On top of a vast area filled with clouds, there were countless pools.
The pools with people in them were various, colorful pools with unique powers in them, while the empty pools were like plain water, but they hid even more mysteries in them.
On top of this region with countless pools, there was a giant floating mountain that was fifteen kilometers wide and ten kilometers tall!
That gigantic mountain was filled with people that came out of unique doors that suddenly manifested on it at various levels. Some appeared at the top, some in the middle of the mountain in a forest, and some at the mountain's base.
Arkhen appeared at the top of that mountain as he came out of a dark green door with dark gold and red design with wisps surrounding it.
[Congratulations, my lord. You have arrived at the 2nd realm, Harrowings of Might]
"Arkhen! It's good that we are not too far from each other."
Arkhen saw Tiffani and Gerald flying towards him with a smile.
"We are not, but Yosin and Sherly's door opened somewhere else on this mountain," Gerald said as he looked around but didn't spot them.
"Let's just go according to what we planned," Tiffani said as she could still see a vast blanket of pools in all directions.
"Yep. Find a pool, finish the task, and return to the top of this mountain," Arkhen said before he flew away.
Gerald and Tiffani also left the mountain and descended to find an empty pool.
Myriad Manifestation Pool! The specialty of 2nd realm.
Arkhen also left the mountain and flew out of the mountain before looking for an empty pool.
…
After several minutes, Arkhen found an empty pool and dived down.
[My lord. The pools here won't upgrade your physique above Supreme Rank. To go above, you have to do it yourself and improve it. So, you can use the power of this pool to unlock active abilities of your innate physique.]
'Oh? Well then, alright.'
Arkhen decided to unlock the active abilities of his innate physiques and focused on absorbing the power of the pool.
The mysterious power of the pool was entering every inch of his body as it found the innate physique's crux.
After ten minutes, Arkhen didn't even need to do anything as the power of the pool was automatically entering his innate physique.
'Good chance. Let's kill two birds with one stone,' Arkhen said to Velshi as he thought of something.
[Elemental Ruins?]
Arkhen grinned as Velshi guessed correctly. 'Yep. Since I have a free supreme boost, then use it to open Chaos elemental ruin.'
[Done. Preparing to send your consciousness in Mystic Wonderland].
After Arkhen's consciousness entered Mystic Wonderland, he went to the Afraya Tree and found the Chaos Elemental Ruin's door before entering inside.
It was just like how 1st realm helped people become strong by sending their consciousness to a mysterious place after breaking through a class.
Since comprehending and making progression in affinity required only his consciousness, Arkhen could send it inside and comprehend the chaos affinity.
"Woah.. this is a whole new world," Arkhen muttered after he entered the Chaos elemental ruin!
It was a chaotic land with colorful clouds and chaotic creatures with ever-changing shapes.
The atmosphere was also chaotic. Sometimes, you feel cold, and sometimes, you feel extremely dry.
A small part was raining while the other part was raining flames!
'Chaotic indeed…'
Arkhen sat down and observed the chaos with focus, trying to comprehend it.
However, Arkhen's brows creased as he felt confusion.
[It seems that you've realized. That's right. It's extremely hard to make progress in advanced affinities like Order and Chaos.]
"Yeah, but… Even though I have an affinity, I can't even find a starting point to begin understanding Chaos."
Arkhen frowned hard as he tried to focus. After a short while, he stood up and fought with chaotic monsters to see if he could get something, but he didn't get anything.
An hour passed, but Arkhen didn't even make 1% of progress in his chaos affinity!
[My lord. Don't look at this world with eyes of chaos. Find something that is a necessary find in chaos]
Arkhen wryly sighed and sat down as he looked at the chaotic world.
'A pond that is freezing and burning, but then producing toxic gas…
'Sometimes it rains, sometimes fresh air bursts out in the same spot…
'Trees, rocks, and everything ages fast and transform fast…
'What is there in this world besides chaos? Yet, I can't even begin to understand it.'
Arkhen sighed, but giving up was not in his dictionary.
He still had 23 hours.
Arkhen soon fell into a blank trance while observing this chaotic world.
He was trying to process the chaos in front of him, trying to understand it.
But after an hour of staying in this blank trance state, something clicked in his mind as he observed a phenomenon.
He stood up wide-eyed, a hint of excitement in his eyes.
He found and felt… Order!
"So that's it! Damn."
The progression of his order affinity increased by 1%!
[Indeed. Your Order affinity will progress as you find and comprehend hints of order in every chaotic change you observe in this chaotic elemental ruin.]
[Just like that, you must find and understand chaos inside the order elemental ruin]
Arkhen flew up and started observing the chaos everywhere, and while doing that, he was looking at things differently.
This time, he was finding a hint of order in every chaotic change happening in the world!
Just like that, a day was soon going to pass as Arkhen made progress in his Order affinity.
…
It's been a month since girls arrived in the 2nd realm.
After bathing in a Myriad Manifestation pool, they left the ascension mountain and flew towards the land near them.
Inside a sizeable inn, the girls sat at a round table.
"We trained for a month and reached 2nd Ring power. Now the question is, where should we move to progress faster?" Isabella said as she took a sip from the teacup.
"The good thing is we can progress fast in the 2nd realm as long as we quickly upgrade our power rings."
In the 2nd realm, there are five stages of powers.
1st Ring to 5th Ring.
First, everyone who ascends must break through to the 1st Ring, which they can do on Ascension Mountain, where all people who ascend to the 2nd realm appear.
To break through to the 1st Ring is easiest. People just need to use their respective energies and soul power to transform their energy ponds into rings.
The rest is to upgrade these rings into the next stages of powers until they upgrade it four times and reach the 5th Ring power.
The only hard part is upgrading to the 5th ring power and then fulfilling the last requirement of power, which is necessary to ascend to the 3rd realm.
But it won't be hard for Arkhen and others since they have Mystic Wonderland.
"We can either continue in some nearby place to kill beasts and gather reality essence so that we can use Elemental Ruins to make progress in our affinities. Or, we first find a backing and then progress," Sasha finished speaking after thinking for a bit.
"Backing..." Zoe muttered as she glanced around and saw some pervy gazes on them.
All of them were beautiful women. If someone powerful put his eyes on them, it would spell trouble.
"Sasha, you should have a backing here, right?" Meya asked with a grin. "I also have a backing here, but it won't be as big as yours."
"Yes. There's also a Frezya Empire here. I don't know its current state of power, though. After all, people ascend here, and some also ascend from here to the 3rd realm," Sasha said with a wry smile.
"As for Meya, her parents are here, right?" Sierra asked before looking at Meya with a smile. "If you want to meet them, we can go there."
"Yes. I want to them. They gave me something I can use to contact before leaving," Meya said with a bright smile as she took out a bangle.
She was, of course, eager to meet her parents.
"Then let's go there after asking about their location. We will go via some fast transportation service and continue our training there," Isabella said with a nod.
"Let's ask Velshi about brother Arkhen. It's been a month since we last talked to him," Evelyn said.
"Hey, ladies! We heard a bunch of beauties were hanging out in the inn and thought to visit you, hahaha."
Suddenly, a group of five men entered the inn. All of them were at 2nd Ring power, the same as the girls.
"No thanks," Sierra plainly said after turning her head towards them.
"Humph, a bunch of ugly toads," Meya said as she snorted.
"Haha, we may be a bunch of ugly toads, but we still seek a beautiful swan," said one of the men with short brown hair and a muscular body as he laughed.
Five of them entered inside, causing customers in the inn to tremble a bit.
"They are from Thunder Beast gang… damn, are they here to pick on people again?"
"I heard they kidnapped a girl in broad light and took her to their base… Sigh, can't some powerhouse come and kill them?"
"Shsss… idiot, what if they hear you?"
The table behind Isabella whispered, and she heard it, causing her eyes to narrow. 'No matter where we go, such people are everywhere.'
When there's good, there's bad. This saying applied everywhere.
Even on Earth, she knew about evil gangs of criminals and syndicates. But in this world, there were no fixed laws, and each place ruled by a force had their own laws.
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