CHAPTER 1448: THE HOLLOW CORE LAYERS

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Just the "Ancient Nightmare Field" sounded lame as fuck, and it was another proof that Nightmare Demons couldn’t compare to humans and their imagination and creativity. Because for real, if you’re the damn king of the Nightmare Demons, you can’t just call this awesome place "Ancient Nightmare Field" and walk away from it satisfied! You’re fucking with me right?!

Henceforth, I, as a graceful young lady of a prestigious family, with a magnificent sense of fashion, naming, and style have decided that giving this place a proper, awesome name is my duty. And as a refined noble lady, I must perform my duties and excel as someone of great privilege within society!

So!

This place shall be called "Hollow Earth Nightmare Labyrinth", the biggest, meanest labyrinth in the entire Blue Star world.

A gigantic Nightmare Field inside of the whole world itself, a whole new world full of dangers, riches, and resources to explore.

I can already tell that once this gets spread through the entire world, and once we deal with the problems here, people might begin trying to explore the depths of the Labyrinth.

Hehe, yeah, and in like many series about Abysses and Labyrinths, they’re going to suffer and die horribly because they won’t be prepared for the horrors that await them in the depths.

Anyway, it gets even more insane because there’s layers that go even deeper into this place... mapped and named nicely by our girl, the cute kitty Beatriz.

"The First Layer, Verdant Jungle is where we are at, it seems to be the starting layer everyone begins in," I explained. "It has the lowest danger level, but even then, the monsters in here are too strong for most people to be able to stomp them like we do, making a pretty much impossible place for newbies or perhaps even experienced veterans if they haven’t been here already multiple times."

"Hmm, yeah," Partner nodded. "If we use terms from our world, it is the first of the few floors of a dungeon... But what with the other layers?"

"There’s two more... before the fourth layer, which could also be technically treated as a midway point between the third layer and the Nightmare Void Sea," I explained. "This Second Layer is the Crimson Blood Forest, unlike the Verdant Jungles, it seems much darker as the forest is big and so are the trees... Deadlier Nightmare Beasts roam inside, more intelligent and specialized on predation and hunting."

"Interesting..." Lucifer said. "It sounds fun, we should go right away to hunt some more, so everyone can get enough Nightmare or Dream Essence inside their Dream Weapons, so they can evolve them too."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I agree... I guess we aren’t stopping any time soon, haha..."

"What’s the third layer?" Wondered Arachne, walking to my side and looking at the projected map curiously. "It looks like the desert?"

"Yeah, it is called the Burning Ash Desert," I explained. "It is a desert made of burning ash, with volcanoes here and there, it is a burning and desertic land that is only inhabited by the hardiest of Nightmare Beasts. Probably where most of the Kaiju-class are."

"Oooh!" Arachne got interested. "Like the big one you hunted down, mama?"

"Yes, that’s right," I nodded with a giggle. "Do you want to hunt them?"

"Yes! I am looking forward to it, I wonder if one of them could be as strong as a calamity!" Arachne said. "Wouldn’t that be cool?"

"Hahah! I suppose it would be? Yes, the bigger and stronger, the better," I nodded. "Another thing to note is that if they’re strong enough, their materials can be really good for more dream weapon evolutions... the requirements were pretty high after all."

"Hmm, yeah!" She nodded, although she didn’t quite understand that much herself.

"And so, the fourth layer is this one?" Nia wondered, bringing with her little Celes, who was curiously glancing the map as well.

"Is it a layer?" Celes asked.

"It’s more of a transitional area, but you could call it one," I nodded. "It is called the... Abyssal Void Swamps. They’re an area full of toxic swamps made of Nightmare Miasma that lead to the Nightmare Void Sea."

"Oh wow, looks dangerous!" Said Celes. "Are there scary monsters in there too, auntie?"

"Probably," I nodded. "Maybe the strongest we’ll find aside from the Nightmare Demons... and if the Nightmare Demons are truly past that point, then they might notice us and set some defenses."

"If that’s the case, wouldn’t that be for the better? So we can get to fighting right away!" Partner smiled confidently.

"I guess so, we still have over two days, so let’s take it easy," I said. "Alright, so the Verdant Jungles, the Crimson Blood Forest, the Burning Ash Desert, and the Abyssal Void Swamps. We’ll have to get through all of them to reach our destination, and this will also be the perfect time to train and grind as much as possible."

"What about the academy, don’t we need to attend it some more?" Jonathan asked.

"Nah, it’s fine, we’re already on the weekend, after all the incidents, they’re giving the whole weekend to the students," I explained. "Now, Beatriz, Emeraldine, are you done? I think we should get going."

"Was the useful?" Beatriz wondered, looking at me with a bored expression.

"Very!" I nodded. "Did you always know of these four layers and everything else?"

"Yeah, it is basic knowledge you learn when you’re left here as an infant trying to survive. I also know the safest routes," she said. "So if you want me to..."

"Nah, it’s fine, we’ll go to the Wild Rainforest area and walk past that to reach the end of the Verdant Jungle," I nodded with a confident smile.

"Wait, you’re going to go through that area?!" Beatriz asked. "That’s where most monsters are!

"Yeah, that’s why," I nodded with a smile. "Shortcuts aren’t good for our growth after all. The more we hunt, the better."

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