STROLL

BANG.

A man slammed his palms onto a sturdy table.

"This is starting to get ridiculous. We don't have the manpower to waste on this. The demons are already starting to become more brazen, we lost a squadron while trying to scout out that region already, and several more in the last few days. How are we supposed to spare the manpower to look for a brat?"

Sergeant Amon was absolutely furious, but he couldn't take out his rage on his higher-ups, so his subordinates could only sit here and let him vent.

His life was pretty leisurely usually, or rather it had been in the past. As an Eighth Star expert, there was very little that he couldn't have. However, in the past few months, maybe even years now that he thought about it, everything was going to shit.

First, he had actually been sent to oversee these mines. This was usually a job that would be handled by mostly Fifth Star folks, and maybe a sprinkle of Sixth Star. In fact, many of them were just pawned off to the lesser forces in the surroundings and they were allowed to keep a small portion of what was mined over the years.

But now he had to stay here year-round and defend against demons, putting his life on the line all the time.

He had been born a talent, his life had been easy from day one. When had he ever suffered this sort of hardship?

Unlike the Vast Bubble, the Godlen's Bubble wasn't in nearly as terrible a state. The Vast Bubble's integration had started off half complete. Even when Leonel went there, there were bits and pieces of the demon world overlapping with it, causing them to have to set up defensive fortresses at all the contact points.

The Godlens were luckier in this regard and they didn't have to worry about this matter, and with Vivak's focus on his other plans, not to mention the Incomplete Worlds, the edge that his experts had outside of the Godlen's true center of power was limited.

Eventually, Sergeant Amon calmed down and stood to his full height. His beard rustled beneath his hot breath, sparse strands of grey making him look more aged than he was. It seemed that these past few years of stress had really been taking a toll on him.

"Fine, fine," he waved at his subordinates. "Take send out another squadron of five."

"But-"

Sergeant Amon glared at the soldier trying to talk back. He knew what the latter wanted to say, but he didn't have the patience for it.

Five definitely wasn't enough, but who cared? When the demons came, they'd thank him for his decision.

Of course, Sergeant Amon had no idea how important what the Godlens lost was. The Godlen Codex was practically the lifeblood of their Ancestors, how could they give up on trying to find Leonel?

...

Leonel observed this matter from a distance and nodded himself. This would be the one he chose. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

First, they had a mostly incompetent leader, but that was less important. Truthfully speaking, he didn't need the leader to be incompetent because the main problem that these leaders posed wasn't their brains, but rather their actual strength.

If Leonel wanted to mine an entire mine's worth and come out unscathed, unless their leader was as lacking as a baby in a cradle, it would be impossible. Eventually, he would be caught no matter what.

No, the real reasons he picked this mine were different.

For one, it was a relatively new mine. Second, it was multi-layered. Third, it was a great distance from Godlen City.

Because it was a new mine, all of the tunnels had yet to be perfectly mapped out. In addition, they were still working on the closer sections, there was no need to move too deeply as that would just make things difficult on the for no reason.

It was multi-layered as well, meaning that the tunnel system could be separated into tiers or floors for a total of three. There was the shallowest layer, a middle layer, and a bottom layer that was easily a hundred meters underground.

At the moment, the largest concentration of people were in the first layer. It would probably take several more decades before they even thought about focusing on the second layer or deeper. It was definitely a large mine.

Unfortunately, there were some things that would still make this matter troublesome.

For one, they were still running scouts through the second and third layers. From time to time, they would fight off beasts that had called the mine home for what probably had to be at least centuries. This would keep the miners of the first layer relatively safe, though some danger was still there.

Of course, another reason there were such scouts was to stop others from taking advantage of the vastness of the mine to pocket some of the resources for themselves.

Secondly, there were what seemed to be researchers in the deeper portions of the mine. Because it was still relatively new, they were still trying to understand the true depth of the mine. After all, they didn't have Anastasia.

After listening to their conversations, Leonel knew that they had only found the third layer many years after the second layer. So, much of the time had been spent thinking that there were only two layers. Right now, they were doing their due diligence to make sure that there wasn't a fourth layer.

Of course, Leonel knew that there wasn't one, but they didn't know that.

'Now just need to sneak in,' Leonel thought.

Leonel took out a device and bound it to his arm. At that moment, his outward showing of the Fifth Dimension changed and his aura became that of a Seventh Dimensional existence. At the same time, a shimmering and thin film of Emulation Spatial Force took shape over his body and his presence in the eyes of others became identical to one of the soldiers who had just been sent out by Sergeant Amon.

Then, Leonel boldly strolled into the encampment.