Published at 4th of October 2026 7:51 am

Chapter 1173: First Regent

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

As Lyra reappeared, she immediately tapped into an ability that allowed her to become invisible without relying on Astra Energy to function. Asher moved next, his body shifting back into the Second Layer Of Space, then phasing through the silver metallic roof, his feet landing beside the dagger.

He simply willed it, and it vanished into the System Inventory, as he didn’t need to hold anything physically to transfer it to the System Inventory. He gazed to the left and to the right. There were two paths to follow. He stood in silence for a moment, not knowing which to follow.

Although he could just use his Spatial Sense to track and find out everything happening here, Asher didn’t try that. His understanding of space wasn’t perfect yet, and there was no guarantee that if he did that, he wouldn’t be caught... if he hadn’t been caught already, that is.

He shook his head and shifted to move to the left, but before he could move, someone stepped through the corner and stepped into the corridor he was standing in. Asher’s body instantly came to a halt as he snapped behind him, gazing at the figure who walked forward with a calm expression.

The presence was a Black man. He possessed afro hair, with some rings around his fingers and some on his ears. He wore a breastplate, a pair of vambraces on both forearms, and greaves on his legs. He came to a stop at the exact spot where Asher had dropped the dagger before he teleported Lyra to it, then removed it.

Asher simply watched, his eyes narrowing as he instantly knew that this man had been sent here to investigate the sound. Despite him trying his best not to make any sound at all, someone had still heard him.

The man stood in silence for a moment, then raised his head, his eyes falling on the ceiling. He seemed to have guessed that someone might have made their way into their bunker, but he wasn’t sure.

’So I was right all along... The Velkarin Empire are making a move on the Zarethorne Empire.’

Asher thought to himself as he simply watched, neither making a move to catch the man off guard nor doing anything else. He didn’t even know the man’s Life Rank to begin with, although he could guess that the man was strong just from his demeanor.

The man tilted his head in Asher’s direction as though staring at Asher, but he wasn’t. After a moment, his head shifted to the other side as he tried to guess which direction the possible intruder might have gone.

He snapped his fingers. At the sound, another Black person appeared, a female this time. She possessed black braids that ran down her back in a soft style. She bowed, about to speak, but before she could speak, the man spoke first.

"I need you to use your scent ability to know if anyone was here, starting from this point, then go left and right."

The man instructed with a flat expression as he pointed at the exact point where he had heard the sound.

Although the man had only heard a muffled sound that could literally be anything, he wasn’t willing to take any chances, as their operation couldn’t fail. Besides, if he had seen the source of the sound from earlier, he might have ignored it. But how could something make a sound, but the source wasn’t there?

The woman nodded her head, then activated her ability. Although Astra Energy couldn’t be used within this area, so her ability was limited, but only in range and not in pure genuineness.

Asher wasn’t exactly bothered. He had been within the Second Layer Of Space the entire time, and the dagger hadn’t been in anyone’s hands, so there was no scent to follow when it came to him. But... he was unsure about Lyra. He could only hope that he hadn’t been exposed before they could even look around.

The woman took a deep breath, then closed her eyes. She opened them after two seconds. She tried tracking any scent that she wasn’t familiar with. She moved to the location where the dagger had been, then to the left and to the right as she had been instructed earlier.

After a couple of minutes of moving around, the Black woman deactivated her ability, walking up to the man. She bowed and spoke in a respectful tone.

"First Regent, every scent in the air belongs to our Soldiers and food. Each scent has been here for the past few days and weeks. I’ve discovered nothing new."

She reported her findings, her tone a bit disappointed as she knew that the First Regent had called her to find something and she had failed.

The First Regent remained silent for a moment, then spoke in an indifferent tone.

"You may leave and join the rest."

At his words, the woman bowed even more deeply, then turned and walked away without another word. After walking a bit of distance, the woman sighed as she shook her head. She couldn’t help but ponder what the First Regent was trying to achieve, but alas, she was merely a lowly soldier.

The man looked around for a moment, then turned and took a step, his form vanishing with that step as though he had never been there.

Asher couldn’t help but glance in Lyra’s direction, then smiled and shook his head. He came to understand that Lyra must have looked for Monsters and Emovirae that possessed infiltration abilities and the likes. After all, she had been able to erase her own scent.

He shook his head with a small smile. Lyra had always been able to anticipate things that were needed, whether he requested it or not.

’I need to know how many Velkarin Empire Soldiers are present here, kill as much as I can, and hope that Corporal Sonya’s backup arrives.’

Asher thought to himself as he looked in the direction the so-called First Regent had departed from. With just the brief amount of time the man and woman spent here, based on their interaction, Asher guessed that the man must be a Soulstar Life Ranker at the very least, and was also the second in command here.

’If there is a First Regent, I wonder how many Regents there are... three? Five?’

Asher thought to himself as he remained in place. He shook his head, then walked forward, choosing the path in front of him since the woman from earlier and the First Regent had both departed in that direction.

Asher didn’t bother sneaking around since no one could see him. And if someone who could sense him while he remained within the Second Layer Of Space existed, it also made no difference if he hid behind walls and did all of that.

Asher walked down the corridor. The moment he cut a corner, he saw four Soldiers, all Black in complexion and all in the same breastplates, greaves, and vambraces as they walked down the corridor and discussed the Zarethorne Empire.

"It’s a shame that we came to the Zarethorne Empire but couldn’t explore it."

One of them said with a weak sigh as he spun his spear in his hand as though to cure his boredom.

"We can come after we reach the Crownstar Life Rank."

Another replied as he juggled twenty balls as he walked. He spoke as though they possessed the talent to actually reach such a rank when they actually didn’t.

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