area for us and see if there's any path of retreat for us?"

Lilith glanced at Leon and harrumphed. She did not answer him, but seeing Lilith quietly moving towards the stairs, Leon smiled.

After Lilith disappeared from view, Zorbek scrunched his brows and said, "Your Highness, how can you place your trust in a beast to do as you say? You should have sent one of us instead. What if that beast finds a way and doesn't come back? Won't she just leave us here to die?"

Leon frowned at Zorbek's words. He knew that although Lilith greatly resembled humans, people would still be hostile and discriminate her based on that smaller portion of beast blood running in her veins. However, it was still unpleasant to hear.

"That's enough from you. You have no choice but to trust that she will come back." Leon said, before shaking his head. "Judging from your attitude, you wouldn't have allowed her to support your backs anyway, so stop causing problems.

Zorberk was stunned by the latter part of Leon's words. Of course, when he said the beast should pull her weight, he was expecting her to stand at the forefront like him.

However, Lilith would never agree to this. With so much force acting on the carcasses, the limbs of the dead creature squirmed about in a disgusting manner in response to all the stimulus. Lilith was completely horrified. It could be seen by how far away she stood from the barricade.

Thus, even if she did agree, she would have only supported them from the back.

"To trust a beast with my back? No way!" Zorbek strongly rejected.

Leon frowned at Zorbek's behaviour. He didn't show so much naked hostility before, why now?

Feeling the prince's mood plummeting, Zorbek was immediately startled and apologised, "My apologies, your Highness. I have spoken out of turn."

"Never mind that. Just focus on holding the barricade."

Leon shook his head and began looking around for items they could use to fortify the barricade and replace human efforts.

In the building, there were many objects made of extremely tough alloys he could use. However, they all possess both technological and historical values that could be studied back in the Capital. Given the choice, he would not risk damaging these objects, but the situation didn't permit it.

Soon, all the movable alloyed objects began to float under his metal manipulation.

"Everyone, make way! I will strengthen the barricade with these objects!"

Seeing the prince's intention, all the palace guards did not object and immediately break away at the same time.

Control panels, tables, poles, beams, boards, unidentifiable equipment and literally all other movable alloyed objects he could control, began bombarding the barricade. Leon arranged them neatly in a special manner and allowed the barricade to borrow the strength of the sturdy building floor.

As such, if the alloyed objects connecting the barricade to the floor doesn't bend or break, they would be safe for the time being.

"This…"

The palace guards wiped their sweat and gazed at the sturdily fortified barricade that no longer budged.

"Amazing."

The palace guards relaxed and fell back on their rears, taking deep breaths.

"Your Highness, that was a great idea! Borrowing the strength of the floor to hold the barricade!"

"That's right, if his Highness hadn't been with us, we would have been done for!"

Leon was showered with praise for his quick wits, but he wasn't shameless enough to take all the credit.

"Enough. This was a result of everyone's hard work. If you all didn't work hard to buy me time, I wouldn't have been able to think of this calmly." Leon said, before his expression turned serious and added, "However, we have a new problem now. If there's no exit, we will be trapped here."

Once he uttered these words, the original celebrative moods turned depressive as the entire group entered a long silence. Apart from the banging on the barricade, footsteps could be heard from the staircase.

The group looked towards the stairs with hope as Lilith re-entered their field of vision.

"I'm back." Lilith said as she glanced at the stable barricade. "Seems like the problem here has been solved.

"En, you're back." Leon nodded, before continuing, "and with good news, I hope?"

"I found the entrance leading outside the building." Lilith said impishly with a short silence.

"OH!"

The group became spirited at once.

However, Lilith wasn't finished and continued, "But, it's been blocked off by the hard earth."

"…"

The palace guards began to despair. Lilith just brought their hopes up before smashing back to rock bottom.

"We didn't bring much food supplies. We will begin to starve if the army outside does not leave the area after seven days." Zorbek said with a frown.

Leon nodded and began glancing at what they had. He wasn't disappointed by the news as he wasn't expecting much.

"There's still a few dozen carcasses lying around. The information said the organs are edible after the blood has been drained and cooked thoroughly.. It should last us awhile."

Chapter 188 - How Does It Taste?

At the mention of eating ant organs, the group lapsed in silence. Although palace guards were just servants of the royal family, they enjoy luxurious meals that weren't any less than the nobles and perhaps even exceed the nobles.

With the privilege of having meals personally prepared by the royal chef, they were accustomed to elegant and artistically arranged cuisines with strong aromatic fragrances that easily whet one's appetite.

They weren't opposed to trying new delicacies, but when it is visually unappetizing, the human mind subconsciously develops resistance and repulsion towards it. It would already be a good thing if the thought of eating the organs of insects didn't lower their appetites, let alone raise it.

Lilith strongly rejected the idea the moment it was raised. Fortunately, there were some brave souls among the palace guards, who were willing to test the validity of the taste after submitting to their curiosity.

"Ugh…"

At this moment, the talk was interrupted by Damir's sudden groan of pain. The few palace guards, who were prepared to volunteer as taste testers, lowered their hands.

Shaking his head, Leon said, "We'll worry about this later when it's time to eat. I'm sure no one is feeling hungry at this moment."

"Let me take a look."

Leon helped Damir remove his gauntlet to inspect the wound.

The state of the wound was very unpleasant to look at. A large layer of skin was melted, and the bones were exposed. The condition did not exacerbate, and the bleeding was stopped thanks to Leon's previous act.

However, Damir paled at the sight. One look at the wound and he knew that his hand had become useless. It might even require amputation to prevent other medical issues from developing as a result of necrosis.

Leon wore a grim look as he inspected the wound. The blood of these creatures was so tyrannically corrosive. Was it really safe to eat their organs?

Hope faded from Damir's eyes as he looks at the prince's expression. It seems his hand had no hope of recovery. Damir sighed and said, "Don't worry, your Highness. I don't blame you for this injury."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Leon responded with, "Hm? What are you talking about? Why would you blame me?"

Leon proceeded to pull out a knife and said, "Grit your teeth. It's going to hurt a bit."

"Oh…"

Suddenly, Damir was assaulted by strong waves of pain as he gritted his teeth out of reflex. He wanted to scream, 'A bit!?'

Leon cleaned the wound with the knife, scraping off all the useless flesh and caused the bleeding to resume. Afterward, Leon pulled out a bottle of Tier-2 Golden Ointment and began applying it to the fresh wound.

"So miraculous!"

The surrounding palace guards became slack-jawed at the sight of the flesh regenerating at a visible rate. Leon was quite satisfied with the recovery speed. It could be even quicker if he used Tier-3 Golden Ointment, but it wasn't necessary.

The herbal garden in his Worldspace might be growing well, but not enough to waste his precious tier 3 spirit herbs on a trivial wound. He didn't have that many to spare.

Soon, the wound fully closed, but Damir did not regain feeling in his fingers. However, Leon wasn't finished. He pulled out his silver needles and continued his treatment.

At the same time, he suddenly said, "Don't just sit there and watch. Go look at the building entrance Lilith mentioned."

"Our apologies, your Highness. It's just that your treatment method is too fascinating." Zorbek smiled wryly, before giving his men the order to search the bottom floor.

However, he, himself did not leave, but asked, "What is the purpose of checking out the blocked entrance, your Highness? If we are looking for alternative ways to escape, I don't believe going deeper into the underground is the correct choice."

Leon didn't answer his question immediately but continued with the treatment silently.

Some time passed, before the palace guard was able to regain senses in his fingers. He flexes his fingers with amazement glances at the prince with gratification. "Thank you, Your Highness."

"En, off you go," Leon said.

After Damir left to join the rest of the palace guards, Leon resumed his focus on Zorbek and nonchalantly said, "Haven't you realized that this building is designed like some sort of watchtower or control tower? If we remove the hard earth, we might be able to find other buildings and facilities in the vicinity if we search."

After listening, Zorbek seemed to have understood the prince's intention. The prince did not show any show concern about their present predicament of being trapped. Worrying wouldn't solve anything. It was better to use their time efficiently while they are trapped to do what they came to do.

"I understand. I'll go check on the palace guards, your Highness." Zorbek said.

Leon nodded and shooed him off with his hands.

Finally, he made some time for himself to read. Reopening the book, he found, he skimmed through the contents for useful information.

"Can you read the ancient language?" Lilith asked with surprise.

Leon smiled and didn't comment.

"Hmph!" Lilith pouted.

…

"What's the situation?" Zorbek inquired.

"We found a few more crystals, some scattered papers and a journal of sorts. Apart from that, it's just the engraved runes on the walls as far as you can see, Captain." A palace guard reported.

With the ants no longer being a concern, the bottom floor was lit brightly. Zorbek glanced at the runic walls with zero comprehension.

"We are taking everything, including the runes on the wall. Take out your notebooks and start recording the runes."

"Yes, Captain."

"What about the entrance? Why is no one working on the entrance?" Zorbek suddenly asked, seeing the palace guards idling around the blocked entrance.

"Erm, the entrance is blocked by a highly concentrated piece of earth, Captain. We tried removing it without earth manipulation abilities, but it wouldn't break apart and felt like we were trying to lift the whole earth."

"If you can't move it, you can weaken it first. If you absorb all the earth elements in it, it would naturally be easier to break apart and move with your earth manipulation. Are you all brawns and no brains? You didn't think of such a simple solution?" Zorbek admonished with a frown.

"Eh? Right… Why didn't we think of that?" The palace guard, Benny scratched his head awkwardly.

"Maybe it's because—" Marcus, another palace guard tried to come up with an excuse, but he was interrupted by someone's stomach rumbling. Everyone glanced towards the culprit, before Marcus joked, "Because we were too hungry to think?"

Everyone laughed, except Zorbek.

"Didn't we all just ate before headed out? How can you be hungry already?" Zorbek questioned with creased brows.

"This… I'm not sure… It might have something to do with the recovery medicine, his Highness used." Damir scratched his head with embarrassment.

"Well, since you are hungry, you can be the first to taste-test the ant," Zorbek said firmly.

The rations they brought could last months without spoiling, but it was different from the dozens of carcasses if left unchecked. As such, Zorbek thought it was a good chance to have some test

"This… yes, Captain."

Damir succumbed to his fate as he understood the Captain's thought process. Leon caught the news and made his way down.

Sometime later, a plate of ant delicacy was placed in front of Damir, cooked by the one and only fire-user in the group, Leon. It was meticulously prepared after removing several unsafe organs and only keeping the edible parts. Even an idiot would know that the poison gland could not be eaten.

Everyone gathered around and waited on Damir with concentrated gazes.

"Well… here goes nothing…"

Damir gulped and took the first bite. His eyes closed as he sensed the gates of a new world of taste opening to him. The taste was a mixture of mild sourness and extreme spiciness, but it was juicy, and the texture was tender. He had confirmed that the information was not false. It was delicious.

In Don's exact words, he said, "Ant organs had an otherworldly taste and will leave an unforgettable experience."

Not long after the first bite, came the second, the third and so on. Damir ate with great gusto.

"How is it?"

"It's like eating spicy hotpot. Except, each bite is explosive in flavor. Hm, simply put; It is too delicious." Damir answered as he smacked his lips with great relish.

After hearing this, the previous palace guards who intended to volunteer were moved. They began joining one after the other. A new plate was served for each person and after they ate, they displayed similar expressions.

Seeing this, the group was convinced. When it was just one person with such an exaggerated expression, they would doubt and assume that the person was just faking in order to bait the rest of them into eating. But when it is repeated four times, it had to be true.

The courage of the group grew, and they began joining one after the other. Even if they weren't hungry, they still joined out of curiosity. As they say, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back to life.

While the group indulged themselves, only one person remained unmoved. Lilith sat in one corner snacking on a meat jerky as she eyed the bunch of fools with disgust.. Instincts told her that she would regret eating ant organs, and she would rather just her instincts than trust humans.

Chapter 189 - When You Got To Go, You Got To Go

"Who'd knew something this vulgar in appearance, could have such a profound taste. I have been enlightened." Leon patted his belly in satisfaction.

"Your Highness, if we keep up this level of consumption, we won't be able to last long. For this meal, we have used up five carcasses." Zorbek reminded.

Leon glanced at the pile of black exoskeletons. All the unused inwards and dripping blood have been reduced to ashes to eliminate foul smell.

"That's true. We need to exercise self-restraint from this point onwards." Leon nodded, before asking, "What's the progress on—"

Suddenly, an audible stomach rumble was heard.

"Ugh…"

Damir groaned. He clutched his stomach and paled with cold sweat.

"What's the matter with you, Damir? Are you not feeling well?" Marcus asked with surprise.

"I… I can't hold it anymore. I gotta go!" Damir roared, startling the group.

He undressed his suit of armor and found himself a hidden spot behind the pile of leftover exoskeletons.

"C'mon, it's too late to be pretending now. Everyone had already eaten and know the food was safe to eat." Marcus said with an ironic smile as if he had Damir's sudden behavior all figured out.

"Don't come over here! Arghh!"

"Quit playing around—"

Marcus suddenly paused and clutched his own stomach with a pale face. Similarly, he broke into cold sweats and said, "I… I think I gotta go too…"

Rumble…. Rumble…

"Ugh… count me too…"

"And me three…"

Rumble…!

The sound of stomach growling became louder and more numerous. It was set off one after the other like a chain reaction. It didn't take long until everyone who had a taste of the devil's food began to fell into the same situation.

"Good heavens! The power of nature compels me!"

"Arghh, what the hell! It feels like my backdoor is about to burst open!"

The palace guards exclaimed in shock. They weren't sure what was happening to their body. However, one thing they were sure of was; when they had to go, they got to go!

No one had the hearts to care about their dignity in the presence of a lady, not when their asses were on fire! Everyone found their own holy ground, dropped their pants and squatted in preparation for the grand ritual.

"Shameless!" Lilith cried, before escaping upstairs like a startled kitty.

Leon tried suppressing the strong urges by injecting silver needles into himself, but it was no use. There was no escaping. It was a natural process to expel waste and harmful substances from the body. Preventing it would only cause him self-harm.

Ultimately, he resigned to his fate and sighed. Great journeys start with a trip to the toilet. Leon erected himself a 'throne' with whatever materials he could scrap together, before seating himself for the inevitable.

Soon, the suppressed urge was released as everyone defecated uncontrollably like gushing water from the floodgates opening. It was a horrific scene where foul substances flew indiscriminately and tainted the historical remnants on the bottom floor.

The bottom floor was swallowed in a torrential wave of horrible smell. The palace guards continue to squat through the terrifying experience as they pray to both man and god to end their suffering.

"Ahhh, it feels like my rear is on fire!"

"Good lord, please make it end!"

"Begone!

The palace guards' cries could be heard from all the way up top. Lilith tried to block out her hearing. This underground trip was filled with its own horrors. If she knew what she was signing herself up for, she would've never come.

After what seemed like an eternity, the noise began to die down. The group was in low spirits as they wiped their rears with whatever they could use.

"Aiyoo, it stings so bad." A palace guard exclaimed.

"What a terrifying ring sting. I must say it was ten times worse than eating spicy hotpot." Another one commented.

"What's a ring sting?" An ignorant one suddenly asked.

The others looked at the person strangely, before one of them said, "You never heard of a ring sting? What about the red ringer? The ringer stinger? The red ringer stinger? Fiery a**hole? If you eat spicy food often, you should be familiar with the terms, especially spicy hotpot."

"I… don't eat spicy hotpot," Jackson replied.

The others looked at him like they were looking at an anomaly. Who doesn't like spicy hotpot? But then they sighed, "You had it easy, man. Or perhaps not…"

It was a love-hate relationship. Spicy hotpot was so good, but it would always leave them contemplating their life's choices on the throne. Over time, they built some tolerance, but this was definitely the worse experience yet.

Considering Jackson didn't eat spicy hotpot regularly, he would have been hit the hardest out of all of them. He would never touch the devil's food again.

Everyone secretly cursed the Grandmaster. Grandmaster Don didn't lie to them, but they felt like they had been tricked. It truly was an 'unforgettable experience'.

"Bleurgh..."

The palace guards could no longer withstand the foul smell and began gagging without surprise. The horrendous smell had been intensifying with each passing moment.

"Ah… this smell is going to kill me…"

"Just kill me now. I can't live with this shame… Bleurgh…"

The group had indeed made a mess and the smell became unbearable, even with Leon's tolerance he couldn't keep a straight face. He used his fire abilities to clean up their mess and eliminate the smell.

He failed to fully eliminate the bad smell, but at the very least, it was brought down to a bearable level.

Seeing the painful looks on the others, Leon wasn't sure if it was due to his strengthened body, but his experience wasn't as bad as the others. However, he never expected that he would have to use one of his sets of spare clothes as toilet paper.

Hold on.

Leon suddenly froze. He had spare clothes from his Worldspace to use, but what did the others use? Glancing over, he noticed several dirty scrunched papers on the floor.

"You, what did you use to wipe yourself?"

Leon interrogated a random palace guard.

"Eh?" The palace guard was taken aback, before replying, "Err… I used some torn papers from the books lying around, your Highness."

"You!" Leon was immediately triggered. He swept his gaze through the others with suppressed anger, before he asked, "Don't tell me, you all did the same?"

The group nodded guiltily.

"F*ck!" Leon cursed.

Those books potentially contained history and knowledge of the ancient civilization. More importantly, they were written in the universal language of the Divine Realm, something he could understand. Their values were inestimable. Yet, they were used as f*cking toilet paper, when there were other items they could have used! He never felt so angry since the time his father was killed.

Seeing the prince's emotion, the palace guards lowered their heads. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

However, they didn't expect the prince to react so violently. These books were written in a foreign language. It didn't possess much value unless they were able to derive the language. Thus, they thought it was okay to use it. They had no idea the prince cold read these books.

Looking at their dumb looks, Leon could only keep his feelings to himself. Leon rubbed his temples and calmed himself with a sigh, before he said, "Ugh, whatever. Handover the remains."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The palace guards hurriedly presented the items to Leon with dirtied hands. When Leon saw the stains, he immediately backed up, "Holy sh*t! Stay back!"

The palace guards outstretched dirty hand froze.

The palace guard retracted his hand awkwardly and simplemindedly said, "Err, I guess they are called holy sh*t now."

The paper torn from the books were worn out and didn't have the same flexibility and strength as normal toilet paper. As such, it was easy for palace guards to accidentally tear it while wiping himself.

Leon rolled his eyes at the comment.

Summoning a large chunk of ice with his ice ability and melting it with his fire, Leon ordered the group to clean up the mess and salvage what they could. Fortunately, there were still a few books that were left untouched, dirty but not tainted by human waste.

After the group had done their best to clean the place, Leon had the group cultivate by the blocked entrance to weaken the earth.

While they were cultivating, he brought the books upstairs where the air was fresher to peruse. At the same time, he avoided eye contact with Lilith which felt piercing.

Among the books he had, there were flight records, cultivation books, research journals, and even diaries. The building didn't seem like a library. As such, he thought it was strange for all these books to gather in one place. Leon decided to ignore the first three and went straight for the diary first.

He wanted to understand what happened to the ancient civilization and how it ended, or perhaps who ended it. He thought about the demons, but he had yet to find other traces apart from the demon parasites. Leon frowned when he recalled the Bloodfiend Sect and their blood refining methods.

Sometimes, the greatest of evil came not from the outside, but from within. Humans could be bigger demons than even the demons themselves.

With these thoughts, Leon flipped open the first diary.

Chapter 190 - The Nova Empire

The dairy had an old rustic feel, worn out by an inestimable long time and threatened to crumble into dust at any moment. After flipping the diary open, Leon changed his mind and directly swept the diary with his divine sense.

The diary followed the life of Arden, a young aspiring cultivator in a declining world, where Transcendents were in abundance, but the realm beyond, the 'Celestial Realm' became increasingly difficult to achieve due to declining levels of spirit energy in the world.

Celestials became rare and revered existence. It was said that Celestials had the abilities to refine celestial bodies and gain absolute monarchy over the life and death of all creatures living on it

As such, each planet could have one 'Celestial Ruler'. Becoming a Celestial Ruler also grants them the ability to convert the astral energy of the universe into spirit energy. Also, the greater the size of the celestial body, the higher the requirement of their Celestial cultivation base to refine.

However, the planet Gaia did not have a Celestial Ruler to revitalize its spirit energy levels, despite its long history of producing Celestials. Every Transcendent that ever ascended to the Celestial Realm always leaves planet Gaia behind to transverse the vast unknown universe in search of a better celestial body to refine.

This is because once a Celestial refine a celestial body and become a Celestial Ruler, they are bound to the said celestial body, sharing life and death with it, and longer able to progress further in their cultivation nor leave its boundaries.

As such, although refining Gaia would still grant them great power and long life, any ambitious Celestial born on planet Gaia would selfishly leave in search of better places to further their cultivation and seek true everlasting life. No one wanted to clip their own wings and stay in a cage for near eternity.

Arden aspired to become the Celestial Ruler of Gaia, but his world was turned upside down when his talents for awakening cultivation was tested at the tender age of 16. He was bullied and discriminate for possessing a rare 'trash' body constitution that made him inept for awakening cultivation.

However, as a citizen of the great Nova country known for its great advancement in runic technology, he was not disheartened and chose to become a runic artificer. He soon showed immense talents and got personally recruited by the Nova Government.

One day, the world witnessed the birth of another Celestial, but like his predecessors, the Celestial left the world of Gaia to seek the distant stars, plunging the world into chaos. Spirit energy became too scarce to produce another Celestial, and all the crops and plants began to decline. The world began to die.

The world suddenly found themselves experiencing overpopulation due to the unexpected global food crisis. To tackle the issue, country Nova waged war on other countries to plunder their resources. With their superior runic technology, they crushed all other existing countries and became the sole overlord country of Gaia.

The genius artificer, Arden had lost count of how many powerful runic weapons of warfare he had produced to aid this inhuman cause, but the human population was drastically reduced, and the plants showed signs of recovery as a result of their efforts.

However, this moment of happiness only lasted a mere two years, before the plants resume declining and the people also began to grow weak and sick with clear signs of premature aging.

The Nova Government knew the cause, but the truth was hidden from the common mass. Arden, who had made a name for himself and became the head runic artificer of the Nova Government, quickly realized the cause when runic technology began to fail.

The one causing planet Gaia to decline had never been the Celestials that abandoned them, but the runic technology the Nova Country was so oh proud of. Their runic technology was powered by the world's spirit energy, and when it became insufficient, it drew on the lifeforce of its surroundings to make up for the deficit.

However, this wasn't what ended the ancient civilization that specialized in runes. It was far from it. Leon was engrossed as he continued reading. He was surprised that he hasn't found anything about artifact spirits or sentient spirits birthed by runes.

Arden received enlightenment in a moment of life and death when he began to age prematurely as a normal person without cultivation. He found a way to convert the sun's solar energy into spirit energy through runic technology. Contrary to the azure-color of true spirit energy, the artificial spirit energy took a light reddish color but mimicked many properties of true spirit energy.

This runic technology became the key to leading the Nova Country into an age of great prosperity. With many energy conversion plants built around the world, the dying planet was reborn with even greater vitality than the past. It was especially evident in the trees that grew to staggering heights.

Nova entered a period of rapid growth along with Gaia's restoration, but so was their appetite as they harness the limitless solar energy of the sun. Many dreams were realized as they built megastructures such as floating cities, colossal spaceships, and outer world elevators within merely two decades.

Without reaching the Celestial Realm, it was possible for Transcendents to traverse the stars with their runic technology. Their interstellar empire began to stretch across several stars.

Cultivation was easy with the endless supply of converted spirit energy and the Nova Empire gave birth to countless Celestials. However, that's when they noticed a new problem. The new Celestials weren't as powerful nor were their lifespan as long as the Celestials in the past.

A normal Celestial had around 10000 years of lifespan. This was similar to a Divine Origin Realm practitioner from the Divine Realm, but the new Celestials only had half as much.

At its roots, the problem lied with the artificial spirit energy they relied on. It still contains few properties of solar energy. Sunlight was essential for life, but too much of it will destroy life.

…

Towards the end of the diary, Leon found out why the ancient civilization fell. It wasn't due to some great enemy, but their own greed. Despite realizing that the artificial spirit energy, they use was problematic, they never stopped using it. It was the foundation of their empire.

Eventually, they were destroyed by what they couldn't control, the ownerless sun. A great solar storm was all it took to wipe out their civilization. All life exposed to the storm in the outer world mutated. The greater the exposure, the greater the mutation.

The storm directly killed all the weaker humans in the outer world, who couldn't support the changes, while the fate of the stronger ones was unknown.

The connection between Gaia and the outer world was cut as all runic technology malfunctioned from the surge of solar energy. This is especially fatal for megastructures that relied on anti-gravitational runes. All the floating cities dropped out of the sky and nearly wiped out all life on the planet.

Arden wrote this last part while he fell with the floating city to his imminent death.

Leon was shocked after realizing something.

…

While Leon was engrossed in his reading, he had unknowingly generated a small audience from the palace guards in one corner of the building. From the perspective of the palace guards, the prince was just staring at the first page intensely.

"His Highness has been staring at the first page for more than two hours. Do you think he is trying to decipher the ancient language?" A palace guard asked.

"Shh, keep your volume down. Don't interrupt the prince's reading. I have never seen someone, who could stare at foreign texts with such concentration for so long. It must be the case." Another one whispered.

"Holy F*ck!"

Leon suddenly jumped at this moment.

His sudden exclamation startled everyone. A palace guard rushed forward and excitedly asks, "Did you manage to decipher the ancient language, your Highness?"

"Hmm?" Leon glanced over and shook his head. "No, that's not important."

The palace guard's expression froze. It's not important? Then why were you staring at the foreign texts for so long? Was he mistaken? Was the prince actually exclaiming that he couldn't decipher the language and gave up?

Leon no longer paid the palace guard any further attention. If someone looked carefully, they would notice that Leon's body was shaking with cold sweats and he was feeling weak in the knees.

How could he not be? There was a fricking Sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head!

The ancient civilization got wiped out by their own floating cities and these were just the ones within the world's atmosphere. The Nova Empire was an interstellar civilization. There were lots of megastructures in the outer world.

In the past, when Leon gaze into the night sky, he could see Gaia's asteroid ring and thought it might have something to do with the suppression in the sky, where the gravitational force was so much stronger.

But heck, it wasn't a naturally formed asteroid ring. It turns out to be the megastructure remnants of the ancient civilization! If one of these bad boys suddenly gets pulled into Gaia's atmosphere and drop, they can all say goodbye to their lives!

"What do you mean, Your Highness? Why isn't it important."

The palace guard asked with a perplexed expression after noticing the prince's silence. Leon could see the illusory question marks hanging over the palace guard's head, but he did not bother to explain.

"It's a dangerous world we live in," Leon said vaguely.

Chapter 191 - Forming The Earthseed (2 In 1)

Leon learned much from Arden's diary. To be able to find the diary of a legendary figure, who was much involved in the history of the Nova Empire on their first trip to the second underground floor, he could only attribute it to his good luck.

There were no doubting Arden's talents as a genius runic artificer. However, if he didn't have the guidance of a good master, his attainments in runic artificing would have taken much longer to achieve.

Leon was much more interested in Arden's runic artificer master than Arden himself. Arden's runic artificer master, Balthazar was the most authoritative figure in the runic artificer circle. It could even be said that the foundation of Nova's runic technology was built upon Balthazar's otherworldly knowledge.

Before Balthazar arrived, the runic artificer profession did not exist in the Nova country. But after his arrival, the Nova country became the most powerful country with its leading runic technology.

It was a pity that Arden's master passed away early from old age during Gaia's trying times. Fortunately, he imparted all his skills and knowledge to Arden before his passing. In his diary, Arden had mentioned his immense gratitude to his master for noticing his talents early and taking him in as a disciple.

Leon's interest revolved around the name 'Balthazar'. The name was widespread even back in the Divine Realm. The owner of the name was coincidentally, also a renowned runic artificer. The only difference was that Balthazar was renowned for his infamy.

The half-step Divine King, Balthazar diverged from the orthodox path of runic artificing, which sought to create artifact spirits that would become the lifelong companions of divine practitioners in their pursuit of the everlasting.

Balthazar's way of runic artificing defies such belief by sacrificing the artifact spirits for greater power. The power of the artifact could further be enhanced by feeding off its user's lifeforce. As such, Balthazar's works were labeled as forbidden artifacts.

Naturally, spirit artifacts were much better than forbidden artifacts due to their growth potential to evolve alongside their divine practitioners. However, this requires an accumulation of time and experience, while the power of forbidden artifacts was immediate.

While it was known that Balthazar was hunted for creating forbidden artifacts, the truth was that the other runic artificers coveted his production method and knowledge of forbidden knowledge.

Due to his unwillingness to share his life's work with the self-righteous hypocrites, he was hunted all the way to the boundary of the Divine Realm's core, a naturally formed mega black hole that endlessly swallows anything and everything from the universe.

It was the holy land of cultivation, but at the same time, it was also the most dangerous place to be. If one was not careful, they would be sucked in by the black hole's immense gravitational force.

No one knew what lied on the other side, but they believe all the people got crushed into oblivion. All who had ever ventured inside never returned to tell the tale.

When a person reached the end of their road, they would make a final trip inside. Over time, it became the final resting place of countless divine practitioners.

In life, they swallow countless energy from the universe to cultivate. In death, they return it all back to the void.

When Balthazar was cornered, rather than suffering the humiliation entailed after his capture, he chose to end his life by diving into the black hole.

20,000 years have passed since then, but the story continues to circulate around the Divine Realm. Leon suspected that Balthazar might have reincarnated to the early Nova country.

…

A whole day had passed since the hunting group got trapped in the building. The ever-present trembling on the top floor informed the group that the army of ants outside had not retreated and continued to surround the building.

During this time, the group had another meal to replenish their energy back to the optimum state. Apart from two dare-to-eat gluttons, who weren't afraid of the aftermath, the rest had returned to eating their prepared rations.

After reading the diary, Leon had skimmed over the cultivation books. The ancient civilization didn't rely on pills to awaken and relied on more primitive methods. This coincided with Leon's guesses.

The world of Gaia was completely different from the Divine Realm. It was like Gaia was the Divine Realm after being flipped upside down. Not only was the cultivation system different, but the difficulty in comprehending and controlling the laws was also much easier.

At this moment, Leon was meditating in the center of a small cave dug out by the palace guards, under his request. With his level of perception and divine sense, it might be possible for him to comprehend the earth laws and form his earthseed.

The small cave connected to a much larger cave where the rest of the palace guards could be seen cultivating and the large cave was connected back to the building. This was the result of their one day's worth of cultivating to clear the blocked entrance.

In order not to be disturbed, he had sealed off the small cave from the large cave. In this dark empty cave with only Leon and the cold earthen walls surrounding him.

Leon freed his mind of distracting thoughts and soon entered a state of emptiness. In this emptiness state, his perception was enhanced. Soon, his divine sense began to spread out and covered the small cave, as he quietly studied the earth elements.

The earth element had the characteristics of being sturdy and unmoving. It represented firmness, unyielding to change. In a sense, it was similar to metal, or rather metal was similar to earth. They may have been recognized as separate laws, but they may both belong to another law of higher order.

Perhaps, because he already formed the metalseed, but Leon found it easier to comprehend the earth. Unknowingly, Leon's breathing slowed with the passage of time. He became still and unmoving like a boulder. In this state, he felt he had become the earth.

This change was acknowledged by the world. Within the recess of his sea of consciousness, a budding brown light appeared and found its own spot among his four other elemental seeds of fire, metal, ice, and lightning, as they orbit around his soul core.

With the appearance of this brown light, the stubborn earth elements began to gather into his body on its own accord. They gathered towards the brown light and form his earthseed.

The formation of the earthseed caused a stir in the surroundings, as the earth elements became rattled, before rushing towards Leon with great excitement.

However, Leon remained impassive to such changes for he was still the earth, boundless and accommodating, encompassing everything.

The sturdy small cave began to weaken as the rocky walls began to crumble. At the same time, Leon's newly formed earthseed began to soar in power. The speed of his cultivation was far greater than any other newly awakened 1st step earth-users.

Soon, he entered the 2nd step and did not stop, but continued onto the 3rd step, 4th step and so on. There was no sign of slowing down. He remained in the mysterious state of being one with the earth. In his hands, the earth crystal could be seen, clasped since the beginning of his meditation.

…

Outside, the palace guards were startled by the great change, as Leon's frenzy absorption of the earth elements began to affect and alarm them.

"What's going on? Someone is swallowing up all the earth elements at an incredible rate!" Lutheran, one of the palace guards exclaimed.

"Impossible! How can anyone possibly absorb the earth elements this quickly? We might have accidentally triggered a hidden treasure. Let's look for it!" Another one quickly denied, before adding excitedly. If such concentration of earth elements was collected by one person, wouldn't they be able to shoot straight to the skies in one go? How can cultivation be that easy?

"Behind this wall seems to be where all the earth elements are gathering… but isn't this where his highness is practicing his secluded cultivation?" Damir commented doubtfully, as the group arrived before the enclosed small cave Leon was located in.

"What's going on here?" Zorbek quickly interrogated upon meeting up with the group of palace guards shortly after.

"We're not sure. All the earth elements in the underground seem to have suddenly rushed towards this location, Captain." The group answered.

Zorbek frowned and asked, "How long has the prince been practicing in seclusion?"

"Five days, Captain."

The palace guards did a quick count and answered.

Staring at the enclosed cave entrance, Zorbek fell into a dilemma. He wanted to tear down the wall to check on the prince, but they had been strictly ordered not to disturb the prince. Strictly speaking, he didn't think any human could gather the earth elements at such a monstrous rate, especially not the prince when he wasn't even an earth-user.

Before Zorbek and the palace guards could come to a decision, the enclosed caved entrance collapsed on its own and the light sources from the large cave shined into the small cave, Leon's haggard but stable figure. He had been fasting for 6 days.

Blood veins could be seen all over the prince's body, while the earth elements visibly funneled inside through the glabella.

They could faintly feel Leon's cultivation and became shocked.

"His Highness has already reached the one-star level as an earth-user!"

"Not right. Wasn't His Highness a fire-user… eh? He seems to be a metal-user and ice-user too…"

"Is His Highness trying to practice all the elements!?" Lutheran gasped.

"That's not important! His Highness wasn't even an earth-user before this, but he is already at the level of one star now and it's still climbing! His Highness's body can't take such a drastic increase in cultivation! We have to do something!"

"Stop!" Zorbek barked while looking at the prince with a serious look. "His Highness is at a crucial point in his cultivation. Don't you know how dangerous it is to interrupt someone's cultivation!?"

"But His Highness seems to be in the right state of mind! He seems to be believed he is one with the earth!"

While Leon's position faced them, his mind was not there and seemed to have wandered elsewhere. Lilith frowned with worry as she assessed the situation with the group. Looking at their faces, they were all hesitating, while Leon's body was starting to break down.

…

Who am I? Where am I going? How will I get there? I am a piece of rock… I am a mountain… I am the earth, stable, firm, unmoving and unflinching for all eternity. Boundless enough to embrace all things and the changes time, but I, myself don't change. I am eternal…

Leon did not feel the pain and burden of his body as his mind sinking deeper into the dark depths of the earth, seemingly forgotten himself.

…

"Two-star level…"

Leon's cultivation advanced again. At the same time, cracks began to appear on his body.

Lilith's silhouette flashed by the corner of Zorbek's eyes as she dashed towards Leon. Zorbek became both shocked and enraged that the beast would choose this moment to act.

"Beast, what are you trying to do! Don't you dare harm the prince!" Zorbek roared.

Ignoring Zorbek's warning, Lilith continues to dash towards Leon.

"Wake up!" Lilith cried.

PA!

A resounding slap swept across Leon's cheeks, interrupting his mysterious state and brought him back to reality.

At the same time, the torrential amount of earth elements suddenly lost its target and disperse in all directions, kicking up a small storm that swept Lilith to the side.

His eyes snapped open from the waves of pangs assaulting his body and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Beast, I'll kill you!"

"Stop!"

Leon halted with a raised hand.

"But that beast assaulted you, Your Highness!"

"Enough! She saved my life!" Leon shouted sternly.

Zorbek shook slightly from the pressure of Leon's gaze and bowed apologetically for being impulsive.

Leon proceeded to sweep Lilith with a grateful look. "Thank you."

Lilith got back onto her feet and dusted her clothes impassively like it was nothing, before asking interestedly, "What happened?"

Leon was drenched into cold sweats like someone just dowsed him with a bucket of water when he tried to recall his experience. It had been far too dangerous just now. He would have lost himself if no one woke him up in time.

Leon brows creased together as he pondered why he would experience such a dangerous situation. There was no mention of any danger in the cultivation books when trying to awaken via communicating with the elements and connecting to it.

After a moment, he shook his head. There was no precedent for his case. He was not normal. He was an irregular in this world.

He was previously a divine state practitioner. Not only does he have a powerful soul and perception, but he had also retained his divine sense and practiced a unique cultivation method that made his body attuned to the five elements.

A normal person would never be able to reach the same level of connection to the elements. His abilities allowed him to connect on a far deeper level to the elements, at least to the point of thinking he was a piece of rock! Thus, they would never experience the same danger he did.

'Fortune and danger come hand in hand. This proverb had never been truer.' Leon mentally sighed.

However, he was not disappointed. This was not a disaster but a blessing. He could see the benefits, despite the damage inflicted upon himself. it was not irreversibly and can be healed with medicine. As he continued using this method, he could cultivate extremely quickly.

Although it was dangerous, he can only blame it on his own inadequacy. If his mind was firmer, he would not have lost himself to the deep connection and he would not sustain injuries if his body was tough enough to withstand the burden.

In the end, he had to cultivate an indomitable will and powerful body, if it wishes to continue using such a method to cultivate. Having finished sorting out his thoughts, Leon said, "I was—"

Rumble…

"Never mind. Is there something to eat? I'm famished. It seems I have been in secluded cultivation for a really long time." Leon said awkwardly with a smile while rubbing his empty stomach.

"It's been 6 days since you shut yourself into this cave, Your Highness. The rations we brought with us have all been finished. There are only ants left to eat. Should I get someone to prepare for you?" Zorbek asked.

Hearing this, Leon's smiled became more forced. He glanced at his stomach before he returned his gaze towards Zorbek and nodded gritted teeth.

"Please."

Chapter 192 - Leaning Buildings

"Wait, hold on. You said it's been 6 days. A week's worth of ration was prepared for this trip. How could it be finished already?" Leon suddenly asked, after he adapted to the changes and began healing his body.

"We still have a day's worth of ration left, Your Highness," Zorbek answered impassively, despite the contradiction to his prior statement.

"You still have one day's worth of ration? Why did you say that all the ration was finished?" Leon raised an eyebrow in questioning.

"Ahem… What I mean is your share of ration had been finished, but we still have our one day's worth of ration, Your Highness." Zorbek explained.

"What?" Leon became dumbfounded, before he said, "You guys got guts. Dare to eat my ration while I was in secluded cultivation?"

When the palace guards heard this accusation, they all put on wronged faces. Although they don't undergo the same rigorous disciplinary training like the military, their loyalty was unquestionable. They wouldn't dare eat their master's food.

Considering their present situation, even if the prince was just a commoner, they still wouldn't touch Leon's food. Leon's abilities were crucial to their survival. So long as there were ants to kill, they would not have to worry about not having clean food to eat and water to drink with his ice and fire abilities.

While the prince had been in seclusion, they had continued their search for more ruins of the ancient civilization. They managed to excavate a huge cave that connected to several ancient buildings seeping with cold energy.

Nevertheless, they celebrated their findings over a meal and drinks. However, an idiot decided to talk about ghost stories after being inspired by the ancient site and that's when things began to go south. The prince's disappearing ration had become an unsolved mystery since then.

"You are falsely accusing us, Your Highness. The food just—"

The words got stuck in his throats. He wanted to explain, but he couldn't. How was he supposed to fricking explain that they didn't touch his food, but it disappeared on its own? Even they don't dare to believe it. How could they expect the prince to believe it?

Crunch… Crunch…

Suddenly, Zorbek's gaze was attracted by the subtle crunching noise of crackers and the sight made his blood boil, while the rest of the palace guards gaped. The culprit was found, but they did not understand how the culprit was able to steal the prince's food from right under their noses.

"Aren't those my crackers?" Leon shifted his gaze and asked bewilderedly.

Lilith made a peace sign and smiled innocently.

"You have your own share of ration, why did you eat mine too?" Leon asked with a weird look.

"You ask some strange things, Leon. How could that little bag of ration be enough for me? My kind has a much stronger appetite than you humans." Lilith said nonchalantly without a shred of guilt.

Even if the rations ran out, the group still had plenty of ant organs to live on. She had seen how the taste of ant organs had galvanized the group, despite its revolting appearance. It was already concluded that the ant organs were truly safe to eat. It just wasn't something she herself was willing to eat.

"Your Highness! Just give the word, and I will execute this animal!" Zorbek shouted. However, Leon swept him a cold chilling gaze, startling Zorbek and forced him to back down submissively.

The prince already stated that Lilith saved his life. Killing the prince's savior was out of the question. Besides, the food wasn't that big of a deal. There were plenty of ants to eating and they have constructed their own earthen thrones to defecate in. They even went as far as creating toilet paper out of the earth, but the only problem they had was using these 'bricks' was like wiping their rears with sandpaper.

Soon, a large plate of fresh ant organs was presented in front of Leon by Damir. While roasting the food with his flame, Leon casually inquired about the events of the past 6 days with a nonchalant look.

Even if there were nothing to eat, Leon would still be fine. With the existence of the Worldspace and a plethora of herbs in his arsenal, it wasn't a problem to refine himself some Fasting Pills to satiate his hunger. Thus, hunger was never a concern.

Furthermore, he could also refine more medicinal pills to strengthen his digestive system and prevent another episode of explosive diarrhea. Instead, he would drop a big turd. But even then, it wouldn't stop the spicy properties from burning his asshole.

He was caught off guard the first time. Had he known; he could have used this method. However, he hadn't expected his skills to be used in such a way.

After listening to Zorbek recount the events of the past 6 days over a great meal, Leon popped a medicinal pill into his mouth and dropped a big turd on his personal throne. He spent the next two hours stabilizing his cultivation and recuperating with pills.

In the meantime, the palace guards have packed their belongings and prepared themselves for a big exploration under his orders.

From what Zorbek recounted to him, the group was immediately attacked by another few dozen ants after they uncovered a path that led further downwards to a larger underground cave. Inside, there were many building ruins and even aircraft wreckages. They could not see the ends of the cave.

Due to the uncertainty of the deep unknown, the palace guards did not search the area blindly, but waited for him to finish his secluded cultivation. They did not know if they would alarm another army of ants. Thus, they couldn't move without the prince.

Shortly after Leon recovered, he gave the order and the group set out for the remnants of the floating city.

Zorbek led the group, while Leon followed behind alongside Lilith. Along the way, Leon turned to Lilith and thanked her again. "Seems like I owe you one."

Although they should have been square after saving each other once, Leon still felt like he owes her due to the importance he placed on his own life.

"Oh, this matter again? It was nothing—" Lilith waved it off nonchalantly, but they she froze for a moment, before her lips rose into a sly smile. "Since you owe me, how do you want to thank me?"

"You ate my crackers. Isn't that enough?" Leon joked. In fact, she ate all his ration and even slapped his face but saying this would only make him seem petty instead.

Lilith's smile froze, before she pouted, "Since you're not planning to repay me, why say you owe me?"

"I'm just joking." Leon laughed lightly, before adding seriously, "I've noticed that you still have problems adjusting your balance brought by your single wing. How about I—"

"You're not cutting it off! That's not how you repay someone!" Lilith cut him off with a shriek and retreated.

"…give you a method to retract your wing into your body…" Leon finished with a dry laugh, while scratching his head. It seems she still hadn't forgotten that.

"Huh?" Lilith became startled when she heard this and drew closer to Leon, forgetting all of her previous wariness. "You had such an amazing method? Why didn't mention this before? No, never mind that. Quickly teach me!" Lilith said excitedly.

If she can really learn such a method, she would be able to blend in with human society and not be discriminated against! She can also…

Aiya!

Just as she was beginning to delve deeper into her darker list of possibilities, it was interrupted by a hard poke on her forehead as Leon transmitted the first part of the [Hundred Beast Transformation Art].

She stared daggers at Leon, but then she was surprised by the string of information flowing into her mind.

"Don't ask how and just study it as we go." Leon ignored her surprise and stated.

He wasn't sure if it was the right choice to make to bestow something that could be used against humanity, but he didn't want to be tied down by this debt of gratitude. As long as his conscience was clear, he would be able to move forward.

Looking at Leon's back view, Lilith suddenly found him to be full of mystery. She decided that she would hug onto Leon's thighs tightly in the future and make him spill all his secrets…willingly of course. After all, she hadn't forgotten that she was under Leon's protection, while she was stranded in the middle of human territory and that could change depending on her actions.

"Your Highness, this is the place." Zorbek said as the group reached the end of the cave and found the opening to a much larger one.

Leon strolled forward and used his [Spirit Eyes] to peer into the darkness. Just as Zorbek mentioned, he could see remnants of the floating city.

Suddenly, Leon was struck with a thought. Since the ancient civilization got wiped out after the floating city dropped out of the sky, the devastation on the land would not be small. Was the steep mountain range surrounding the Human Domain formed after the event?

No, something didn't seem quite right. Even if the underground path was leading them towards the center of the Human Domain, they should still be quite far from it. If the mountain range was formed by the drop of the floating city, the floating city remnants should have been found near the center of the Human Domain, not here.

"Hm?"

"Did you notice something, your Highness?" Zorbek quickly asked.

"Oh, it's nothing.. I thought that these leaning buildings are positioned quite strangely."

Chapter 193 - Pocketing Books

Back at the centermost region of the Capital, on the top floor of the Royal Palace, Heinrich was seated outside. He had moved his study to the balcony, where he could bathe in the afterglow of the setting sun and overlook the development of the kingdom.

Heinrich had a peaceful expression as if he had come to terms with the changes of the kingdom. A ruler shouldn't be inflexible. He had to be open to change. Only then would he be able to move forward.

"Rules are made to be broken, huh?"

Heinrich quietly thought as he gazed into the distant lands, where a silver line could be seen from the Lower District stretching into the north. It was the steel railway track to the Rainwallow City that's still under construction.

He had realized many things upon waking up from his long slumber. He had abided by the royal family's teaching, but at this moment, he truly thought it was outdated.

A higher wall will not protect humanity, nor would a strong grasp over vital resources develop the kingdom if it is not used correctly. The Crawford Kingdom had undergone more changes in the last three months than it did in the last four hundred years.

Would they still need to hide behind a wall, if they had powerful cultivation? The discovery of heavenly crystals had ensured that humanity was on the rise. Heinrich hadn't slacked in his cultivation since he awoke. He was driven to catch up to his wife quickly. He estimated it would take another two weeks for him to reach Transcendent if he devotes all his time to cultivate.

However, that's not possible. Someone had to keep track of the ongoing projects in the Capital, and he certainly wasn't willing to dump that work on others.

The Capital was experiencing its most aggressive development using steal and steam-powered technology, and it filled Heinrich with excitement. He was even tempted to tear down the wall for raw material, but he quickly shook the dangerous thought out of his mind. It was a pity that the production of their alloys couldn't be quicker.

Heinrich was glanced at a piece of paper on his study table, listing the information of the two sects: The Illusory Butterfly Sect and Bloodfiend Sect. These were the current enemies of the kingdom. One was responsible for the recent disaster befell on the Capital, and the other was suspected for the events of 17 years ago.

So far, the information they had on hand was too limited. They did not understand the extent of their strengths nor their numbers. It was strange how they had not known about these two sects before. But what was stranger was how the other kingdoms allowed the existence of these sects to grow to the point of threatening their own sovereignty.

Just what the hell had the Durham Kingdom and the Valaran Kingdom been doing!? And what about the other kingdoms? Were there more dominant forces in their kingdoms too? If there was, would they be a friend or a foe?

Heinrich narrowed his eyes but did not focus on anything in particular as he ponders in deep thought. Each kingdom had its own remnants of ancient ruins. No one could say for certain that there weren't any strong heritage or heavenly crystals lying deeper in those ruins.

Heinrich's concern was if there was, had it already been excavated yet?

A few sheets of paper were blown by a sudden gust of wind from the balcony, but a palace maid immediately leaped out and collected all the papers in midair in an instant, before placing it back on the table in an orderly and practiced matter. It was apparent that it was not the first time.

"Thank you, Jenna."

"Once again, I am not Jenna. I am Lily and it would be great if we can move the study table back inside, Your Majesty." Lily said with veiled annoyance.

The palace maid and corrected for the Nth time. Jenna was her mother. Heinrich did not seem to have heard her as he seem to be pondering an entirely different matter. At much consideration, he started to write a letter, before sealing into an envelope and passed it to Lily. "Send this letter to the Royal University's dean and have him come see me at once, Jenna."

Lily rolled her eyes and accepted. Nothing she said was getting through to the king.

While Elizabeth had Lily serve the king, she was assisting the people in the railway construction. Although Leon might have joked about, she had given it some serious thought after a period of time.

It was true that if they had more metal-users, it would certainly cut down on the construction time of all projects, but the most present issue wasn't cultivating a group of metal-users, but a group of experts.

With the strength of their enemies remaining unknown to them, they did not have the luxury to hoard the heavenly crystals. The crystals were first distributed to the Lancaster family and every member of the royal faction, before finally allocating some quotas to the other nobles.

A single Transcendent might have changed the fate of humanity in the past, but after 500 years have passed, they can't expect it to happen again. They weren't fighting the beasts but among themselves.

Heinrich rolled back in his seat for some brief relaxation, but not long after Lily left, a grumpy Elizabeth returned. He glanced at the blood on her armor, before casually asking, "Did something happen along the tracks, my dear wife?"

"En, some members of the Bloodfiend Sect were trying to sabotage the railway tracks. I tried to capture one alive to interrogate them, but then exploded into a pool of blood." Elizabeth nodded with a grumble.

"So, the sects are already making their next move, huh? Of course, they won't let us develop in peace…" Heinrich said, before raising an eyebrow with confusion. "But why the hell would they attack the railway tracks? They place more importance on the railway than the underground mines?"

Elizabeth was also confused.

Just what did these sects want from them?

…

Back in the 2nd Underground Floor, Leon continued his exploration with the hunting team. He could not detect any ants within 200 yards with his [Spirit Eyes] and began to suggest they split into teams of two to search the nearby buildings, before proceeding deeper. It would save them time, rather than searching each building one by one. After making plans to regather back at the same spot within an hour, the palace guards all picked their partners and left.

All the buildings at least suffered some degree of damages and half-buried, but there were a few that weren't. In addition to all the buildings leaning in a single direction, the rocky ground around these buildings wasn't smooth and was filled with web-like cracks.

From this, Leon could guess that the buildings may have been 'uprooted' from the surface of the floating city. As such, these buildings may be here, but the foundation of the floating city wasn't.

If his theory was correct, the foundation should be lying somewhere in the central underground region of the Human Domain. But then another question arises. How did these few buildings end up so far away from the impact point?

No matter how Leon tried to simulate a giant landmass smashing into the ground in his mind, he could only imagine the floating city turning into a large pile of rubbles in a seismic explosion, while the surrounding clusters of the earth get blasted into the skies before raining back down like meteor shower and the land get swept by a fiery dust storm.

Considering the state of these buildings, it goes to show how high the defensive properties of these buildings had been to survive the impact. Even an ordinary spirit artifact would not be as tough as this. That is to say that each of these buildings was equivalent to a high-grade defensive spirit artifact or higher, or at least they were.

Leon did not believe that the building relied on the defensive properties of its building material alone to survive. In fact, he thought that was simply impossible, not unless it was made of divine-grade material.

The building must have been enhanced with defensive runes. Since they were only equivalent to high-grade spirit artifacts and weren't true high-grade spirit artifacts, they were bound to have weak points.

Leon traced his fingers along with the damages of one such building and thought, 'This must be one of the weak points, where the defensive runes didn't cover.'

"Why did you suggest for everyone to split up and search?" Lilith suddenly asked curiously.

Originally, Leon wanted to search alone since they were an odd group of 23 people, but since he brought her along, he had to be responsible for her.

"It saves time," Leon answered simply.

"I don't think that's the real reason though. What's your real purpose?" Lilith tried to pry with a cute expression.

"Think however you wish," Leon responded impassively, before coming up with a question of his own. "How about you? What's your purpose for tagging along? I doubt it's because you are curious about history. Let me guess, you're looking for something here."

"How did you know!?" Lilith blurted in shock, before covering her mouth with wide eyes. But it was too late. She had already given herself away. Leon was able to get his answer from her words.

"I calculated with my fingers," Leon answered sarcastically in a nonchalant manner while mimicking the way a phony fortune teller do their calculations.

"…"

Lilith was stunned for a moment, before rolling her eyes.

She understood that asking stupid questions will be returned with stupid answers, but this fella was just too mean! She had blurted the question without thought just now.

"Hmph!"

Lilith stamped her feet, before walking off.

Seeing Lilith heading into a different building, Leon chuckled and enter the building in front of him under the assumption that it was the library. Libraries represent lots of books, lots of books represent lots of knowledge, and knowledge was power.

He also thought it was a pity if the runic technology of the Nova Empire was lost even though it was the runic technology that ended the ancient civilization. Learning from history to avoid repeating the same mistake was good, but this didn't mean that they should bury all the knowledge.

There were benefits to learning runic inscriptions. He had deemed it was not only useful in strengthening the kingdom, but it would also be useful for him to learn it. He was the only one that understood the ancient language and he already considered himself a jack of all trades in any case.

Seeing all the books littered inside the building, his assumption was correct.. With no one around, Leon began pocketing all the books into his Worldspace.