Located far into the north east of the central city, Akurla River Basin is a vast forest where various species that are extinct in the outside world reside.
The Dragon Race has always been one of the few races that likes to help out weaker races who are on the verge of extinction.
Although dragons act high and might most of the time and consider themselves above all other creatures, they aren't pure arrogant and destructive beings like Demons.
Dragons are wise creatures with amazing power and wisdom; they have always put great efforts into preserving dying races that are on the verge of extinction from time to time.
Moreover, the Dragon Valley is a very big place, so there's no need to worry about overpopulation.
They can even increase the size of this artificially made domain; thus, the dragon has plenty of land, and that's why they are capable of giving it to others for free.
All they ask in return is that you need to serve them as their master, and your race will be able to live under the protection of the dragons.
This is a fantastic opportunity for many races.
In fact, the world alliance outside works in such a manner that no race ends up needing the protection of the dragons; this is to maintain the power balance with dragons.
The Dragons alone have half the number of SS rankers that the whole world alliance has.
It's not that dragons themselves have so many SS-rankers; it's that they have quite a few races under them who aid them and increase the count of SS-rankers.
Ayla is the best example of it; she's a peak SS-ranker, and as Dragon protects her race, she helps out the dragons in various things too.
Just like the outside world has the world alliance, the dragons have their own kind of alliance of sorts inside the dragon valley.
Although they don't have large armies with insanely high-tech weapons like humans, they do have high-ranking fighters in their arsenal that are enough to scare off any prying eyes.
This is also one of the reasons why Demons never dared to lay siege to the Dragon Valley even during the thousand-year war.
Dragons only had to deal with those miasma-filled dungeons at that time, and there wasn't any other war in the dragon valley.
The huge lifespan and amazing talent give Dragon an upper hand over other races; moreover, the alliance that they have made is completely different from the world alliance outside.
In the World Alliance, all races are of equal status, no matter if they are strong nations or weak. King Allen gave each of them equal status, and they are all 'Partners'.
Thus, no one is actually 'forced' to help out the others; it depends on circumstances.
But in the alliance created by the dragons, the other races are basically 'vassals' or 'servants' to the dragons, and it is 'compulsory' for them to listen to the orders of the dragon race.
In other words, Dragon can more easily gather their armies, while the world alliance will need time, agreements, and partnerships for that.
In the world alliance, all races only look for their own benefits; they won't fight pointless wars as that will damage their own economies.
Thankfully, both of these alliances haven't had any conflict with each other ever before; they have been on neutral terms ever since the start.
Moreover, the world alliance has its hands full with the demon race; they won't make enemies out of the dragons anyway, and thus the situation remains neutral.
...
Two Days Ago.
Dragon Valley, Akurla River Basin.
Standing in the sky above the Akurla river basin, Neo glanced at the orb that was shining extremely brightly at the moment.
'Hmm, so it's somewhere here...'
'It took so long to find it... If I could use my world authority or mana detection freely, it would have been a hundred times easier to find it... but that would definitely alert the SS rankers who are keeping an eye on me...'
Indeed, Idri did allow Neo to wander around, but he also ordered his subordinates to keep an eye on Neo's behavior.
Although they are likely about hundreds of kilometers away from him, they are definitely keeping an eye out for him.
'Thankfully no one can detect this orb their mana detection, so unless they see it with their own eyes, they won't notice it...'
The reason why no one has noticed anything strange about him yet is because the orb he is using can hide its presence from the detection of even SS-rankers.
Neo has verified its stealth abilities against Ashtel's detection ability, and even Ashtel Rex was not able to detect it, which means Neo doesn't need to worry that others can detect it.
Neo has learned one thing from his time with Ashtel Rex, and that is,
{If there's something that even Ashtel can't deal with, then no one in the world can deal with it...} There's very few things in the world that can hide from the detection of someone like Ashtel. 'I guess I will need to do a visual search if I can't use mana detection... Also, I need to be quick... The more time I spend wandering around, the more suspicious others will get of me...' Neo grabbed the orb and boosted his own flying speed.
He lowered his flying altitude and started to head in the directions where the orb was glowing brighter.
In the next half an hour, he searched half of the whole river basin and finally stopped at a large pit on the ground that was hidden under the shade of the large trees.
'Hmm, this must have appeared after rain caused the ground to sink...'
Without much hesitation, Neo dove down in the pit and started to look around.
For SS-rankers, no amount of darkness means anything; they are far from mortal beings, so they have in-built night vision in their eyes, and they can see even in the darkest places without even needing mana.
Neo searched the who pit, but he didn't find a sin espe thing about it.
'Sigh, not being able to use mana detection really restricts me a lot... I guess I will have to do it manually...'
Neo placed his hand on the walls of the pit and embedded small amounts of mana that even SS-rankers couldn't trace easily.
After repeating this process over many places on the walls, finally he got some results after more than fifty tries.
If he could use mana detection, then it would have only needed him just one try, as he could have directly spread his mana detection in the whole river basin.
*Bang*
Neo punched the wall lightly, and it collapsed, revealing a cave behind it.
'Hmm... As I thought, it's buried deep underground, and it isn't even leaking any mana fluctuations... If I didn't have this orb, even I wouldn't have found out about it...'
Something that can avoid even the mana detection of SS-rankers is no ordinary thing; it's definitely something unique.
He walked inside without hesitation, looking at the many paths in front of him. He decided to
rely on his intuition.
Right now he can't summon or the other SS-rankers will catch the mana fluctuations, so he can only rely on the unique intuition of an SS-ranker to find his way in this gigantic cave. 'The orb has now become bright, and it isn't fluctuating, which means I am directly above 'it' right; all I need to do is find my way down through this cave system...'
If it were in the human empire, Neo would have directly used his summons to dig and make paths, but right now he's being monitored, so he has to be as quiet as possible.
Digging with summoned beasts will bring unnecessary trouble.
'It must have taken a lot of efforts to hide such a massive building underground... Or perhaps
that's how fate works with these kinds of things...'
'The 'world' itself has tried it's best to hide it from the public eye...'
While walking, Neo contemplated his next plans in his mind, and a determined look hung on
his face.
'This is where everything will start... If I miss the chance now, I will miss out on a lot of
things...'
Neo shook his head, using his intuition to delve deeper.
As an SS-ranker, his movement speed is fast, and he's not lacking in physical capabilities either, so he traveled about ten kilometers deeper without stopping for a second.
Along the way, many paths and intersections appeared, but Neo always managed to find the
right one with his intuition alone.
This is the horror of the insane intuition ability of an SS-ranker; they can easily find their way
out from any maze they get thrown into.
They can do this much without even using mana.
After ten minutes of a long walk, Neo finally arrived in the deepest part of the cave.
'A teleportation circle? Is this its top floor?'
Neo waved his hand and made the dirt on the floor move away with the air pressure.
When the dirt was disposed of, a solid floor made up of shiny white stones appeared.
'Indeed, this is the right place...'
Neo bent down and placed his hand on the magic circle engraved on the floor made up of
white stones.
He embedded his mana into the magic circle, and the circle stared to shine brightly. 'hoh? It can even suppress mana fluctuations and spatial distortions caused by teleportation.
Even the most technologically advanced spaceships in the human empire can't achieve this
effect...'
'This thing was designed by someone with a genius mind...'
The teleportation circle activated and teleported Neo instantly. Usually it's impossible for
even SS-rank teleportation spells to easily teleport away an SS-ranker, but this teleportation circle seems to be unique.
It worked on Neo without any problems, which means it has the capability to teleport SS-
rankers without any side effects.
Authors Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
Question of the day.
What do you think this hidden building is for?
(Tell me your thoughts in the comments) By the way, don't forget to use those power stones!!