82

"You really brought down the good mood from girls' day out." Krobelus groans and a few people chuckle, I guess I did.

"Sorry, I just got caught up in finally having proof and was excited. I didn't mean to ruin your day to have fun." I pull out a note I wrote since the mood is already crushed I might as well keep on rolling. "This is for you." I send it to Catherine and she reads it and it's a list of materials.

"What are these for, the kingdom?" I nod, With those materials in bulk I can fill all the ranks of the alchemy lifeforms while I wait to scavenge the parts from the Alchemy kingdom in the human world.

"I need as much as possible of those, I sent the same lists to all my stores just before you all arrived and hopefully I can get a good amount. The faster this place is at peak performance the better, I am going to open a new invention using the technology from here. It will be released in the whole demon world so anyone can use it to train and prepare for the future. The more people are exposed to this the better prepared they will be, I just won't be letting anyone know the training device's enemies are in fact real and on the way." Chen Rui did this and it's obviously video games and he made helmets that connect to the kingdom and lets people play the Abyss trial and gain power from doing it as well. Like a video game that trains your body, passively over time people will be mentally preparing themselves to face the endless horde of Abyss.

That and I can release TVs and movies and all that kind of stuff, propaganda machine starting up strong will help control the masses as well.

"I will also put out a word to acquire this material." Catherine stores the note and I stand up and send away all the illusions.

"Alright, I guess that's all I really had for you guys, I can show you around but the place is currently being cleaned and repaired. I don't mind if you want to wait or look through it now." Athena walks over and hugs my arm.

"I got no real desire to go back to shopping after that somber news, show me around please." She rests her head against mine and I look around at the others and they also seem interested in a tour.

"Alright, let's go check it out." A gate opens which is the natural way to enter and leave this room for guests, people aren't supposed to be able to cross into this place. Remembering the restrictions that usually apply to space in this world I am reminded of the human world and the fact it is an untapped resource for me currently.

"Hey if any of you spot a human let me know, I want to either steal the space seed they use to travel to the demon world or give them a summoning slip so they can bring me to the human world. I want to try and find another Alchemy city to upgrade mine faster using the other's scraps and I can also try to make some allies in the human world." I already know right where a higher-tier alchemy city is and it's got blueprints for stuff this one doesn't, that and the dragon island is a good ally if I can befriend them with Bune.

----

"So is that better?" We all stand around a lamp spirit who is fidgeting in place while squeezing the fabric on her new maid uniform.

"Honestly? I think it might be worse, Why do they all have such massive breasts?" Shea asks and Most nod along other than those that have bigger than the lamp spirit in question. Isabella in particular tries to make herself unseen as she steps halfway behind Krobelus.

I roll my eyes seeing the little Lamp girl sending me pitiful looks and I send her on her way, she skips away happily as a few other lamp girls look at her new clothes.

"I got a few more outfits for them to wear, but honestly nothing beats a battalion of battle maids. Maybe if they had cat ears or something... but the blue skin already adds the exotic taste." I go off on a tangent and feel my ear get yanked, looking at the offending puller and I see a glaring Empress and choose to return to my dress code at a later time.

"I have been gone for longer than I planned, this place is massive and I wasn't expecting it to have so many features. I need to go back and I also wanted to inform you of a plan I had." Rubbing my ear I nod and she smiles.

"I was going to let challengers step up and fight you before our wedding, this way you can beat any doubters and show what you're made of in a very publicized event. They will have to wager something of value to challenge or else I fear a line of men challenging you that will reach the bloody empire." At first, I feel annoyed, I know it's a good plan but it's still bothersome, but the promise of loot seals the deal for me.

"Deal, I get eighty percent of the proceeds." She rolls her eyes and gives me a quick kiss before heading off with Tara in tow.

An awkward silence ensues as everyone processes the visual image of the world's strongest and smartest empress kissing me. Shea looks especially bothered since Catherine is her idol and she was happy to have met her today.

"Let's all go get some ice cream or something, My shop in the dark moon has a new flavor we can try."

----

I wake up and feel a head resting on my chest, I lean down and kiss Athena's head as I slip out from underneath her.

"Mmmm." she groans cutely as she shuffles into the spot I was laying and I have to busy myself quickly or I will just go back to join her.

A quick check in my inventory and five map pieces appear Infront of me and I slide them together, after the last was found I now can head to the dead sea. The captain of my exploration force salty beard set a coordinate at the Siren island that also had the harpies.

I get dressed and teleport to my workshop and lay the map on the table. taking out the ring of infatuation I snagged from the mayor I channel my power into it with Bune. The ring soon changes to a pair of glasses, or well more like goggles with how big the lenses are. Looking at the map with the dragon goggles I can see a waypoint indicating that is on the border of the map because I am not within the space of the map.

If I go to the dead sea I will appear on the map and it will update live showing me where I am, the dragon treasure that is at the far side is a tempting prospect. I know he is a false god or well he was a false god, he is weakened and is relying on the origin source of the dark element and the light element to live as a soul. I want both for bartering with their respective kings and this is a good opportunity but I have roughly a year until I think Chen Rui went to the place.

On the way, he befriended a Naga girl who is a species that has a snake lower half but normal hair, unlike the medusa with snake hair and lower half. The Naga girl was a princess and was marked for sacrifice to a kingdom-level powerhouse I think, he might have been a demigod but it has been a while and I forgot. Chen Rui made a deal to help release the powerhouse from his binds that the key resides in the treasury conveniently.

I want to save that Naga girl because she was legit the nicest person in the story other than maybe Athena. She was willing to kill herself for Chen Rui when she only knew him for a few days when a different powerhouse threatened to kill him if she didn't. She was just an endearing character and I want to make sure she doesn't get killed for some squid-man powerhouse that probably wouldn't even recognize the difference in power after eating her.

She also isn't just some waste character either since she has a special Soul body and can become super powerful in soul magic.

Rolling up the map I send it back to the inventory, I will need Zola's help and Catherine's to kill a few of the enemies along the way to the treasure in the dead sea. So it is best to power up at this point and begin to reach out and meet Zola. Meeting Zola has been a worry for me for a good while, but now that I am overlord I am more confident in escaping her in a worst-case scenario.

With that decided I teleport to the location where the rainbow valley is said to open.

----

Checking with All seeing eye I spot the maze of ancient runes and nod, only Zola would have something like this setup in this location.

I can't remember how Chen Rui jiggled the lock to open a hole into the separate pocket dimension Zola made but I can always poke things until something works.

I mean, what's the worst that could happen by messing with ancient runes that I don't understand?

----

- Zola POV -

This sequence should work, setting the water crystal on the pedestal I power up the experiment with a quick touch of spirit power.

A blast of water shoves me in the chest and knocks off my glasses, I summon some wind and dry myself as I look for where my glasses went. As I bend over and try to pick them up a pulse of foreign energy rocks my laboratory and knocks me to the ground.

"What was that!" Who is attacking my pocket dimension?!

I quickly look for the source of the energy and find a red dot on my map designating the breach. I grab my new experimental staff and make my way over as fast as possible. What is even causing this energy? I have never felt power like this before.

I would be worried if I didn't detect that it is roughly around my strength, a bit weaker if I had to give an accurate easement.

I arrive at the breach and spot a man crouching down and drawing his fingers through the solid ward stone I set up to protect the sequence of runes helping to protect my pocket dimension. I grit my teeth watching this barbarian muck up my hard work as if he is scribbling in sand yet that ward stone took me weeks to make.

"Stop!" I shout and blast him with a fireball, nothing too powerful only around a thousandth of my full strength.

----

- Nova POV -

So I wonder if this will open something, as I am about to ' experiment ' with a different rune a wall of fire blasts me with enough force to send me flying back. I flip and dig my feet into the ground to slow myself down, I also activate Bune because only one person in the area should be blasting people like that.

"Stop!" a woman shouts at me and I roll my eyes since I am already knocked away from her runes.

"Stop what?" I spot a purple-haired woman with purple eyes glaring at me with a staff that is glowing in her hand. Summing her appearance up in words I would say she is a mad woman with half her clothes being drenched and her hair slightly frizzy and a crazed look in her eyes. But if I rated her on a scale of one through ten, a solid eleven, you know what they say about crazy girls.

"You were destroying my hard work!" she waves her hand at the stone and with a wave of my hand and Agares fixes it back to pristine condition. Her eyes go wide at the stone almost healing itself. "That wasn't earth magic, earth magic wouldn't have rebounded the magic to the stone. That was some kind of rewinding of the damage on a conceptual level. Time?"

I smile as she crouches down and looks at the stone before seeming to remember I am here.

"Well hello, I was looking for you. You are fairy dragon Zola, right?" Her eyes narrow but she doesn't make any moves to attack, it's more like she is trying to peer into me and figure me out. Either the display of magic was enough to wet her curiosity or Bune is doing its job at taming the dragon.

"I am, Who are you? I have never seen a dragon like you before." I smile and summon my wings and four pairs come out of my back.

"There has never been a dragon like me."