Back at the Tactoa headquarters. Soon after Raya attacked Legion...

"What the heck was that?!" The Monarch orb spoke to itself angrily.

One moment it was observing Muku's demise through Legion's eyes, In the next, all it could see was white and black then nothing at all.

And the connection to Legion was also cut off... Speaking of which, it commended Muku for giving its creature that name after finding out the meaning from one of its subordinates.

The name was fitting for the being. It was even considering adding Muku's consciousness to the creature after his death.

The process would be hard since he wasn't exposed to its power before, but it was willing to do it as a reward for the useful human.

Unfortunately, everything got ruined before things got to that point. Hell it didn't get to control Legion even once before the creature was seemingly destroyed.

And honestly that hurt a lot considering the resources it had put into the project. Plus the plans which had to be scrapped now too.

The worst part was how it didn't even see who did it.

Then there was that weird grey energy Muku displayed, which seemed familiar to it in some way. But it felt like there was a mental block in its mind when it tried to remember it.

Maybe if it had experienced personally, something would have come up. The energy was definitely extraordinary considering how it could fight against its diluted Monarch-level Beast Aura(MBA).

Yes, that's right. The black energy was actually a variant of Beast Aura from the start.

Jade wasn't able to sense it because it was too diluted and obscure in the encounters she had. If she had been around during the Legion fight, she might have discovered it.

Then everything would make sense from how the Monarch energy was able to affect her so much. To the point of forcing a transformation during the glowing Monarch incident.

Interestingly enough, as opposed to the overly diluted Beast Aura from the black slime from before, the glowing green Monarch's Beast Aura was too pure for her to sense what it was.

It wasn't that her senses weren't good enough. But just that she didn't qualify to know such knowledge yet.

And then there was Ares' red "energy"... But that's a story for another day...

Anyway, back to the matter at hand... The diluted MBA was at least as strong as R6 Advanced Mana. So Muku's normal elemental attacks being useless against it was understandable.

It definitely made more sense than the weird grey energy which resisted it.

But everything came back to the assassin who completely overpowered the MBA. Now that was a dangerous being.

The Monarch orb was eager to know who that was but there was no way of knowing. That drove it mad with anger.

Whoever that bastard was, they had ruined everything. Now it didn't know Legion's status. Whether it would survive or not.

The mental link had been mostly severed apart from that. As for whether it would be restored eventually, it didn't know. The only good news was that Legion was still "alive" since there was still a trace of the link.

However, it hated being in its current weakened state. Not only did it have to rely on proxies, but those proxies were failing it.

And unlike the glowing green Monarch, it couldn't emerge anytime soon. There were way more restrictions on it...

"Sigh. Why is everything going wrong recently? Such terrible luck isn't something a Monarch like me should have. This is human-level terrible luck!. At least this group had beings that could fight my creation. But what about the other one?... Have I been too lenient with these ants? It seems it's time I switch things up a little bit..." The Monarch spoke to itself in an annoyed voice in the quiet voice.

Of course, at the same time it was also trying to figure out its next step. As for how that would affect Muku's group, only time will tell...

....

Around 24 hours later from the time Muku went to sleep...

{Hmm? Why do I feel heavy?} Muku thought to himself without moving as soon as he woke up.

He didn't even open his eyes or panic. His time in the Beast World had given him the ability to be completely lucid immediately after waking up.

That way, he would actually accordingly without attracting attention of any beasts that might be close by.

In a forest were there were always a beast on the hunt, it was a really necessary skill. Sure, Raya was there, but that was no reason to slack off, after all, there were times when they set out separately.

Anyway, Muku discreetly scanned the surroundings with his mana sense. Only the most sensitive R5s could sense it.

Anyone lower ranked wouldn't sense anything. Of course R6s and beyond could sense it, but they weren't an immediate problem.

The immediate problem was the sight Muku saw with his mana sense.

He was literally sandwiched between two girls on the huge bag. On one side was Hope, which he kinda expected. On the other side was unexpectedly, Chloe.

Who knew the girl would become so bold!

If that was it, then the situation wouldn't be too bad. But just above his head was Layla sleeping there horizontally.

Then at the bottom, there was Freya who apparently thought to join the party. Something out of character for the girl by a mile, but whatever.

Freya and Layla weren't even the worst case. The worst case was by far Emily who was lying directly on top of Muku like he was a freaking bed!

Like what the hell?! Who does that? The girl not only had her own bed, but even on that very bed, there was still space beside Hope or Chloe.

So what the hell?!

As someone who had been in all kinds of situations, Muku managed to calm down his racing heart within a minute.

Unfortunately, that didn't make the situation any better. After all, the moment he calmed down, he began feeling the soft bodies pressing against him.

Especially Emily's as she was laying on him. His "little brother" was instantly angered and rose up ready to "fight"

He regretted turning the armour into fine cloth before sleeping. Then again, who sleeps in armour at home? So the situation was definitely not his fault.

He only expected to find Hope there and if it had gone like that, then there was no way anything like that would have happened.

And now he was stuck in a terrible situation not knowing how to get out.

The girls were all veterans, so the moment he makes any sudden movement, the chance of someone waking up was high, especially Emily.

He was even actively controlling his breath at that point. After all, even breathing differently could wake the girl up...

He just hoped that his racing heart wouldn't wake her up. While he had managed to calm it down before, there was no way he could do it now...

Only a rainbow man could stay calm in such a situation. Then there was his "sword" which was poking Emily's gut.

He tried repositioning it in a way that it wasn't poking her like that, but... It honestly looked like he was just using her to rub one out...

"You pervert..."

Suddenly a voice which sent a chill down Muku's spine sounded. For the voice belonged to Emily.

It was soft and low, so low that it was barely a whisper. Muku was only able to hear it clearly due to his advanced hearing.

"No..." Muku wanted to defend himself however Emily's soft finger found its way to his lips and stopped him from speaking.

"Shh... Let's not wake the others up. Let's go out and speak..." Emily whispered into his ear again.

And like a pervert he couldn't help but get excited, which made his sword jump up. The unexpected movement startled Emily but she managed to stop herself from jumping up.

{Raya...} Muku spoke in his mind.

{Tsk. You owe me one} Raya replied then...

Whoo!

With a dim light, Emily and Muku disappeared from the bed and replaced by a grumpy looking Raya.

She had been busy relaxing in the new room Audrey gave her when Muku woke up.

She sensed his slightly stressed emotional state so began observing everything with her mana sense.

If she had known that he was going to rope her into the situation, she wouldn't have peeked... The bastard really enjoyed involving her in everything he did. At that point she was considering going on strike... Wait a minute, when did she become Muku's worker?

Damn it! She really needed to have a talk with him. He couldn't keep on treating her like an errand girl or maid. It had to be stopped!

...

In Raya's room...

"Whoa! What just happened?!" Emily exclaimed in suprise.

"Oh, that... It's nothing special. Just Raya's space element. She switched positions with us" Muku replied nonchalantly.

"What?! Why are you saying that like it's a mandane thing?! We just travelled through space!" Emily exclaimed loudly.

She didn't have to keep her voice down anymore since the mansion's rooms were soundproof. So she let her emotions explode.

"Oh... I forgot that I'm the only one in the group who has travelled through portals and Raya's space element. And you weren't around when I used the ability for the first time... Anyway, if you're so shocked and want to know how it works. I don't mind telling you" Muku replied calmly.

"Sigh. Whatever, you can explain it later when everyone is around... For now, I have something more important I want to know" Emily replied in a slightly exasperated tone.

"Oh, okay. What do you want to know?" Muku replied.

"When are you planning on telling me that you slept with Jade?" Emily asked with an innocent expression on her face while looking at Muku dead in the eyes.

"!?"