After the guild upgrades, Liam first started his grind by helping Crimson Abyss 2 because he wanted to check the situation and see just how much of the guild survived. Though he hadn't taken many steps to help them so far since the day of the apocalypse, now that he had a way to do that, he did that immediately. There were also other Crimson Abyss members scattered in other parts of the world too, but no other guild branches popped up on the roster, so he put that matter aside for now and focussed more on taking out as many hive hills as possible. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺 Unfortunately, this was the more pressing matter, and he still did not have a grasp on it. In 24 hours, he should logically be able to take out at least 24 or 23 hive hills since the cooldown of the skill was 1 hour, but the reality was far from it. He was only barely able to take care of 6 or 7 hive hills per day. That seemed to be his limit. The backlash effect of the [Soul Splice] skill was simply too severe for him to take on. Liam considered the possibility of experimenting with the skill and only using a few of the soul minions at a time rather than all of his entire army, but he immediately rejected this idea as this was way too risky. Firstly, he did not want to give the stronger isons inside the hive hill any chance to fight back. If perhaps his weaker version of [Soul Splice] was not enough to take out the queen, then it would be game over. The chances of this happening were also quite high. With every single day, these creatures were evolving at an alarming rate. Perhaps if the queen reached Level 500 or perhaps more, then his weaker [Soul Splice] might not be enough to deal with her. Not just that, there was a possibility that the queen or one of the generals could evolve a soul skill, particularly a defensive soul skill. This would completely nullify his plan and put him also in grave danger as he would be weakened after using the skill. Taking these things into consideration, Liam gritted his teeth and went all out every single time he faced a hive hill, bearing the severe backlash. With this, he was also constantly healing and mending his soul using the souls of the dead isons. This was the same technique he had used back inside the tutorial to get a stronger soul, and this time, also he hoped that this exercise would be fruitful. The downside of this type of strategy was time. While his pace wasn't too bad, it was also not enough. On the other side, the isons did their part and did not remain idle. At first, the insects were only focussing on the mutated and evolved beasts that had walked out of the portals from the first wave and were still lingering around in this world. But with every passing day, they were broadening their territory, and now they started hunting down human beings as well. Thankfully, the situation hadn't yet become too dire because of the guild communications channel where everyone was able to exchange information with each other. Most of the areas surrounding the hive hills were already evacuated, and people had started taking down the stragglers one by one as and when they saw these insects. However, the main problem still remained. The main swarm of isons around the hive hill was still intact. Even the big guilds did not dare to take on these massive numbers of insects on their own. Talks about cooperation slowly came up, and plans of one guild assisting another were being made. In this atmosphere, it was the government guilds that seemed to hold the maximum power as they possessed not just trained soldiers but also the necessary firepower, military-grade weapons, and ammunition. This became even more apparent when at the end of the second day, after the guild upgrades, teleportation from one guild to another became possible! With the help of the government-established guilds, small alliances were being made in a rush to take care of the swarm of insects surrounding the hive hill. While Liam was taking down the hive hills one after the other on one side, the government-established guilds joined forces and combined their military strength on the other side. With the help of this combined strength, they attacked the swarm surrounding the hive hills en masse. The number of soldiers participating in this mission totaled a whopping half million, and each and every single one of them was armed! Among this army, there were also other evolvers who were able to use mana. In Particular, there were 20 of them who were exceedingly strong. These 20 evolvers were called Generals, and all of their levels were around 50. Though no one had formed a mana core yet, it was clear that these twenty people had a strength and power that was head and shoulders above everyone else. With the help of the massive armed military forces, these 20 Generals led the army to victory as they started taking down one hive hill after another. Even if it involved extensive use of grenades and stronger military-grade ammunition, they saw the job through from the beginning to the end. With the more evolved isons, it was difficult to eradicate them using just bombs and guns completely, but they were still heavily injured as a result. These injured ones were then picked off by the 20 Generals and other people who were able to use mana. In doing so, they also racked up a huge number of experience points and also mana cores. The whole mission was extremely lucrative, and every one rejoiced as the nightmarish swarm was completely culled down. However… as for the hive hill itself… no one had any clue what to do about it. They simply left it untouched. No one really cared about this, as it did not pose a major threat right at this moment. Everyone was more than satisfied, even with just the swarm around the hive hill taken care of. At least this way, they were not able to see the massive noose that hung over their heads. Some of the guilds even had a theory that the hive hills would disappear on their own if left untouched. They even used examples of the hive hills in their backyard to support this theory when in reality, there was a person behind the scenes reducing the number of hive hills one at a time. At this time, in the guild communications channel, one of the guilds brought up a weird observation they had made. In Germany, Territory 4, a red hive hill had popped out!