It had been 2 months since the secret realm opening, and to be honest, Damien wasn't very happy with his progress. But overall, he didn't mind it much.
After all, most of the time during these 3 months had been spent in the Sanctuary with little Xue'er. He couldn't just let her sleep in the grass without any shelter.
And so, he had taken it upon himself to build her a house.
Well, treehouse was a more apt name.
Damien couldn't necessarily call himself good at woodworking or craftsmanship, but he at least had basic knowledge. Even he as a kid had built himself a treehouse. It was only a difference in scale that he was working on now.
Due to his lack of skill, the construction process took an entire month to finish. But at the end of the month, there was a truly fine treehouse built at the side of the lake little Xue'er had found last time.
Damien looked at his craftsmanship with pride. 'Not too bad, if I do say so myself.'
It was a simple design, but the size was truly big. If he wanted, he could probably fit another 10 or 20 kids in this same treehouse without a problem.
And in case little Xue'er got bored, he also added a small playground on the side, equipped with swings, a slide, and many other novelties that kids from earth enjoyed.
'Mm, if I can get any better at this construction stuff, I'll build her a whole amusement park. Let's see how she thanks her Big brother at that time.'
Damien was still holding a slight grudge. This little girl seemed to get bolder by the day, and apparently she had made teasing him her new hobby. Whenever he failed during the past month of construction, he'd receive an earful from her.
But, he let it slide. Kids would be kids after all, and for her to be opening up so much, he could only be thankful that her trauma was being buried.
But soon, Damien's expression hardened. 'With all the preparations for little Xue'er done, I think it's about time I attack.'
A few days ago, while he was out hunting for their food, he had come across a suspicious area. It was similar to his own cave, an extremely concealed system that he wouldn't have noticed if not for his eyes.
But the reason he was suspicious of it was naturally due to the inky black mana that slightly leaked from it. A mana that he was all too familiar with.
'I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to find it. Seriously, even though it was hidden quite well, it was still much closer than expected.'
He had started his search at the edges of the 500-kilometer radius and worked his way inward. If it wasn't for this, he probably would've found the base location a month ago easily.
But none of this mattered. Damien looked towards the treehouse where little Xue'er was staying and sighed.
"I know you can hear me! Big brother has to go out for a while, okay?"
He was met with silence.
Sighing lightly, he climbed up to the treehouse and knocked on the door. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
"No, nobody is here. You should stay and wait for the owner to come back." A small voice responded from within.
"Ah, but if the owner isn't here, then I can only leave and come back later. Sorry for the intrusion!" Damien knocked on the wood next to him at varying degrees of strength, making it sound like he had walked down the staircase connecting to the door.
Immediately, a rush of footsteps came from inside before the door was pulled open
"You tricked me!" Xue'er said with a pout when she noticed Damien standing in front of her.
But Damien only grinned. Walking into the treehouse, he picked up little Xue'er and gave her a soft hug
"Big brother has to go this time. You also know it's important." He said softly.
"Mm. But Xue'er doesn't want Big brother to get hurt. Big brother is going to meet the bad ghosts today, right?" Xue'er responded, hugging him tightly.
Damien sighed. As he thought, this little girl was far too perceptive for her own good. Perhaps from the beginning she knew that he was trying to hunt those Nox beings.
"That's right. Big brother is going to hunt the bad ghosts. But didn't you see when we first met? Those evil ghosts can't even touch a hair on your big brother's head."
Xue'er nodded, but she didn't leave his embrace. In fact, she embraced him tighter. "Big brother has to be safe. If big brother doesn't come back, Xue'er will also go to where big brother is to find him."
Damien gave a soft smile in response. "Mm, if big brother is in trouble, then of course little Xue needs to come save the day. Xue is a superhero after all!"
After spending a few more minutes coaxing the little girl, Damien finally exited the Sanctuary.
The process of exiting and entering was so simple that it made Damien marvel. He simply needed to think it, and he'd appear where he wanted to be. And the mana cost was so negligible that he would've been able to cover it even before he fell into the dungeon and mutated.
When he appeared in the outside world, he was in the exact same place that he entered the Sanctuary from, the location directly outside of where he found the base earlier.
Without wasting any time, he charged in. He wasn't lying when he told little Xue'er that he'd be back soon. In fact, he had no fear or wariness at all. He already knew that this area was relatively weak.
Most likely, there wouldn't even be abominations above 2nd class here. The only reason he was going to this base instead of finding a more worthy one was so he could maybe understand more about what exactly the creatures were.
Entering the cave, he found that it actually wasn't a complicated structure at all.
'Now that I'm seeing it, it's pathetic to even call it a base.'
It was simply a massive cave with thousands of those abominations littered across the floor standing as if they were in stasis. At the end of the cave, there was a single house that seemed to be the location of their boss.
Damien grinned. 'Large-scale destruction is my forte, and with these weak enemies, I don't even need to try that hard. Actually, isn't this the perfect time to test that move?'
Damien proudly walked into the open, blazing his aura for all to see. Immediately, those abominations left their stasis and directed their attention at him.
"Huuu…"
"Huumaan…"
Countless groans filled the cave in a cacophony of sound. The abominations immediately began running towards Damien in a frenzied state, making one wonder if they were really standing so still only a moment ago.
'It's human aura that attracts them, huh. It seems the beasts in the area don't matter much to them.'
Seeing the massive wave of black that was charging towards him, Damien grinned.
To be honest, he had been wanting to do this for a long time. It was something he had wanted to realize ever since he was in the dungeon.
Specifically, when he cleared the 40th floor. Back then, his attacks and even his personality were mainly based on anime he had watched on earth. By now, he no longer needed to use such coping mechanisms.
But still, the feeling of wanting to emulate the signature move of a certain fire-breathing dragon slayer had stuck with him ever since he acquired dragon's breath.
When he got his hands on the sunflames, this feeling only became more pronounced. But, his body simply couldn't handle it.
The only flames he had in his arsenal were so hot that if he tried to incorporate them into Bai dragon's breath, he'd quite literally melt his throat from the inside out and kill himself.
But things were different now. The tempering he had received from the magma earlier had specifically focused mainly on his evolved areas. Now, if he really wanted to…
Damien's throat expanded as flames from the sun manifested within it. These flames were then coated in spatial mana before expanding violently.
Damien took a deep breath, deeper than any breath he had taken before. His lungs expanded, his cheeks puffed out, and he was finally able to execute a certain attack that he loved so much.
"ROOOAAAAR!"
A massive roar left his mouth, causing a flamethrower-like beam of reddish-orange to be exhaled. The sea of flames soon went to cover the entire cave setting even the air ablaze.
The massive hoard of abominations was easily swallowed by this flame. Even as he continued roaring, Damien's eyes were smiling wide.
'Fire dragon roar!'
Finding novelty in the situation, he continued spewing flames even after he felt that the horde was probably dead already.
And even when he finally finished roaring, the flames in the atmosphere continued to blaze.
There were no cries of anguish or even sounds or smell of death. It was all swallowed by the sunflames that had been incorporated into his dragon's breath.
By the time the flames died down, all that was left was an empty and charred cave. Even the house at the end of the cave had been burnt to ashes.
But when Damien's gaze landed on the location where that house once stood, he found something that actually ended up piquing his interest.
It was the half-burned body of a man. His features were humanoid just like the abomination, but his eyes held a myriad of emotions.
Rage, confusion, panic.
It was obvious that this Nox being was much different from the rest that he had seen so far.
