Chapter 666: Realization


    ?


    It wasn''t long after Ss made his decision that he found out that the ss pyramid they were in was precisely the heart of the Africor Government''s power.


    Unfortunately, there was nothing to rob.


    It seemed that the Constitutional Monarchy wasn''t as useless as they seemed. Though the city had been evacuated, it had likely been done systematically and with a set n of retreat. Ss wouldn''t be surprised if they were already nning for a return. The only thing dying these matters was the return of their monarchs.


    With his new ss, Ss was able to dismiss and move around the constructs of the ss Monkey with ease. So the hidden infrastructure beneath didn''t take much effort at all to make their way through.


    As they dug and made it to the hidden quarters of the Africor Government, Ss began to wonder if he should consider staying here. If he lied in wait for the return of the three monarchs, this den that the ss Monkey had spent the effort to build would give him a huge advantage.


    Ss wasn''t out for revenge, though that was a small tick at the back of his mind-after all, the Africor Government was responsible for the cities that targeted him back in the Woond Territory. Still, his real purpose was their wealth. Killing the monarchs of this government would surely benefit him greatly in that riches department.


    In the end, though, Ss chose to shelve these thoughts for the moment.


    It was easy to overextend yourself after so many sesses. Over-leveraging coulde to bite him in ways he wouldn''t easily be able to deal with.


    These governments were more powerful than he knew. It wouldn''t be smart to underestimate them too much.


    ''Hm?''


    Ss was thinking about returning after they found nothing for such a long while, but then he felt a fluctuation of Aether.


    ''So hidden...''


    He turned back to Alex, Cole, and the others, only to notice that they didn''t seem to have noticed anything.


    ''These walls, they''re Aether restraining...''n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    There were two reasons Ss pressed forward. For one, the explosive growth of the ss Monkey was still unexined. A part of him thought that it was rted to the ss Pinecone, but he wasn''t sure. The ss Pinecone had been a reward of the system. Could it have existed on the ss Monkey''s person ahead of time?


    The second reason he was pressing forward was because no matter how thorough the Africor Government was, it was impossible for them to truly escape with everything valuable.


    This ce was their headquarters. They likely nned to expand outward from here with this city of Cairith as their main core.


    If it was so easy to pick up and leave, then it wouldn''t be much of a stronghold, now would it? However, Ss still hadn''t found anything valuable. And what he sensed when he finally did find an oddity was out of his expectations.


    They descended into an underground stone pathway with so many turns and winding passages that it felt like they were also in a maze. But Ss'' steps were steady and he took every turn confidently until he saw it.


    There was a small opening in a random corner. The region was barely three by three meters and just enough for the five of them to stand with a small space of their own normally...


    If not for the fact there was a Portal right in front of them.


    Ss felt the Territory Key in his possession tremble.


    ''The ss Desert Territory, huh? Is this really all there is here? Could the ss Monkey just have had a random boost in strength and power in such a short time? Or is it rted to this Portal?''


    But that exnation didn''t make any sense. How could the Portal rted to the ss Monkey''s growth be so carefully hidden away here?


    The Level 22 version of the ss Monkey should have been very manageable for those left behind, especially since it was still a Quasi-Bronze beast back then.


    There was no way that version of the ss Monkey could make it so deep into Africor Continent Territory to benefit from the ss Desert with its previous level of strength. So this couldn''t be the reason for its sudden spike in power.


    ''Non-overlord Races should have a great deal of trouble leveling up normally as well. Nothing is adding up...''


    There was another problem on top of that.


    When Ss gained the Woond Territory Key, it was from defeating the Woond Spider Queen. All of that checked out properly and seemed to mirror this situation...


    Until you realized that the Woond Territory was perfectly mapped to that region of the Africor Continent. Meaning, that section of the Aether ne was designed to be matched with that region of Earth.


    But the ss Desert, although it had the word desert in it, couldn''t possibly map onto this region properly.


    The ss Path of the Mancer heavily relied on Ice Aether. Although they were firmly in the far north of the Africor Continent right now, and it got quite chilly at night, this still wasn''t a region of the world you could expect snow from, let alone Ice Aether.


    At the very least, when it did snow... it was very, very rare.


    On top of all of that, the ss Monkey wasn''t even a resident of this region like the Woond Spider Queen had been in its. Ss and Alex had plucked it out of a Winking Portal it was


    hiding in.


    In fact, the very notion they found the ss Monkey in a Winking Portal proved his point, because Winking Portals only appeared in regions where a point of connection between Earth and the Aether ne was far too misaligned. In this case... a desert of heat and a desert of


    cold...


    The more Ss thought about it, the more questions he had, but he stared at the portal before him like it would give him the answer he was looking for...


    And then it suddenly hit him.