"What kind of room is this?" Jade blurted out what was on everyone else's minds.

They expected a plain-looking room with a mat or something. Maybe it would be a bit on the bigger side since Althea's beast form had to be huge as a Monarch.

But what they were looking at was way beyond being just big. It was more than fifty kilometres in length. And it went so high up into the sky that there were clouds. Not to mention the greenery everywhere.

But the biggest thing was the dense divine mana that was practically visible in the room. It swirled around and didn't escape even when they opened the doorway.

"I'll have you know that this place can barely contain my full form. So there's no need to overreact" Althea defended herself.

"Okay, but why does it look like a garden. I mean, if you were to change right now, wouldn't it all be squashed?" Muku replied.

"Yeah well, who said I use that form in here? I only said it was the reason why the room is so big. After all, I'm most comfortable with at least this much space, okay?" Althea continued her defense.

"Okay. Can you show us inside?" Muku changed topics.

"Sure. Let's go. I spend most of my time in here so I want to make it as welcoming as possible, which is why it looks like the forest I love so much. My spot is right in the center. You're not allowed there. Not that there's extra mana there or anything, I'm just protective of it. Oh, and there are many fruits all over the place. Don't randomly pick any of them without speaking to me yet. Some might kill you... Like the one that Jade girl is hiding behind her back," Althea began explaining everything to them while showing the area around.

Then she called out Jade who immediately panicked after hearing her words and threw a pitch-black fruit to the ground.

"What the hell Jade. If all the fruits in here you had to pick the most sus looking one of them. And it was without permission too!" Muku rebuked her angrily.

He wasn't angry that she did, but that she endangered herself.

"S..sorry. It just looked so appetizing. And I sensed no danger from it so..." Jade apologised with her head down.

"Fufu. I was kidding. That fruit is okay for you to eat. It has zero benefits though. And you're free to eat whatever fruits you want in here. None of them has any benefits though. Such fruits have long gone extinct or appear in rare dimensional rifts" Althea spoke before Muku could say anything.

"What? Really? Sigh. In any case, she should have asked for your permission first. I apologise for her behaviour" Muku replied while bowing his head and making Jade do the same.

While Althea seemed nice and all, they didn't know her for long enough to completely let their guard down around her, so Jade shouldn't have tested her like that.

"It's fine. Just make sure y'all stay away from the center though, that part was true. I do not like people close to my sacred place" Althea waved Muku off uncaringly.

After that, they continued in silence. He kept a closer eye on Jade than before. Even holding her hand.

There was a slight smile on her face that made him question whether she was being careless before or if it was planned.

Nuh, Jade would just brazenly hold his hand if she wanted to. The others would likely intervene though... Wait, was that the reason why? She was giving herself an excuse!

Well, whatever. Her plan worked and it was her win if that was the case...

....

A while later...

"I've shown you everything that I wanted to and told you all the rules. If there's anything else, we'll talk another time. I'll come check in on you from time to time as well as give you info on the Beast World. Oh and ask more about your world. For now, if there's nothing else, I'm going to cultivate... I mean I can't get stronger than I currently am, but if one doesn't maintain, they will regress so..." Althea spoke as she prepared to leave them at their chosen spot.

"We will do as you say. For now, we will focus on cultivating and won't keep you. Good luck with your maintenance," Muku spoke for the group as usual.

"Great. Goodbye for now..." Althea spoke and left...

"Do you really trust her?" Audrey asked through their phone-telepathy.

"No, and she doesn't trust us either. But for now, there's nothing we can do. And I sense no aggression from her, so let's just take advantage of this chance for now" Muku replied plainly.

"I support that. I also feel like this is the best turn of events we could have hoped for. If we had stayed there, some other Monarch might have found us. Like that bug Monarch. We don't know if it would have been as nice as her despite not having shown aggression back then" Layla spoke in support of Muku.

"Wait. That wasn't Althea?" Chloe asked in confusion.

"No, the air around her is completely different from that of that bug. And she said that there's a bug Monarch out there. So they are the most obvious choice right now" Layla replied calmly.

She remembered that moment clearly and hated it the more she thought about it. Being controlled like that without being able to do anything really sucked. She has never felt such hatred for any other living creature before.

Even Ares wasn't as hateful to her. At least that bastard came head-on even when it was an ambush... Albeit that sounded quite ironic.

"Yeah, I support Layla. I feel no repulsion to Ms Althea at all. If anything, she feels quite warm" Emily spoke while remembering how comfortable she felt around Althea.

"Huh? With how hostile you were to her?" Jade asked.

"That's because she has her eyes on my man okay. Other than that, I think she's great" Emily defended herself.

"Yandere" Jade accused.

"Oh please, if I were a yandere you would have all died a long time ago. Especially you"

denied the claim.

"Hey! Why me specifically?!" Jade exclaimed in a wronged voice.

"No reason. You're just too loud" Emily replied nonchalantly.

"Do you want to go?" Jade let go of Muku's hand and walked closer to Emily.

As she did so, Emily walked towards her as well. Just when they were about to bump into each other Emily side-stepped and went past Jade. In no time at all, she was standing beside Muku with her hand in his like Jade was doing before.

Seeing this made Jade freeze. She immediately realised what had happened. Emily had outsmarted her... Hard too.

But she didn't get mad. She actually smiled at how everything happened. She found the situation rather funny really. The others did the same.

At the same time, they all thought that Emily was definitely a yandere. Maybe the nicer version but a yandere nonetheless.

"Okay. Enough chitchat. Let's get to cultivating already. The last one to reach MR7 is a rotten tomato" Muku brought everyone's attention back to the matter at hand. And joked a bit as well.

"Man! I know it's going to be me. It's always me" Lisa complained in a joking manner.

"Nuh. Maybe in the past when the others had some kind of advantage over you. But after the hell training, you've definitely caught up in every way. So if you lose now it's definitely because you didn't try hard enough" Muku replied to her complaint.

"Can't you let me have my fail-safe damn it? I said it just in case I lost. That way I can keep a little face. But you ruined it" Lisa spoke in a displeased voice.

"Oh, sorry. Why don't we do it this way? If you're in the top 5, I'll do anything you want with no questions asked" Muku quickly got to bribing with his body like usual.

It always worked so there was no need to fix it right?

"Really?" Lisa asked with glowing eyes.

Clearly having already thought of many things she wanted to make Muku do.

"Not fair! What about the rest of us?" Hope complained.

"Okay, let's do it like this. I'll do anything for everyone within the top five" Muku completely threw himself under the bus to avoid a fight.

The air instantly shifted the moment he said that.

Sparks began flying among all the girls.

They instantly went from the closest allies to the worst of enemies because of that one statement.

All of them had one or two things they wanted Muku to do but were too embarrassed to say. So this was their chance and they were gonna do their best to win.

Even Audrey was fired up. Which surprised Muku a lot. He thought that at least she wouldn't be bothered by the statement. But it seemed he had underestimated what he said.

It made him kinda hesitant and want to backtrack. But he had a feeling that he would regret it if he dared back out now.

So he was cooked...