Chapter 149: City Ruler and Partial System Access

Argus looked at Night deeply. He was truly tempted by the offer, but he reluctantly shook his head in the end.

​"I wish for revenge with every fiber of my being. But my responsibilities to my clan take priority. If I die carelessly, their survival will become difficult."

​Night understood his somewhat, he felt the same toward his friends.

He didn’t want to push him. "I hope you have decided where to go. The outside is not exactly safe. With the planet now becoming Demigod Grade, the barrier between mortal and demigod realm should have weakened considerably, so you can expect a lot of races to have started producing Demigods."

​He also gave one fair warning. "Also, gates containing Demigods should have started appearing as well."

​Argus looked troubled; this was news to him.

He had not attended the last Beast World Council meeting, and now none of them were responding to his calls, so he was unaware of this.

​Jeffy and Teffy were also stunned. This was their first time hearing about this as well.

​Teffy asked, "How do you know? I did not sense any signs. Usually when a planet evolves it is pretty dramatic. I doubt I would have missed something like that." 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

​Night explained as much as he could, "Our planet is unique. It is a lot stronger than it should be for a planet located at the edge of the Universe. It was already fundamentally strong enough to contain Demigods and even Gods, hence it is very normal for our planet to show no outward signs."

​Teffy had a thoughtful expression on his face. He then asked, "Still, that does not change the fact that nothing changed physically. Usually when a planet’s grade upgrades, its physical size increases, which did not happen here. This happens so that more resources and space are available for the new Demigods to exist."

​Night knew Teffy was missing one crucial piece of information: he didn’t know about the Dead God. If he knew about it, it would make sense why nothing made sense with their planet.

​"Does this mean Demigod beings can attack a city now?" Argus asked. "If that is the case, then even if these invaders manage to take over my city, they will get attacked by Demigod monsters and beasts while they themselves will be suppressed in the Mortal Realm."

​Argus looked depressed that their clan’s survival now looked difficult, but he also felt a dark sense of glee knowing their enemies would suffer the same fate.

​Lucy asked, "Where is the City Core?"

​"I have it with me," Argus answered. "I was going to relinquish it the moment we left the barrier." As he said this, a white crystal emerged from his rocky body.

​The City Core looked like a large glowing pearl, and as it appeared. It didn’t execude any profound aura, as if it was just a mundane item.

But the moment it appeared, Night received a notification from the System.

​[City Core Detected]

​Argus spoke solemnly. "Night, you can have it if you wish, but as soon as you take it, they will know. A city has two cores. One is stationary and one is kept inside the leader. One needs both cores to rule a city."

​He pointed at the glowing core.

​"If I give it to you, you will instantly become the Ruler, but the moment it happens, the invaders will also know this, since the place I have sealed them is very close to the stationary core."

​"Take it," Dream urged in his mind. "A City Core is a separate sub-system governed directly by the planet’s will, so you will get temporary access to the System if you possess it."

​"Can I have that then?" Night asked Argus. "I can help you find a safe place for your clan in return."

​Seeing Argus was about to politely decline, Lucy insisted. "Let him help. Even though his levels are low, his strength is definitely not weak."

​Argus agreed since it would be Night who would be helping. Then then passed the core to Night. It flew directly into his body and merged smoothly with him.

​Night received a series of notifications.

​[Congratulations, you have become a City Ruler]

[You have received a new title: Ruler]

[Ruler: Inside their territory, the user receives a 100 percent boost to all stats.]

​Previously, nothing appeared when Night tried to check his status, but this time when he tried, it finally worked.

​Status:

​Name: Nightmare (Night)

Race: Human / Unique Being

Class: Summoner

Sub-Class: Ruler

Profession: Refiner

Level: 50

Cultivation Rank: Peak Qi Awakening

Aspects: [Nightmare], Dream, [Fire]

Titles: [Awakened], [Ambitious Hunter], [Dream System Host], [Ruler]

​Constitution: [Natural Calamity Physique]

​Summons: [Eve], [Lilith], [Death], [Lucy], [Sage], [Sara], [Vivianne], [Zero], [Anna]

​Martial Spirit: [Blade]

​Totem Spirit: [Nuwa]

​Soul Artifact: [Throne of the Flying Immortal]

​Elemental Spirit: [Nightmare Fire]

​...

​[Rank 3 Advancement Quest]

​Have 5 Summons - Progress (9/5) (Completed)

​Clear the tutorial. (Enter?)

​...

​Sub-Class: Ruler

​A Class solely for the Ruler of a City. It allows the Ruler to hold absolute Authority in their City.

​Skill: Not Eligible (Note: Go on, eat more skills!!!)

​In their territory, a Ruler’s Authority is Absolute.

​A Ruler can select representatives who will share some authority with the Ruler.

​The representatives will receive a Sub-Class according to their assigned role.

​(Note: Yes, they will get skills, however a glutton like you will not!)

​Territory: Sky Mountain Region (250 Sq. KM)

​...

​Night: "..."

Lucy: "..."

His friends inside the Inner World: "..."

​System Girl fumed. "How dare this mongrel System do this!"

​Inside the Inner World, System Girl was punching the air in fury, only to be held back by Sage and Nuwa, who were suddenly worried about her mental health.

​Night was completely unbothered. He was immune to taunts unless they were directed at his friends.

​He focused intently on his newly acquired territory: the Sky Mountain Region.

​[Sky Mountain Region:

The region consists of twelve Earth Mountains surrounding a massive 1000 kilometer Sky Mountain.

The Earth Mountains form a natural array formation that naturally camouflages the Sky Mountain.

It is not just a city; it is a fortress.

​The Earth Mountains have Illusion Arrays that hide them from prying eyes.

​The region is dominated by the Earth Aspect and the Sky Aspect. (Of course, the Nightmare Aspect as well... we cannot escape that one on this planet now, can we?)

​Caution: This Region is very close to the Heavens.]

​Night smiled when he saw the words ’Close to the Heavens’.

He was already looking for how to connect with the heavens, since he knew their help would be critical in killing Alze-beus.

Who would have thought he would find the clues here, he immediately smelled a conspiracy. And he knew the culprit.

Seriously, his Natural Calamity Physique was working over time.

​...

​The City Core moved into Night’s Soul Space.

​It appeared directly in front of the Throne at the center of Nightmare Castle.

​The Nightmare Origin Tree reacted immediately as it appeared. Roots and a Stem extended from the plant, forming a small wooden platform on which the City Core floated.

Then Nighmare Origin Tree used the connection between the cores to locate the other one. The Nighmare Origin Tree didn’t just want to claim the city, it wanted to Claim it.

Then it used its connection to Blade and cut the space using its roots as a medium.

Then the roots entered the real world though the connection, using Cores as the spatial anchor points.

...

​At the exact same time, at the peak of the physical Sky Mountain, a white core could be seen glowing brightly.

​It looked as though it had been organically merged right into the mountain rock.

​Some distance away from it, two large groups of people could be seen.

​They appeared to be sealed within some kind of restrictive array. The region surrounding their arrays was littered with Earth Spirit and the invaders corpses.

​One group looked like hybrids of humans and wolves, while the other group looked like pale humans who possessed blood red eyes and jet black hair.

​Both groups eyed each other warily as they desperately tried to break their sealing arrays.

​Both of them appeared to be in a hurry to reach the mountain top to claim the stationary City Core.

​From the looks of it, the hybrid werewolves were very close to breaking their sealing array, while the other group looked way behind in their progress.

​Razen, the leader of the werewolf group, smirked arrogantly. "Haha, you blood sucking losers. You guys really are a stain to the Reverend Blood Immortal’s name."

​Vance, the leader of the vampire group, had a cold look on his face.

He ignored the werewolf as he attacked the sealing array even more fiercely.

​Razen clicked his tongue upon seeing his repeated taunts failing to have any impact. His attacks also picked up intensity.

​Their Patriarch, the Reverend Mystic Moon Immortal, had divined that this specific region would play a vital role in conquering this planet in the Desolate Zone.

Desolate Zone were regions in their which didn’t have proper environment to cultivate, they wee usually at the edge of their universe.

​As he thought this, he could not help but cast a quick glance at the lone man standing near his group, who stood there doing nothing but watching.

​He was covered in a heavy black cloak, his face hidden behind the oversized hood. At the edge of his robe, the words ’Lifeless Empire’ were engraved in dark letters.

​Sensing his gaze, the hooded man looked at him. Razen immediately turned his gaze away. This guy gave them all a uneasy feeling.

​He still could not understand why their Patriarch would allow someone so shady to accompany them on such a crucial mission.

​Suddenly, the leaders of both groups, as well as the hooded man, looked up.

They saw the space near the white core split apart, and a small black root extended from the void.

​Even with their high perceptions, they could not tell what was hidden behind the spatial split.

​The black root grew swiftly covered the core under their stunned gazes.

​The roots did not stop there but started violently digging into the mountain rock. As they did, all the surrounding ambient mana was pulled toward them.

​Slowly, the mana formed a massive vortex around the root.

So much mana was forcibly gathered that the usually invisible energy became material and condensed to form thick white mana mist.

​The root greedily absorbed the ridiculous amount of mana. This caused the roots to rapidly grow in size and length.

Then the root snapped off, and the space from which it had come closed.

​But this did not stop its unnatural growth. It rooted itself onto the City Core, which was no longer visible. Then from the roots, stems formed, then thick branches, and finally dense leaves grew.

​The wood was black like the night sky in color, except for the leaves that were purple. The tree looked as ominous as it was beautiful.

​After the tree stopped growing, its thick roots extended from the mountain peak beneath them, and its target?

​The corpses scattered all around them.....

_

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