All five enemy team members were captured and bound with their buttocks glued to the ground.

Despite being completely helpless, the leader still showed attitude and didn’t want to hand over the ring.

So he was beaten black and blue with air punches by Aelira, giving him pain without breaking his Magic Suit.

In the end, they got all five rings, but this team had only collected the lowest tier of resources so far. Higher in quantity, but lower in points, totaling only 2130 points.

"Now that our business is done, you can be on your way." Rudrean politely smiled and waved his hand.

With that motion, five intricate gusts of wind slammed into them. It didn’t cause them any pain at all, but still shattered their Magic Suits as they vanished, exiting the Secret Realm.

With the trouble solved, the gang went back to their house and fell asleep.

The night after that went quietly, with no person or monster disturbing them.

It was as if they knew that something dangerous lived here, and it was better not to provoke it.

...

The next day, the group traveled up to 300 kilometers, reaching the 1500-kilometer mark. The resources and treasures also increased after 1400 kilometers, and even more at the 1500-kilometer mark.

Their points were growing steadily as they were in the uncharted area that very few teams had entered and managed to last long in.

They could understand why.

The monsters here were stronger.

They had the Elite tag before their names.

Moreover, they also moved in larger hordes.

The difficulty forced all teams to move strategically and lay traps before engaging the monsters.

All teams... except for Team RuRaRyRiRa.

By now, everyone had realized Lyra’s absurd power.

She literally had hundreds of magic items in her storage ring.

She had a solution for everything and had perfect strategies to move efficiently by taking advantage of her magic items.

They managed to collect all important resources of A-rank and above around this area. They didn’t bother with resources below A-rank to save time.

Meanwhile, Rudrean and Aelira were absurd powerhouses.

Nothing could slow their pace. Ryzen and Rivera did their best to support, but Rudrean and Aelira were carrying them by giving them death blows to already injured monsters so they could get the runes.

They killed roughly 592 powerful monsters and acquired tons of runes on the second day. But still not enough to upgrade all of their runes to A-rank.

One A-rank required 4 x B-rank runes.

The rune acquisition rate was volatile, but it was around 5 to 10 runes per 100 monsters killed.

All monsters dropped B-rank runes, while bosses dropped Super B-rank runes.

But that changed when they crossed the 1800-kilometer mark on the fourth day.

All monsters here had Elite in their names.

They were far stronger in terms of basic parameters.

Ryzen and Rivera became completely helpless against them in the sense that their senses could not keep up with the monsters’ speed, thus making them unable to react in time. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The hordes were also larger here, each one having no fewer than 200 monsters in them.

The area seemed to be cleanly divided by the Elite Bosses occupying chunks of territory.

This was the last 200-kilometer radius, and at the center of it was a pillar of light constantly shooting into the sky.

The final overlord boss lay there.

Rudrean and Aelira looked at it while standing atop a mountain peak at the 1800-kilometer mark.

"That’s the goal." Aelira grinned.

"And these ten bosses will be served to make us more powerful." Rudrean’s eyes sizzled with excitement. "They are all so strong."

[Isalyn: Yep. They will drop Super A-rank runes. But their stats are as strong as a peak Core Genesis powerhouse. This area is the kind that can only be cleared by Foundation-stage experts who have Epic-rank or Legendary-rank Arcane Paths and prodigious combat ability, because no Foundation-stage person would be powerful enough otherwise.]

No items above Foundation-rank could exist here. No weapons or items above 1-star could be used here.

The artifact was also not working, as Isalyn couldn’t come out of it because this Secret Realm had the law that only Foundation-stage powerhouses could enter.

This was what made Secret Realms like this difficult to conquer for average Foundation-stage experts.

...

They camped on the mountain peak as the fourth day had just begun, and the monsters here were too strong in large hordes.

So Lyra was working on an important project that would make their lives here easier while they went for the bosses.

And she was done within an hour.

"Ready." Lyra waved her hand as four visors with blue-glass screens flew toward Rudrean and the others.

She had already worn hers.

"I’d like to call them Hexed Eyes Visors." Lyra declared with a slightly prideful smile on her face. "They will use your neural network to boost your perception. Basically, we will be able to react against these stronger and faster monsters."

"Oh! This is perfect!" Ryzen cheered.

Rivera nodded with jubilation as she wore her visor. "Now we will be able to fight in this area."

"We can also use these to share our vision with someone else to explain a situation. It also comes with a virtual map of the surroundings that will pinpoint each of our locations."

"Terrific." Rudrean grinned.

Aelira laughed. "You’re a genius, doll. Let’s roll over this so-called dangerous area."

...

The first area they decided to explore was radioactive in a sense that everything had evolved to become toxically inflamed and burned with green and purple flames.

In the first two hours, they explored the whole area, killed 328 monsters, and collected six 2-star resources and two 3-star resources before arriving at the boss.

It was already a massive haul.

VRAAAAAAAK! VRAAAAK!

A powerful shockwave assaulted Rudrean and the others.

The surrounding temperature increased massively as everything started burning and smoke filled the whole area, blocking everyone’s vision.

Rudrean’s danger bells rang.

Without thinking, he unleashed his strongest defense while shouting through Magic Whisper. ’GATHER!’

A large swirling barrier synergistically crafted with Heavenfall Wind and Infernal Flame churned out from Bloodbound Armory and surrounded the group.

A moment later, Rudrean saw a massive tongue sparkling with absurd power strike the barrier.

Crack!

Cracks spread upon impact, but this barrier was designed to fly away, not stay stationary.

The impact instantly sent them flying while the location they had previously occupied exploded. A small mushroom cloud of smoke rose there.

And behind it stood a massive creature. Seeing it made chills crawl down everyone’s spine.

[Elite Boss — Tyrano Nuclear Frog]

The barrier stabilized mid-air.

"It’s time to hunt the boss." Rudrean cracked his neck, eyes thrilled to the max.

"That thing’s scary, but we can do it." Ryzen clenched his fists, slightly shaking with nervousness, but ready to go nonetheless.

"It’s looking straight at us," Lyra noted as her magic items flew out. "Time to go all out."

"Ryzen and Rivera, you stay back and support us." Aelira cracked her fingers. "Rudrean and I will attract its aggro."

"I’ll also use my weapons to attract its ire and annoy it. My items might not be able to damage it like you two, but creating irritation should be enough to annoy it." Lyra nodded.

Rudrean dissolved the barrier. "I’ll use my minions to lock down its movement."

His second rune, Spirit Nexus, which had upgraded to Super B-rank, activated.

Ten giant Frostbound Giants manifested. Each one was as strong as Rudrean in terms of parameters, as their stats reflected 100% of his own stats, and that was terrifying.

The ten Frostbound Giants instantly sacrificed their bodies upon Rudrean’s command and used all of their power to freeze the limbs of the giant frog to the ground.

"Let’s do this." Rudrean dived down first.

The eyes of the Tyrano Nuclear Frog glinted, ruthless and inviting.