Erix and Rin cleared up to the 24th Floor.
The 25th Floor's requirement was 200,000 Power Level. Even though they could try and use a chance, they decided to end floor clearing for now.
From the 21st Floor to the 24th Floor, they got 4 Advanced high-grade elemental crystals.
Erix could use those crystals to progress in the only Advanced element affinity he had—Metal.
Meanwhile, Rin had two advanced element affinities—Lightning and Blood. She had already decided to prioritize Lightning.
Since these were 'High-grade' elemental crystals, they could be helpful until one reached the 7th realm in elemental affinities.
Low-grade elemental crystals could help progress up to 3rd realm.
Medium-grade elemental crystals could help progress up to the 5th realm.
High-grade elemental crystals could help progress up to the 7th realm.
Finally, Peak-grade elemental crystals could help progress up to the 10th realm.
The next realm after the 10th realm was called Elemental Awakening, but it was a big barrier, and depending on people's hard work and talent, it could take decades to hundreds of years to reach that realm, without fighting for resources and opportunities.
...
Erix and Rin returned while Isabella was already preparing food.
It was almost noon, and Aria was also returning with good news.
On her way back to Phoenix City, Aria saw a group of four people in their mid-thirties struggling against an Open Field Dungeon in a park, but they were on the verge of beating it.
However, she noticed another group sneakily approaching them and paused.
'Are they planning to wait until they finish, kill them, and steal the loot?'
Aria pouted. She didn't like that.
Flying down, she silently appeared behind the sneaking group of six people.
Two girls and four boys—three of them were in their mid-twenties, and the other three in their early twenties.
Aria was behind them, but none could hear or notice her until she let out a soft cough.
Instantly, all of them were startled and turned around, their aura revving.
"Don't do that," Aria crossed her arms with a stern expression.
"What?" the girl in her mid-twenties asked and pointed her dual guns at Aria. She had recently broken through to Royal-order.
"Don't ambush those people after they are done fighting in the field dungeon. Why don't you fight on your own? That way, you can improve as well."
"Why does it concern you? You...you are an elf from a some clan, right? Fuck off," one of the young men scoffed.
"That's right. You can't hit us first, but we can hit you first and that might cost you your life," the second girl who was in her early twenties coldly said to Aria with narrowed eyes, pointing her dagger at her.
The only reason they were behaving like this was due to them not being able to inspect Aria, and they also couldn't feel any powerful aura from her. .net
"So you will still ambush them?" Aria pouted.
"Go away," the royal-order girl waved her hand.
"Fine, I'll give you a little punishment," Aria cutely snorted and created a big liquidy faint green slime animated spirit.
The moment it appeared, the six young people were startled by its aura and then shocked.
"I can't attack you, but I can trap you," Aria smiled. "
The slime jumped and the group watched as it was going to land on them.
They tried to run, use skill to dodge, and escape from this but failed because strong vines from the ground had suddenly rooted them on the spot.
Erix had stationed some slaves here to upgrade people's U-card.
"We earned over fifteen thousand low-grade Prana stones, haha," Erix said with a laugh. "Rin, we can complete the first stage. Let's do it after finding some dungeons."
"Yep," Rin nodded. "Also, how about we send those thousands of slaves to scout for dungeons in the wilds?"
"Most of the people are not venturing out, so many dungeons gates that spawn every day are not even attempted by people," Rin wryly smiled.
Erix's eyes glinted, "That's a good idea. To make them work, we can give rewards to those who successfully find a dungeon."
The duo flew back to the Blessed Island and went behind the normal mountain range where the roughly three thousand slaves were living.
"We should also check if they progressing as instructed," Erix narrowed his eyes and called everyone out with a wave of spiritual energy.
Some of them were already outside and were training, but most of them were in small groups to progress in various sub-classes.
Their job was to improve in Alchemy, Magsmithing, Mystic Cooking, and Rune Scribing.
Rune scribers were few, but they could inscribe objects with runes to give them various effects based on their magic knowledge and their level of Rune Scribing.
Not everyone had a sub-class, so those who didn't have became assistants in practice.
The slaves also trained daily in the various elemental biomes of this Blessed Island. They were alive, so they also wanted to get stronger.
After checking their progress, Erix and Rin were not satisfied.
"You all are slacking," Erix coldly swept his glance at the herd of people.
Everyone shuddered. Nobody had forgotten the scene they saw when Erix and Rin arrived at their alliance in the city and killed the leaders.
Moreover, they had access to leaderboards and notifications like others so they knew that the ones who enslaved them were extraordinarily powerful.
"It's fine. You still have time to show your worth," Erix said with a grunt. "Because if you are useless, we don't have any reason to keep you alive."
This death threat was way more effective than before.
The slaves had lived here for over a month and had adapted to this lifestyle while bearing hope.
If Erix and Rin pushed them too much when they first enslaved them, some of them might still rebel and accept death, but it would be a waste of a worker.
"From today onward, all of you have a new activity. You can go out and take some apocalypse air that you all missed for a while," Rin said with a sharp smile.
All of them were surprised as low murmurs spread in the herd.
"However, those slave collars you have is not for show. I hope you remember that," Erix said in an icy voice with a cold smile. "Your job is to explore the wilderness and ruins of cities and other areas to find dungeon gates."
"More specifically, we want Alchemy dungeon gates, but you can also find all types of dungeons and explore them."
"Your job is to clear the dungeons and bring back resources," Rin sharply said, "And don't even think about escaping.
Erix smiled and casually added, "Escaping from us is futile, but some of you can try for the sake of trying. But I can assure you...their heads will be hung here once they do."
"I am initiating mass teleporting now, sending half of you into the ruined Phoenix City, and the other half into the forest. You can directly talk to me by infusing in your slave collars if some trouble arises," Erix said.
All slaves started talking and their expressions brightened, while some of them didn't want to leave, but nobody had any choice in this.
Rin loudly snorted by infusing Prana and making everyone silent before she said, "You are not allowed to attack other people, but others trouble you without reason, you can contact us via that collar."
"Now go and work hard for rewards. As for what rewards you will get, that's a secret."
The slaves were surprised at the mention of rewards since they were not expecting rewards.
Erix finished preparing a big magic formation for teleportation that lit up below them. Half of them disappeared first as he sent them to the ruins of the city. After two seconds, he sent the remaining half into the wilderness behind the Labyrinth Tower.
"So, what will be the reward?" Rin rubbed her chin.
Erix wryly smiled as he also hadn't decided on that.
"Forget it. We can think about the reward later. For now, we should to go some dangerous area that have become hazardous with magic after the apocalypse. There might be some powerful dungeon gates there," Erix said.
Rin shrugged. "No harm in checking those areas out. Let's go."