Mummy Evolution

First of all, Sett made Faceless open a teleportation gateway into the Territory he had already refined. This was a 2 kilometer stretch of desert.

Standing over it, Sett commanded in his heart.

Absorb.

His Tomb Lord ability charged itself into life and his body became a black hole. Everything around him—air, dust, sand, and space itself—was pulled into his Inner Tomb with a distortion of light and shadows.

In merely 5 seconds, the entire land entered his body.

The Kemet Tomb became 2 kilometers smaller. Sett's Inner Tomb became 2 kilometers bigger.

[Tomb Size: 40 kilometers]

Sett felt his own strength increasing as well.

It went from 56 metric tons to 58 metric tons.

Sett's body became even more terrifying. He felt like a building volcano. His gaze moved to the rest of the land surrounding him.

[Unrefined but Marked Territory: 168 kilometers]

I need to refine this land to make it mine. But now, the refinement process itself is a bit too time consuming. And with enemies around, it is too foolish to start the refinement now without doing anything else.

With his Refinement Speed—which was genius level—Sett needed around 30 minutes to refine 1 kilometer of land as his own. That meant, to refine the entirety of 168 kilometers, he would need around 84 hours. Or in other words, three and a half days.

Average Axiom Holders, for example Lord Burrhen, needed a day to refine a single kilometer!

Yet, Sett still found his own speed unsatisfactory.

There was a much faster way to gain 169 kilometers in his Inner Tomb.

Sett looked at the projected map and his golden eyes glinted.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… A total of 20 D-tier Tombs are inside Kemet.

D-tier Tombs ranged from 1 kilometer to 10 kilometers in diameter at best. With a low calculation, he would get about 20 kilometers of land if he conquered all these D-tier Tombs. And conquering such a Tomb would be far too easy at this point.

After all, D-tier Tombs only had Tier 1 beings in general.

This was his plan. To conquer Tombs instead of refining the land. After all, once he conquers a Tomb, he would not have to painstakingly refine each inch of the land and instead, he could just absorb it all into his Inner Tomb in one go.

That was much faster.

Even the Kemet Tomb itself would be easy to absorb if he defeats the Lord Guardian.

Sett made a few of his Tomb Slaves come out.

They were all Tier 1 Sacred with three Tier 2 Lows among them.

He ordered: "Go and conquer all the Tier 1 Tombs for me. One by one. Act as a team, listen to all of this monkey's orders."

Sett then looked at the monkey. "I am giving you this team, go hunt on my behalf."

The monkey scratched its cheek. "So am I completely a worker under you now?"

"Don't worry, I will show you the best that life has to offer in return."

The monkey nodded. "So all I have to do is order this army to conquer weak Tombs, right?"

"Yep. Be fast."

The monkey left with its legion.

Sett then looked at the map again. How many C-tier Tombs did Kemet have?

1, 2, 3…

Nine.

C-tier Tombs had a size ranging from 10 kilometers to 100 kilometers of land at the very least. So conquering each should give a sizeable amount of Territory for Sett. At the very least, he was looking at 90 kilometers of land.

Sett frowned. He could send his Tier 2 armies to conquer these Tombs, but he had no general to send. He could not send Faceless, after all—Faceless was needed by his side at all times.

Even sending the monkey for mere D-tier Tombs are far too overkill. But I don't want to send Zainah or Zarah alone into any type of Tombs. They are not yet ready for such a thing.

Sett needed other generals.

With a thought, Sett decided to just try his luck with a random person as his general. "Faceless, take me to the Capital City."

Faceless opened a gateway. Sett walked through it.

Soon, he stood atop a building inside the capital, looking down at the populace. He smelled the veritable scents of all the people in the city and began searching for one smell. A person Sett wanted to see.

Someone Sett believed had talent. Someone who was trustworthy.

In a second, Sett found that person's scent.

He blinked through the area and appeared infront of an old man who was seated silently in a bar. The old man had a melancholic expression on his face.

This person was none other than the regretful old man who Sett had met near the Cloud Door. The man had wanted to ask about travelling back in time and fulfilling his own regrets, but Sett had not allowed the man to ask that question.

This old man also had a very righteous and straightforward nature. With a good conscience and a very kind disposition. Yet, he had answered all three of the Cloud Door's question—that meant the man was self aware.

Sett appeared infront of the man with immense speed, making the chairs and glasses fall due to the sudden influx of wind.

The old man was surprised. "You… you are the young man who offered gold in return of three questions."

Sett nodded. "Old man, what is your name?"

"... This humble one is called the Broken Wu by the people. They call me broken because I am too old and too sad."

Broken Wu was chronically depressed because he felt that he had missed living life at its fullest when he was a youth. When he was a kid, he spend it in fear of what would happen. Thus, he hadn't lived. Now, he was too old to start living.

"Broken Wu, would you like to try working as a war general under me?"

Broken Wu's expression changed. Then, it became still. He shook his head. "I am not going to kill anyone. War is too cruel."

Sett shook his head. "A pity. What if I say it is for a good cause? What if I say that I will pay you enough gold to make you a king?"

"There is no good cause for a war, young one. And I do not seek wealth. I only need enough to survive. Your heart is too fallen in the mire of ruthlessness, you should seek a way out."

Sett sighed. "Then it is indeed a pity."

He needed another general.

"Faceless, take me to the top of the wall."

A gateway was opened to the top of the wall. Sett walked in. And in seconds—he found the second candidate. This person was sleeping under an iron cart, a woolen blanket tightly wrapped around himself. He had a thumb in his mouth.

Whenever I see this guy, he is sleeping, Sett thought. But he is indeed someone with some talent.

This person was none other than the hair stylist from the City of Burrhen.

Roman Ron.

The owner of the Axiom of Skin and Hair. He had two abilities—one to make your hair silky smooth, another to make your skin lively and olive. Even after so many years of having the Axiom, he hadn't awakened the other 3 abilities.

Sett loomed over him, making the youth look up. "Ah, if it isn't Sett. Do you want something of me?" he asked groggily.

"Become my general."

"What? No. I want to sleep."

"Become my general."

"I need to read books."

"Become my general and I will mentor you. You are too stupid. Come, join me."

"...my friend, let me sleep in peace. I am not the ambitious type like you."

"You are hired."

Sett lifted the guy with his collar, then walked into a gateway made by Faceless. The irritated Roman looked at Faceless weirdly.

Wasn't this Egrith? The romantic rival of Sett?

He did not know that Faceless just looked alike.

Sett dropped Roman onto the hot noon-desert. Then pointed at an army. It was a powerful army with more than twelve Tier 2 powerhouses. "Use this army and conquer these C-tier Tombs in the map. I don't want to hear any excuses. By three hours, I want all the Tombs in the area conquered."

"..." Roman.

"And for good measure, I will send Ana with you. She is strong enough to crush most Tier 3 enemies, not to mention the Tier 2s that are usually in C-tier Tombs. Now, take the army, adapt to the new Tombs—conquer."

Soon, Roman left with the army—weirdly excited. "Don't blame me when I end up with all your army dead."

"You better keep them alive."

Honestly, Sett did not mind gambling the chance that this kid would succeed. And he did not really think someone could fail to conquer a C-tier Tomb with this much manpower.

Now, he had someone attacking all the D and C-tier Tombs.

Next came B-tier Tombs.

Each B-tier Tomb was at least a 100 kilometers in diameter.

That was a 100 tons of strength boost if Sett could conquer it.

These Tombs had Tier 3 enemies and truly complex worlds.

Sett looked at the projected map. There was only a single B-tier Tomb in the entirety of Kemet. I'd like to conquer it but entering an unknown B-tier Tomb is too much of a risk. It might be even more dangerous than Kemet itself due to the unpredictability.

Who knew what kind of world awaited him inside?

Thus, for now, he decided to just sit back and refine the land around him.