“Hey, guys! Come back inside, please! I’ve got something for you.”

  Alexandra’s voice came from John’s communication stone. He let it relay the message at full volume so we all got to hear.

  “Alright, we’ll be there soon.” John sent back and then looked at the rest of us. Onyx was with us as usual, but there were also Bram and Adam as we were setting up a stronger defensive perimeter.

  In preparation for a battle, we created a much sturdier border between the outside world and our tower base. We uplifted stone walls from the ground and compressed them into a thick and sturdy barrier, with threads of Spirit Metal running through them in the shape of runes and glyphs, enhancing them further. We created those by melting down a dozen Spirit Swords and using the metal, we crafted powerful enchantments that were being fed by artificial Spirit Veins deep underground.

  After returning to the continent, I was finally able to buy proper materials, and so I have stacked on massive amounts of Void Stone, Ferrite, and other similar exotic materials. Since they were not as rare as, let’s say, Celestial Metal, I was able to get my hands on quite a good amount. Tons of them.

  “Any ideas as to what it might be?” Bram asked. He was slowly getting accustomed to the new life, but some things still escaped him. As Earthlings, the five of us had a sort of bond that went deeper than the rest, and the only one that came close was Onyx, since a part of him came from the Soul Eater as well.

  [My guess would be the clothes. Since we were an official group now, our attire has to represent that.]

  “Oooooh~!” Onyx cooed. “Are we finally getting our brand?”

  “Probably. She kept busy these last few days. Wouldn’t even show me, her husband, what she was working on.” Adam said with a sigh. “Mind you, that was my room she barricaded herself in too.”

  [Well, let’s go take a look.]

  “Ta-da!” Alexandra proudly said as we all gathered in a semi-circle. Behind her was a large curtain, hiding some… stuff.

  Okay, let’s be honest, we all knew what it was. Even if I didn’t want to know, the fact was that Alexandra did the bare minimum to hide it. She removed the curtain with a flair and revealed the clothing racks full of classic Cultivation attire.

  “Here you go, guys, don’t ruin it immediately. It took a lot of effort to make it.” She began handing out the clothes to our members, a vest and a pair of pants for each. They were light beige in color and had an embroidered black diamond with a purple border on the back. It was great. I happily accepted my piece.

  “Thanks, honey.” Adam gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “It looks fantastic!”

  Olivia nodded in agreement. “Wow, so fancy… I love it!”

  [Truly… It came out even better than expected. Good job!] I added.

  Everyone praised and was amazed by her craftsmanship, making Alexandra blush. Even Thalza had to agree. “For me too? It does look nice. Thank you.” The Drow said after receiving her set, and then gave me a look.

  I grinned back. [Didn’t think we were just going to let you leave now, did you? You are part of the team now.]

  She didn’t answer, instead just staring at the Black Onyx design. I wasn’t snooping around her mind, but even then, after doing it so often, I could already start to guess what some people were thinking. I could detect strong emotions from her, and judging by her expression, she was feeling conflicted.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  I began to wonder if her arrogant Drow ego finally died. But then I quickly shook my head. It was too much a part of her. She would probably rather literally die than let that part of her go. That unfortunately, made it so that working with other people would be much harder for her. If that was the burden she decided to carry, I was more than happy to let her do it. It wasn’t my problem anyway. And if it ever became one, I had my own ways of dealing with such things.

  I took a deep breath of the crisp morning air on top of the tower. The sun just barely rose from behind the distant horizon as the thin morning mist still crept along the desert ground at a snail’s pace, vanishing wherever the light rays moved.

  “Sleepless night?” John asked, coming soundlessly up the tower behind me.

  [Thinking about the future.]

  “Worried about the war?” John teased with a smile.

  I snorted. The weaklings we were no doubt about to fight did not worry me. My mind was focused on problems of a more… ethereal nature.

  [I am worried, yes, but… it’s not so much the war, but about the things that will happen after.]

  “What do you mean?”

  I turned to face John. [We, all six of us, are breaking the norms of Cultivation. You and I especially. The others use many times more resources, but we are on a whole new level. You mentioned your Cultivation requires a hundred times more Soul Essence than is the norm, right? Well, I, on the other hand, go way past the thousand mark. Closer to the ten thousand, actually. And all these things scale exponentially.]

  I sighed and turned to look at the horizon again. [I made some rough calculations, and things are looking bleak. The exponentials quickly go out of hand with the amount of energy I will eventually require. You might still be able to reach the Divine Realm if you really try, but without completely wiping this planet, I don’t think there will be enough for me. Not if I want to continue on the growth path I have set for myself.] I declared my concerns.

  I was at Level Five of the Spirit Realm. To reach the Divine, I still needed to advance 25 times. That basically meant I had to do the impossible. I already required a medium Sect’s worth of Spirit Realm Souls just to get to the next Level while still in the Spirit Realm myself. There were simply not enough people or beasts on the continent for me to get even close to advancing so many times. Add the other continents, if there are any, and I might be able to reach the Demigod Realm.

  The deep oceans supposedly hid some terrifyingly strong monsters, but they were few and far between. And even if I killed all of them and absorbed every speck of Qi floating in the atmosphere, it would still not be enough. I would literally have to wipe the planet to maybe reach the Divine Realm. And that was a big maybe. It was quite possible even that wouldn’t be enough. And then what? I would be the lone survivor of a dead planet? Such a thing wasn’t an option, and I did not even consider it.

  [Anyway… With that depressing thought out of the way, are you still planning on visiting Neloron? You got the Anchor now…] I said.

  John remained silent for some time and then shook his head. “I was thinking about it, but no. Now it’s not the time. Perhaps after things cool down around here. It seems unwise to leave just after we set up a base of operations. Who knows what might happen while I’m gone? Better to finish things here first.”

  I nodded. He was right, of course. I would do the same if I were in his shoes. [Right. Well, there are some people coming from the West. They have one of those Slobs with them, so we might want to check them out.]

  “People?”

  [Humans, actually.] I waved my hand, and an image formed in the air. It showed a group of men running in our general direction, accompanied by some weird monsters as well as one of those massive Slobs.

  “Humans? They are not Drow?” John frowned.

  [Genuine humans, as far as I can tell.] I shrugged, though I was similarly perplexed by the situation. [Doesn’t look like they are running from the monsters, but they do look… odd, so what the hell do I know?]

  John sighed. “Best to go out and see, I guess. Alright, ready to stretch those tiny muscles?”

  I paused in the middle of expanding my body and grinned at John. I then shrank back down and jumped into the air with a light tap of my foot.

  [Yeah… Better not get too excited about the appetizer, though I am curious. Just kill the beasts, alright? I wanna have a chat with those guys.]

  “Fine by me. I take the monsters and you take care of the people?”

  [Agreed. Let’s go.]

  We shot like a rocket toward the horizon, with the sun at our back, ready to deliver judgment to the Demon Spawn.