“Urgh.”

Ackster came to shortly after losing consciousness.

“Huh?”

Ackster regaining consciousness wasn’t surprising. He knew he wouldn’t die from pushing himself too far in the Habitat. The pressure would force him back to the surface, and Wilma or someone could fish him out if necessary.

But as Ackster opened his eyes while sitting up, he realized that he wasn’t back inside the tent where the Habitat lay. He wasn’t even on the ground, well, above ground. The soil beneath his hand and body was solid, but no tent or sky filled his eyes as he looked up.

“What the…?”

Ackster knew he was looking up. He could feel gravity pulling his head down as he did so. Still, the sight of looking at the Habitat from down under made his head spin. Being beneath a liquid with seemingly nothing in between but still not getting wet didn’t make sense.

But that was how it was.

Ackster had somehow ended up below the Habitat.

Ackster looked at the ground beneath him in sudden realization.

He had reached the bottom! He didn’t know how he had done it or why he hadn’t been pushed back to the surface. But Ackster had done something no one else had done. He had reached the end of the Habitat.

That wasn’t the only thing he had done.

Ackster had beaten The Hero.

Ackster stared at the ground beneath his feet, lightly stomping on it in disbelief.

He had actually done it. He wanted to whoop and cheer. But he still couldn’t quite believe he had done something not even The Hero could do.

Ackster closed his eyes and put his arm over them as he leaned his head back to keep the tears from flowing.

There was hope.

This occasion was the first real proof that Ackster wasn’t fighting a losing battle. He hadn’t had any concrete evidence that Strong Body and Ackster Phileam’s innate talent would even be enough to come close to touching The Hero’s toe hair. But now Ackster knew that not only could he stand on equal footing with The Hero, he could even defeat him.

Of course, a single non-combat incident wouldn’t be enough to confirm it. But Ackster felt true hope for the first time since his transmigration.

He was no longer holding on to his resolution to defeat The Hero through sheer willpower. He now had hope that his goal was achievable.

Ackster knew that this incident was circumstantial and that he had reached the bottom while The Hero hadn’t, mostly had to do with his nigh-masochistic treatment of himself and his willingness to do everything it took.

The Hero was also willing to do everything necessary to save the world and stop The Calamity.

However, the key difference between Ackster’s and The Hero’s willingness was upon whom they inflicted it. Ackster treated himself and his body as something less than a punching bag, while The Hero didn’t let anyone stop him or interfere with his quest.

The Hero worked with the bigger picture in mind since he was already confident in himself.

Ackster knew that he would be the key to defeating The Hero. He needed to get stronger, no matter what it took, even if he had to throw himself into a volcano to do it.

When The Hero had entered the Habitat for his inventory, he had retreated when he was satisfied.

Ackster had willingly forgotten what the word retreat meant. He was a little more stubborn and willing to suffer than The Hero, at least this time when the stakes weren’t that high.

After all, The Hero had never suffered from a lacking inventory size despite not reaching the Habitat’s bottom.

Ackster hoped there would be something special at the bottom. But even if there wasn’t, and he simply had a ginormous inventory, he would happily take it. While The Hero hadn’t lacked volume in his inventory, Ackster was of the mind that there was no such thing as too big.

If he couldn’t fill it with various weapons, food, clothes, supplies, and the like, he could just fill it with explosives and dump them all on his enemy if he couldn’t defeat them with regular means.

But he had to leave the Habitat before he could start filling it with things. And before he could leave, Ackster naturally had to explore.

Ackster looked around.

It seemed like he had ended up in a cave right below the nectar. He had landed close to the edge, and he followed the wall with his eyes as he looked around the surprisingly spacious cave.

At first, Ackster thought that he could see so well thanks to his Darksight. But when his gaze reached the center of the cave, he found a source of light subtle enough that he wouldn’t have seen it without Darksight. It emitted barely enough glow to stand out from the otherwise dark blue, almost black earth in the cave.

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Ackster swept the cave with his eyes again and confirmed that at the bottom of the circular cave, located right below the circular pond, there was nothing other than him and the source of light in the center.

Ackster made a note of the fact that he was once again deep underground in a tunnel without any real light before deciding to approach the bulbous light source.

As far as Ackster knew, no one had reached the bottom of a Habitat, and thus, no one had found out what was there. He had to investigate, and if possible, he could use whatever it was for himself.

Something resting at the bottom of a Habitat had to be something extraordinary. Of course, Ackster doubted he would know what to do with something like that. Thankfully, he had the wondrous skills Monster Muncher, Iron Stomach, and Strong Body. He could just eat it if he didn’t figure out what to do with the source of light that appeared to be a…

“...A flower?”

Ackster spoke out loud as he got close enough to make out the characteristics of the source of light at the bottom of the Habitat.

The flower looked like a water lily, but it was bigger than the ones Ackster had seen before, not to mention how it glowed, had a presence, and grew below not-water, not on top of regular water. However, it had the same layered, triangular leaves and central structure as water lilies.

Ackster stepped closer, close enough to touch. But he didn’t reach out with his hand just yet.

When Ackster got that close, he could feel the dense spatial energy in the flower. It was so pure and concentrated that Ackster was reluctant to get in touch with it.

But he was simultaneously drawn to it.

Ackster gulped.

He could tell that the spatial energy in the flower was purer than the one in the nectar. That could only mean that if Ackster baptized his body with it, the size of his inventory would grow larger than if he just used the nectar.

His inventory should already be large as shit, considering he reached the bottom of the Habitat. But why settle?

Ackster didn’t have anything to lose by trying, so he reached out with a hand toward the flower. He hesitated right before touching.

It was likely that the flower was the source of the Habitat and the nectar. If he took it, the Habitat would most likely die.

Ackster tilted his head from side to side as he pondered on what to do. The Habitat he was at the bottom of wasn’t the only Habitat, but it wasn’t like there were more than five of them per continent. Losing even one would be a big loss even for an organization like the Guild since many of their employees and adventurers would have to look elsewhere for an inventory.

‘But that doesn’t have anything to do with me, does it?’

The Hero hadn’t gone to this Habitat. And while a Habitat disappearing was a rare occurrence, unless someone could figure out it was because Ackster took the flower at the bottom, it wouldn’t be noteworthy enough to reach The Hero’s ears. Even if it did somehow, there wouldn’t be a reason for The Hero to investigate it, especially when he should be busy with other things on the continent.

The Hero should be stronger than Ackster at the moment, so it wasn’t entirely impossible that he would be roped into dealing with the Crimson Edge and their current adventure. But even The Hero wouldn’t have an easy time dealing with them at his current strength.

Ackster realized he might have inadvertently given himself a small window where The Hero wouldn’t have the leisure to focus on things other than the disaster wracking Lill.

Of course, it wasn’t all good since The Hero would grow stronger proportionately to the enemies he defeated. The stronger the enemies, the stronger he would get. And as far as Ackster remembered, The Hero only dealt with multiple S-rank threat levels a couple of years into the story.

Ackster didn’t want to assume anything about The Hero’s strength, and it was entirely possible that he wouldn’t be involved in the subjugation of the Blood Moon’s Avatars. But The Hero hadn’t been involved in any battles of such high level in the original story because he had been caught up in politics, laws, and matters closer to human relations than combat.

It began with the corruption in the merchant city he went to after Degrest. The Hero, thanks to his instincts and habit of not leaving a single stone unturned, found a trail of corruption snaking around the continent.

He still had to fight powerful enemies, but it was more his intellect and ruthless efficiency on display during that part of the original story.

However, now that someone had twisted the original story, The Hero almost wouldn’t have a choice. Even if he didn’t lead the operation, he would at least have to be involved and show the people that he is The Hero.

Ackster didn’t rule out any other possibilities, but he found it the most reasonable that The Hero would be busy with the Blood Moon Avatars at the moment. It didn’t only mean that he would be too busy to hear about a destroyed Habitat. It also meant that his upcoming mission in the southern seas to deal with a kraken would be postponed or given to someone else.

The Hero might have even outgrown that level of mission after defeating the group formerly known as Crimson Edge.

Ackster furrowed his brow.

The Hero getting put on a track diverging from his own was a good thing. But The Hero becoming stronger quicker wasn’t necessarily the same.

If The Hero was too strong, Ackster would be unable to defeat him, even with The Calamity tiring him out.

The closer The Hero’s win over The Calamity, the easier it would be for Ackster.

Ackster put his hand on one of the leaves of the flower as he thought about it.

He would have to consider interfering with The Hero’s actions and opponents in the future to control The Hero’s growth slightly.

But at the same time, The Hero was blessed with the fate of always encountering opponents and situations that force him to grow as much as necessary to defeat The Calamity.

Maybe Ackster involving himself with Karandiel had gotten fate to prepare another foe for The Hero. Ackster shook his head. That was too farfetched. It was due to him fucking around with the Crimson Edge that The Hero had gotten a new item on his to-defeat list. There was no need to overthink it.

Ackster focused on the flower again.

After putting his hand on it, he could feel an overwhelming energy lurking below the surface. But it didn’t find its way out of the flower and into Ackster merely through his touch.

“Let’s fix that, shall we?”

Ackster still wasn’t sure what the Guild would think about him taking an entire Habitat for himself. But if his inventory grew as large as he expected it to, the Guild wouldn’t let go of or get rid of him, even if they wanted to. He alone would have the capability to supply an army with resources if necessary. At the same time, if he got a little stronger or stealthier, he alone could take down a country from within by placing explosives.

There was too much that an oversized inventory could be used for. Ackster would become one hell of an asset to the Guild’s special forces with his inventory, even if his growth stalled, which it most likely wouldn’t.

Ackster decided to be hopeful as he licked his lips.

If the Space Jellies had been the appetizer, it was now time for the main course.