In the outskirts of Planeptune, Virtua Forest stood a lilac-haired girl with tall and shapely figure. She wore a black-colored hoodie jacket which covered up 'til the upper part of her feet (she didn't wear any pants) with a symbolic 'N' badge right below her collars--one in each side pockets. Her hair reached out to her hips, in which holstered twin swords gleaming an ethereal colored light. Right on the side of her knees, she had two small laser guns tucked inside a belt.

She was basically Neptune from Ultra Dimension, where Plutia was the Patron deity and she grew up as a human girl. That to say, she had powerful fighting capabilities comparable to a Goddess.

After finally saving the world with Uzume and co., Big Nep decided to go back towards dimension hopping with Croire, hoping to record another batch of exciting adventures in her Nep Note.

"Well then, where will I end up next?"

She currently held her collection book containing the details of specimens she caught during her travels. Her travel diary, which she calls Nep Note was neatly tucked in her mildly colored rucksack, along with various survival kits as water canteen, various herbs, and potions, not to mention meals serving as emergency rations in case she couldn't forage her food.

The air was nice in this forest region; the invigorating breeze that's totally freed from city pollution. Overlooking the scenery was a medium-sized lake in which the currents from rivers and streams were gathered. She stood on a batch of land after crossing a bridge. There was a low hill in which one could climb and adore the entire view of the region. Briskly pace she took as the wind blew across her lower clothing as if trying to flash her stripped panties out.

"Are you done yet? Geez, why are you so hell-bent on sightseeing anyway."

Beside her, there was a small fairy with tanned skin, floating atop a book. Her name was Croire. She was capable of traveling between dimensions. Her mission was to record all the interesting stuff that happened in places they visit, but more often than not she would try tampering with all stuff to make it more chaotic than how it should be.

Despite her chronic evildoing, Neptune still forgave her—she had no choice since dimension hopping was the tome's special ability.

"Crostie you're such a party pooper. I just want to have a nice long breath of fresh air while adoring this scenic view. It wouldn't be long before I left this place—who knows when I'll end up here again."

"Hmph. What fun would it be? I'd rather see another dimension filled with conflict and chaos. Being in this peaceful world bores the hell outta me."

"Just five more minutes okay?"

"...I'll just go on my own."

"Fine! Fine! Please just let me get into the most comfortable position first."

Big Nep was really embarrassed during the past dimension hopping; she basically landed her precious region at that dimension Noire's face. It made herself flush red when it was involuntarily sniffed by the other party, with her striped panties being completely visible and got stared at for a couple of while.

...even if she actually liked girl on girl stuff, she got pretty tipsy when it occurred to herself.

"Cut out that stupid face! You must be thinking of perverted stuff again, aren't you?"

"I'm not!"

She straightened her hoodie jacket and carefully slid the clothes in between her thighs, after that, she put on a stance which would greatly reduce the recoil during the transport.

In addition to that, she put out her backpack inside her inventory; she just wore it for the sake of appearances.

"...well then, I don't expect much from you but. If we got separated, I'll just do things on my own accord—don't bother finding me before taking care of yourself."

"You're worried about me, Crostie?"

"S-s-stupid! I was just happy that I wouldn't be seeing your perverted face every now and then. Oh well, there we go."

"I'm not a perver---ughh?"

Before Nep could finish her lines, a dark, swirling vortex opened up in front of these two. Croire quickly stepped a certain distance closer, in which her body flickered and she got sucked in. Neptune followed up shortly; afraid the vortex would close in soon after.

When she was inside the vortex, she couldn't see Croire anywhere in sight. Instead, she felt a texture akin to flowing currents of water, as if drowning in a gentle stream of the river. She also saw countless strands of light floating around the currents. Their colors varied from the rainbow to assorted secondaries of it.

She wanted to assume she was underwater, but there are no droplets of air coming out of her mouth and her breathing was fine. As she tried to swim onto the place the lights were gathered, the motion was fluid akin to growing fins of her own. Rainbow trails were formed when she swam around, and the remainder of the lights behind seem to gather around it.

This strange spectacle continued on until the previous blackness dispersed and all that's left was a region filled with blinding light. Neptune had to close her eyes; at the same time rowing her body onto the source of illumination.

The next moment, she found herself standing amidst a riverbank in a misty forest; filled with bamboo trees reaching so high it covered the skies. The wind was quite eerie and the air she inhaled contained intoxicating amounts of energy, she couldn't help but feel a bit nauseous. The river in front of her was on the shallow side, with rocks and boulders to act as a stepping stone. Even without that, she could safely cross it, as the currents were at its calm point.

Just before she able to attempt crossing the river, a loud voice echoed before her:

"Halt! Who's there and from what sect are you?"

It was the voice of a young girl. She turned back to see two young girls dressed in thick violet robes which concealed most of their figures. One had a slender figure and brown hair with leafy green hair ribbon, the other had a voluptuous figure and pink hair. Those two were none other than Iffy and Compa.

Seeing this kind of fashion, Neptune couldn't help but sigh, especially since she couldn't stare at Compa's boobs nor Iffy's legs any longer.

"Sect? I don't practice any weird religion though."

"Wow, this girl is really rude."

"C-calm down Iffy..."

"I totally dunno what you guys are blabbering 'bout."

It was all said on reflex. The first thing she remembers about Sects were consisting of people on weird cults. She had read some Xuanhuan tales from the library when she's bored and got hooked by a few of those titles—one of them were written by Falcom. It was inspired by one of the adventurer's favorite martial art shows.

Nep wanted to call out the girls' names but realizing they're unfamiliar with her, it might rouse unwanted suspicion. There was awkward silence going as they locked eyes.

Two of the sect members began to eye Big Nep from toe to head. As if something had clicked in Iffy's mind, she flicked her fingers :

"You'll learn the details when you came with us. We hold no ill intentions but from the looks of it, you had the talent."

"Sorry 'bout that, we just had the obligatory mission as Inner Sect disciples to scout some new members. If you want, you can come to our Sect and learn a lot of things." Compa added.

"....well uh...I appreciate your offer but, I actually wanted to do some adventuring rather than spending my days being holed up and learn stuff....can't say I was fond of learning either."

It was one of the traumatic past of Nep (Big): hating school. She couldn't seem to sit in a long place for a long time and if the topic at hand didn't rouse her interest—she wouldn't be able to focus at all.

Though what Iffy said after that seem to crack down all of her worries.

"Don't worry 'bout it. All of the studying was only if you're aiming to be a medicine master. Our daily bread would be learning arts that cultivate immortality and enhance your fighting abilities. Some of the activities also include adventuring to a lot of places for our sect; a kind of mission—if you wanna put it. If you join our sect, it can ease all the adventuring hardship you had to normally endure."

Nep (Big) gasped at the word 'immortality'. She secretly was always jealous of the little version of her, the Patron deity of Hyperdimension's Planeptune. The Goddess would always stay a young girl where she herself would grow old and wither as a granny.

Uncertain what immortality meant, Nep (Big) inquired:

"Does that mean I would always be young and beautiful like this forever? That my firm boobs would never sag?"

The first sentence made some nerve contract in Iffy's face; the mention of boob in the second sentence totally cracked her nerve.

"...basically, yes." it was trembling voice as if she tried restraining all of the emotions welled within. Though, the surge of emotions made the Inner Sect disciple uncontrollably release nearly the full power of her aura.

The disciple totally didn't expect the innocent-looking lilac girl to spout something so perverted to her—rendering so much embarrassment, and made her a bit excited—the power she exerted from her cultivation base was unrestrained.

It caused Neptune to gasp for breath—she nearly choked herself to unconsciousness due to this overwhelming presence. Though after the time it takes for an incense stick to burn (dunno how long it was) Neptune was finally able to collect herself and straighten her posture.

"Iffy, you shouldn't bully her like that! At first, she looks willing to be our junior but after what you did, wouldn't she think twice before joining?"

"W-well, I'm sorry Compa. Though after she joined the sect, she could also leave
any time as well, providing she hasn't become an Inner Sect disciple like us."

Iffy was embarrassed that for a single moment, in addition to her chest shame, she was thinking immoral things about the lilac girl. Different from Compa who was always prim and proper despite her voluptuous figure, this girl seems somehow wild and it kinda struck her buttons a bit.

The moment lewd imagery of touching the lilac girl, while both of them were naked, caused her to shook her head so cutely.

"That again with you being all stiff. Don't you know our Leader totally expected the best from us?"

...and Compa's encouragement, it made Iffy all-focused again. With a few 'ahems', she went back on track:

"It's...against my policy to sugar-coat myself or put on a facade. If the candidate themselves, no matter how talented, didn't want to join of their own volition after this—I won't go so far to spoonfed them with pretty words."

She totally tried to speak cooly to divert her excitement; it seems to be working well.

"...but you know the Leader's condition...it wasn't good so far and more people kept leaving for other 'promising' Sects."

"I know...dammit...it's just--that's just so unfair for them to sell the antidote at the cost of our Sect's sacred teachings. It's not a guarantee the cure would work and if the teachings were out—our Sect would be gone for good."

Neptune (Big) seemed a bit curious about what's going on. Was it some kind of drama? A conspiracy? She took note of Iffy's straightforward act and her own code of conduct. Big Nepu's life goal was to be forever young and eternally adventurous though.

Noticing the lilac girl's glance, Compa spoke to her:

"I'm sorry you had to hear our problems."

Iffy kept on a stoic expression; her eyes affixed on the newcomer.

"...well, how should I put it....it's kinda weird how you guys able to speak about such important matters while I'm still around. Maybe I'm just someone you can trust?"

"It's not really secret per se." Iffy cut her off, "Basically everyone in the cultivation world knew our sect was on the brink of collapse. If we took you back to the mortal world, however--they wouldn't have any idea about what we just talked about."

Big Neptune scratched her head, seemingly puzzled about the meaning behind Iffy's speech.

"What you wanna say is: even if they knew—they couldn't do anything 'bout it since they were powerless?"

"Umm...yeah, pretty much." Iffy's expression softened up, emitting a slight blush and averted gazes to her side rather than looking at Big Nep straightaway.

"Let me help." said Neptune (big), "I'm basically lost in this world. I came along with my buddy Crostie but we somehow got separated. I might just be a mortal but I'm confident in my strength and experience in adventuring! In return, please help me look for her."

"Prove your strength." Iffy retorted with a tone which could pierce through a mortal's soul, "Let me see whether you're able to help."

Neptune (big) wasn't all that upset by the non-hospitable attitude of the cultivator. In the stories she read, that kind of world was harsh and filled with evil people.

"Iffy, don't you think you're being too harsh? She didn't know what should be expected of cultivators."

"Compa, you misunderstood my point. It's her who proposed to 'lend us a hand' as if we're equal in strength."

"Hasn't she proven it already when you released the power of your cultivation base? If it were a mere mortal, they would be crushed to pieces already. She might not be a cultivator, but I felt a profound strength from her."

"That's more like it, miss Compa! If we could just talk things peacefully like this, the Author doesn't have to painstakingly write long-winded meaningless battle scenes that might turn this into Dogoo Ball Z!"

Iffy was the one who made a jab.

"All those bizarre talks you're spouting aside--well, I don't intend to fight either—I'm against senseless violence. I was just trying to test the strength of your cultivation base, though it seems I've nonchalantly done it when you mentioned something which I don't want to remember...my apologies."

"Do not worry, miss Iffy, I found modest breasts pretty erotic, you're also my typ—hey! ."

"...we're going home, Compa."

...she quickly averted her face and turned her back away, as to hide her smile. It obviously apparent that the compliments were downright sexual harassment but she felt strangely okay about this.

"Iffy, please don't be like this."

"I-I know right. Just because her knockers are big she doesn't have to go so far to tease me."

"Geez! You never react so much when I was the one teasing you. Does that mean you secretly have feelings for her?"

Hearing those line, Neptune (big) raised her eyebrows in excitement, whilst Iffy had something which broke in her nerve which caused her face to be as red as a tomato.

"...hey, I'm still here you know." the lilac girl exclaimed.

At that certain moment, Neptune (big) felt more envious of her Goddess counterpart. Regardless of their trait being similar, she felt like—she actually lacked a bit of presence.

That's because she didn't know the actual events on her home dimension. The lil' Neptune got overshadowed a lot by a cute purple girl called Plutia, reducing the self-aspiring Protagonist into eggplant-hating comic relief which Plutie want to snuggle a damn lot over best girl Nowa.

Yup, Neptune (small) is Plutia's legal wife now.

"Now you're just being silly, Compa. Of course, nothing could ever compare to whatever you've done for me," said Iffy to the other disciple.

Compa didn't pursue this matter about Iffy's preference. She felt that romance between fellow disciples was something unimaginable.

Big Nep didn't realize a moment had lapsed when she drowned into her thoughts. In which the disciples ended up their squabble and stared at the lilac girl who glanced at the trees; seemingly listless.

"Now that you mentioned it—you seem familiar but even after of our long speeches, you still haven't given your name." Compa brought about a point in which all three of them had forgotten.

"Neptune. My name is Neptune! Pleased to meet-cha."

"I also remember one of our past leaders had that kind of name. Maybe you're one of their descendants?" Iffy put her hand to the chin, gazing squarely at Nep.

"I dunno really."

"Iffy, I suppose we can chat all we want once we got back to our sect. Shall we make haste then? Ah yes...Neptuny...your name is really hard to pronounce so I'm just goin' to call you Nep-Nep—you okay with that?"

"My buds in the old place call me such, more exactly the little version of me."

"Huh, a little version of Nep-Nep? Do you mean something like a little sister?"

"It's kinda difficult to explain, maybe later after I got into your sect, miss Compa."

"Well, if you say so then..."

When those two were chatting about, Iffy already prepared some kind of floating boat, signaling them to come onboard. When asked, she said it was something she borrowed from a sect as an accommodation during missions. It allowed those with sufficient cultivation bases to maintain flight at high speed for a prolonged time. Since Iffy was exceptional in using this kind of item, she could travel many times faster—presumably the fastest in the entire Inner Sect.

"If we went in now, we might arrive before dawn."

"Huh? Is the sect that far away?"

Experiencing convenient travel nodes back in Hyperdimension in which distances would pass by instantly, being subjected to such concept of drudgery-inducing travel was baffling to her. Not to mention atop a small boat where she couldn't just lean to the right or left lest she would risk falling.

"Are you sure you ain't faking it before—saying you've got lots of experience in adventuring? In cultivation world, even the short travels would take days or weeks--"

"Wheee...seriously?"

This world was quite different from the fourth-wall and logic-defying law of the previous dimensions. Travels weren't as instantaneous as just waiting for a few seconds in the world map. Here, you got to really keep yourselves together.

"We can walk all the way, but it'll take a week. Not to mention, there'd be monsters coming from the ground as well." Iffy started to tease Big Nep around after being rather pissed off from the chest remark.

"Even though we need to hurry, one week wasn't such a long time. It wasn't even a month since we started our mission. If anything we'd be lucky to find a new disciple or two in the meantime."

Seeing Compa being rather nonchalant about time, Neptune (big) asked.

"...you two...just for how long had you guys lived..."

"It's really rude to ask someone their age. Though to be said, years passed by much slower for us cultivators. If you've already mastered your cultivation, it was said, the maximum years one could live was one thousand years old, even more, if you went beyond that."

Neptune (big)'s eyes glitter while imagining the prospect of living one thousand years and staying a healthy young girl. Iffy continued on:

"In short, yes. We could live for a very long time, but we're not immortal. Our world was very dangerous and one small mistake could end up in our deaths. The stronger you are, the better. That's why one must not neglect their cultivation."

In the end, they decided to walk leisurely all the way. To be said, their walking pace was rather fast and Big Nep was barely able to keep up.

"I once heard in the old scriptures, that due to the decree from the heavens, every cultivator, no matter how powerful, had limits to their lives. As such, immortality was prohibited. All lives must actually come to an end." Compa pitched in her knowledge, she also had a scholarly side to her.

"Well, I don't mind that. There'd be one time I went tired of adventuring and just want to move on. Immortality huh, it'd be scary if the only way to die was
by murder, or if nothing could actually kill you—I couldn't imagine what despair would await."

"Exactly. It would be a living nightmare if your life wouldn't end by the time you got tired of it." Iffy added.

If you could live forever, and stop whenever you want—it's just like a video game—thought Nep. What if, one could actually trespass that forbidden path and made an 'exception' to this rule of immortality. Like, when one was tired, they could put himself in some kind of suspended state, disappearing from the traces of the universe. They would, in turn, live a new life akin to a dream, did so countless times, abandoning their ultimate form of existence within the vast reaches of space.

Though, as for the immortality, it practically had a definite end, particularly the time when this universe resets. If you could survive in the end, that's where you would attain that very definition. Where everything else dies, but you were not, that was the essence of being immortal.

Now that Big Nep thought about it, they didn't even call themselves an 'immortal' like in the novels, but 'Cultivators'. More precisely, the ones who cultivate the ways of immortality as its goal. The origins and principles were still unknown.

The lilac girl was deep in thought as she strolled around the bamboo forest. The robed cultivator girls who walked up front left her out from the conversation, probably since it looked interesting? Both of them truly didn't expect this energetic girl to be a thoughtful type.

"Nep, we're finally here."'

After nearly a day out of travel, Iffy nudged Big Nep, who was asleep the entire time. She dragged the girl out and forced her to stand up—it took a bit before Nep was finally awake.

Upon noticing the wilderness nearby, the lilac girl came to this conclusion:

"Is your sect actually in the boonies?"

"Can I hit you?"

"Calm down...Iffy." Compa hurriedly stepped in between, "It's just...since we have a lot of time, we figure it'd better to train a bit--especially for our junior here."

"Ah, leveling up!"

"Seriously, I wonder what countryside did you come from..." Iffy grumbled again.

They went from the bamboo forest area to a lush green clearing. It was a spring which connected various river streams. Since the fog was gone, they could clearly see various wild animals having their way around: rabbits that emitted vicious aura despite their docile appearance; deers having eight sets of horns and scales as hard as rhinoceros; rock crabs who moved in the freshwater at amazing speed, you could barely follow their movement if you're a mere mortal.

Looking up to the skies, there were various colossal birds flying about and near the bamboo trees across their field of sight, few herds of panda gathered around it.

"That's a lot of animals."

"Of course there'd be. This is a Spirit Spring, Nep-Nep. The animals here weren't normal ones, but we call them Spirit Beasts. They were ordinary animals who were infused by a dense amount of spiritual energy over time. We cultivators often went and hunt these animals for Sect missions. Their every part was valuable for advancing our cultivation."

"Umm...how does a Spirit Spring work again?"

"It's pretty simple, Nep. You would take in spiritual energy by meditating near it and rotating your cultivation base. This one's pretty good; if you're able to constantly meditate for a few months without interruption, you could achieve breakthrough much faster contrary to merely consuming pills or inhaling incenses. Though, that way wasn't practical—best we can do with it was to recover our lost spirit energy.

The only way to progress using Spirit Spring was by carving your own Immortal's Cave for secluded meditation and applying the seal so you wouldn't be disturbed, and that's after finding the ones that stuck behind its boulders. Though, it could be broken by those with cultivation bases far stronger than the seal, so yeah, it's an inconvenient world."

"Sounds like it'll take a long time..."

"Like we said before, Nep-Nep. Since our years were a lot longer than normal humans and our appearance were generally retained as our youth self, it wasn't a problem if you're patient enough!"

"To be said, however. We didn't have that leisure of time, Compa. Especially if we wanted her to help us out."

"...umm...Iffy, I know how you feel but—ain't you're being a daredevil about this? I mean, that girl..."

"What is it? Are you guys talking 'bout me?"

Seeing Big Nep approaching, Iffy clapped her hand and looked straight at her.

"Perfect timing. So I've been meaning to ask you this: how well could you fight, I know you got those shiny weapons and stuff holstered, but are you confident defeating enemies on a completely different level?"

"No sweat! Monster subjugations were my bread and butter when I was busy adventuring."

Satisfied with the lilac girl's response, she looked at Compa with a smug face and a big thumbs up. Meanwhile, the big breasted disciple started to tremble in worry.

"Well then, let me give a brief explanation. Do you recognize the pattern in which those animals move?"

"Hmm...they seem to just keep it to themselves and not interfering with the other territories?"

It was a common occurrence in her previous adventures. All the monsters seem to only patrol a certain area and only would go out of their usual path just to chase an adventurer. Though after being away for a certain distance from their territory, they would go back to their respective post.

"Nice observational skills, Nep. Though, from what I've read from the scriptures—Spirit Springs in the open like these had a guardian, which usually was a Demonic Beast. It's like those animals but much stronger and vicious. They had a higher level of intelligence than mere beasts; being able to lead the animals inhabiting the area; assigning them to certain territories and mitigate any form of conflict."

"Iffy, you can't do this—at least not in here. The general idea was to separate the beasts from their horde and beat them one by one..."

"Nah, it wouldn't work. These beasts were too intelligent to be drawn by such tactics. If anything, they'd use our tactics against us. When we laid in wait, they might as well use the familiar forest terrain as their advantage and surround us. The only way this would work as if struck them in the open and overpower these beasts before they could react!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Neptune tilted her head.

"One of the fastest ways to advance cultivation, of course. It's none other than—battle, especially against strong foes. Our plan was to massacre each of these beasts by the herd. Even if they were intelligent enough to follow a tactic, they wouldn't lift a hand to help other animals not among their group. You see what I'm going here?"

"...you're also going to lure the guardian and defeat it?"

"Well, it all depends on how well you fight. If you were actually able to put decent enough battle, we would consider it."

Iffy added, with a bit of a smug grin.

To her response, Neptune brandished her dual swords:

"Which reminds me, I'm itching for some exercise!"