”It’s truly an honor to finally lay my eyes on a True Royal,” the dwarf wearing a stupidly large and decorated hat said as he kneeled in front of Vesperia. ”And it’s an even greater honor that Her Majesty decided to assist our small country.”
Vesperia regarded the dwarf as she nodded. ”Your kin has worked alongside the hive here for many years, and they have vouched for your usefulness. If they consider you part of their hive, I shall respect their assessment and assist you. Now, the three of us have little interest in wasting more time here than necessary. We shall hunt down a number of Primas and then proceed to engage the Prima Guardian.”
”I have already been informed of Her Majesty’s plan,” the dwarven leader said with a nod.
”Hand us all the information you have regarding the location of the Prima Vessel, along with where you believe most Primas have gathered,” the Fallen King added.
”Naturally,” the dwarf kept nodding, not daring to show any disrespect to the Unique Lifeform either. Motioning to one of his aides, another dwarf walked forward and displayed a projection of the planet. On it, the location of the Prima Vessel was marked, along with areas colored in with assumptions about how many Primas would be there.
”Ree?” Sylphie asked after seeing the map. Vesperia concurred with her assessment and nodded.
”Yes, I also don’t see a need for us to engage with any of the Primas beneath the ground. It would be faster to go to the surface immediately. Considering the barren landscape, we will stand out and easily attract the Primas, and at the same time, the Primas will not be able to hide from us,” Vesperia said.
”Preferable to hunting down an army of elusive creatures beneath the ground for sure,” the King said.
”If… if I may…” the dwarven leader said with some hesitation. ”Each of these Primas are incredibly powerful in their own right, and we believe there are hundreds up there. Not to mention the Prima Guardian itself… is it safe for Her Majesty to engage them all with only two allies?”
Instantly, the dwarf had more than half a dozen Hive Queens from the ant hive staring him down, making the man try to instantly elaborate. ”I do not doubt the capabilities of a True Royal! However, I’m unaware of the power of your companions, and I am merely veering on the side of caution…”
”Your worry is entirely misplaced,” Vesperia said, shaking her head.
”I find the notion that I’m inferior insulting,” the Fallen King also scoffed.
”Ree,” Sylphie just said, not really seeming to care that much. She was way too busy dragging around a small bag of dried worm snacks to bother with any of that stuff.
After a bit more talking, the three of them were finally led toward the fastest way to reach the surface. As they had also been informed, the path upwards was entirely blocked, the dwarves and ant hive having worked together to create several natural barriers and gates.
While the ants couldn’t fight the Primas or the Prima Guardian, they had been able to help with these preparations. It wasn’t like filling a hole with soil and rock was considered fighting against the Primas, nor was it considering fighting to create extremely durable gates and handing control to the dwarves.
This did mean getting topside took a while, as Sylphie, Vesperia, and the Fallen King had to break through several barriers that the dwarves couldn’t easily unblock for them. Luckily, this planet was quite a lot smaller than Earth, making the distance they had to cover not as significant.
The Hive Queens wanted to follow them all the way, but they had to stop in order to not risk engaging any Primas. This left only a small squad of dwarves with Vesperia and the others as they finally reached the surface of the planet, most of which had to leave soon as they wouldn’t be any help in the upcoming fights.
”Not the most pleasant of worlds,” the Fallen King said the moment they appeared up there.
The sky was tinged orange, with toxic gasses filling the air. In the distance, they saw some oddly colored clouds raining down acid rain while a constant wind buffeted them. At least it did so for a mere moment before the wind in their vicinity entirely stopped, surprising the dwarves.
Sylphie had naturally been the one who’d stopped the annoying wind. Even if the wind was infused with many different concepts, it was still ultimately considered wind and thus within her Authority. If she didn’t want it to blow, it wouldn’t.
As they looked around, they soon spotted their first prey. Or, more accurately, a collection of prey. Several elementals had embedded themselves within some of the rainclouds, a few Primas included.
”Far fewer regular monsters here than on Earth,” Vesperia noted.
”Likely due to the environment. From what I was told, most monsters that appeared on Earth were transformed from regular animals. Considering the state of this planet, I doubt there were many living things in the first place,” the Fallen King voiced his opinion.
”His Highness is correct,” one of the few C-grade dwarves of the world said with a nod. ”There never was much life here, even below the ground. Also, the Prima Vessel is in that direction… when it comes to the exact distance, I’m not sure.”
”It does not matter, as long as you have the teleportation disc ready for when we get there. Till then, stay in the background for safety,” Vesperia said to the dwarf, who quickly nodded.
In order to open the Prima Vessel, they needed the World Leader of the planet. That is to say, they needed the dwarven leader, who was still back in the dwarven country. This dwarf leader was, to put it bluntly, entirely useless in battle and was entirely specialized in administrative tasks.
Bringing him along would more likely than not result in him getting killed. That was why they had brought along the most competent of the dwarves. Someone who called himself a hunter, even if he left much to be desired compared to what the three monsters were used to when they heard that term. Either way, the dwarf had some good stealth skills, and he was one of the few people who had even gone to Nevermore, so he was at least a mid-tier C-grade.
The stealth skills were the most important, though, as the dwarf’s only function was to set up a teleportation disc prepared by the Hive Queens that would allow the dwarven leader to teleport to the Prima Vessel and back again after unlocking it and activating the Prima Guardian.
”Ree?” Sylphie screeched after they had just been floating in the air for a bit.
”Yes, let’s go,” Vesperia nodded, Sylphie taking the go-ahead and running with it.
The air around them exploded as Sylphie shot forward, going straight for the cloud of Primas. A massive windstorm followed in her wake, and the moment she arrived at her targets, the entire cloud was blown apart along with several of the regular weaker elementals.
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Usually, a destructive environment would be detrimental, but for Sylphie, these harmful winds only served as her weapon.
The dwarven ”hunter” could only stare as Sylphie tore apart two Primas, proving her own power while also making it very clear the average level of these Primas was quite pathetic compared to what they faced on Earth.
Not wanting to get too far behind, the Fallen King and Vesperia also got moving. Having lost her Queen’s Guards against the Prima Guardian on Earth, Vesperia was still working on spawning new ones, but the regular Royal Guards and soldiers were good enough to deal with many of the regular monsters they faced.
Days quickly passed as they made their way across the surface of the planet, slaughtering Primas on the way. The larger movements they made and the more energy they released, the more attention their group of three attracted, making many of the Primas come to them as they sent shockwaves echoing across the surface.
While each individual Prima wasn’t any problem, there was still a lot of them, each having that extra infusion of vital energy, making them annoying to kill quickly. Nevertheless, they were three creatures at the apex of power in the multiverse for their level, and many of the Primas barely broke level 250, with some not even mid-tier C-grade.
Eleven days after arriving on the planet and hundreds of dead Primas later, they finally found themselves before the Prima Vessel. The dwarven hunter – who was honestly more like a scout hiding in stealth all the time – quickly set up the pre-prepared teleportation circle and activated it.
Soon after, the dwarven leader came out and, as agreed upon, opened the Prima Vessel and went inside, carrying several dozen defensive items to make sure he would make it safely out again. A few minutes after going into the Vessel, the dwarven leader stormed out of it, looking frightened as hell while running for the teleportation circle to get the hell out of there.
He barely managed to activate the teleporter, getting swept away as a creature exited the Prima Vessel. It was a large, mostly elemental-looking monster. Its body was bulky, with stone-like growths everywhere and even a few traits reminiscent of the ants that lived with the dwarves.
”Still some form of chimera,” the Fallen King quickly concluded.
”Yes, but clearly quite different from the one on Earth. As if this one is just incomplete and half-baked,” Vesperia said, shaking her head.
”Ree?” Sylphie asked, seemingly confused as to why this chimera looked so boring compared to the one they had killed less than two weeks prior.
Looking at the Prima Guardian using Identify, it was also quite clear it couldn’t hold a candle to the Exalted Prima Guardian had faced. The name of this one also differed.
[Honored Prima Guardian – lvl 317]
Jake mentioned that the Prima Guardian on Earth was originally called a Revered Prima Guardian before it reached its maximum level of power. This one was called Honored, which Vesperia quickly concluded had to at least be beneath Revered. If it was one or two levels below, there was no way to know… and it ultimately didn’t matter.
The Prima Guardian had also noticed the three of them the moment it appeared. Perhaps it also saw the dwarven scout who was running away with a part of the teleportation circle, but it clearly didn’t care as it focused on the three monsters who were the true threat.
Without further ado, it attacked. After spending quite a few days on the planet, facing weak Primas that were nothing more than high-health weaklings, the three finally got a good fight. Sure, the Prima Guardian couldn’t hold a candle to the one on Earth, but it was still pretty powerful.
The fight ended up having only two phases, with it never going back into the Prima Vessel at any point. It just morphed and ended up adopting a far larger form than the one it started with, turning into what was effectively a giant living mountain.
Vesperia did lose a few more Royal Guards, and the Fallen King and Sylphie burned through the majority of their resources simply due to the sheer durability of the Guardian, but they were never truly in any danger. In fact, chances are any one of them could have taken on the Prima Guardian on their own, though it would have made the fight even longer and more annoying. Perhaps even a bit dangerous.
With the Prima Guardian dead, the dwarven scout returned and they summoned the dwarven leader once more, who looked utterly surprised they had managed to take down the Prima Guardian. Entering the Prima Vessel with newfound respect and the three monsters that had slain the Guardian, they went to claim the Planetary Core, the same as on Earth.
Returning to the dwarven country from there, Vesperia made sure to praise the Hive Queens there, and the dwarven leader effectively handed over all the powers of a planetary leader to the hive. While the power balance before the system had clearly been in the favor of the dwarves, now it was clear they were subordinate to the ant hive.
Also, even if the dwarven leader had tried to hold onto whatever feeble power he had, all that would have awaited him was a swift death from the giant hive that surrounded the entire dwarven country. He was wise enough to not try anything. Plus, it was now up to the hive to get rid of the rest of the Primas, as there was no way Vesperia and the two others would stay around for that, so making the hive angry would just be dumb.
And just like that, Vesperia, Sylphie, and the Fallen King laid claim to their first planet as helpers from Earth… though they weren’t even the first ”group” to have done so.
In fact, they had been quite a lot slower than someone summoned to a planet with even more… let’s just say, questionable circumstances.
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Jake was happy that at least some people weren’t being selective assholes when it came to getting help with saving their planets. Now, granted, perhaps Jake should have considered why the planet was so desperate to get help in the first place. Maybe he could even have browsed for a bit longer to see the details of the planets he applied to. You know, done any research whatsoever and not just tried to shoot his shot with anyone who would have him.
Because it turns out that a planet that would accept an application like the one Jake sent out did so for a reason. The reason, in this instance, was absolute desperation because they had fucked up, and they’d fucked up badly.
Jake found himself teleported into what looked like a small base camp, surrounded by people running everywhere. Several more individuals teleported in all around him, many of them with desperate looks on their faces as if they’d also been fleeing from somewhere.
”Everyone! Go to-”
”The western front-”
”It’s coming toward the-”
”I come seeking refuge!”
Everyone was yelling as Jake just stood there, trying to figure out what exactly was happening. Releasing a Pulse of Perception, he saw tens of thousands running around like headless chickens, many of them entering circular towers with teleportation circles within.
If Jake was being perfectly honest, he had expected some kind of welcome when he went to another planet for the first time. Instead, he got a clusterfuck of panic, with a single guy standing on top of two boxes trying to yell at the people who just kept teleporting in all around Jake. It was pretty fucking clear they just accepted everyone who applied, especially when Jake even saw someone barely in C-grade appear.
Deciding to get a grasp of things, Jake began to walk forward, pushing through the crowd quite easily. He went straight to the yelling guy on top of the boxes and stopped in front of it. His deliberate movements caught the attention of the guy, who looked down at Jake and quickly tried to be helpful.
”Go to the tent over there and-”
”Hey! Where is the way to the capital city!” another guy pushed through the crowd, interrupting the box guy.
”No one is allowed to-” the box man tried to answer but didn’t get far.
”Where is the refuge camp!?” some woman ran up; Jake getting really tired as he sighed out loud. He saw no reason to waste more time than necessary dealing with this, so he decided to calm things down a bit.
Jake activated Pride of the Malefic Viper, further infused with his own aura as he blanketed the entire area with his presence. The effect was instantanious as people stopped in their tracks, the woman that had pushed herself up to stand beside Jake throwing him a look of utter horror.
From one moment to another, the panicked basecamp had become still as everyone froze, giving Jake plenty of time to ask the box guy what he wanted to ask.
”What exactly happened on this planet?” Jake asked in a relaxed tone.
The box guy stared at Jake only for a moment before he gathered himself and answered.
”There… the World Leader decided to free the Prima Guardian with her party and all the elites she could gather. It was a disaster; nearly all of them died, and the Primas and Guardian are now running rampant, trying to chase down our World Leader, so-”
”Where is the Guardian?” Jake followed up, not wanting to traumatize the crowd with his presence for longer than necessary.
”The… the tower over there should take you close…” the box man said, pointing toward one of the teleportation towers.
”Thank you,” Jake nodded, as he turned toward the tower and deactivated Pride and reined in his presence.
Yet even after he stopped the skill, everyone stood still and stared after him as Jake casually walked to the tower, quite happy with what he’d just heard. In fact, he could barely believe how lucky he’d gotten, not even having to convince the local World Leader to release the Prima Guardian, as they’d been nice enough to do so before he even arrived.