"What about the Shadow Empress, father?" Robert asked, excitedly.

"Yes, so the Shadow Empress herself contacted me, I mean our settlement!" Tred seemed so happy, it was like he had hit a jackpot.

"W- What?!! A message from the Shadow Empress herself? Father, did you check it wasn’t some prank or something?" Robert asked, why would she contact them?

Their family isn’t weak but there is a big difference between the top and the mid.

And they have just been at the mid for a long, long time, this just might be their time to climb the ladder.

Shadow Empress is so powerful that even the world laws have to respect her, once she massacred an entire group on the Zoratian planet.

And received no penalty, even though she had already moved to the Zenetor planet.

"You stupid bastard, do you think I am like you? Of course it was real-" Tred suddenly paused in the midst of speaking.

He seemed to be talking to someone else, then muttered: "Anyway, just stay put and don’t do anything stupid for a while, I will explain later, there is another message. I need to go kakaka."

With a wild laugh, Tred cut the call, it was like he was going to get something that he had dreamed of all his life.

Robert was amazed by the news, even though he didn’t get the details.

He fell into thoughts, he had already given the order to the Mad Dog to kill Neil and he badly wanted to kill that guy as well.

’Yea, who cares, now that our family will rise, I doubt father will even care about someone like Neil, there is no shortage of geniuses in this world.

As for Jane, we can take care of her, at worst we can just make her forget everything.’

Robert made up his mind and decided to go hunt, his father had told him not to do anything but that is one thing he needed to do.

...

Neil stood staring at the sky after his chat with Robert, with that level of disrespect he was sure, Robert would come himself to kill him.

"Nemo, send a message to Randy, we are going to his settlement, and navigate the domain." He ordered.

"Alright master, I will do that asap!" Nemo said enthusiastically, still laughing at the joke.

Nodding, Neil walked close to the wall and observed the surroundings. There were no beasts around since these areas are often cleaned up.

But soon he would be passing through dangerous forests, that is the best way to avoid meeting even more dangerous humans.

The big event was also pretty close, it was going to happen the very next day and Neil planned to go there.

So only Randy can help him, if he is actually on his side and not another hater.

Neil was making a big bet but at worst he would just die and need to restart again.

But if things turn out alright, he would finally be able to rest for a while.

After a while, Nemo spoke: "Master, we got a reply from Randy."

Then a screen appeared before Neil, showing the message.

-You are coming? Tsk I had hoped you would be more daring and don’t trust me, haa well you can still come, though I would still prefer you not coming-

Neil rolled his eyes, that only made him want to go even more.

After passing through the long grassland and losing the assassins, the domain finally moved into the forest area.

There were quite a few trees in their path, although the domain can keep moving while breaking them.

But it would greatly slow it down.

So, Ileana took the job to shift the trees away wherever the domain passed by, her ability sure was handy.

She stood beside Neil, her hands extended and completely focused.

"Eli, if Randy turns out to be a backstabber, what can we do?" he asked, though the question really wasn’t directed at her.

He really wondered why no one even in ECO would want to help him, now that they all know about his promising future.

At least a few must want to invest, no? Or just some kind soul who pities him, but so far aside from Randy no help came.

Or were they all enemies with that pig of a father? All were his enemies now?

Sigh...

"We can keep fighting!" Ileana said, looking forward, her expression determined.

"Yea, sure we can." Neil smiled, he wanted to hug her but also didn’t want to disturb her.

Then he glanced at his shoulder where Magnar was sitting, his eyes half closed, looking dizzy.

’We will both be needing a lot of 3rd Origin gene points, I need to find such a place quickly.’ He thought.

But of course, priority was getting to safety.

...

After travelling a couple of hours inside the forest, Neil heard a few sounds, so the danger had finally closed in.

He took out the elemental bow and pulled the string as an air arrow manifested.

’I need to upgrade this as well sigh the Clash Battles, once I am at a safe place, I will re-enter the Clash Battles.’ Neil decided.

With his strength, he can easily upgrade the bow to the 3rd Origin.

And by the logic that 3rd Origin is a major rank, its power will also grow exponentially.

Maybe it will get some special element.

He was quite excited to do that, as for his armor, which was still in a very bad shape after his battle in that hell of a realm.

He would need to get it fixed.

There was so much to do yet no time at all, at least he still had plenty of shards so future upgrades of his domain wouldn’t be difficult.

BANG

A wild creature suddenly burst out of the ground, its body was filled with long spikes and was the size of a fat pig.

It was only at the 2nd Origin.

Before it could get close to the domain however, Neil let go of the string as the air arrow shot out soundlessly.

THUD

The arrow pierced right through the head of the beast, without leaving any traces behind as the beast fell dead.

Neil ignored the message popping before him as he aimed at the other beast that suddenly jumped out of the ground.

This area seemed to be the house of these spiked beasts.

BANG

Another air arrow hit the target, this time however the body was blasted to pieces, as Neil was experimenting with his strength.

This was just a 2nd Origin weapon, so he wanted to test the limit.

But these beasts were too weak.

BANG BANG

Soon more and more of these beasts were popping out, he kept killing them and fed the gene potions to Freya.

Who was overjoyed and almost seemed like a pet waiting for treats from her master.

Neil was slowly making her get used to it all, not to turn her into his pet but to make her listen to him.

Though one can never be more careful with sly people like her, this all just might be an act and Neil might be the one getting fooled all along.

So, he was still very careful and didn’t give her too many gene potions.

After killing a bunch of spiked creatures, the domain was out of their area, and they stopped popping from the ground.

But Neil still held the bow vigilantly, who knows how dangerous a beast might pop out next.

It wasn’t long before another beast jumped out, it almost looked like a panda but its claws were so long that each one looked like a sword.

And the speed was not slow at all despite the short legs.

Thankfully, they were still all weak.

Neil just kept killing them. If he just released a little of his aura or even Magnar did, then none of these beasts would come out.

But then something more dangerous might pop out and Neil also wanted to get more shards.

So, this was the best course of action.

After crossing more than 70% of the forest, Neil finally had to stop the domain as there was a big, no very big hole right in front of them.

"What could have created it?" Neil asked in surprise, that strength probably belonged to someone at the 3rd Origin.

An earth ability user? Could it be humans?

"Hubby, instead of taking a detour, I can just move the domain by creating a sturdy bridge." Ileana suggested, the main decision was still in Neil’s hands.

"Hmm will it be durable enough?" Neil asked, he wouldn’t want to lose his domain by falling into the hole, just because they didn’t want to take a detour.

"Of course, I am sure of it." Ileana said confidently.

"Alright then." Neil nodded as Ileana drank a couple of mana regeneration potions and then started to create the bridge.

It consisted of several things, wood, vines and other materials, it took Ileana nearly ten minutes before she finally was done with it.

"Hoo it’s done, you can check it." She muttered, as Neil walked out and checked if the bridge could really take on the weight of the entire domain.

And it indeed looked pretty sturdy.

While floating in the air with the Aquamorph skill, he began to move the domain forward slowly.

Ready for any accidents.

Thankfully, the bridge turned out just fine, and the domain moved with ease.

"See, I was right-" Ileana was just speaking when the bridge began to shake violently.

No, not just the bridge but even the ground, all the trees and then a loud roar reverberated across the whole place.

"..."

❖❖❖

Thanks for reading... adios