Chapter 723 - The Fortress and the Pillar

In the land near the border where the fort was erected to fight against the monsters, three figures suddenly appeared in its perimeter.

"Do you think they have a tall and strong wall to hold the monsters?" Alex asked.

"No way. They can simply destroy the wall with their strength and number. In fact, they might only have that fortress to host those people for a while." Firia shrugged. "Although most monsters don't have the ability to fly… No, they don't know how to fly, their physical strength alone is enough to jump a few hundred meters."

Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "In that case, how will they retain the monsters from rampaging the area? With millions of fighting four hundred thousand, many monsters will breakthrough in just a day or so."

"I don't know. I had seen some fights when I was with my master, but I haven't seen one with a scale like this."

Getting no answer from Firia, Alex decided to take Nelson's card out. "Nelson. I want you to search for their war strategy if possible."

"Understood." Nelson's voice was calm as if he already predicted this request and was planning to get it even without order.

Alex, as the leader, obviously smiled to have such a partner in this fight. He then looked at Firia and Leoz. "Leoz will go toward the front line with me while Firia will search for a base around here. I have checked that there shouldn't be anyone a few kilometers around us."

"I understand. I will try to get a nice place for us to stay." Firia agreed with the arrangement. Although she wanted to follow him, it wasn't the best chance to do so, especially since they screwed up because of her not long ago.

Alex knew it was unintentional, but he just wanted to be more careful because they had arrived on the battlefield.

"Where are we going, Young Master?" Leoz asked.

"According to the map, there is a fortress not far from here. I am planning to infiltrate the fortress first and not do anything. We are purely watching from the dark to see their movement. I don't want to meet any other people again, lest they misunderstand me and cause a problem."

Leoz nodded. "Then, are you also going to the center of this place where the monsters are born?"

"Yeah. Though I will only watch it from afar." Alex confirmed with a calm tone. "I just want to determine what kind of place it is and how the monsters come out."

"Understood. I shall accompany you as your bodyguard." Leoz bowed to him before the two flew to the sky. Firia waved her hand while smiling before she turned around and started searching for a nice location.

A few minutes later,

Alex found a fortress in the middle of the grassland. It was quite a huge fortress as he saw a huge amount of energy there.

"As expected of one hundred thousand soldiers." Alex narrowed his eyes.

"What do you mean, Young Master? Are all of them inside the fortress right now?" Leoz tilted his head in confusion.

"I don't think so. Mostly, it will be around fifty thousand… Assuming they are not in the perimeter of the fortress, they must have gone to the battlefield, preparing themselves there."

"I see. Though the fortress may be big, it is not capable of housing one hundred thousand people at once." Leoz nodded in agreement.

"No, no. That's not what I mean. Anyway, let's go inside the fortress and watch them from the dark." Alex shrugged and created a Spatial Gate to the Blue Colored Realm.

They didn't immediately teleport inside, but they decided to proceed manually inside the Blue Layered Realm until Alex stopped and opened another gate inside the fortress.

"We are here," Alex said while glancing left and right, confirming they had arrived in a safe place. They were inside a dark alley with two buildings surrounding them. It seemed that most of the buildings around here were military barracks or something. He could say so because he found all houses around the area were similar.

"I will wait here, Young Master."

Alex looked at him and shook his head. "I am not going anywhere. I will probably peek around this area before traveling around within the Blue Layered Realm."

"Is that so?" Leoz smiled and nodded.

Alex then walked toward the edge of the dark alley and peeked at his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes first. He noticed that the two houses were empty, so he had no need to worry he would get spotted by someone from the houses. On the other hand, the city was bustling with people, all soldiers.

He took another look, wondering if he could find a special building or something, especially one that he could see the entire fortress without being suspicious. Unfortunately, it was only wishful thinking.

This fortress was indeed built just to host people for a period of time. It wouldn't be a problem if it were destroyed later.

Leoz also found the answer from Alex's expression alone. He approached him and shook his head.

"All the people around the area wear the same uniform. If we assume they are soldiers, I think there won't be any normal citizen inside this fort." Leoz shook his head. "Although I am not good at strategy, I realize that the wall of this fortress is only built without any proper care. I can even blast it without any trouble."

"I see. So the wall is only for decoration." Alex stroked his chin and thought for a moment. "Let's search for another spot to see whether there are any mercenaries around here."

"Are we going to be one of them?" Leoz furrowed his eyebrows.

"No. I will try explaining my reason later." Alex opened the Spatial Gate to Space World, and the two vanished once again.

On the other side of the fortress, Alex found many soldiers around the area. However, he found a few people wearing casual clothes and realized they were mercenaries.

After checking the four corners of the fortress, Alex finally disappeared from this fortress, making his way to the center of this place.

"Young Master. Why didn't we act like one of the mercenaries?" Leoz asked.

"We actually could act that way. However, it would be different if I need to count Firia for this plan. Besides, I don't really like mercenaries that much." Alex shrugged his shoulders. "And in the worst case, they might ask us for our identity. Considering we couldn't create our own group, it would become troublesome later. That's why I rather leave. I have said it, right? I won't have any contact with the people around the fortress."

"I see." Leoz closed his eyes, following Alex without saying any word.

They were flying for about one hour, realizing how far the fortress was from the actual battlefield. However, he soon realized that the fortress was indeed constructed in a perfect place.

In the middle of the place, there was a colossal pillar standing from the ground to the sky.

"This is…" Leoz narrowed his eyes and asked Alex to lower their altitude, so no one spotted them.

Alex nodded and kept advancing with caution. When they became closer and closer, Alex realized how big the pillar was. From the diameter alone, it was close to the entire Freedom Sect Space Temple territory.

His Spirit Eyes allowed him to see what was behind this pillar.

"Seriously?" Alex took a deep breath, calming his heart down.

"Young Master?" Leoz furrowed his eyebrows.

"You should know about the Potential Tower, right?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. I saw it from your memory."

"There are around fifty floors inside the pillar this time, and all of them contain around a hundred thousand monsters. In other words, there are five million monsters inside there; all are Martial Emperors and above." Alex sweatdropped.

"!!!" Leoz opened his eyes wide. "Should we call everyone here right now?"

"I don't know." Alex shook his head. "I think I will stick to our original plan. If these monsters can bring us EXPs and Gacha Tickets, I will call them. If not, I will simply hide inside the Space World."

"I understand. I hope they bring us some EXPs."

"Same." Alex shrugged. "From my calculation and such, I think we can kill around a few hundred thousand monsters easily for six months. I think that is enough for you to level up, right?"

"Yeah. With their power level, I am confident I can reach 7-Star Martial Saint or even 8-Star Martial Saint in this place." Leoz confirmed. "The rest will probably reach 4-Star Martial Saints… At least, it won't go below 3-Star Martial Saints."

Alex nodded with a serious expression. "After that, I can utilize the Gacha Tickets and level you up with the EXP Cards," Alex added with a smirk.

"Indeed. But you should know that we have a level capacity which is one whole realm above you. At the same time, we won't be able to break through to God Stage before you can reach that stage."

"I know. I will try to reach Martial Saint as soon as possible. I only hope that I can find something useful inside this place." Alex nodded.

"Still, won't Mistress Firia's cultivation will be hindered at this point? Sherry, Stina, and Kyle can safely stay inside you without any problem and can become a Martial Saint. On the other hand, Lady Firia won't have time to cultivate. The same applies to you, Young Master."

"No. I am not going to fight the monsters continuously… Anyway, I will tell you the battle plan after confirming the monsters." Alex stopped talking and checked the sphere with his Spirit Eyes as they had gotten close enough.

There were a few places leaking energy from the inside, and when he lowered his vision, many soldiers had been stationed at the bottom of that place.

'It seems the soldiers already know the place where they are going to appear.' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. 'The array is powerful and colossal. It is easy to see that the leaking part will be broken first. However, is there such a different amount of Spiritual Energy inside that place? I can see the leaking energy is very dense… Now that I think about it, the density of Spiritual Energy inside that pillar is far stronger than the surrounding area.'

Leoz didn't disturb him at this point, protecting his safety from any other threats in the area silently.

Alex closed his eyes. 'I have many questions, but I am sure a few things. First, a hole will appear in that area, and the monsters will start to come out. However, the fact that there are only a few thousand soldiers in front of that place and the low population inside the fortress means…'

"Many holes will appear at the same time. If we can search one hole that is not occupied by the army or mercenary, we should be able to use that place as our battlefield." Alex muttered to himself.

Leoz heard it as well but didn't say anything.

"We are going to check the perimeter. Follow me." Alex flew to the side, going around the huge pillar.

Just as he predicted, they found a few places leaking a huge amount of Spiritual Energy. The soldiers realized this as well and surrounded it.

"Now I can see why one hundred thousand soldiers are enough for a few months. The monsters won't be released in all directions simultaneously. They have their own places, and the soldiers and mercenaries will handle each hole for a long time."

They kept flying before they found another fort. "Young Master… There is another fort there. We have traveled for two hours, so I assume it's from another influence."

Alex frowned and sighed. "Every leaking place has been occupied by soldiers… What should we do? Should we go around and check every single place? It will probably be midnight after finishing a whole trip… Inform Firia about this, and we will continue the search."

"Understood." Leoz nodded and disappeared.