Damien flashed through the secret realm rapidly, mentally mapping out its topography. It was a relatively large realm, around twice the size of an average continent, but this distance was still easy for Damien to cover within a day.
'Aside from the two pyramids, there are a lot of subterranean tunnels that lead to unknown locations, as well as hidden groves with even more hidden secret paths. Comparing the size of the realm to the density of treasures, it really is a place where opportunity is always at one's doorstep.'
Damien came to a stop, his body several thousand feet above the continent.
'The pyramids obviously hold the greatest rewards, but they'll also have the most difficult challenges. It's not worth challenging the period if the goal is monopolization. It'd be much easier to just—'
"—ah, an opportunity!"
Damien clapped in delight as he set his sights on a target.
His body vanished, reappearing soundlessly on the ground below. He walked a few steps to the right, one backward, and three more forward before stomping his foot against the ground.
Rumble!
A small tremor swept through the earth. The ground within a few feet of Damien vanished, dropping him into the subterranean world.
'It should be around here…'
Damien walked a bit and felt the coarse walls around him before his senses finally picked up what he was looking for.
'Found you.'
BOOM!
His fist slammed into the earthen wall to his right with immense force, sending clouds of dust flying through the tunnel.
However…
'Only some cracks? As expected of a secret realm of the Angel Race.'
Evidently, certain areas had been fortified several times to keep the things hidden within safe, but Damien wasn't perturbed.
'If it's cracked in one, it'll shatter in five.'
He brought his fist back once more, this time covering it in a dense layer of compacted mana.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
RUMBLE!
Just as he promised, he slammed his fist into the wall four more times, targeting the exact same spot until the wall lost its integrity and collapsed.
Damien stepped through the rubble and into the small room beyond. There, he found a podium about as high as his waist, atop which floated some sort of grimoire that held a mystical aura.
'Hmm, what is this supposed to be?'
He unceremoniously snatched it off its pedestal and flipped through it. Feeling nothing particularly special from the book, he simply tossed it into his spatial storage and moved on.
'That's one of…I don't even know how many.'
A wild grin spread on his face.
'This subterranean world is good. I guess the geniuses were presumed to have a maximum of 1st revolution strength, so the fortification only accounts for this much. It's a shame for those other guys who have to deal with a bunch of nonsense to get these treasures, but hey, if I got them first, were they ever meant for others in the first place?'
Without a moment wasted, his body shot through the tunnels of the subterranean world, stopping occasionally to break through the walls and steal the treasures they hid.
He didn't even bother checking what the treasures were before throwing them in storage, purely moving with the goal of grabbing as much as he possibly could.
As he snatched the 10th treasure and moved roughly a fourth of the way through the observable tunnel system, a thought popped into his mind.
'Those old ghosts outside…are probably panicking right now, right?'
After all—
****
"—he is blatantly robbing us! This is unacceptable!"
The shout was one of many that formed a cacophony of complaints in the first banquet hall.
It was one thing if he was just stealing treasures. Those treasures he took were merely Chaos-rank artifacts that were slightly stronger than their peers.
The problem was…these artifacts were provided by the experts viewing the Holy Light Realm from the outside! He wasn't just stealing miscellaneous treasures, he was basically slapping them in the face!
"Everyone, please calm down," said Luciel, who returned upon noticing the commotion.
"Remember, we all agreed to set this event with the loosest rules possible. His actions still fall within the realm of what's acceptable. If you wish to stop him, you can only wait for your own geniuses to fight against him and steal them."
"Are you backing that genius?!" A gruff man yelled angrily.
"How could I? He is not a member of our Heavenly Clan. I am merely enacting the rules we collectively set. At this time, are you not the ones going back on your word?"
"Khh…"
The man gritted his teeth and shot a hateful glare at Luciel, but didn't retaliate.
The Angel was correct. The rules for the hunt, as well as several other events, had been corroborated by most of the experts that would be attending the Grand Assembly.
Luxurion's involvement was kept undisclosed, as was every detail about the main conference, but at least these smaller activities were spread to most forces, which was why people like the Director and Commander Huo already knew of the event's existence when they arrived.
The fact that Damien and Elena didn't know could only be attributed to the fact that the Angel Race somewhat disregarded smaller forces like the Ancient God Clan and distant forces like the Golden Dragon Clan.
Nevertheless, the few words from Luciel quieted the dissenting experts, but he didn't clear their grievances.
He had no motive to do so.
As he said, he wasn't backing Damien, merely enforcing the rules.
The outwardly loud voices maintained their loudness, but expressed it through mana. Several communication artifacts were withdrawn at once, and within the secret realm, around 30 geniuses received the same message.
Suppress and eliminate Damien Void!
Their orders were accompanied by projections of Damien's appearance, as well as rough estimates of his location.
These thirty geniuses, all spread in different parts of the secret realm, turned their attention to one location at the same time.
Among them were two who were already together, a man roughly 25 years in age and a little girl no more than 16.
"Senior brother, are we going?" The girl asked, tugging the man's sleeve."
"Hmm…do you want to?" He asked without much emotion.
"I do!" The girl immediately responded. "Senior brother, I can feel that something fun will happen where Master told us to go. Maybe we'll find a load of treasure!"
The man didn't respond, gazing into the distance with an unreadable expression on his face.
'Damien Void…where have I heard that name before?'
His nose twitched slightly.
'This scent…is this his path?'
The man's eyes narrowed, a barely discernible light of interest alighting within them.
'I must see it for myself.'
He stood up from the tree he was leaning against and began walking in the direction specified in the message.
"Xiao Yue, let's go."
"Mm!"
The little girl happily hummed as she happily followed him from behind.
Just like the two of them, none of the geniuses tasked with attacking Damien turned down the task.
Whether it was due to interest, competitive spirit, or even just greed for treasure, thirty geniuses congregated just a few tens of kilometers east of the sandstone pyramid.
As for their target…
