Where is Peerless?

"Lord Hercules, where is Peerless?"

Mercedes' question caused many ears in the room to perk up.

"Ask and you shall receive." Replied Wodin with a cheeky grin.

Before the observers could make sense of his words, Will's silhouette entered the room through the open door. His ordinary blue Daoist robes swayed as he walked slowly to a random seat. The Frozen Asgard Mask was on, leaving people still curious about his appearance.  Gianluigi Remus' eyes locked onto Will's body like a predator eyeing prey.

He was indignant due to the fact that his loss had been conditional. He had lost because he had underestimated his foe and had his weaknesses taken advantage of. Although Peerless had used a skill he could not fathom, it did not change the fact that he had used any of his system related skills. But Peerless was no longer the same man he had fought, his subsequent battles with Ulysses and Mercedes proved this. As a fellow disciple of Everlasting Willow, Gianluigi knew the strengths of the two Spectralians best among the mortals present.

'I need to properly fight him again at full strength.'

The group from Spectralia also gazed venomously at Will. Ulysses was surprisingly calm, but his gaze was anything but friendly, while the usually arrogant Mercedes sat up straight and narrowed her criminally flirtatious gaze.

The others in the room warily observed Peerless, exhibiting different emotions such as fear, respect and even envy. But one group's reaction stood out above the rest.

A chilling cold emanated from The Frozen Asgard Maidens as they unreservedly released Killing Intent aimed straight at Will. The temperature in the room threated to drop drastically because the entire group was incensed. Francis was their representative, but the true leader of the group was her partner, Natasha.

Before their chilling aura could spread, beautiful voice rang out, "It's now a bit too cold."

Before anyone could react to Mercedes' words, Ulysses voice rang out, "Not even Mercedes released her bloodlust like this, and we are in front of deities after all. Who do you think you are?"

A surge of warmth spread from his figure returning the room to its right temperature. In truth, Ulysses was in a weakened state, suffering from a backlash caused by releasing his seals, but he did not allow it to show on his face as he calmly stared down the Natasha and Co.

The maiden's fear of Ulysses far outweighed their hatred of Will, because the former was a behemoth that even their sect's greatest talents had to tread carefully around. The Frozen Asgard Sect was the strongest superpower within this region of the system, but certain individuals could not be treated like others.

Only Natasha and Francis dared to look back at Ulysses, but they quickly retracted their auras. Ulysses didn't act out of consideration for Will, but rather he was acting out of Mercedes' interest. Ulysses was a nutcase when it came to protecting the interest of the woman he loved, and few wanted to step on his reverse scale.

Thus Will was allowed to sit without experiencing much of a fuss, allowing the meeting to continue. Odysseus chuckled and said, "Alright, now that the important people are all here, let's begin the preparations."

…

The meeting was simple and brief, Odysseus explained that they would be split into two groups. The Mt Olympus troops led by Odysseus and the mortal troops led by Will. Will was in charge of the overall workings of the expedition and had the right to distribute rewards gained from the loot as they would be travelling as a party. This of course included experience.

Every mortal present was at level 99 but still collected experience for when they decided to level up. Cultivators from powerful backgrounds avoided levelling up because they wanted to consolidate their foundations while at level 99, especially when it came to Concepts and higher powers. The more one could achieve before the first evolution, the more they could achieve after. It was a simple logic to comprehend, but a difficult action to achieve. It was no different from waiting in hunger as one waited for a delicious meal to be cooked to perfection. Eventually, the hunger becomes torture. But the cultivators had strong minds, taking this as a form of mental training.

Aside from Will, everyone present had intentionally chosen to not be a Nation Lord so they could avoid levelling up prematurely. Certain dungeons or expeditions such as this one had level caps, thus there was a benefit to staying at level 99 for a while.

This was especially true for savants such as Ulysses, Gianluigi, Natasha and Mercedes. They were far too talented for what their vessels could hold. Nevertheless they still valued the experience that would be banked, thus everyone was curious as to how Will planned to distribute the experience.

Odysseus revealed that Will's wish was to allow the experience to go to the one who killed the creature. In other words, it was a fair split where one got experience in relation to the effort they put in. The observers were surprised, because this favoured those that had more firepower and came in a large group. Many started to suspect that he did this because he had a larger group of followers like the Frozen Asgard Sect, while others believed he moved with a small group of Elites like Spectralia capable of dishing out absurd amounts of damage.

On the contrary, Will was only allowed to bring two individuals thanks to Jingsung Ha's suggestion. Woodsy and Merlin couldn't come as they were far above level 99, the level cap wasn't enough to hide their true level of strength. Such a measure was put in place so limits could be placed by those from powerful backgrounds that could provide bodyguards above the stipulated limit. Thus Will could only be accompanied by Achilles and Lyra. Tobias had to remain behind to look after Tsimikas with Woodsy and Merlin.

As they were not users, they were not in the room and were waiting with the other locals that came with the super powers. The Frozen Asgard Sect in particular, had a large City Level Force that was quite influential at the base of Mt Olympus.

Everyone was further surprised when the party was created and everyone added to the list. Under the list of people under Peerless were only four names. Achilles, Lyra, Solitary Sword Sovereign and Narcissus.

Plenty of locals were named after Greek deities or famous characters, and Achilles was a good example of this. Hence no one even suspected that this was an avatar of the real thing. Narcissus had been assigned as Will's body guard and also tasked with instructing Will in the ways of mental cultivation. Thus he was disguised as a support type archer.

The crowd was stunned because Will would definitely lose out by bringing only four helpers without a single user. The only logical explanation was that all four were powerhouses capable of changing the complexion of a battlefield. But they were definitely locals as none of them were present at this meeting for users, and locals were limited according to the strength of their Nation. Leaders could only bring locals from a territory they owned completely. Regents did not count.

This meant that there was a great limit imposed upon the locals Peerless could bring. Will's mental strength and show of Mystic Harmony, an SSS rated summoning spell, divinity and top tier mastery of Frozen Asgard Arts; any of these alone would have gotten the attention of top tier observers, but all were in the hands of an Independent Lord of a developing world. Just what kind of subordinates would such an individual have chosen and why only two?

Odysseus was in charge of the administration of the group and the finer details of logistics. The strategy, distribution of rewards and movements would be decided by Will, Odysseus' job was to make sure that everyone else behaved. The Greek valued hierarchy and order and did not condone insubordination. So long as one was on this trip, they had to obey Peerless' instructions.

"I already sent a file with the basic layout of the grave with the relevant instructions that Peerless wants us to follow. Everyone knows what's happening. Now Peerless will explain his strategy in detail."