Ash obeyed, twisting his stance and shifting his sense, but this time toward the northeast.
The spatial strip trembled, then trembled slightly more. Opening his eyes abruptly, Ash smiled widely. "There!"
"It's stronger over there!" Ash pointed his finger toward the northeast.
"Okay, this time's lesson is over—some people are coming." Aetherion chuckled, then looked toward the secret realm's direction for a second and furrowed his brow for a moment, then nodded his head with a satisfied smile.
"This secret realm is an interesting one."
"What makes it so special?" Ash asked curiously.
"I'll tell you later." Aetherion waved his hand casually and created a two-meter spatial crack again.
"Where are we going now?" Ash raised an eyebrow.
"Not sure, but this city should be one of the biggest cities on this continent, judging by its concentration of strong people there." Aetherion shrugged nonchalantly.
Sigh!
"That's good." Ash sighed and nodded his head, then prayed in his heart.
…
Stepping into the dense forest again, Ash raised an eyebrow as he looked at Aetherion and asked a few questions at once.
"Why did we avoid those people? Are they truly that strong?"
Aetherion rolled his eyes and shrugged. "It's simple, now isn't the time to pick a fight there."
"What about the secret realm? Why did you say that it was interesting?" Ash asked.
"You could say that this secret realm is actually a training ground. You clear one area by defeating its boss, then use that boss's core to unlock the next area." Aetherion explained with a smile.
"Huh?" Ash looked at him with confusion.
"Listen carefully because I'll only explain it once." Aetherion said seriously, then continued. "This particular secret realm consists of 4 areas: Peripheral, Outer, Inner, and Core. The highest rank in the Peripheral area is at the Diamond Rank, in the Outer area is at the Grandlord Rank, in the Inner area is at the Venerable rank, in the Core area is at the Saint rank, which the boss could be as strong as Half Emperor."
"Interesting…" Ash grinned.
However, before Ash could ask further, he suddenly received a notification from the system that made him widen his eyes in shock.
[Ding! You have received a Main Mission]
[Main Mission: Clear the secret realm and integrate it with the legendary rank secret realm]
[Time Limit: 1 chance]
[Failure: System deletion!]
[Rewards: Unlimited Summon Chance, System Upgrade, ???]
Checking at the new notification, Ash frowned deeply when he saw that the failure of the mission could lead to the deletion of the system.
"What the fuck is this? Unlimited Summon Chance? System Upgrade?" Ash muttered softly.
"What did you just say? Unlimited Summon Chance?" Aetherion's eyes lit up, instantly moving his eyes to the place where the translucent panel data was located at.
"Yeah, why?" Ash raised an eyebrow when he saw Aetherion's unusual expression, as Aetherion had always been calm and never showed such expression.
"That's exactly the summon chance I mentioned, which you can summon your sibling with." Aetherion answered with a chuckle.
"WHAT?!!" Ash opened his jaw wide as he was genuinely shocked that the opportunity to be able to summon his siblings had been handed to him so suddenly.
"You're not joking, right?" Ash asked with a frown in case Aetherion just pulled a joke on him.
"Of course not. You can even ask the system to confirm it." Aetherion chuckled.
Ash then immediately confirmed to the system, as this matter was extremely important to him.
"System, can I really use the Unlimited Summon Chance to summon my siblings?"
"If the siblings you're talking about are Laura and Lucas, then yes." A familiar mechanical voice rang in his mind.
A second later, it continued. "However, it would be a pity to use it on summoning one of your siblings since you could literally use it to summon everyone according to your imagination. though, if their power exceeds the system's current cap, it will seal them accordingly."
"Understood, and thank you for the clarification." Ash nodded his head in satisfaction, then looked at Aetherion. "So what do I need to do to complete this mission? The system is not telling me to clear the whole secret realm including the core area too, right?"
"Of course, how else could you integrate the whole secret realm if you haven't cleared it fully?" Aetherion sneered.
Ash immediately frowned and fell into deep thought for a while before asking Aetherion with an expression full of expectation.
"Tell me, could you break inside with your current capabilities? Even if you can't, will you be able to break inside once I break through into the inner area?"
Aetherion smiled for a second, then shook his head. "It's good that you have such an idea, but you don't need to think about it too much because once a barrier is broken, the spatial crack leading into the secret realm will adjust accordingly, meaning that once you manage to break through into the inner area, people from the outside—below the Half Saint Rank will be able to join in the fun through the same portal."
"Oh? Interesting… But won't that attract even fiercer competition? Ash knitted his eyebrows.
"Of course, because the things inside are extremely precious treasures for the people in this world. Besides, this secret realm's structure is an interesting one since the inside is basically almost the same as the outside world, except in the peripheral area that's only filled with beasts." Aetherion explained.
"How so?" Ash asked with a curious expression.
"In short, this secret realm is related to the upper realm. So, the things inside are obviously treasures of higher quality that don't exist in this world." Aetherion replied patiently.
"As for the layout, you can basically consider it the same as in the outside world. Anyway, you'll know it once you go, so don't ask anymore."
Ash opened his mouth and was about to ask again but decided to not ask anymore since he had understood the general information.
"Alright then, if you say so." Ash said before waving his hand casually, "Let's go, our priority right now is to recruit as many geniuses as possible."
'Hopefully, we could recruit some geniuses there. Or else, I might do whatever it takes if the reward is worth the hassle.'
Ash thought that he now had the urgency to prepare as much as he could before entering the secret realm since this was going to be his first big, important step in this life.
Even if he were to become worse than a villain, he would do it if it meant having a better chance of completing his mission.
He honestly didn't care about anything else because this was about summoning his siblings and his future since failing the mission would result in the system deletion.