"ARRHH!" Azeloth's warcry sounded outside.

He took a brief look through the nearby Explorer Wolf and saw that the brothers could handle a dozen of level 760s scaled beasts easily. Ebony wondered what made the low-level creatures think they could take on the Toddium brothers leaking purer, overflowing essence. 'Possibly because their aura is weakened after having exhausted their mana.'

However, the scaled beasts with multiple tail-like appendages were surprisingly good at staying alive against the two Emperors. They kept the warriros at bay with their tails, though easily cut off acted as sacrificial weapons.

The creatures likely wanted to sacrifice the limbs in exchange for poisoning their target and wearing them out with their numbers, but they sadly couldn't get through the Toddium's astronaut suit. Disappointingly, the bodyguard's mastery of weapons or fighting wasn't so high, and they couldn't match a few dozen fast limbs that could accelerate once they were in motion.

'They are of a different species, but also had the 'Ark' in their names. The two of them…. only have Tier 4, maybe 5 weapon masteries. They are learning the opponent's moves but not coming up with counters fast.' Ebony wondered if the bodyguards of his seen combat recently; their moves seemed rusty in real combat, but their base technique and training were present.

He was so used to fighting higher-level monsters and facing a one-against-many situation that it was a bit unconvincing to watch a less evolved creature deal with two Emperors and keep them busy. To the Toddiums' credit, they weren't exactly losing or taking much damage, but they were pretty much locked into a stalemate till they wear out their opponents or get a decisive hit in.

They couldn't conjure extra hands, they didn't use feints much. But their use of the slime they produce was key to their fighting ability. Azeloth's slime was spit out, and it had the effect of dissolving and weakening. Ebony couldn't tell whether it was corrosive or a magical effect but it was probably both. This slime was where the Fortifications were concentrated.

Aethel had a defensive and supportive slime, one that could be released through his suit as well. Any appendage that touched him would be smudged in the slime and it was extremely sticky. Bonding the limbs to whatever the slime could contact, it was thanks to Aethel's support that Azeloth could slowly push his advantage and chop down some heads to reduce their encirclement.

Aethel was a mana, fist fighter.

The sticky slime was connected to his mana. He could pull and push whatever they connected to his fist. He was equipped with a nailed knuckle duster of sorts. He was like a boxer with a rubber sling and ball on his head, he just had to connect his slime, pull his target to his fist while he punched out.

These creatures, about 200 levels under him, could only act as a punching bag. Sadly, he was limited to the number of targets he could juggle with his slime and punching. He also wasn't great at multitasking and couldn't support his brother properly if he had too many targets on him.

There was an active skill or two behind his punches but from the fact that the Ark Helverine were still alive, he probably didn't have many Fortifications strengthening his boxing. Even if these creatures were built towards durability and survival and the fact is that monsters had far greater stat counts than people.

'Hmm…I see, they are so tough because this Worldcore is supposedly Saint-ranked. They are infused with the essence that is purer, higher in grade. That must have affected their base stat. No wonder their strength and constitution are so high, even though their effective battle ability is not too special for a young monster.' Monsters were made by unintentionally taking in a Worldcore's essence.

The species and age directly correlated to a monster's strength due to how much essence they had taken in.

It wasn't unbelievable to think that monsters from a stronger Worldcore had greater stat advantages since that was the majority of a monster's strength.

'Still…they are rather frenzied for monsters and even if it's high, would a King-ranked monster's stats go high enough to match a real Emperor with good equipment and proper Tier 5 enhancement skills?' Ebony had to wear out the Ark Elmpeld, while even his wife lost out in pure stats after most of her augmentation. He didn't feel anything weird since they had a 2 evolutionary rank difference but seeing the Toddiums fight, it did feel off.

To test something, he cast his pseudo roar on two of the Kings that were pumping out their tail stabs barrage.

'Almost unaffected? Monster souls are almost always weaker….that means their life force, mana and stamina essence pools are high enough to mostly ignore mine. That's odd, even for monsters with high essence, but I could be wrong.' He had no data on Legendary ranked Worldcore's essence effect on monsters. It wouldn't have felt high if these monsters' mana didn't feel as young as a few weeks old.

"Both of you can rest, I'll be standing guard."

"No can do sir. This is our job." Azeloth denied.

"At least there are two of us to take turns." Aethel prayed for good luck.

The day was turning to night. 'seems like it follows a standard cycle of 28 hour days. That means this Worldcore is not that old, at least born after the standardized cycle law was established or a sheer coincidence.

Before the Void Tardigrade, he had a Conditioning session, so he was well into exhaustion and could use sleep but it wasn't urgent.

However, with the guards insisting and his Numbers outside with Dusk mostly ready, he saw no reason not to catch up on rest to go back to full capacity faster.

Two uneventful hours passed, but he woke up to find his robe and shirt open with both his hands pushed against the floor. Burning air blew lightly against his skin.

He wasn't doing anything but the one who pounced on him seemed locked in place. "A little cold air and your aura would really help here."

He set a layer of Dusk's internal aflame to cool the air. It was Will infused to calm anything the cold flames dug into.

"The Ark Maldriss's blood was more toxic than I'd imagined. I got it out of my system,m but my body was still adjusting." She made excuses about her previous hunt before fessing up, "You smell so delicious."

"Here." He raised his forearm.

"…Don't spoil me too much."

"Now's a good time and reason, we're in unknown lands."

"Hmm, alright. Can you soften yourself up, I don't want my teeth to crack."

She sniffed for a spot before taking a chomp where she felt was the softest.

"You're challenging me." Her warm tongue caressed him, and his blood shifted against its regularity.

"Quiet, I also thought I had full control of myself until you. Now stop feeling anything before I receive the brunt of it. Only at home, okay?"

"Oink!!" Miss Wiggles paced back and forth by the tree's door and snorted twice after oinking.

Xin reacted with extremely aggression and shot her Intent outwards to mark her territory. A whimper oinked after, aggrieved at the misunderstanding.

Sensing her pet pig's emotions, she realized that she overreacted and the pig wasn't after his blood. "Uhm, let's go out. Miss Wiggles found a delicacy."

'Feeding the dungeon to make it spawn monsters to overfill and cause a dungeon break would have to wait.' He'd preferred to have mana at his disposal.

'Dusk, dispel and recast this tree over and over again to get the full speed up buff from the staff….your new body.'

'Are you sure it's worth the risk? I can continue strengthening it for a safe spot. We're barely a hundred as tough as I could be. There are untold dangers here in case you forgot.'

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

'Are you still mobile?'

'With this new body, yes but my lack of Will weakens us a lot. My effect on our magics and effect on weakening other mages are greatly weakened' The Domain commented yet again.

'I've been charging you up with Will but only the remnant, unfading Will survives; the rest is absorbed like your previous self. I'm guessing the staff is purifying my Will as well as my mana and in the process, most of it gets ground away with some trapped elsewhere.'

'I didn't lose any memories, so I don't think 'survive' is correct but at the moment, you can only rely on your Will pool for a normal strength Domain. The ambient mana is very thick so I'll focus on absorbing, purifying and converting the mana for my use. You keep your mana.' The Tree made more leaves instead of thickening its trunk to absorb ambient mana.

It reduced the mana burden on him, which was appreciated.

'Careful with that, we don't know how the Worldcore's essence can infect you.' Their purification was far from perfect. In this case, they weren't even purifying the ambient mana but contaminating it for use since the Worldcore's ambient mana was just that much purer than their own.

'I'll keep my Will infusing your mana alone, absorbed mana will be used only for structure and it'll have zero Will connectivity.'

'Good.' He stepped out before reaching a hand forward and helping Xin get down.

He didn't have to. She didn't want or like the notion of helping her get down a step when they were both healthy.

But she took his hand and support.

Dusk, tree, staff and all unrooted and flew into the sky a few hundred metres high and turned invisible.

Gravity mana was more than thirty times as abundant on this planet, which made it convenient even if his cube wasn't taken out of his bracelet's storage.

"No more fooling around." Xin wrapped her elbows around his.

"We're moving." He told the patrolling guards with sound magic.

"I thought we were making camp here and waiting? It was a fantastic idea to camp near a low rarity dungeon."

"Camp is wherever we go."

Ebony stopped using his portable bank to add money to his account.

And his mana broke free of its prison.

He didn't know how light he'd feel by letting it go naturally. Like holding a breath he'd been holding for years and finally releasing it.

Not having it absorbed to convert, not having to collect and push it to the ground or hold it in under his skin to train mana compression or expand his mana pool by stretching his mana chassis.

"Pff, you felt like you just released your biggest fart." His wife broke out into a massive fit of laughter.

While the Toddium brothers looked in horror, their eyes stuck in time.

Ebony tried to infuse Will to calm them down but their minds will still have to adjust

Taking in the sensation, he noticed his mana getting pushed roughly 20 kilometres before it slowly dissipated. 'It's getting eaten up quickly…even with my mana's resilience fortification.' He imagined his mana staying in one piece once it was out of his control for a longer period but the surroundings were already diffusing it.

On Elcra, he could leave his mana unattended, unconnected to his mind in the wilds and the ambient mana would leave it alone for hours before they start to probe and spread it apart for themselves to share.

He almost winced when the celestial body roared in…pleasure. No words this time, only what felt like Will.

"What happened? I feel disgusted all of a sudden." Xin frowned.

"I think letting loose allowed the planet to consume my mana."

"I don't like it, send whatever escapes out of range to Dusk."

"Naturally."

Miss Wiggles wiggled her butt furious and the last straw broke for her as her impatience allowed her to slip free from Xin's grasp by expanding.

She grew, grew and grew.

"You can give the Berg Mammoths a run for their money." Ebony stood on the humongous creature's back along with the other puny people.

"Go slower." Xin patted Miss Wiggles under them. She then pulled out a large cloth and laid it on their ride's back. "Sit, we'll have ready-made food for breakfast."

And so they had a picnic with two stunned toad men.

Masters or Emperors, it didn't matter. If they were 1 metre long or tall, or if they were a 30-metre giant.

Every living creature moved aside if they could when a literal mountain was about to step onto them.

The bird chirped, screeched. The lands shook.

Miss Wiggles patiently allowed everything to move aside, but each step crossed massive distances. Maybe except for insects or creatures underground. Or the natural environment.

That angered something.

Ebony's mana didn't leave Miss Wiggles back much less reach the ground, so the creatures weren't affected by his mana, but they felt the creature's anger and heard its roar.

"Old mana, around a standard hundred years or so old." Ebony had a wider perception range than wherever his mana leaked.

'Hundred years, it should still be an Emperor. But one that's been growing and consuming." Azeloth probably had his method of gauging a monster's age.

"I wonder if it's another Ark-" Aethel's wide mouth couldn't shut when the tiny dot in the distance that burst towards them and expanded in sight at neck breaking speeds showed itself to be a colossal creature itself, over 300 hundred metres long with the same general appearance of greyish scales, quadruped and multiple tails except a scarier lizard face with four horns.

It didn't get to them and was lost to a shadow. One bite, without needing to chew whatever the creature was, it was swallowed whole with no crumbs left behind.

Size was both an advantage and a disadvantage. But this time, they couldn't tell what the disadvantage was.

They assumed the chubby creature was just a domestic pet. Only when it made itself gigantic did they identify the pig to be on the same Evolutionary stage as themselves.

'Who was this couple?' Aethel was not authorized to know the identity of their clients, but he couldn't help but wonder. The fact was that each of the two 'Grandmasters' had already hunted a level 1000 creature. Twice their supposed maximum level.

Of course, he knew that there was interference and they were not mere Grandmasters, but he began to think their services were unnecessary.

Ebony didn't know what the two bodyguards were thinking, but he never thought their presence was a burden. At least they could watch the night should both of them fall completely asleep or poisoned by something potent. "Is Miss Wiggle's stomach gonna be alright?"

Miss Wiggles seemed to hear him and replied with a wind-churning snort.

"She says she has something like your gravity vortex in her stomach." The pig whisper looked dazed while she ate the minced fish sandwiches she had made and stored in preservation baskets.

"A black hole in her stomach?" He knew it was probably literal with Miss Wiggle's gravity magic nature.

Although weak, his gravity vortex could vaguely be considered a black hole by his definition. And Miss Wiggles was the greater user of gravity mana between the two of them. Organically capable of gravity magic with the appropriate organs and a creature twice evolved from him.

Since he had his memories of a short period on Elcra's ocean, he remembered how Miss Wiggle's beam of gravity mana annihilated a Turtle Fort to dust and even cracked his power source within.

It was not restored by the Ning who hid his memories. The damaged power orb merely appeared fixed to his previous eyes while she secretly got a fifth-gen Xu to come fix it without his knowledge. Using Will and Mind Magic to such a degree that his mind, eyes and perception completely didn't register anyone coming into contact with him.

Now that he had his Adamant Mental Tolerance, he was curious to find out if that would change his reaction to non-harmful mind magic or interference in any way or if that was under the domain of Perception instead.

The Turtle Fort had the arcane shield of vibrational mana to melt every attack, physical or mana-based. Mantle of Reservation as strong as Ebony himself could cast and layers upon layers of his toughest ice construct, the turtle back shell, but it didn't even last a second against Miss Wiggle's attack.

The Turtle Forts were stronger than his Numbers in terms of mana, and if his Numbers were to inhabit or take control of a Turtle Fort, they would have more options at their disposal.

Due to the latest strengthening of his Will capacity, he decided to raise each Number's capacity to 100 points of Will and at least 5 points of unfading Will.

This was a long project; only a small fraction of Will would retain as unfading Will. Dusk currently consists of purely unfading Will. He still had no idea if unfading Will had a lifespan much longer than normal Will or if it didn't have a time limit and could continue stacking up like the Elven Domain's collective Will Domain made from all the Elven Domain Mages' Will.

Numbers seemed to collect even less unfading Will.

It was likely because they were not the core of a domain that his core skill, Arsenal of Will Domain demands. There were still results, and he wasn't afraid of a little setback from trial and error.

He still had to limit the rate at Will they used but increasing their capacity would strengthen them in terms of spell casting ability and reaction to anything happening around them. They would feel even less programmed than they were before.

Normal Will will be akin to their mana and mental resource, while unfading Will would be better tied to their health and memory. Skills and knowledge were stored in unfading Will.

'If only there were more books on Will…' Not even Hex or the God of Knowledge's library had enough books on this topic. It was not for sale or distribution.

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