Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 1289: Development In The Origin Battlefield

Arianne had been pushed into the First Layer despite still being unranked, which meant the Origin Battlefield had judged her overall strength as too high for the Zeroth Layer.

Yet when she returned to the Zeroth Layer through the connected territory, the suppression placed on her was barely noticeable. It was almost symbolic. Even the cost wasn’t something to be bothered about.

Arianne’s imbalance and Michael’s imbalance might look similar on the surface, but they were not the same.

Michael fundamentally did not belong in the lower layer. His strength was outright beyond the framework it was designed to contain.

Arianne, on the other hand, was still close to the Zeroth Layer’s upper boundary. She had only exceeded it enough that the Origin Battlefield no longer considered her an appropriate natural inhabitant.

One was beyond the layer. The other was merely outside its balance.

That distinction explained why Arianne could move through the Zeroth Layer under such light suppression while Michael would face a far harsher restriction.

And thanks to that, she had been able to assist Lily directly.

With Arianne’s help, Lily had been able to gather the fragments much faster than before.

This time, strength was no longer the main issue.

Between Lily’s own power and Arianne’s three Epic Grade spirits, very few threats in the Zeroth Layer could force the two of them to retreat.

What slowed them down was finding the right places.

The Level Three regions.

To say those regions were rare would be inaccurate. There were enough of them scattered throughout the Zeroth Layer that Lily had already encountered several.

But saying they were common would be just as wrong.

They were not something one could simply walk a few kilometers and expect to find.

Some were separated by enormous distances.

Others could be hidden between a Level One and Level Two region.

There were even regions that had already been discovered and occupied by other Awakeners, forcing Lily and Arianne to avoid them.

Because of this, despite the two of them searching almost continuously, they had only managed to gather five additional fragments since joining forces.

Still, five was already a considerable result.

The two Class Scrolls had been obtained almost by accident along the way.

It started with their fifth fragment.

While exploring after obtaining that fragment, the two discovered a dungeon entrance.

At first, neither expected much from it, but since they were already there, they entered.

The dungeon itself had been relatively straightforward.

Once the final enemy was defeated, the entire dungeon began to collapse into particles of light.

And among the rewards left behind was the white scroll.

The Basic Class Scroll.

The moment they examined it, both girls immediately understood its value.

After all, they owned Universal Cornerstones themselves. They could see the exchange prices.

Five million Origin Points for something that had just dropped from a dungeon was impossible to ignore.

That was when Arianne remembered that not far from her own First Layer territory, she had previously noticed another dungeon.

She had passed it more than once but had never entered.

At the time, she had no reason to take unnecessary risks.

Now things were different.

Once they confirmed that dungeons could drop Class Scrolls, Arianne brought Lily with her to the First Layer right away, since the latter wasn’t lacking in strength.

The two crossed through the connected subsidiary station and entered Arianne’s territory before moving toward the dungeon she remembered.

Naturally, the difficulty was far higher than the one in the Zeroth Layer.

The monsters were stronger.

The pressure inside was heavier.

And several of the dungeon’s mechanics were more complicated.

But the two girls were also far from ordinary.

Lily possessed a powerful foundation despite remaining unranked.

Arianne had her three Epic Grade spirits.

Together, they managed to clear it.

And at the end, they obtained the red scroll.

The Magic Knight Class Scroll.

Since they had to meet Michael that day in any case, the two decided to come early and present the two scrolls as gifts.

"What did you mean when you said the dungeon worked like your trial world?" Michael asked Arianne, a curious expression on his face.

Beside her, Lily became more attentive at once.

She had already been confused by the term earlier, and now that Michael asked directly, she looked at Arianne with obvious interest.

Arianne took a moment before answering.

"The dungeons seem to be graded."

Graded? Michael didn’t know this, since he hadn’t bothered to get close to any dungeon and had instead opted to search for Heavenly Descent opportunities. But he didn’t find it surprising.

Arianne continued.

"The one we entered in the Zeroth Layer was E Grade. The one in the First Layer was D Grade."

Lily nodded along this time, clearly familiar with that part.

Arianne then explained that the dungeon did not simply reward them for defeating everything inside.

Their performance was judged: how quickly they cleared the dungeon, and how efficiently they handled whatever the dungeon threw at them.

All of it seemed to affect the final evaluation.

That was where the comparison to the trial world came from.

During her awakening trial, Arianne had also been judged based on how she performed rather than merely whether she survived until the end.

The dungeons appeared to follow a similar logic.

Michael listened carefully.

"So the reward changes depending on the final rating?"

Arianne nodded.

She explained that in both dungeons, she and Lily had cleared them almost flawlessly and made very few mistakes.

At the end, the Origin Battlefield had given them an evaluation.

Both times, they received a Perfect Rating.

That Perfect Rating seemed to be the reason they obtained the highest possible reward from each dungeon.

For the E Grade dungeon, that reward had been the Basic Class Scroll.

For the D Grade dungeon, it had been the Magic Knight Class Scroll.

Michael’s expression became more thoughtful.

There was a catch, however.

Arianne explained that once the Perfect Rating was issued and the highest reward distributed, the dungeon began collapsing.

The environment broke apart into particles of light, and the entrance disappeared.

Nothing remained behind.

In other words, the dungeon had effectively been consumed by their flawless completion.

Arianne glanced around after finishing her explanation.

Then her eyes returned to Michael.

"Why did you ask us to come here in the first place, anyway?"

Though they had come earlier, the two were still left in the dark on why Michael had specifically asked them to come today.

Currently, the three were standing in the outer region of Michael’s territory, not far from the Subsidiary Territorial Anchor.

A short distance away, the temporary camp around the station had grown even larger than before.

Rows of tents stretched across the ground.

Mana circles glowed faintly around the platform.

Groups of Rank Two mages moved in and out of the camp while others sat near the conduit, feeding mana into the system.

Several of them had already "noticed" Michael, Lily, and Arianne.

Although they tried not to stare too obviously, more than a few curious glances were directed toward the trio.

Michael smiled slightly.

"It has to do with your Cornerstones."

Lily tilted her head.

"But isn’t everything stable right now? After all, as long as no one can do anything to us, they can’t do anything to the Cornerstone, right?"

She wasn’t wrong. At least on the surface.

Michael shook his head slowly but did not directly refute her.

Thanks to Lily and Arianne, he had already confirmed some suspicions about the Universal Cornerstone.

As long as the owner was alive and retained ownership, the Cornerstone remained bound to them. If someone wanted to seize it, they would first have to deal with the owner.

As for the Cornerstone itself, putting aside whether one had the power to damage a Legendary Grade item, even if they could, they wouldn’t. Destroying something that valuable would be idiotic.

The real goal would always be ownership.

Still, that did not mean the current arrangement was ideal.

Even if no one could simply steal them, the danger remained, since one could simply scheme against them within their own territory with nothing to stop them.

Aside from safety reasons, there was also another reason.

Resources.

Right now, the two territories were barely being used.

The lower layers might not match the Fourth Layer in quality, but they still possessed enormous value relative to the people who belonged there.

Leaving those territories almost empty was wasteful.

If they were going to hold Universal Cornerstones, then they needed to do more than simply own them. They needed to use them and develop them.

Turn them into functioning bases rather than isolated claims.

And most importantly, make sure Lily and Arianne no longer had to personally shoulder every risk tied to them.

But how was he going to do this?

With a smile, Michael turned to look at the substation behind him, which was swirling with a bright light.

A moment later, a large group of youths, numbering several dozen, appeared on the platform.

In front of them were five familiar figures.

Bok, Rina, Ace, Lia, and a certain dark elf, Lyra.

*

A/N: Vote to motivate and support a poor author! How’s the length dear readers? Thank you for the continued support!