When Minos and his group began to explore Zocarro, only two months had passed to those in the Spiritual World since he and his group had left through the universal wormhole!
Neither Minos' group nor the people of the Spiritual World were aware of the difference in the passage of time between the places they were in.
Meanwhile, the war in the Spiritual World was heating up, with more deaths on both sides of the war against the alien invaders.
The aliens were expanding their territory while the powers of the Spiritual World were losing experts and ground, but in return, they were getting more kills among the aliens.
Just over 50,000 aliens had come to this world for the war of domination. No reinforcements had arrived on this planet yet, so with the losses of this group over the past two months, their numbers had now reached half of what they had when they arrived.
That, of course, was a positive point for the forces of the Spiritual World, who had been preserving the use of their secret weapons as much as possible during these weeks.
The forces of this world had surrendered areas to the aliens and lost many people. But this had been done according to the plans of the planet's experts, who wanted to reduce the number of aliens more than they wanted to prevent the advance of the Mechanic Empire on the Spiritual World.
Thus, most of the battles had taken place in the Ancestral Sea, while some groups were preparing to deal not only with the strongest enemies already in this world but also with the reinforcements that might arrive sooner or later.
...
In the Spatial Kingdom of the Black Plain Army...
Gloria was currently in the main office of the lake house in this area, where she could see the place where the level 99 ice woman was cultivating but also where Abby was meditating.
She had been dealing with the affairs of the war from there while also working on her ascension within the Spiritual Church.
She hadn't received any letters from Minos in the last two months, which had already led her to believe that where her husband was was too far away from the Spiritual World for him to be able to send anything to this Spatial Kingdom.
So, she concentrated on continuing her husband's plans and her own to make the main forces of her group grow stronger while they endured the difficult time of war.
Even though the enemies were still far from attempting to invade and take over the empire's lands, they had to worry about attacks on the main state forces, food supplies, and so on.
Amid the Ice Age, they couldn't afford to weaken, or their enemies might overthrow them even without attacking them directly!
That was one of Gloria's biggest challenges!
Apart from that, she had to deal with the deaths of many of her experts and acquaintances who, fortunately or not, were piling up at the Black Plain Army headquarters.
If the worst came to the worst, they would still have a second chance to fight under Abby's powers!
Finally, she finished checking the list of the dead from the last few days and sighed, feeling how hard the confrontation had been.
'How long will it take until you return, Minos?' She looked at a portrait of him in the office and sighed.
Meanwhile, Minos' children were meditating not far from Abby; all of them, including the rambunctious Kendrick, focused on getting stronger while they had the chance.
The most focused of all was Lily, who had lost her mother two months ago and wanted revenge more than anyone!
Unlike Gloria, she wasn't waiting for her father to return, but to become stronger herself!
It wouldn't be easy for her to reach the level needed to face the aliens, but she had been training and preparing herself to reach that level one day.
'Wait for me, father; I'll catch up with you and fight against the enemies at your side!' She had this in mind as she worked hard in this place.
...
Meanwhile, Minos and his group stopped to rest after leaving where they had lived for the past six months.
Stopping at a stream, the group positioned themselves in the area, with some standing guard while the others gathered water or fruit nearby.
They had learned that even if there were other beings like the root from before, there was no danger in just gathering resources along the way. As long as they didn't thoroughly investigate the resources near the gathering spot, their chances of passing through the areas on their way unnoticed were good.
Minos and Maximillian had noticed in their first days on the road that there were many other beings like the level 100 root they had killed in the forest they were in. However, these beings didn't seem to want any direct problems with their targets.
They wanted to infect them and take over their bodies without a fight.
By pretending not to know them or their strategies, the group passed through the dangers on their way relatively well, having gathered various resources over the past few days.
They could drink water without danger. But the fruits, herbs, and roots they had collected had to be decontaminated after they had left the reach of the beings who had deliberately contaminated these resources.
These beings usually stayed where they were, so every few days, the group was able to better analyze these resources and purify them for consumption.
In this way, the group had been consuming resources as they traveled. In contrast, the remaining alchemist of the group took advantage of every stop they made to produce more pills.
He did this while the rest of the party took the opportunity to rest and observe their surroundings.
One of the level 97 Demigods in the group, who was drinking water from the stream, asked one of his companions, who was closest to him. "What do you think of those insects? Could they be cultivators from this world?"
The woman next to this level 97 man looked at a strange creature that didn't exist in the Spiritual World but resembled the butterflies of their world. "I don't know. I think they are just ordinary insects from this area. But maybe they are controlled by the strange roots of this world. After all, they eat leaves and fruits..."
"That must be the case." A robot agreed with the woman's analysis. "This creature has an 87% chance of being contaminated by a root similar to the one we encountered. It's probably the eyes of the root."
Minos listened while eating some of the already purified fruit they had collected and asked. "Do all organisms in this world work by parasitizing other living beings? If that's the case, we're in trouble."
A level 98 robot said. "As long as they don't understand us or attack us before we attack them, we'll be fine. At least the dangers will be moderate."
"Guys..."
While the group was chatting, one of the men guarding the area said suddenly in a shaky tone while raising a hand to indicate something in front of them.
