"Ha... Cleanup is hard!!" Manny grumbled as he pulled a one-meter-long iron rod from the ground and ced it into his inventory.


    Vincent was sweating buckets as he nodded,


    "I agree. Why do we have to do this as well?!"


    Meanwhile, Calio was twitching on the ground. He had copsed on the ground from exhaustion. His stamina stat was pretty terrible.


    Cain snorted, "Work faster..."


    Vincent pointed a shaky finger at him,


    "You... Why aren''t you working?!"


    Cain, whoy rxed on Ruby''s back, snorted,


    "Because I''m tired."


    "What reason is that?!"


    Li snickered whilst seated on broken steps. He and Stan were also exempted from the cleanup because they were in bad states due to the poor treatment they had suffered at the hands of the Beastwomen.


    Manny snorted in anger, "Who told you to go get yourself captured in the first ce?"


    "Ha! What did you say?! I''ll kill you!"


    "You wanna go?! You really wanna go?!"


    Looking at the two bickering like children, ze smacked them both with the shaft of his spear,


    "Stop fooling around."


    Then he turned to Calio, "Stop pretending. Get up."


    Almost immediately, with scrunched-up faces, Manny and Li stopped arguing, while Calio jumped up from the ground with panic written on his face.


    ze let out a sigh. Then he turned to Cain,


    "What do you want to use them for?"


    Cain lifted his torso from Ruby''s soft fur,


    "The material is good. It''s best to use it to make weapons."


    Then he immediately copsed back onto the soft fur. He was incredibly exhausted after the final battle. His Ki, Devil Essence, and even mana had been depleted. His stamina had been in the single digits as well.


    All he wanted to do, was rest...


    So, he found the mostfortable ce he could, which was Ruby''s back, and then he fell asleep.


    Ruby, being the most understanding Mutant Creature on Urbus'' surface, had allowed Cain to use her as his makeshift bed as she could feel his exhaustion.


    But that didn''t mean he would ignore the things that needed to be done.


    Right now, they needed to make the Central Ind actually habitable. Right now, it was simply a mess. Most of the buildings were dpidated. Rubble and destroyed vehicles littered the streets, and the smell of rotten corpses was heavy in the air.


    Worst of all was the subtle darkness that had fallen upon the world since the inception of the god Ash. Layers of concentrated energy prevented sunlight from reaching the surface of the, causing light and warmth to be absent from the world.


    There was work to be done...


    And so, everyone had been assigned to perform various tasks. Those who had actively participated in battles recently were allowed to rest until they reiterated, whilst the others worked.


    Sue, David, Dan, Evangeline, Ignis, and everyone who had followed them from the Northern Ind were tasked with clearing the streets of rubble and corpses that hadn''t been cleared off yet.


    Manny, Calio, Vincent, ze, and the Beastmen were tasked with clearing up the site of the most recent battle, as well as handling and harvesting any materials from the corpses of the Abyssal Creatures.


    With their stats, this work was being done rather quickly. Even with the others taking breaks, the tasks were beingpleted at a frightening pace.


    "To think there would be such a terrifying world lying behind that thing," ze said as he directed his gaze at the Rift.


    Vincent shook his head, "Crazy Primordial Devils? Celestial Prison Realm? Attached to the Aether Realm? I wish it was me!"


    Cain wanted tough, "If you want, you can go now. Just jump straight through..."


    The smile on Vincent''s face remained, "I''ll pass."


    Cain shook his head at Vincent''s shamelessness.


    He fell silent for a while before suddenly speaking,


    "Although it was crazy, that ce taught me something."


    ze pulled a ck metal shaft from the ground,


    "And that is?"


    Cain''s expression hardened,


    "Just easy it is to die."


    ze''s hand froze, unable to move an inch. Cain continued regardless,


    "The Primordial Devils... That bastard, Stingè... They are on another level."


    His eyes shed with a strange glint,


    "That level of power can level this world."


    Vincent let out an empty chuckle, "That bad?"


    Manny cackled, "That just makes me even more excited!"


    Calio rolled his eyes, "That''s because you are crazy, you lunatic!"


    Cain smiled, "It was terrifying. However, it was also eye-opening. It just made me realize how weak we are. And how much room we have to grow."


    The eyes of ze, Vincent, Manny, and Calio sparkled as they stared at Cain simultaneously.


    Cain let out a shortugh, "I''ve been told that humans have very terrible potential and that reaching higher Tiers will be very hard. Even if that''s true, I still want to give it a shot."


    ze''s brows shot up, "You mean..."


    Cain chuckled, "Of course, there are other things to take care of first. However, I''m looking forward to it..."


    His eyes twinkled like stars,


    "...How far, can I go?"


    Vincent stared at him, before shaking his head with a sigh,


    "You... You have a crazy look on your face."


    Cain smiled, "Do I?"


    Every single one of them nodded rapidly. Cain snorted,


    "Whatever. Alright! Get back to work!"


    With a snort, Cain copsed back onto Ruby''s back.


    ze stopped what he was doing. Then he walked up to therge Mutant beast who was also resting. Staring at Cain who had his eyes closed shut, he spoke quietly,


    "What''s the n now? Our next stop should be getting to the maind. However, I can tell you don''t n on doing that just yet."


    Cain was silent for a few seconds before he spoke up with his eyes still closed,


    "We can''t leave. Not now at least..."


    ze frowned, "Why? Is there something we should know?"


    Cain let out a sigh. Then he slowly opened his eyes. Staring straight into the grey clouds overhead, he spokenguidly,


    "The other inds. East and West."


    "What about them?"


    Cain shrugged, "ording to Susan, there are a few scary guys there."


    ze''s frowned even harder,


    "That can''t be the only reason, right?"


    Cain nodded, "And ording to Leah and Roselle, they have set their eyes on the central region."


    ze sighed, "A territorial dispute..."


    Cain chuckled, "Indeed. After defeating the Devils, the only way to acquire food and resources, as well as level up around here is battling the sea creatures. Greed is something embedded in human nature after all."


    ze fell silent for a while before asking,


    "So what do you want to do? Wouldn''t it be best to just ignore them and leave?"


    Cain shook his head, "Unfortunately for us, our opponents this time are not only humans, but they are also stubborn. Something tells me they are also unreasonable."


    ze didn''t know whether tough or cry at Cain''s words.


    Cain continued, "They parents so much after territory as they are after what is in the territory."


    ze let out a groan, "Why do bastards exist in this world?"


    Cain shrugged, "Human nature..."


    ze sighed again, "So they won''t let us leave. Is that what you are saying?"


    "If what they say is true, then we might truly be attacked every time we leave the inds. That is unless we join them of course."


    All this information hade from Leah. ording to her, they were the weakest of the three forces,


    The followers of the Blood god were insane lunatics who had tried attacking and capturing them, whilst the Followers of the Burning Light god usually weren''t on the offensive. Instead, they rarely stepped off their ind. However, anybody who stepped on the ind usually never returned.


    As such, the followers of the Blood god had set their sights on the Central Ind. However, thanks to the thick Aether that surrounded the ind, they never had a good time trying to attack them on the ind.


    As such, they had resorted to scare tactics. They prevented them from hunting the aquatic Mutant Beasts.


    "They are being greedy."


    "Correct. However, they have the strength to back it up. You saw how strong they were thest time. The rumor is their leader is an insane madman."


    ze fell into deep thought. Cain sighed,


    "This world is changing, ze. It isn''t the old world we knew. If you don''t ept these changes, you''ll get swept up by them. That''s what I think, at least..."


    "It would be best to avoid conflict for the time being. I''d like to avoid spilling blood as much as possible." Cain said coldly.


    Sensing the cold resolution in Cain''s words, ze had no choice but to give in,


    "Alright. By the way, I have a favor to ask..."


    Cain''s eyes opened slowly. Staring at ze, he saw scalding mes burning in his eyes,


    "Let''s have a sparter..."


    Cain grinned, "Sure."


    With that, ze stepped away and continued clearing rubble and pulling the iron shafts from the ground.


    After some time and a lot of effort, they were finally done. Cain was satisfied with the amount of metal they were able to acquire.


    Whilst the others were taking their time to rest, Steve finally arrived.


    "How did it go?" Cain asked the moment he saw him.


    Steve had a tired smile on his face as he walked over to him and presented his balled fist to him. Just as Cain was about to ask, he opened his fingers to reveal what he had in his grasp.


    At first, he couldn''t quite understand what he was seeing. After a few seconds, his eyes began twitching...