2850 Blow
The Rapax had come with the assumption that their goal wouldn't interfere with everyone else's, but in the end, it seemed that only Leonel's goal was completely different. That said, whether Leonel liked it or not, he would definitely have to clear those three Zones if he wanted a shot at raising the standard of this Incomplete world to a decent level. These three Zones were probably the biggest obstacle.
They were so large that they took up entire Domains. It was no wonder this world only had four Domains while Leonel's own Incomplete world had had several more. The question, then, was how best to take advantage of this.
He already knew that the Rapax didn't like to team up with others to accomplish their goals, but how stubborn would they be? And also, what if he didn't make his own involvement obvious?
There was another problem as well.
Leonel simply didn't trust the Rapax to perfectly clear the Zones.
What Leonel needed wasn't just for the Zones to be gone, but he needed even their Hidden Quests to be perfectly cleared. Only that way would the issues in the Folds of Reality be perfectly smoothed out and give them the best chance.
The Rapax presumably only wanted to enter for a very specific purpose, so it was unknown if they would go all out to clear the Zones properly, like he would. So he also couldn't justify letting them enter alone.
What was interesting was that these Zones were so warped and mutated that there was no entry limit at all.
That could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how he looked at it.
On the one hand, it was unlikely that anyone could stop him from entering the Zone based on that alone.
But on the other, it meant that he couldn't do that either. After he entered, there would be nothing stopping others from doing so as well.
Although Zones had a bit of a timer that would allow them to slowly close even if the limit wasn't hit, with how powerful the Barbarian Race was, how could such a slow timer impede them?
There was another matter that probably was the most difficult to deal with, and that was the gateways and treasures the Barbarian Race was using to keep the Zones stable. It was similar to what the Void Palace had used back in the Dimensional Verse, but far more elaborate, and obviously much larger as well.
The problem wasn't the gateways themselves, but rather what they represented.
If the Barbarians wanted to use the Zones for experiments, it obviously meant that they wanted to enter and leave as they pleased. What did this mean? It meant that even if the objectives were cleared, the Zones wouldn't necessarily close down.
If Leonel wanted to ensure that clearing the quests also meant closing the Zone, he would have to actually destroy the gateways first, and that was dangerous for several reasons.
For one, the Zones were so abnormally large that they could easily begin to swallow up the whole Incomplete World, and that wouldn't be good for anyone.
This meant that he would be on a timer from the moment he destroyed the gateways. If he wasn't fast enough, everything would be for naught. Or, even worse, the three Sub-Dimensional Zones could fuse into one and cause an even greater mess.
The second problem was the most obvious, that being the Barbarian Race.
Even if he somehow defeated all of them that were here, that didn't mean that they couldn't just send more in. He was impossibly outnumbered, and just relying on the Rapax wouldn't be enough.
Leonel fell into his thoughts. They moved in overdrive, and he was truly trying to grasp at something that felt all too elusive.
Soon, he had a maddening thought.
'... It's possible. Since we're already being crazy, might as well go all the way.'
...
Leonel appeared before Dreadmaw and Shadowclaw, a smile on his face.
"I have some information you two might be interested in."
"What's that?" Dreadmaw asked.
"The location of your Zone."
Dreadmaw's slit eyes opened wide, staring right at Leonel.
"Where is it?"
He asked the question quite straightforwardly, making Leonel chuckle a bit.
"You should listen first, because the details aren't what you're going to like. You were wrong about your goal being different in the third part. In fact, there are three Zones like the one you describe, and each one of them is being guarded by them."
"You know who this third party is?" Dreadmaw suddenly asked.
"I might. But that's not information I would necessarily give you, now is it?"
"But you're giving us information about the location of the Zone we're looking for?"
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"Well, I've told you I know where it is, but I haven't told you exactly where it is. Also, you should know my words are true, or else how would you have still not found it after all this time? They're clearly taking steps to hide it on top of guarding it with some of their strongest."Indeed. The Zones were as large as entire Domains, they were practically impossible to spot. Clearly, the Barbarian Race was using special methods to hide them. Leonel just hadn't quite looked into it yet. Whatever they were, it clearly hadn't bothered Anastasia even the slightest bit.
"... And you want us to fight these people?"
"Well, to be clear, you would have to fight them, regardless. Unless, of course, you're willing to throw away all the money you spent getting this information in the first place. Are you willing?"
Dreadmaw and Shadowclaw looked toward one another. They truly weren't. That was the accumulated wealth of countless generations. They hadn't touched any of that money since the last time the Idol Battlefield appeared.
Shadowclaw was far from the only one they were investing in, but it was certainly a heavy investment, nonetheless.
"What do you want to do?" Dreadmaw asked slowly. "The Rapax are not cowards who gang up on others."
Leonel chuckled. "I just want to blow up some stuff."
It was time he flipped the table.
It was absolute madness, but that was exactly what he wanted.
He wanted to fuse all three Zones together.
