When the early batches of resources arrived, he started to replenish the exhausted materials. During which, he taught all his factions about how to do it. Each faction sent a few of their capable masters to learn, and eventually, he left the task of repairing these defences to them.

By the fourth week of their arrival, the ecosystem was established. Part of his faction masters would go outside and collect materials, while another part handled the defences, fought the monster waves, and kept his base safe.

Yet after all this time, the problem of the growing number and frequency of monster waves still took a toll on the entire situation.

Even when his masters grew experienced in dealing with these monsters, they still couldn’t match the large waves of monsters attacking the base. Going like this was impossible. Even if the base was currently safe, William couldn’t risk sending anyone to train under these circumstances. Not to mention, he wasn’t sure the monsters wouldn’t grow bigger in one or two months from now.

And he was still unsettled about the nature of monsters dwelling in this forbidden region. It was called a forbidden region for a proper reason. And it wouldn’t be ranked at the very top of the dangerous zone in the upper realm if it were just infested with these few types of monsters.

He was sure far scarier monsters dwelled in this region. Even if those wouldn’t get attracted to his small zone now, by the constant fighting they would. And he didn’t want to see this happen before his masters would grow to gold grade.

"This is indeed a dilemma." he sat cross-legged, trying to contemplate this problem. "There must be something that’s drawing these monsters here. If I didn’t find it, then I can’t stop this from escalating beyond my control. But what is it?"

William had no clue whatsoever about the reason behind this weird phenomenon. So he decided to take a stroll outside, perhaps he would find something that could help.

Seeing him walk alone and head outside gave an instant scare to all of his friends and girls. Berry instantly dashed towards his direction, alongside Lina, Sara, and Ro.

Ro thought he was going to have some fun alone, and she wanted to tag along. She was the only girl feeling so. As for others, the moment they arrived at his side, they instantly asked him not to go outside on his own.

"Don’t venture outside like that," Berry sighed, "it makes me feel like we didn’t ascend and we are still back in the lower realm."

"Take me out with you; it’s quite boring here," Ro pleaded, and William could only sigh.

"Who said I’m going out to fight monsters alone?" He was speechless for a second before realising this was indeed a habit he had developed since he met them: "I’m going outside to find out the reason why monsters are flooding our way. It’s not normal for monsters to behave like this. Something must have attracted their attention, and I intend to find out what."

His words landed and soothed the worry inside his girls, killed the excitement inside Ro. They didn’t realise this point until he said it out loud. They thought it was normal for monsters to attack their zone in such a way.

And then they resigned to their fate and watched him walk away.

"These girls... Even Ro... What went wrong in their heads?"

William shook his head while having a wide smile on his face. He knew they were worried about him, and that made him feel quite the warmth in his heart.

As he walked away, he started to think about how to find out what was going on. "I need to roam around the zone; perhaps I’ll find something that can guide me."

Feeling lost, he decided to walk in circles around the zone. As he walked, he met with lots of shadow monsters. Yet he never met a single worm or a flying bird. It felt bizarre, as he was walking just ten miles away from his zone. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

If the monsters were attacking the area he selected to build the zone upon, then it wouldn’t make sense for them to specify their attack range and would instead attack the entire area around.

But no matter where he went, the monsters only attacked the zone, not a single area around it. The more he walked, the more puzzled he became, until he noticed something.

At first, it was something basic and natural to find. But as he walked for days, he finally started to notice it. At first, he heard subtle noises coming from the direction of his zone. Then, when he focused on this detail, he noticed something outstanding.

"There isn’t any other place around that generates noise but us!"

William recalled noticing these noises before on his first trip around the zone, when he was searching for hidden threats and riches. But he never paid enough attention to it, took it as granted, thanks to the sheer magnitude of fighting going on back in the base.

But now the noises had intensified thanks to the increasing rate of battles. On top of that, this became the single noise beacon in a grand area in this forbidden zone.

At this point, William couldn’t tell if there was another source of such noises in the entire zone or not. In case there were none, it wouldn’t only attract the worms and flying birds; it would also attract far scarier monsters.

And that wasn’t all.

"The ground... It’s filled with faint, yet intense vibrations coming from the zone."

William leant his head to the ground, listened for long minutes. And there he spotted soft, yet steady and constant vibrations coming from the constant fighting in the zone.

"The noises attract the birds, and the vibrations attract the worms... That’s indeed a problem..."

William finally found the reason behind the weird monster’s behaviour in the past days. Even if it was a problem he didn’t foresee before, luckily it was something that could be easily fixed.