Squatting on a boulder, Yin narrowed her eyes at volcanoes that made up the mountain range.
"What are you doing big sis?" Attie asked as he stood normally beside her.
"I'm squatting. You see, it looks ominous if you squat on something while overlooking the place you want to invade." Yin explained as Attie raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"Yup, trust your big sis. Now come, you squat as well." Yin gestured towards him as she shuffled to the side, making some room for Attie.
Furrowing his brows, Attie nodded his head and crouched next to her.
Squatting in silence, Attie glanced towards Yin.
"So when will we attack?"
"Not yet, I'm still scanning for how many people are here. From what I can tell, there are roughly seven tier 6 monsters guarding this entire place considering their mana signals while several hundreds possibly even thousands of tier 5 workers. Calling them workers might not be accurate considering the fact that all of them have collars around their necks." Yin muttered.
"So how do you want to do this? Loud and explosive or sneaky?" Attie asked since he was fine with doing both. He was just here to help out Yin after all.
"Good question. Let's play rock paper scissors. If I win we go loud and clear, if I lose we go sneaky ok?" Yin said as Attie nodded his head.
Since it seemed to him like Yin wanted to go in loud and clear, Attie figured that he'll lose on purpose.
"Rock, paper, Scissors!" Yin called out.
As his hand was falling, Attie observed Yin's hand and noticed that she was also changing her choice.
'Wait… is she going scissors or paper?' Attie thought as cold sweat dripped down his face.
Furrowing his brows, he continued to change his choice as their hands became a blur of motions. When they finally settled with a choice, they ended with a tie.
"Attie, you really like changing your choice huh?" Yin said as her smile twitched.
"Same goes for you big sis, I figured that you'd want to go in with explosive intent." Attie replied.
"I do but I wanted to spice things up a little, if we sneak in then explode everything from the inside out, wouldn't that be quite the sight?"
"Then why didn't you say so? You know I don't mind what we do, I'm just here to help." Attie pouted lightly as Yin coughed.
"Alright, let's sneak in then."
Nodding his head, Attie waved his hand and transformed his form so that he would match the location a little better. If Thiria controlled monsters, this was a good excuse to act as a higher up.
Flames erupted around Attie's body as he transformed into a ma.s.s of swirling flames. Two neon blue orbs represented his eyes.
"Oh my, maybe I should change as well. Hmm… I doubt my true form would get past the checks. I haven't seen another phoenix except for me or my other mum after all." Yin scratched her hair.
Thinking hard, she eventually settled with a tiny bird form.
Transforming herself into a bird that was smaller than a palm, Yin sat on Attie's shoulder.
"Just hide me with your flames and we'll be fine." Yin rea.s.sured as Attie nodded his head.
There was a clear path towards the centre where most of the guards are stationed.
Magic circles could be seen everywhere as neither Yin nor Attie knew what they were meant to do. Since there were too many unknown variables, they decided to play it safe for now.
As they approached the area, they saw a single tower connected to a floating platform above the lava. Bridges connected the tower to the volcanoes as slaves stumbled back and forth, carrying strange luminescent rocks that emitted a red glow.
Sensing Attie's aura, the slaves instinctively stayed away from him. Approaching the tower without any problems for the time being, they spotted the first monster.
"Halt! Who are you?" the monster grumbled as Attie narrowed his eyes.
"I am sent by her highness as part of the new staff. Take me to the overseer of this place." Attie said as his voice caused the surroundings to shake.
Sensing his strength, the monster quickly bowed and nodded his head.
Within Thiria's rule, only strength mattered. Weak monsters dared not to question the commands from above.
"Understood. Allow me to show you the way."
Nodding his head, Attie followed at a casual pace.
"He seems quite afraid huh?" Yin whispered.
"Mn. From the way he looks at me I'd say that they'll be punished severely for disobeying the higher ups. I'd say that a good description would be drinking a poison that would kill you but you don't know when." Attie whispered back.
"That's pretty accurate."
Following the monster, they entered the tower.
The interior of the tower was rather s.p.a.cious with a single spiral staircase leading upstairs. None of the rooms were bordered off so they could see a few monsters sleeping out in the open and some even mating in the corner.
When Yin saw that, she immediately covered Attie's eyes, causing him to stumble for a bit but recovered swiftly so that the monster doesn't notice anything that's off.
"The floor above is where the overseer is. I cannot enter." The monster said Attie nodded.
"You can leave now."
Watching the monster leave, Attie scanned the floor above and sensed two tier 6 monsters with one sitting in front of a desk and the other looking out the window.
"Big sis, there are only two tier 6's above. We can kill them easily but do you want to see if we can get any information from them first?" Attie asked as Yin nodded her head.
"Let's play it pa.s.sively for now. Don't expose the fact that we will kill them."
Walking up the steps, Attie immediately came into eye contact with the one sitting behind the desk.
He had a half human half monster body. A humanoid torso but monstrous arms covered with natural plated armour. Neon blue glows could be seen between the gaps as two horns created from the game glow hovered above his head.
"What is your business here?" The overseer asked as he narrowed his eyes at the newcomer.
"Her highness has sent me here to make a routine check. She is wondering why we haven't gotten any results yet. After what had happened in the event, I hope you have some good news for her." Attie bluffed as he had no idea what was going on here. If he mixed in a few truths, it should make his story more believable.
"Her highness sent you here?" The overseer furrowed his brows.
However, the moment he asked that question, he could sense that Attie's aura s.h.i.+fted and started to grow. Not wanting to displease this monster if he was indeed sent by her highness. Plus, there have been situations like this before so he sat back and relaxed.
"I see… We do have some good news but not much progress here either. It has been rather difficult to break through the tomb to achieve our goals but so far, we've collected enough Molten Essence to complete stage one." The overseer replied as Attie nodded his head.
"Only at stage one… Her highness wants you to hurry things up. After our loss, we're being pressured on all sides. Take me to the tomb, I'll see if I can do anything about it." Attie said but the overseer furrowed his brows before nodding his head.
"Considering your nature, I suppose her highness sent you here to deal with the flames. The heat and flames have been our biggest obstacles after all." The overseer said as he gestured to the flames on Attie's body.
"Follow me. Grim' Lor, stay here and deal with anyone that looks for me." The overseer commanded as the other monster bowed at his command.
Taking the lead, the overseer started to make his way down.
However, the moment he pa.s.sed Attie, he felt as though he sensed a familiar energy but dismissed it as flames. After being here for so long, everything felt the same to him so it was not surprising that a monster made from flames would feel the same.
"How long will you be staying here?" He asked curiously.
"Only a few short days. I have orders elsewhere so I will not be staying here." Attie replied as the Overseer nodded his head.
They had a few short conversations on the way but Attie did not say much. The more they spoke, the more his disguise fell apart so he tried to stay silent if he could.
Crossing several bridges, they walked towards the centre of the mountain range where the light distorted due to the heat.
"If any of the slaves walk past this point, they'll dry up and die within minutes."
Ignoring him, Attie stepped forward and ignored the heat.
"Big sis, I think I can sense something similar to your mana. I think the tomb he mentioned is the last piece that you need." Attie whispered as Yin nodded her head.
"Mn, seems so. What do you think they wanted to do with that last piece though?"
"We can ask him. But it might be risky since I'll have to clear the way."
"It's worth the risk. If push comes to shove, then we'll just eliminate him." Yin suggested while narrowing her eyes at the Overseer behind them.