After they entered the city, Malark proposed to Arthur and Lucy to stay the army's headquarters, however, his offer was rejected as Arthur wanted to tour the city and learn more about Saly's location.

From what he already knew, Saly was most likely at the mysterious place in the middle of the three factions and that's because the woman who abducted her is not a monster or an undead, so the only plausible place for Saly to be, is there.

"Don't forget, if you need anything, just go to the Army's headquarter at the West of the city and call for my name"

As Malark said that, he handed a badge to Arthur, it was a silver badge with a skull engraved on it, apparently, it's their symbol.

After they bid farewell, Lucy and Arthur began roaming the undead city. It was full of undead left and right, with all kinds of shops and weird places.

The most shocking thing is all of the people Arthur saw, the lowest one was Lv700, There were also a lot of Spirit, Heavenly or Deity Realm people in the city.

Arthur even spotted numerous Immortals, they didn't look like an undead and were probably strangers traveling and just came here to visit or 'sightsee'.

There was even an old man who was an 8th-grade Immortal. He had a long red horn and a black-ish skin. From his appearance, one could tell he came from the Monster Race.

It was easy for them to find a place to temporarily stay at with Arthur's comprehension of the Underworld's language.

There were several inns in the city as it was extremely huge, it spanned dozens of miles, so it was hard for them to explore it.

Moreover, they were not planning to do so, their only purpose in coming to this world is to retrieve Saly and possibly go back to Astria.

They chose a random inn and entered, it was a five-story building made from unknown grey stones, it didn't have a bad appearance and compared to the inns in Astria, this one can be considered top class.

The problem was the currency, Arthur did not ask Malark about the currency because it would be too idiotic, no matter if he was in seclusion for decades or centuries, it was basic knowledge to know the currency used here.

He didn't know if Zodiak has been here or not, his storage contained so many things he couldn't use or didn't know its use.

The couple didn't immediately head to an inn, they observed the shops to see the currency used and in just minutes, it was obvious that the currency was some form of a stone.

It was small, the size of a thumb and had a red color. 

Arthur rampaged through his storage ring, which used to belong to Zodiak, he tried finding similar red stones.

The search took a couple of minutes as the storage was extremely big, he didn't search all of it, he stopped when he stumbled upon a clump of red stones.

They were all sizes, there was another batch of blue and violet stones too. He ignored the other two and checked the red ones.

They had three sizes, one the size of a thumb which had the lowest numbers, the other was a size bigger and the last one was the size of a fist.

Seeing this gem resembling stones, Arthur remembered that when he found Zodiak's tomb, he found a chest full of gems too.

He brought his consciousness toward the chest and checked its contents, they were indeed stones with various color, however, these ones were different from the previous ones.

These stones or rather gems had a cluster in them and were all the size of a fist. Be it black, red, white or yellow, there was all color, moreover, the big chest was full of it.

There was also another chest full of unknown material, it looked like gold, it was full of coins with a unique symbol on them, he still didn't know what the contents of these chests were exactly.

Arthur checked the red stones one more time to ascertain that they were the same as the ones used in this world. After he was one hundred percent sure, he split all the red stones and put them in storage rings.

He handed Lucy some storage rings which small and big red stones and kept some for himself.

In fact, storage rings cannot be put into other storage rings, however, this law didn't apply on Zodiak's storage as it could hold countless storage rings.

Whenever they retrieved the rings of their dead enemies, it was always put on Arthur's storage as it was more convenient.

He wanted to hand the large storage ring to Lucy, but it was unfortunate as she can't use black mana so she can't open it.

As they walked toward the inn's reception desk, a ghoul female welcomed them with warm smiles as she didn't mind their appearances.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Welcome to the Misty Inn, how could I help you?"

The female displayed a very warm and friendly attitude, but that's to be expected for someone who works as a receptionist.

"We want to book a room"

The receptionist continued smiling as she respectfully replied

"Honoured customers, would you like a normal or VIP room?"

Hearing this, Arthur frowned as this concept of VIP room was not present in Astria, there was a larger room which cost more, but there was no such thing as VIP rooms for rich customers, moreover, in Astria, no nobles or wealthy people would stay at an inn.

"VIP?"

"Hai! VIP rooms have denser Nether Energy, they are also more comfortable and bigger than normal rooms, what's more is that...."

The receptionist kept babbling about the advantages of VIP room for a couple of minutes, as for Arthur, he was curious about this Nether Energy..

"....The cost of the VIP room is 20 Red Spirit Stones per day, as for the normal rooms, it's 3 Red Spirit Stones per day."

"We'll take the VIP room then..."

Arthur casually replied, in fact from the very beginning he decided to choose it, all the babbling was a bit needless.

The female receptionist was ecstatic as she saw that her 5 minutes non-stop talking paid off, she accepted the 20 Red Spirit Stones from Arthur and guided the customers to their room.

....

The room was indeed very wide, it had luxurious furniture and a large bed. Although people at the higher-Realms don't need to sleep, it doesn't mean that they can't. 

Some people prefer sleeping every day instead of mediating, for them, it made them calmer and in a better mood.

For Arthur and Lucy, sleeping is needless yet they still do it, nothing is better than sleeping in each other's embrace.

When they entered the room, Arthur didn't feel much, as for the dense Nether Energy, he couldn't feel it or absorb it.

However, Lucy sensed the thick Nether Energy, when they were outside, she could feel an unknown energy but she didn't pay it much heed, however, now that the energy is thicked, her body became unconsciously absorbing it like a whirlpool.

"This.... it's absorbing it on its own?"

Lucy was confused as she felt her strength rising at an alarming pace and the unknown Nether Energy entering her body at a very fast pace.

She sat cross-legged on the comfortable bed and began assisting her body in absorbing even more Nether Energy.

As for Arthur, he sat next to her and stayed silent, he knew she was most likely breaking through, there was a very meager amount of Mana present, but it was noticeable by Arthur, he could clearly feel it being absorbed by Lucy, she was like a bottomless pit.

Nether Energy invaded her meridians, slowly opening them, her strength never ceased rising.

When all her meridians were fully opened, they started madly absorbing the Nether Energy, which made it much easier for Lucy. The Meridians are meant to absorb the Energy and transform it into attacks or barriers or anything the host wishes.

Lucy's facial features matured by a bit, it was almost unnoticeable, but her height also increased by a few centimeters.

Parts of her body changed and some areas which were a still growing became fully developed.

Her womanly charm increased and her skin became softer and smoother.

After an hour, sweat began coming out of her body, she was like a sponge filled with water. She absorbed too much Nether Energy, her body felt like it would explode at any given second.

Lucy patiently guided the energy to her a specific place, it was a bit under her stomach, that's where the Dantian is formed.

The energy began compressing, it was extremely painful, but Lucy didn't stop, if she failed this process then she would most likely not breakthrough and would instead receive a backlash.

One more hour passed, Lucy's body was soaking wet and her face was red, at her Dantian area, a very small ice blue orb was formed from the repeated compression of the Nether Energy.

It was when the blue orb was formed did Lucy stop madly compressing the Nether Energy. 

She finally broke through to Immortal Realm. She could feel her body surging with power, her meridians no longer absorbed Mana and only focused on the Nether Energy as it was better.

If she didn't focus and absorb the energy herself, her meridians would still absorb but at a slower pace.

"Lucy, Congratulations!"

Arthur gave her a warm hug as he appraised her and saw that she was already at the Immortal Realm. Her prowess sky-rocketed and she would probably not lose if she faced Malark alone!

She wrapped her arms around Arthur and rested on her head on his chest as smiled.

"Hehe, thank you.... You'll breakthrough very soon too, I can feel it... then we'll go take Saly back.."

Arthur nodded at her as he embraced, they rested for a couple of hours to calm their minds, too much happened since they came, and her breakthrough was just the beginning.

TITLE : NONE Level: ???? RACE : Half Demon/ ?????? - Realm : Immortal 1st Grade - Strength 45m Intelligence 60m Agility 45m Wisdom 60m Vitality 45m Dexterity 60m - Health 34m Health Regen 30000/s Nether Energy 40m Nether Energy Regen 35000/s Stamina infinite Stamina Regen ???? - -- Attack: 75m Defense: 39.9m Magic defense : 9.9m Enigma abilities : Ice Spirit Mental Power : 1008 Elemental Resistances: Fire: 85% Water: 5% Wind: 0% Earth: 25% Light/holy: -50% Magma 60% Lightning 5% Ice 100%