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"Eeeeh?! This place is crazy!" Martina cried. "Haha! Let me take some pics while we're at it!"
While the three other girls admired the scenery, Martina pulled out her phone and started snapping pictures out of nowhere.
She took mostly selfies with herself in the middle, flashing a peace sign, sticking out her tongue, winking, and such.
Wow, she's really what we'd call a zoomer, huh?
Wait, since when did I become a boomer?
Damn it!
"It's like we went back in time. These types of jungles, I'm sure they no longer exist on the surface, right?" Alma asked.
"Yeah, not of this caliber, size, and massive height," Emily nodded. "Maybe the Amazonian Jungles in Brazil might compare a bit, but not really."
"It feels like we landed in another world entirely, or maybe, I suppose you could say it feels like we're inside one of those dinosaur movies," Sofia said.
"Prehistoric Park? Maybe," Emily nodded.
Wait, they call it Prehistoric Park in this world?
I don't know what to say.
"It would be more like *Journey to the Center of the Earth*, actually," I said. "Have you not watched that movie, girls? Or read the book?"
"The what? No?" Emily wondered. "Is there such a thing?"
"I don't know, maybe it's an old book, but Earth, you mean like the center of the planet, right? Weird to call it 'Earth' when it's Blue Star," Sofia said.
"Some call it Azure Star too," Alma smiled.
"Ah, okay," I nodded. "I guess it's an oldie then."
"I've watched *Journey to the Center of the Azure Star*, though," Alma said with a cute smile. "Was that it? And yeah, it's kind of similar. So I guess our planet is hollow inside! That's such a fascinating thing to learn."
"Right? I was pretty fascinated too," I nodded with a smile. "Alright then! We're resting here for a bit after hunting down a lot of Nightmare Beasts. As you can see around us, my Undead are still taking care of all the corpses we secured."
As the girls glanced around, they noticed armies of Skeletons and Zombies moving the corpses into my Shadows.
Once inside my Shadows, the corpses then enter my Inventory. Or well, it feels like my Shadow Realm and my Inventory are slowly becoming the same thing over time.
Aside from my Undead, the rest of my family was around here too. Partner and Nyx were the first to notice us, as everyone had spread out quite a bit to scout the surroundings.
Meanwhile, my true body was not here. Nope. I had already gone inside my Soulscape and planned to evolve in there.
Turns out I can still be present here through my Soul Egos, which, as a matter of fact, are just myself, as if I were a brain controlling many different bodies, although each body is kind of the same as me.
I can also stack the Soul Egos, like right now, and gain a lot of power. Should be slightly higher than my actual normal body, actually!
Which means I could get even stronger if my true body fuses with this current body, but that'll be for a desperate situation, as it exhausts my energies super quickly.
"Ah! It's you girls! You're back!"
Nyx came running to meet our friends, jumping onto Alma first.
"Alma! Hi!"
"Hello, Nyx! It's nice to see you! You're as energetic as ever, heheh."
"Yeah! Hi, Sof! Hi, Martina! Hi, Emy!"
As Nyx greeted the girls, they all flocked around her, returning her greetings.
Nyx was everyone's friend, after all.
"Hello, Nyx. You look energetic today too! Did you hunt some of these critters?" Emily asked.
"She must have. She's really strong, after all," Sofia nodded. "Hello, Nyx."
"Hey!" Martina said. "Ohh! Let's take a selfie together with Nyx!"
"What's a selfie?" Nyx asked, tilting her head.
"It's when you use your phone to take a picture of yourself," I explained to her. "You have your own phone, right?"
"Oh yeah!" Nyx pulled it out. "This thing?"
"Yeah, but I'll take the picture with my own, don't worry, Nyx," Martina said, petting her head.
Like that, they ended up taking a bunch of pictures, and they included me too.
Partner was the second to join us, being carried by her Familiar, Tooth.
"Ah, it's you girls! Well, looks like Maria brought you here," she said with a cocky smile, still holding her two spears. "Well! Things here are very, very wild, so you better get ready, or you're going to become Nightmare Beast food in no time, hehehe!"
"We're ready!" Alma nodded, clutching her staff. "Right, Undine?"
"Yes, Alma," Undine's voice echoed, although only Alma and I could hear her. "I will do my best to help you with my new strengths."
"How far are we from our destination, though?" Sofia asked. "And we're going to the castle of the Nightmare Demon King, right?"
"Yes, we're on the second layer of the hollow planet right now," I explained. "There are two more layers to go before we reach it: some kind of desert area, swamps, and then the Nightmare Void Sea, which leads to the Nightmare Dimension where the castle is located."
"Wow, I never imagined we could access that dimension physically through a route we could walk on," Emily said. "Despite how dangerous everything is, it really sounds exciting! Like we're discovering a completely new place no other human has ever stepped into yet."
"Yeah!" Alma nodded. "I'm excited and looking forward to it!"
"Hmm," Sofia smiled. "I have to agree, it is quite exciting, yes."
"Heh! We better have a lot of fun on the way then!" Martina giggled.
"I'll protect you all, so don't worry!" Nyx said with a proud smile.
Come to think of it, I should probably upgrade their Unit Cards to give them more Stats and Abilities and maybe assign them four powerful Undead to protect them.
And it's about time I begin my evolution. The sooner, the better!
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