Shaun didn’t have to wait too long for others to start to arrive. Eric and Gabe were the first, having come straight here as he had asked. Other tickled in including Li and a few others that were in Viv’s inner circle. In all it took about 30 minutes for Viv to show up, not looking at all apologetic that she had been the last to show.

“I am guessing your late because you filled Xavier in on everything that has gone with the event?” He couldn’t think of any other reason why she would be late to arrive.

“I was. I thought it would be prudent for him to know everything before we started whatever it was you wanted to talk about. He also asks that before you do start that you have his thanks as well as the Empires.” Viv took her seat while she spoke, putting on an air that she was in control and held the power in this room.

“Great, then I am going to cut right to it. The Empire owes me a lot, and I am wanting to cash in some of what is mine. To start, the D grade area. You know it has been claimed and soon the terraforming will be complete, add that to the fact I am now able to add even more to the settlement through the reward seeing as we won, which I will remind you was only possible because of me, I want full independent control of the area, both now and after the year is up. Once the year is up it will be passed to Eric. At no point will you have control or directive over the D grade area, the school will be moved there and it will be its own entity. Obviously it will still be on Earth so the world leader has some discretion, but in terms of structure, running the school, admission and what occurs there it is up to us, not you. Any issues?”

“My answer is no.” Viv’s statement was immediate, she hadn’t even bothered to consult with Xavier, she just flat out said no like her word was final.

“I don’t care. You are not yet world leader and even when you are you report to Xavier. The Empire is the one that owes me, you report to them. Ask him. Now. It is part of our agreement that I am rewarded and you don’t control the reward. You are only sitting here because of me, remember that.”

Viv looked like she was going to say no again, she was beyond furious at what he had asked for and everyone in the room could see it. He had outright told her that if it wasn’t for him she would be nothing, now he was putting her in her place.

It took a few minutes, but Viv was concentrating and clearly speaking to Xavier. Her facial expressions changed throughout the interaction but at no point did she look happy or smug. When she opened her eyes she was beyond mad.

“Xavier has agreed, it will cost you have of all rewards that are owed to you, but he has agreed to everything you have asked. Is there anything else you want? If not then rewards will be paid to Eric and the school once the year is up.” Viv didn’t even wait for him to reply, she got up and started to leave. She stopped halfway to the door and turned around. “You may have a D grade area, but I will have this entire planet, remember that.”

Once she had left most others cleared the room, leaving only Shaun, Eric and Gabe sitting down he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “I was willing to give up all the rewards for that. I take that as a win.”

“She has changed, since the tutorial. Not in a good way either.” Gabe looked at him and then Eric. “Do you think she will be a good world leader or a tyrant?”

“I wouldn’t stress about it. She is going to have too much to worry about once the planet opens up.” He thought for a second before divulging more information than anyone else probably knew. “The planet is worth more than you realise. Its something called a Nexus planet. A nexus planet is one of, if not the most, sort after planets in the multiverse. Its core is pure power and everyone that lives here will on average be stronger, grow quicker and have more opportunity than most. The war isn’t over either. Trust me when I say that it has only just begun.”

“How do you know any of that?” Eric, always being the one to want to know more, stared at him, practically pleading for answers.

“Just a perk of being me. Everything I said is true though, I have a reliable source.”

“Cryptic, as always.” Eric wiped his hands down his face before changing the topic, knowing that there was little point in asking anything further. “When will the terraforming be done so we can look at the new school? I am assuming you will let us all use the crystal teleports rather than making us walk?”

“Give it a few days, then I can take you to have a look. It should be fully set up when done, I used all of my remaining TE on it. I also spent a good amount of gold as well to purchase every store so there will be no need to leave for supplies if you don’t want to.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“I will tell everyone about the move, we will schedule it in a week which will give everyone time to get the affairs in order. How much room is already set up?”

He thought about the size of the castle compared to the current school and compared sleeping arrangements and facilities. “I would say it about 20 times larger, if not more. Obviously, you won’t need all that room now, but in the future, you never know.”

“What are you going to do with the settlement reward? Use it now or wait?” Gabe looked like he had been holding that in for a while, he couldn’t blame him, rewards were great.

“We can use it once we go to the castle. I don’t know what options I will get to choose from but I want to focus them all on the school. Once we get a good idea of what we can choose then we will know if we need to make any changes to how we move there.”

They all agreed that they would meet back up in three days time to go out to the castle. He considered staying at the school and doing some crafting but he didn’t really feel it. Rather he wanted to test his skill in a fight that may actually prove challenging.

After leaving the office he made his way directly to the settlement crystal, from there it was only a short jump to the D grade area which looked hazy and distorted due to the fact it was in the middle of being terraformed. He got an alert saying that caution was advised and that he should not be in the area once terraforming completed, not that he planned to be.

He quickly made his way to the dungeon and as he expected it was right where it should be. As he got closer he got the alert to enter, this time different that the last.

**Welcome to Ascend the Peak (D grade) Dungeon**

Objectives of Ascend the Peak dungeon

A beast of unrivalled power had claimed the valley as its home. At the top of the highest peak it watches over its land, controlling all those who live there, forcing them to do its bidding. To attack the beast before killing its subjects will lead to only death.

Only by killing all three leaders of the three subjugated monster tribes and then killing the best will you finish the dungeon.

Note: You may leave the dungeon at any time by retreating back to the entry point.

One participant located, please choose from the below difficulty settings to enter.

Low – Highest level 150

Middle – Highest level 190

Peak – Highest level 220

Max – Highest level 249

He had originally done the dungeon on middle difficulty and managed to beat it, although it had taken some time to do. Now he was much stronger, had some incredibly overpowered skills and his stat increase was insane to even think about. Because of that he made the choice to go in on Peak difficulty, wanting to see how far through it he could get in 3 days. Not that he had a choice, it seemed that to move up in difficulty you had to complete the one prior to it.

When he entered the dungeon felt and looked exactly the same as it had when he had come here the first time. Knowing exactly where he needed to go he made his way through the dungeon until he hit the forest. The moment he had gotten into the dungeon he had fully shifted into his Nephilim body, he felt more free, more powerful in this form and had been craving being a Nephilim again.

He made good time moving through the forest, finding the first Arachne was not anywhere near as difficult as the first time. When he got eyes on the Arachne he stopped and hovered in the air. What he wanted to try first was something he had yet to use on anyone else outside of practice with Azreal.

Summoning some lightning into his hand he allowed his death affinity to also leak into it, slowly though as he knew a wrong move would lead him to overdose his body with death energy and die. This was both practice for him on control and also testing to see its effect. How would a D grade at the near peak of its grade measure up against the combination of an advanced and divine element?

He didn’t use a lot of mana in his attack, wanting to test how much it would take for him to kill it and wanting to start low. 1,000 mana, that was all he allowed himself to use. Combined with a divine affinity though it felt like even that was too much against the Arachne.

The Arachne hadn’t seen him in its webs among the tops of the trees. Once he was ready though he threw the bolt of blackened lightning at the monster. Between the time he had thrown the attack and when it hit, the Arachne managed to do no more than freeze up at the power it felt released. When his attack did hit he noticed the Arachne curl up and drop onto its web unmoving.

**You have defeated a (Arachne – Lvl 173). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**

**Class upgrade available on [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger. Would you like to upgrade class? Note all experience is forfeit until class is upgraded.**

He had killed it in one shot. It wasn’t as strong as he had hoped, but apparently even 1,000 mana was too much when combined with a divine power. He nearly left right then and there to hunt the next one until he remembered something. He could loot the body. For the first time in a long time he was actually able to get some loot from a monster he killed.

Dropping down next to its body he got a notification he hadn’t seen in a long time.

**Would you like to loot (Arachne – Lvl 173)?**

Hell yeah I would!

**Webbing Thread from (Arachne – Lvl 173) added to inventory**

**Basic Monster Core from (Arachne – Lvl 173) added to inventory**

**Arachne Meat from (Arachne – Lvl 173) added to inventory**

What the hell is a monster core?