Mount Animus, an extinct volcano that lasted erupted more than ten million years ago.
Reaching 3347 meters toward the heavens, it is the tallest mountain and the only volcano that existed in the nation of Northern Qudour.
With the area deeply rich in minerals, one can see the restriction boards and Wire fencing all around with soldiers staying as guards everywhere.
Two vehicles stopped at the entrance gate. It didn't take a few seconds for them to pass the security and enter the region.
They drove for another half an hour and stopped at a facility that was built at the foot of the volcano. Miners were going in and out.
From one vehicle, Azzy, Gideon, Claire, and Snivy stepped down. From the other vehicle, Mia, her father, the sorcerer, the grand prince, and finally Aria who was acting as their driver stepped down.
Azzy doesn't know whether it's just her hobby or she was designed that way but he saw the teenage girl who was sucking a lollipop suddenly took a machine gun out of nowhere while following her employer.
"Why are we here?" The same thought occurred in everyone's mind as they set their eyes on the Mountain standing before them.
Remembering the confidential contract they signed before coming here, Azzy wondered where there's a secret research facility built here.
"Greetings, Commander." A person wearing a soldier uniform greeted with a military salute. While he looks like a higher-ranking officer considering he's in the 6-star realm, azzy found his outfit a bit unfamiliar.
They were completely black from top to bottom. If there weren't a row of badges on his shirt and stars on the shoulder with an insignia, he wouldn't think this guy is a soldier.
In the meantime, Azzy's friends on the other hand were a little bit surprised as they didn't expect this man who was considered the second strongest person in the country to be also a military man.
The soldier led them into the facility. They walked until they reached an old elevator one would usually use in mines.
Outside, there was a restriction board and warning that stated non-authorized people will face strict punishments.
Inside the elevator, a female soldier is waiting. She was also a rank-6 expert.
Everyone got inside silently.
Azzy saw there was only one lever on it.
"Kids, in situations like this, it's better to sit on the floor or grab a person next to you." Wesley gave a brief warning as he grabbed his daughter's arm. "So that you don't lose the balance."
Gideon, Snivy, and Azzy stood still without heeding the warning. Meanwhile, Claire grabbed Mia's arm as she was too shy to grab Azzy.
Aegis didn't care about his behavior and gave the signal to the soldier.
As soon as the soldier pulled the lever, the elevator started to go down at a blazing speed as if it was free falling.
"Kya…" Snivy screamed at the start and tightly hugged Gideon for a few seconds until she realized that there's nothing to worry about as her body could cope up with the speed.
Blushing a bit, she quickly left Gideon's embrace and looked away.
With everyone seeming fine despite the elevator is going at a speed of 50 m/sec, Wesley appeared to be surprised. On the other hand, Aegis was studying Azzy's reaction which remained unchanged.
"The rumors are true, indeed. This boy seemed like he's not controlling his expression. He was just devoid of all kinds of expressions. I wonder what kind of mysterious soul energy is that."
For the next couple of minutes, Azzy felt like he was traveling through a tunnel, except that it was dug vertically.
As the elevator stopped after reaching its destination, Azzy saw a long corridor enclosed by walls before him.
Everyone walked straight. On the way, he saw there are several doors installed on either side.
"Do people live here or something?" Azzy felt something strange about this place.
After walking for like an hour, finally, the exit was revealed. After crossing it, they stumbled upon a huge hollow space where he could see dozens of robots and people with lab coats roaming around here and there.
There were also soldiers moving here and there.
"What kind of a place we arrived at?" Gideon's jaws dropped in amazement.
"I guess this is where those sparring robots come from." Azzy's attention was stolen by the roaming robots before his eyes fell on Aria. "What about this girl?"
"Welcome to Animus." Wesley gave a proud smile and explained briefly about this secret facility of the government.
"We don't have much time. Follow me." Aegis then took everyone towards another corridor which leads to a large chamber where a few people are sparring with each other.
Strangely, even though those twelve of them are of the six-star realm, their movements appeared to be quite sluggish.
The adults walked in and as these five teenagers walked into the chamber, all of a sudden, everyone except for Azzy was down on their knees and then, stuck on to the ground.
"Gravity chamber?" Azzy mumbled as he watched around. He too was facing pressure on top of him but as he was familiar with this setting, he was completely fine.
"Oh! Now that's surprising." Aegis's eyes lit up as he looked at Azzy. Wesley and Uphiar on the other hand were taken aback to see Azzy was completely fine despite standing in a field with twenty times the gravity.
Meanwhile, Azzy's friends' faces became deep redder as they were struggling to get up. With great struggle, Claire was the only one who successfully managed to stand on her feet.
As she tried to walk a step forward, she wasn't able to handle the pressure and slipped her balance.
"Careful." Azzy quickly caught her arm.
As their eyes met for a moment, Azzy's eyes wandered around her lips and he hurriedly looks away in embarrassment. Meanwhile, Claire felt her heartbeat rose rapidly.
"At this rate, my heart would explode. I need to move…" Feeling extremely embarrassed as she couldn't face Azzy directly, Claire gritted her teeth and tried to step away.
However, Azzy's grip was tight, and didn't let her become free from his grip even as he was trying to pay attention to others. He then said to everyone, "Use energy armor to lessen the pressure."
The first to act was Claire who was in a hurry to distance herself from him. She quickly closed her eyes for a second and concentrated on her soul orb.
At a single thought, the soul energy inside her soul orb rapidly gushed out of her, forming energy armor around her, thereby decreasing the pressure by a lot.
Azzy released Claire's arm and then, proceeded to help out Gideon who could only lift his upper body despite using energy armor.
A few moments later, the chamber was cleared for the rest of the day and the gravitation field was reduced from 20 to 5 times the original.
Aegis was nowhere to be seen.
Wesley was looking after Gideon, Mia, and Snivy who were in stage-1 of basic level, which is to walk comfortably.
Claire was promoted to stage 3 of basic level, which is to spar against Aria with the gravitational force being around 5 times the original.
Azzy, who was already in the highest level as he could even combat in 20 times the gravity without facing any pressure, was sitting in a corner along with Uphiar and directly entered the training.
With the sorcerer dragged him into the illusion world, Azzy found himself in a place where there's no speck of light. All he could feel is the presence of soft ground below his feet.
As the beasts in this world aren't real, his aura sensing yielded no results.
"Azrael, you are now in the heart of a place known as the Caverns of Humrath. This is the home to the race of Mermen and a few other monsters. This place is divided into two parts.
The outer half belongs to region-3 and the deeper half of the region belongs to region-4. Usually, there would be a seal separating them but here, I didn't put it.
Three rank-7 realm monsters are present here and the strongest of them all is of gold grade. So, you need to avoid them or run away as soon as you spot them. They aren't your targets.
There's a Zealot, one of a kind of merman which will roam with a trident in its hands. It's of platinum grade. Your training is to try not to kill monsters other than Zealot. As for how you go without vision, you could only depend on your senses."
"Got it," Azzy replied as he stepped forward.
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