Shane and Miriam were currently facing the common guards, the guard captain, and everyone else who was busy dining.
They had been oblivious to the intruders who had overwhelmed them inside the shelter hall.
Nobody had expected an ambush and the core area was about to be overwhelmed as more than five minutes had passed since a thousand Conquerors had emerged from the Hidden Paradise.
This was only the first step but also the most important because the strongest units infiltrated the core area in order to use the shortest path towards any direction if an emergency were to occur.
Unfortunately, said emergency happened right in front of them, and they had to face it!
Shane had never assumed that his Conquerors would survive everything because some shelters had set up tricky contraptions and deceiving illusions against surprise attacks.
As such it was evident how dangerous it was and everyone knew about this.
The said traps were mostly placed in the outer layers as the core area was the most secured as one had to pass the first and second defensive line in order to even reach the walls of the core area where everything important was stored.
Yet, a warning to the outer layers was enough to show that the core was in danger, which forced the guards to attack their own core, trying to reclaim what had just been taken away from them.
The advantage of a shelter with multitudes of walls was that one could protect everyone inside relatively easily, but at the same time, it was extremely annoying to regain the position if the core had been claimed by one's foe.
At the onset of the 5th conquest, the more experienced Conquerors had directly claimed five different positions, only to destroy the sixth, which were the guards' barracks where thousands of guards had been sleeping.
While four out of five directions were based on the gates' location that were quickly taken over by the Conquerors, the fifth direction was the Dimension portal that was under Shane's control too.
Thousands of guards had been overwhelmed in their sleep and killed, while the drunk shelter captain had turned sober the moment he sensed that something was wrong.
Unfortunately, it had already been too late and both Miriam and Shane could easily take over.
Miriam alone was already strong enough to defeat everyone inside the shelter, but Shane was even stronger.
He was only glad that they hadn't encountered Megane, otherwise, they would have had one huge problem!
The common defensive lines of a shelter were distributed amongst all basic shelters of a race, and only a few shelters had received more attention than others.
Because the Miac race had not only waged war with many other races inside the radiant mountain ring dimension but also had the Calamity-class dungeon in their proximity, barely a few days' trip away, their shelter's protection level was extremely high.
That was if one were to compare it to other shelters.
Unfortunately, Shane not only had the Hidden Paradise that was more than enough to bring others with him, while hiding his own appearance, but he had Cosmo, and was able to use his [Space Jump] ability too!
There were several other factors Shane could utilize and the most powerful was the extreme nurturing he had given his Starlight guild, which had finally paid off.
They were extremely strong, even more, powerful than the elite military units of certain basic races, indicating that Shane had done everything correctly with his faction.
It was only because he had established the Astral Artisans and believed in the value of non-combat occupations that everything had worked out.
As such, Shane could be said to have built a thriving business that was constantly growing with the increasing demand of resources and goods which both the Starlight guild and Astral Artisans could provide!
Everything played directly into his hands as if it had been predestined!
The shelter hall had been quickly destroyed with everyone inside having been killed.
Shane didn't show any mercy to the Miac race, and they should have been thankful that he prevented his Conqueror unit from attacking the civilians that remained silent and inside their house.
Once the shelter hall was destroyed and the entire core area conquered by Shane, he had announced that he wouldn't kill the citizens and ordinary cultivators that would stay inside their houses.
However, those who were to try killing him or anyone in his group should expect the worst possible death!
Because of this short announcement into the dark night that was cloudless and filled with the earsplitting cries of the Miac race, most citizens remained silent, quivering in their beds, holding their family tightly in the hope that nothing would happen.
Nevertheless, there were also those that ignored Shane's warning, blindlessly attacking the Conqueror unit that passed their house, only to be killed in the blink of an eye.
In the end, even thousands of guards had dropped their weapons and plainly surrendered after they had witnessed how their brethren were massacred without anyone being able to defeat even a single of the mighty attackers.
This allowed Shane to simply unarm them, in addition to stripping them off their clothes and spatial rings while telling the Miacs to cut their mana imprint, preventing them from launching a counter-attack in any way.
It was only when the hostile guards had been frisked thoroughly that Shane allowed more and more disguised humans to emerge from the Hidden Paradise.
However, instead of acting like before, Shane placed a Space door next to him, while manifesting the Hidden Paradise's portal right in front of it!
By showing the Space door publicly including the Miac race's citizens and guards that had been left alive, he wanted to be labeled as imitator of the 'true' attacker that had destroyed four shelters before!
Through this, he could confuse the Miac race, and other races that had to face the same consequences as the races that had attacked mankind in their greed to obtain the bounty that had been offered by the Dark Ice Elves.
While Shane was adjusting his plan, he allowed more than 10,000 members of his Astral Starlight faction to emerge from the Hidden Paradise.
They took the shelter by storm, dismantling certain long-range weapons, taking over all warehouses, and storing away all kinds of goods that could be found inside the Miac race's shelter.
In a matter of hours, the entire shelter had been emptied before everyone returned inside the Hidden Paradise by 'using' the Space door, leaving Shane, Umbra, and Cosmo behind in the Miac race's shelter.
"Have a good life...I guess?" Shane said as he looked at the aghast Miac race's soldier that stared at him as if he couldn't believe what had happened during the last few hours!
With the last words being said Shane simply left the Miac race's shelter, leaving behind corpses in the tens of thousands, an empty shelter, traumatized citizens and guards that were naked, but alive.
Leaving the shelter, Shane's mind was focused on the Hidden Paradise as he sat on Umbra who was carrying both Shane and Cosmo towards the next shelter they were targeting.
It was only a two-day trip away, and Shane's next words rang through everybody's heard loud and clear.
"Take the next two days easy, and clear the next shelter without a single casualty!"
At the same time, he sent a specific message to Talia, who could only sigh deeply.
[The scouts have already received the Space doors, right? What's the status of others I asked you about? Has the government responded to my request?]
Since Shane had awoken from the coma after the Primordial tournament had ended, he was restless, yet at the same time extremely focused on several things that boiled down to one ultimate goal; making Igra independent of the Primordial dimensions and system!
Because Shane would always fervently talk about this, Talia noticed that this topic had become more and more important to Shane, and she was not sure whether he was growing insane or if his assumption was valid.
That was, at least, what she had thought in the beginning! A few months had already passed and Talia had begun to notice that the Primordial dimensions were acting weirdly, let alone the system that seemed to show signs of malfunction.
Everyone, who entered the Primordial dimensions or used the system had figured this out, but there were still those who tried to deny reality.
However, neither Talia nor anyone from the Astral Starlight faction would put on blindfolds because Shane had mentioned certain clues he had noticed more than once.
Those clues had only increased and every member of the faction knew that something was off.
As such, they had despaired for a moment, only to realize that Shane, Miriam, Talia, and many more were trying to make the best out of their current situation.
Even though things were changing inside the Primordial dimensions, almost nobody expected them to cease to exist.
There were a few races that assumed exactly this to be the case, but they were a minority amongst the minorities.
Thanks to that, the Astral Starlight faction had many advantages in using all kinds of means to become independent.
Yet, the government was still reluctant to provide financial support to the plan Shane had suggested, but that was something Talia understood partially.
[You can't expect the government to purchase a single MDS Space door in addition to more than a thousand common Space doors that can be interlinked to the MDS Space door just because you want, right? How did you even come up with the number of common Space doors?]
Shane was not satisfied with this, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
[We need the multi destination selection space door and more than 1000 common Space doors BECAUSE we have to create a large network of connections with all kinds of basic and intermediate races.
Once the Primordial dimensions and the system would disappear, we would be left with nothing...or to be precise, with a big problem.
The Dark Ice Elves are becoming more dangerous with each passing day. Who knows how long we can continue living on Igra?!]
Talia thought that Shane was being a little paranoid in his absolute faith that both the Primordial dimensions and the system would cease to exist, but she just decided to follow his instructions.
Even if it would be a failed investment, their Astral Artisans could make up for the government's losses if that were to be necessary.
'Just what is going on?'
Shane and Miriam were currently facing the common guards, the guard captain, and everyone else who was busy dining.
They had been oblivious to the intruders who had overwhelmed them inside the shelter hall.
Nobody had expected an ambush and the core area was about to be overwhelmed as more than five minutes had passed since a thousand Conquerors had emerged from the Hidden Paradise.
This was only the first step but also the most important because the strongest units infiltrated the core area in order to use the shortest path towards any direction if an emergency were to occur.
Unfortunately, said emergency happened right in front of them, and they had to face it!
Shane had never assumed that his Conquerors would survive everything because some shelters had set up tricky contraptions and deceiving illusions against surprise attacks.
As such it was evident how dangerous it was and everyone knew about this.
The said traps were mostly placed in the outer layers as the core area was the most secured as one had to pass the first and second defensive line in order to even reach the walls of the core area where everything important was stored.
Yet, a warning to the outer layers was enough to show that the core was in danger, which forced the guards to attack their own core, trying to reclaim what had just been taken away from them.
The advantage of a shelter with multitudes of walls was that one could protect everyone inside relatively easily, but at the same time, it was extremely annoying to regain the position if the core had been claimed by one's foe.
At the onset of the 5th conquest, the more experienced Conquerors had directly claimed five different positions, only to destroy the sixth, which were the guards' barracks where thousands of guards had been sleeping.
While four out of five directions were based on the gates' location that were quickly taken over by the Conquerors, the fifth direction was the Dimension portal that was under Shane's control too.
Thousands of guards had been overwhelmed in their sleep and killed, while the drunk shelter captain had turned sober the moment he sensed that something was wrong.
Unfortunately, it had already been too late and both Miriam and Shane could easily take over.
Miriam alone was already strong enough to defeat everyone inside the shelter, but Shane was even stronger.
He was only glad that they hadn't encountered Megane, otherwise, they would have had one huge problem!
The common defensive lines of a shelter were distributed amongst all basic shelters of a race, and only a few shelters had received more attention than others.
Because the Miac race had not only waged war with many other races inside the radiant mountain ring dimension but also had the Calamity-class dungeon in their proximity, barely a few days' trip away, their shelter's protection level was extremely high.
That was if one were to compare it to other shelters.
Unfortunately, Shane not only had the Hidden Paradise that was more than enough to bring others with him, while hiding his own appearance, but he had Cosmo, and was able to use his [Space Jump] ability too!
There were several other factors Shane could utilize and the most powerful was the extreme nurturing he had given his Starlight guild, which had finally paid off.
They were extremely strong, even more, powerful than the elite military units of certain basic races, indicating that Shane had done everything correctly with his faction.
It was only because he had established the Astral Artisans and believed in the value of non-combat occupations that everything had worked out.
As such, Shane could be said to have built a thriving business that was constantly growing with the increasing demand of resources and goods which both the Starlight guild and Astral Artisans could provide!
Everything played directly into his hands as if it had been predestined!
The shelter hall had been quickly destroyed with everyone inside having been killed.
Shane didn't show any mercy to the Miac race, and they should have been thankful that he prevented his Conqueror unit from attacking the civilians that remained silent and inside their house.
Once the shelter hall was destroyed and the entire core area conquered by Shane, he had announced that he wouldn't kill the citizens and ordinary cultivators that would stay inside their houses.
However, those who were to try killing him or anyone in his group should expect the worst possible death!
Because of this short announcement into the dark night that was cloudless and filled with the earsplitting cries of the Miac race, most citizens remained silent, quivering in their beds, holding their family tightly in the hope that nothing would happen.
Nevertheless, there were also those that ignored Shane's warning, blindlessly attacking the Conqueror unit that passed their house, only to be killed in the blink of an eye.
In the end, even thousands of guards had dropped their weapons and plainly surrendered after they had witnessed how their brethren were massacred without anyone being able to defeat even a single of the mighty attackers.
This allowed Shane to simply unarm them, in addition to stripping them off their clothes and spatial rings while telling the Miacs to cut their mana imprint, preventing them from launching a counter-attack in any way.
It was only when the hostile guards had been frisked thoroughly that Shane allowed more and more disguised humans to emerge from the Hidden Paradise.
However, instead of acting like before, Shane placed a Space door next to him, while manifesting the Hidden Paradise's portal right in front of it!
By showing the Space door publicly including the Miac race's citizens and guards that had been left alive, he wanted to be labeled as imitator of the 'true' attacker that had destroyed four shelters before!
Through this, he could confuse the Miac race, and other races that had to face the same consequences as the races that had attacked mankind in their greed to obtain the bounty that had been offered by the Dark Ice Elves.
While Shane was adjusting his plan, he allowed more than 10,000 members of his Astral Starlight faction to emerge from the Hidden Paradise.
They took the shelter by storm, dismantling certain long-range weapons, taking over all warehouses, and storing away all kinds of goods that could be found inside the Miac race's shelter.
In a matter of hours, the entire shelter had been emptied before everyone returned inside the Hidden Paradise by 'using' the Space door, leaving Shane, Umbra, and Cosmo behind in the Miac race's shelter.
"Have a good life...I guess?" Shane said as he looked at the aghast Miac race's soldier that stared at him as if he couldn't believe what had happened during the last few hours!
With the last words being said Shane simply left the Miac race's shelter, leaving behind corpses in the tens of thousands, an empty shelter, traumatized citizens and guards that were naked, but alive.
Leaving the shelter, Shane's mind was focused on the Hidden Paradise as he sat on Umbra who was carrying both Shane and Cosmo towards the next shelter they were targeting.
It was only a two-day trip away, and Shane's next words rang through everybody's heard loud and clear.
"Take the next two days easy, and clear the next shelter without a single casualty!"
At the same time, he sent a specific message to Talia, who could only sigh deeply.
[The scouts have already received the Space doors, right? What's the status of others I asked you about? Has the government responded to my request?]
Since Shane had awoken from the coma after the Primordial tournament had ended, he was restless, yet at the same time extremely focused on several things that boiled down to one ultimate goal; making Igra independent of the Primordial dimensions and system!
Because Shane would always fervently talk about this, Talia noticed that this topic had become more and more important to Shane, and she was not sure whether he was growing insane or if his assumption was valid.
That was, at least, what she had thought in the beginning! A few months had already passed and Talia had begun to notice that the Primordial dimensions were acting weirdly, let alone the system that seemed to show signs of malfunction.
Everyone, who entered the Primordial dimensions or used the system had figured this out, but there were still those who tried to deny reality.
However, neither Talia nor anyone from the Astral Starlight faction would put on blindfolds because Shane had mentioned certain clues he had noticed more than once.
Those clues had only increased and every member of the faction knew that something was off.
As such, they had despaired for a moment, only to realize that Shane, Miriam, Talia, and many more were trying to make the best out of their current situation.
Even though things were changing inside the Primordial dimensions, almost nobody expected them to cease to exist.
There were a few races that assumed exactly this to be the case, but they were a minority amongst the minorities.
Thanks to that, the Astral Starlight faction had many advantages in using all kinds of means to become independent.
Yet, the government was still reluctant to provide financial support to the plan Shane had suggested, but that was something Talia understood partially.
[You can't expect the government to purchase a single MDS Space door in addition to more than a thousand common Space doors that can be interlinked to the MDS Space door just because you want, right? How did you even come up with the number of common Space doors?]
Shane was not satisfied with this, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
[We need the multi destination selection space door and more than 1000 common Space doors BECAUSE we have to create a large network of connections with all kinds of basic and intermediate races.
Once the Primordial dimensions and the system would disappear, we would be left with nothing...or to be precise, with a big problem.
The Dark Ice Elves are becoming more dangerous with each passing day. Who knows how long we can continue living on Igra?!]
Talia thought that Shane was being a little paranoid in his absolute faith that both the Primordial dimensions and the system would cease to exist, but she just decided to follow his instructions.
Even if it would be a failed investment, their Astral Artisans could make up for the government's losses if that were to be necessary.
'Just what is going on?'
