Ethan and Garrick spent a little over three hours traveling back from Atlas City to Fallen Star City.

Watching Fallen Star City get more and more built out, Ethan felt a quiet satisfaction settle in his chest.

Fallen Star City’s compound couldn’t compare to Atlas City’s, sure—but he’d built this place with his own hands. It felt closer. Like home.

And even if Fallen Star City couldn’t match Atlas City’s size or population, its strength didn’t have to bow to anyone. Those twenty thousand Tier 9 Enhanced alone were enough to intimidate basically anything that moved.

Atlas City’s compound would probably get a lot stronger after that conference, though.

They’d helped synthesize crystal cores for all those other compounds. There was no way they didn’t make a profit. Even if General Maxwell Kane was as selfless as people claimed, he wasn’t going to do it completely for free. Synthesizing crystal cores burned manpower and resources like crazy.

Even if they only earned one crystal core per synthesis, with that many syntheses... Atlas City was definitely walking away with a pile.

But no matter how much they earned, Atlas City would top out at a few hundred Tier 9 Enhanced at most. Compared to Fallen Star City’s twenty thousand Tier 9s, it wasn’t even close.

Besides, Fallen Star City’s people weren’t just standing still. They were out killing zombies. They had the methods from the Energy Absorption Technique to push their Tiers higher. Every day they absorbed mysterious energy to climb. Honestly, it wouldn’t even be surprising if Tier 10s had already started showing up.

Peregrine Falcon Flint swept into the skies above Fallen Star City...

The guards on the walls initially thought a mutant beast was attacking. But once they recognized Flint—and Ethan and the others on his back—they lowered their weapons on the spot. Then the shouting erupted, loud and thrilled:

"Welcome back, Commander!"

"Welcome back!"

Waves of cheers echoed through the compound.

Ethan guided Flint straight down to the Commander’s Residence at the center of the compound.

Not long after they landed, Miles came rushing over.

"Captain, you’re back!"

Then he blinked and looked them over. "Huh? Why is it just you two? Where’s everyone else?"

"They’re still in Atlas City," Ethan said with a grin. "I just brought a few things back. I’ll be heading out again later."

"Oh. Sure." Miles sighed. "You, the great Commander, are basically a hands-off boss. I barely see you a few times all year."

Ethan laughed. "I’ve still got things to handle. Once I’m done, I’ll come back and actually take a real break. Besides, with you here, I’m not worried at all." He patted Miles on the shoulder. "Oh, right. I brought you something good this time."

He led Miles into the backyard, then pulled a laser cannon out of his spatial storage ring.

The moment Miles saw the sleek, high-tech weapon, his eyes lit up. He stepped in and started inspecting it like a kid who’d just been handed a new toy.

After a while, he looked up, stunned. "This thing... runs on crystal core energy?"

"Yeah," Ethan said. "Atlas City cooked up a laser cannon. It burns through dozens of Tier 9 crystal cores and over a hundred Tier 8 cores. They say the firepower can threaten a Stage C powerhouse."

"That insane?" Miles’ interest shot through the roof. "If we park this at the city gate, it’ll scare off anyone thinking about causing trouble."

"Mm." Ethan nodded. "And there’s this too. It’s not bad. See if you can figure out how to produce it yourselves. It’d be great to equip the low-Tier Enhanced with something like this."

As he spoke, Ethan took out a laser gun and handed it over.

Miles weighed it in his hands, turning it over. "Same basic principle as the laser cannon, right?"

"Yeah. But this one can only threaten up to Tier 10 Enhanced at most. It’s really meant for lower-Tier people. See if you can study it—maybe load it with more crystal cores and bump the power."

"..." Miles stared at him like Ethan had lost his mind.

"Threaten Tier 10 and you’re calling that ’only’?" Miles said flatly. "How many Tier 10 Enhanced do you think even exist in the world right now?"

He shook his head. "Weapon R&D is where we can’t compete with Atlas City. Instead of having our people grind their brains out trying to build something stronger, it’s better to wait until Atlas City develops it—then you bring a batch back and we copy it."

"Fair." Ethan nodded. "Still, start by seeing if you can make these."

Then Ethan glanced around, frowning slightly. "By the way, when I came in, it looked like none of our high-Tier Enhanced were in the compound. They’re out?"

"Yeah," Miles said. "They’re all deployed. Those twenty thousand Enhanced are basically out there sweeping zombies every day, grabbing crystal cores and supplies. The past couple days they’ve pushed all the way toward Stonebridge City."

"Good," Ethan said. "They get stronger and we get crystal cores."

He paused. "Have any of them been cultivated into Tier 10 yet?"

"Yes," Miles said, clearly proud. "They’ve gotten a lot of Tier 9 crystal cores lately. They’ve also picked up several Tier 10 crystal cores. I focused resources on a handful of people—strong abilities, solid character. We’ve got a bit over ten Tier 10s now. And there are more sitting at the peak of Tier 9. If things keep going like this, we’ll see more Tier 10s popping up one after another."

"Nice," Ethan said, genuinely pleased. "Sounds like they’ll be able to hold their own soon."

Garrick finally spoke up. "Captain, honestly, I feel like as long as we’re here, Fallen Star City doesn’t need to fear anything."

"It’s not that simple," Ethan said, his tone turning more serious. "Enemies in front of you are easy. The real danger is someone stabbing you from behind."

He looked toward the compound, toward the streets where people lived.

"We’ve made a lot of enemies out there. Some people can’t beat us head-on, so they’ll go after the people we care about instead. Our families are in Fallen Star City. If Fallen Star City is strong, then we can act outside without holding back."

He exhaled slowly. "And I’ve got a bad feeling something big is coming. Just the few of us might not be enough. We need a strong team."

Garrick nodded. "Yeah. Got it."

"Oh, right, Miles—I’ve got one more good thing for you!"

As Ethan spoke, he pulled out the runic disk Henry had carved with a ritual circle from his spatial storage ring and handed it to Miles.

Back in Atlas City, Ethan had specifically asked Henry to make an extra disk—one to bring back for Miles.

With the runic disk, their Tier growth had gone through the roof. There was no way Ethan was going to let Miles fall behind.

And with one of these in hand, Miles could focus on cultivating talent and keep widening Fallen Star City’s advantage.

The moment Miles understood what the runic disk did, he froze—then practically vibrated with excitement. He stared at it like he’d just been handed the keys to the future. Ethan kept talking, but it was obvious Miles wasn’t hearing a word anymore.

If anything, he looked even more obsessed with it than Henry had.

Ethan sighed and shook his head. Then he started pulling things out one after another—altar fragments and chunks of skeletal remains they’d found in the Void Realm—stacking them into a pile right in front of Miles.

That finally dragged Miles’ attention away.

"This is...?"

"Special materials," Ethan said, "and bones from some unknown ferocious beast. Stuff we can’t even damage with what we have right now. We can make weapons out of it for them."

"Oh?" Miles’ eyes lit up all over again, and he leaned in to examine everything.

Between the runic disk and the new materials, Ethan had basically dropped a whole treasure trove into Miles’ lap. For once, the guy looked almost flustered—like he didn’t have enough hands to do everything he wanted at once.

"Alright," Ethan said with a laugh. "You stay here and nerd out. We’re heading back to Atlas City."

"Wait!"

Miles stopped them. With a casual wave of his hand, a mountain of crystal cores appeared on the ground—so many it looked like a small hill had erupted out of nowhere.

"Since you’re going back to Atlas City, take these with you," Miles said. "Swap them for higher-Tier crystal cores. These are what the guys have gotten from zombie runs lately. My pocket space is starting to overflow."

"This many?" Ethan’s eyebrows shot up.

There had to be at least one or two million crystal cores here. Most were Tier 5 and Tier 6, with some Tier 7 mixed in—and even a decent number of Tier 8 cores.

Garrick frowned, confused. "You’re sending the Tier 7 and Tier 8 cores too? I thought we still had Tier 6 normal Enhanced back in the compound."

"Normal Enhanced don’t need to fight," Miles said. "They can raise their Tier just by absorbing mysterious energy every day. Resources need to go to the Fallen Star Guard first—get them strong fast."

He pointed at the pile. "Synthesize all of these into Tier 9 crystal cores. Keep a portion for starting up the ritual circle. Bring the extra Tier 9s back later and distribute them."

"Got it." Ethan nodded, sweeping every last crystal core into his spatial storage ring.

"Looks like the investment’s finally paying off," Ethan said with a grin. "At least we don’t have to personally farm the cores needed to start the ritual circle anymore."

Miles nodded. "Stonebridge City has even more zombies. When our people come back, they’ll probably haul in another huge batch. So, Captain... see if you can get your hands on Atlas City’s crystal core synthesis tech. If we have that, we won’t have to keep running back and forth."

"Okay," Ethan said.

Once everything was settled, Ethan and Garrick mounted Peregrine Falcon Flint again and took off from Fallen Star City, heading back toward Atlas City...