Dimensional Descent

"Okay, I understand. See how far you can get, don't hurt yourself. What's most important to me right now anyway is just getting the billion kilograms, a Fifth Dimensional Mine Core isn't valuable enough to risk much on."

"Okay~"

Anastasia dove her senses into the earth, and it wasn't long before Leonel got an answer.

"Oh, I see."

"What's up?"

"There seems to be an embryonic Urbe Ore Core below. The mature one is trying to fuse with it."

"Embryonic?" Leonel nodded slowly.

An embryonic Urbe Ore Core was obviously one that had yet to stabilize and begin to produce Ores. It was just a coincidence that these two were born in the same location. Or, close enough.

"What's the potential of the embryonic one?"

"Seems like Sixth Dimensional, but it's close to the Seventh. If they fuse, it should allow them to enter the Seventh."

Leonel's eyes lit up. This was good. It would probably take Anastasia a few years to form a mine with a billion kilograms of Seventh Dimensional Ore, a few months if they invested into it properly, but the wait was worthwhile.

The trouble was, how would he get it? Going that deep underground would be a huge headache, and he still had to mine the billion Fifth Dimensional Ores first.

Leonel looked at Little Tolly, who was wrapped around his arms. Under this large concentration of Force, it wouldn't be good to let Blackstar risk it. However, Tolliver was his trump card for finishing up all this mining to begin with.

"Go wild."

**Bloop, Bloop!!

Little Tolly unleashed a little roar of his own and suddenly the little guy had coated the entire third layer in silver and gold, the entire 500 meters worth.

Leonel was speechless. Had he underestimated this little guy? Could he even call him a little guy anymore?

Tolliver dug into the walls like they were made of wax and he was the sharpest, heated wire in existence. It all happened so fast that Leonel couldn't even register it properly.

BANG.

Tolliver returned with a plop, a large cube of Reinforced Urbe Ore appearing before Leonel.

"Ha..." Leonel could only laugh. "Little guy, I need a billion kilograms of Urbe Ore, not a billion kilograms of Reinforced Urbe Ore."

Leonel's laughter became more booming and he wiped tears from his eyes. He didn't know why he had even worried about it. Tolliver was practically a little machine. To think he was dreading the refinement process.

Tolliver came back to Leonel while making happy blooping sounds. Leonel had to admit that the noises were quite soothing, it reminded him of a smooth stone falling into a still lake.

He pressed a hand against the huge cube, and it vanished into the Segmented Cube, settling at the bottom of a Cleansing Water-filled lake.

"Little Tolly, there are two mine cores down below. Be careful and go get them for me, please."

**Bloop!

Tolly dove down, and once again only a few seconds passed before two dark rainbow-like orbs appeared in Leonel's palms, one far more transparent and incorporeal than the other.

"Perfect. Time to go."

The echoes of battle and wolf howls still raged above, but Leonel didn't mind them. He had gotten what he had come here for, but to his surprise, as he was just vanishing into one of the tunnels, Researcher Popsy came back.

'This woman...'

Leonel was stunned. Was she really so obsessed with this? Or was it that she had already sensed the presence of the embryonic Ubre Core and felt that there was something too suspicious about this sudden uprising?

Leonel had a feeling that it was the second because she went right above the location Tolliver had dived into the ground to retrieve it and suddenly went ghastly pale.

Leonel could only watch as she pulled out some kind of communication device and barked out a stream of information.

"... Lock down the mine! Lock down the mine! Someone stole the Urbe Ore Core!"

Leonel sighed. He knew this woman would be troublesome, but unfortunately he wanted to avoid problems. He couldn't guarantee that he could kill her cleanly, so he didn't even make the attempt.

She was sharp, and his plan wasn't without loopholes; it was normal that an intelligent person like her could see through the flaws. If he had really taken all of the time he originally thought he had, he would have been caught by her before he even finished.

'Welp, it's a little harder to slip away now, but it's not that bad.'

Leonel chuckled and had Anastasia project the important points to his mind. All he really needed to know was where the largest concentration of people were, and most importantly, where Sergent Amon was so he could avoid him.

It was too easy to escape Research Popsy. Though she was of decent strength, he had already made it to an exit channel before he sensed her. She had no idea that she had only just missed him.

Leonel slipped into the stream of combat as Grim once again, fighting so valiantly that no one could tell that he was running away. In just a few minutes, he had already made it to the back near an entrance of the first layer. Plus, he was already at the furthest location from Sergeant Amon who had long since charged in. This would be far simpler than escaping the Godlen territory.

Sometimes he didn't know why he dared to have nice thoughts.

The ground rumbled, and the sound of the sky collapsing left Leonel speechless. Just as he was about to rush into the first layer, it collapsed, nearly falling in on his head and crushing him.

He barely managed to rush back into the second layer and looked on... stunned.

"Anastasia, what just happened?"

There was a slight pause before Anastasia spoke in surprise.

"Demons! They suddenly appeared, it looks like they're trying to attack the mine and claim it for themselves. Either that, or they're trying to stop anyone else from benefiting from it."

Leonel cursed.