A few hours later...
Lothur had gone through almost the entire first level of the labyrinth he had entered earlier, having killed several beasts on his way.
At the moment, he was in front of the stairs that would take him to the next level, where he faced the last opponents on his way.
He was pretty exhausted, with blood from several beasts covering his clothes so that he stank profusely.
At the same time, his breathing was agitated, and due to the various wounds around his body healing, he barely noticed the odor in his surroundings.
Meanwhile, he saw the system warnings regarding his improvements in this place.
[+10.2 in all physical attributes.]
[+7.2 in AGI.]
[+3 in WIL.]
[+3 in CON.]
[+9.5 in DEX.]
[+10.1 in STR.]
...
[Name: Lothur Ritter]
[Physique: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger]
[Bloodline: Life Devourer]
[Cultivation: level 15]
[STR: 228.8] [CON: 434.5] [DEX: 233.9] [AGI: 226.5]
[INT: 135.6] [PER: 239.9] [WIL: 182]
[EVF: 1,524]
Seeing this, Lothur was satisfied since his purpose was not to get stronger through fighting but to reach the leaf that should be somewhere underground.
'That's good. The more I improve before I absorb what's inside that leaf, the better my result will be after that happens.' He smiled amid his meditation, trying to recover.
As he did so, he thought about what he had seen so far. 'In any case, this is not a place with prizes...' His eyes narrowed.
During his entire traversal through that level of the labyrinth, Lothur had found no plants or other objects that might be valuable to him. Besides the many beasts, the defensive and offensive formations in various traps in his path were the only things eye-catching.
These might be useful for him to gain new inspiration, but they were not resources to absorb.
Because of this, Lothur realized this place only made it difficult for invaders like himself to enter without leaving behind items of value.
But places like this usually had no prizes anyway. People could be fooled by this because, in places like these, many would die and leave their items along the way, which could be mistaken for prizes. But the common thing to happen was that only the item being protected had any significant value.
The rest of the stuff would depend a lot on how many people had already died entering such a labyrinth, something that, to Lothur's misfortune, had never happened there, so there was nothing for him to collect.
The Secret Realm had many resources. But they were mainly in the form of medicines, precious items formed by nature, and resources left by the dead.
Since the 'slice' that Lothur was in had never hosted anyone before him, that last option was not available to him!
"Sigh..."
"But it doesn't matter." He muttered. "As long as I get that leaf, I'll gain bonuses on my physical and mental attributes, and I'll still be able to acquire a new trait.
That will be good enough for this passage through the Secret Realm!"
With that said, he finished recovering and set off for the second level of the labyrinth, where he would soon realize that there were more levels in this place than he had seen from the first level.
Also, the beasts of the second level were stronger than those of the first, something that insanely made him more serious.
Lothur tightened his fists on his weapons and set off for a few more hours of battles underground in that area!
...
Meanwhile, in Peters City...
At this point, the night was nearing its end, with daylight slowly coming to brighten this region.
Amidst the nearness of daybreak, forces of the Baier family, Vogel, and his allies were already in place around the headquarters of House Frost, preparing for an attack.
Several carriages were positioned at the sides of the streets in that part of the city as if they were just parked, something normal to see around this city.
At the same time, men from these families, disguised as ordinary citizens, were strolling along the nearby streets as if they were just returning home after a day's work.
Others were in nearby establishments, talking in low voices, as customers in these places would do any day and time.
Peters City was a city of over half a million people. Consequently, people were moving through the local streets at almost every moment of the day.
Furthermore, amid the Secret Realm event, many tourists were in the city, further elevating the movement around the city.
To give you an idea, even though it was pretty early or late, depending on your perspective, the central square in front of the Morning Star Academy had at least a couple of hundred people following the event!
Precisely because of this, these people intended to attack the Frost family during the Secret Realm!
One of these groups around the Frost family headquarters was watching the street movement, worried about possible interference.
In an attack like this, there were groups with different responsibilities. Some would attack at the first moment, others would act after the invasion was established, others would defend, and others would watch the surroundings.
One of the men of the watch groups noticed the tranquility in their vicinity and commented to his colleagues. "The south side is practically deserted."
"Yes, I also have a similar view of the north side." Another commented, sensing that the heavens favored their leaders' plans.
In another group of this alliance of Lothur's enemies, one inside an estate in the vicinity of the Frost family, the men and women there were also commenting on the timing of the attack.
"It looks like we won't have any problems." The leader of that group commented to his companions. "There don't seem to be any unforeseen events to get in our way."
"Is everyone ready? We will start the attack in 60 minutes." A woman looked at the hourglass with the time remaining for the joint attack to begin.
Each group that would be responsible for breaking through the defenses of the Frost estate had hourglasses to mark the time of the attack.
They would attack simultaneously to weaken the Frost family as much as possible, opening up spaces for their leading warriors to enter the conflict to fight their main opponents.
And so, the leaders of the families about to attack the headquarters of House Frost were also positioned near that place.
They were underground since this was the only way so many powerful cultivators could hide their soul fluctuations and avoid alerting their targets.
They were in tunnels their families had built in the past weeks, one of them even leading into the interior of the Frost estate, made by the members infiltrating those forces.
David Baier, together with some high-level members of this family, was in this tunnel, eager to spill Aiken's blood.
Next to him, the Transcendent sent by the Stauss family was calmly waiting for the moment to fight with Mabel, who was the only concern of this group.
"We just have to wait for our infiltrators to release Simon, and we will start the attack right after the rebellion in the Frost family begins," David said, seeing that it wasn't long before that would happen.
The infiltrators in that family would act when it was less than an hour away.
Considering this, those people should already be moving to free Aiken's uncle!
...
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