Such an exchange was good in my eyes. If they wanted to play dirty, then I’d also play along with them.

The two zones my forces appeared at were just the same like the old worlds I helped to crush before. And that similarity made me feel a little odd.

Were they planning to merge with more than just these seven? Were they also eyeing the other seven worlds? Damn!

“Leave out instructions that if the seven last words got attacked, more armies will respond at once,” I said to Lily before finally leaving Earth and going to the second Earth world.

I wanted to gather up all the items and wealth inside the paragon inventories. At the same time, I wanted to go and visit the research department.

The Hescos paragons had no other choice but to comply with me. And when I inspected my gains from them, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Seven artefacts! Seven! I thought I’d only get that gear sealing, space sealing, and brutal offensive artefacts only.

But to my surprise, they got four more artefacts in their hands that they didn’t use before.

One artefact would unleash a fierce trap in a certain zone. The size and fierceness of that trap depended entirely on one’s energy poured into that artefact that looked like a tripod.

It would have brought endless trouble to me and my forces if that paragon tried to use it. I didn’t know why he refrained from using it, but I stored it inside my inventory with the intention of using it later on at the golden quest and that last epic battle.

Another one aimed to augment the strength of forces in a fixed region. The amount of boost gained and the size of that effect depended also on the energy used.

It was just the reverse of what spearhead’s ability would do. It was like my healing sacrifice effect, yet it focused on strength.

The third artefact used to bring out hallucination to a certain person. It might not be that useful, but if I ever faced a strong foe then this one would be quite handy.

The fourth and last one came as a surprise to me.

“A gravity modifying artefact… Interesting!” This one aimed to manipulate gravity by increasing or decreasing it.

I thought about all the flying Hescos and flying enemies who kept causing me endless trouble, and this little baby here would be the nemesis of such forces.

I knew why the paragon didn’t risk using this one. If he ever dared to do it, then he’d also affect his side’s flying forces in the middle of such a fierce effect.

Like the previous artefacts, the size and the magnitude of changing depended entirely over the energy used to activate it.

In addition to that, the duration of this little baby’s effect would last as long as I kept my energy pouring into it.

For someone else, this might be a troublesome piece of gear. But to me it was priceless and a piece of cake to use it.

Using energy? Humph! I lack nothing like an endless supply of energy coming from my bones!

This artefact was in the shape of a weird board, looking like a chess board but with diagonal diamond shaped spots alternating between red and silver colours.

To use it, I just had to inject my energy into it while holding it like holding a serving plate. I tried and the red spots flared up because I wanted to increase the gravity. And when I thought about lowering the gravity, the silver ones shone brightly instead.

When I lowered the gravity, I was surprised to watch myself float in the air. It looked like I was able to fly without the need to use any other gear or trick.

“Awesome!” Having such valuable treasure added another crucial card up my sleeve.

I stored it carefully after patting on it like it was my most precious treasure in the world.

I got to admit, these Hescos were indeed wealthy! Just from the useless paragons I got they gave me such a rich harvest.

The artefacts weren’t the only big thing I got from them, I also found nice gears like three floating fortresses and a couple of heavy swords, and other useful gear.

I decided to give those to my team. In addition to that, there was an endless supply of coins, stat points, energy crystals, and other resources like ores and even potions.

These folks were really wealthy. And seeing all this harvest made me wonder about the hatred they got from their race to not use most of these in my battle against them.

I also thought about another possibility. If the Hescos were this extravagant to support their weak folks with such gears and artefacts, how about the ones leading their armies at the final battle?

For the first time ever, I started to grow excited about that upcoming battle.

It wasn’t just a battle to decide the final winner in this entire apocalyptic trial, but I also had a rare chance to raise up my entire elite strength to another whole level.

Feeling excited about my gains, I moved towards the research department zone. There I met up with the five leaders and got a brief meeting about what they achieved so far.

Since last time I visited them and the department was heading on the right track. They kept inventing more awesome weapons, modifying the old human arsenal, and adding new concepts and innovations in the meantime.

I saw long ranged rockets that could be equipped with what old Gan described as a mass destruction bomb.

From the words of those of the MIT, this bomb was a modification of the old and antique nuclear weapons of my humans.

These bombs were costly in making, but they were enough to devastate an entire region spanning for one hundred mile radius.

It had such scary areas of damage, but it also came with many side effects.