As Lothur passed through the entrance to the cave that the winged beast had warned him about earlier, he came upon a large tunnel that led underground.
This tunnel had no artificial lighting, and what little lighting there came from the cave opening through which Lothur had entered.
However, due to the length and depth of this large corridor he was walking down, the place was getting darker and darker as he walked down there.
Luckily, Lothur had a phenomenal visual ability, able to ignore the visibility problem.
He might not see anything normal in the dark. Still, by observing the spiritual fluctuations in things in his surroundings, he could distinguish living beings from inanimate ones.
Because of this, Lothur was moving quickly toward the end of that tunnel, where he could already see some kind of construction different from what one would expect to find inside a cave.
'That's a monster maze...' He thought of this as he identified several creatures around an area built in the shape of a labyrinth, in which, if he walked through, he would reach a flight of stairs to the lower levels of that place.
Lothur looked down and saw that there were at least two others below the first level of the maze, and the beasts in those places seemed to be stronger, though less numerous.
'Hmmm, I must defeat many of these creatures to achieve my abjective here.' He realized what he would have to go through and why the beast from earlier had informed him about this place without any significant problems.
It would be difficult for him to overcome this place and reach his purpose!
Thus, Lothur headed toward the beginning of that labyrinth.
...
While Lothur began to struggle underground in one of the most complicated areas of the Secret Realm, Viktoria was in another high-level area.
She wasn't as strong as him, but she was one of the strongest of this group that entered the Secret Realm. So she was in one of the area's most difficult 'slices'!
But unlike Lothur, she was not as threatening to the beings in her surroundings. As such, even though she had already attracted some fights, Viktoria had not been surrounded by as many opponents as her husband.
eaglesnov?1,сoМ She had only faced her first challenge after finding a resource of interest to her and trying to collect it.
Anyway, at the moment, she was resting atop a large tree where few beasts could easily find her.
'I wonder where Lothur and Elke are?' She wondered as she ate some fruit. 'I hope I can find them and team up with them over the next few days...'
The Secret Realm sent the 15 young people who had the right to enter it to different locations, where they could face challenges of their levels. But all this space was connected, and the weakest individual had the chance to enter the most dangerous area.
That was obviously not easy to happen, as most would die before reaching that 'slice.' But if one could withstand the challenges, getting to where Lothur was was not impossible. One would only have to follow the path of the strongest beasts and beings in the area.
Viktoria knew this, and so she intended to find Elke and her husband to form a team.
Working as a team was the best way to survive and get results in the Secret Realm. Hence, it was common for young people who entered there to try to find their friends and allies to circulate this place together.
They all wanted the best possible resources and opportunities. But this could only be found in the most challenging places in the Secret Realm, where one could hardly survive alone.
But in teams, one could strengthen the other's weak point, and all could achieve even better resources than they could by fighting alone!
After recovering, Viktoria made her way through the area she was in, fighting whoever came her way and picking up whatever item caught her eye. But her focus was to get out of there and go to other, stronger areas.
...
On the other hand, Elke was already moving through the 'slice' she had arrived in, a less complicated area than Viktoria's.
But although she knew that joining Lothur and Viktoria would be a positive for her, she felt that she would need to improve her strength a bit before attempting something like this.
She was the weakest of Lothur's women in this place, who would take serious risks if she tried to reach him without strengthening herself first.
Before trying to find him and Viktoria, she was already cultivating in a cave where she had arrived, using a resource she had collected only a few minutes ago.
She was at level 14, while Viktoria was at level 15. So as not to risk too much, she would only go after those two when she advanced to another level!
'I am not far from my advancement, so I will stay here for another two days or so before I leave for Viktoria.' Elke thought about it as she meditated.
...
But by the end of the evening of the first day of the Secret Realm, some of the young people who had entered it had already gathered.
Some had roughly equivalent strengths, meaning they had been taken to locations closer to each other.
After investigating the area they were in and probing, some of the groups formed before the Secret Realm even began had already gathered in this special place.
That was the case with the group of the two members of the imperial family, who were together with a young noble from a family from a different province than this Secret Realm.
The three of them had already killed several groups of beasts on their way and were preparing to go towards the more advanced 'slices' of this space.
In particular, the strongest of the group had some bold plans in mind!
"Let's go in search of Lothur Ritter." He said to his companions. "I want to teach the bastard the difference between him and us."
"That..." The imperial family's other young man was not as sure about this as his stronger cousin and hesitated.
But their noble ally said. "Lothur is just a genius in Peters City... Him having created the cars is not enough to make him stronger than us."
"Yes, the damned thing at most may have the privilege of having a voice to negotiate with us, but he won't be a match for the three of us together!" The strongest of the three said, eager to teach that arrogant fellow a lesson.
He knew that Lothur was a good warrior since he had investigated this fellow in the hours he had since his arrival in Peters City and the beginning of the Secret Realm. But he was not like the locals, who had low-level spiritual techniques, talent, and skills.
He was a prodigy from the Leopoldine family!
On the other hand, the young nobleman allied with these two members of the imperial family also had an interest in acting against Lothur.
'The family bet on his fall to the penultimate day of the Secret Realm...' This black-haired young man thought to himself. 'We must catch up with him and overthrow him on this day!'
Follow current novels on (f)reew𝒆bnovel