Chapter 552 - [King]

What starting price do you wish to set for Manabound Javelin (Upper Epic)?

What starting price do you wish to set for Ironfang Warhammer (Mid Epic)?

What starting price do you wish to set for Bloodtide Cleaver (Mid Epic)?

What starting price do you wish to set for Shardspike Glaive (Mid Epic)?

What starting price do you wish to set for Tethered Bastard Sword (Upper Epic)?

What starting price do you wish to set for Ashenfang Dagger (Upper Epic)?

What starting price do you wish to set for Veinpiercer Spear (Mid Epic)

Looking at all the items around me, I take a breather and check the timer. Not that much time remains until the 1st event, and we should soon get more information on it. As for the items, it is amazing I managed to craft three upper epic items.

I still remember how much effort it took to make a single one during the 4th floor. But now? With my experience, skills, thermal and kinetic energy, plus the fact I can push myself to the point of dying—and already did a few times, it's almost laughably easy.

I set the starting price at 10,999 shards for each upper epic. Then I set 6,969 for each mid epic. Then I set the duration of the auction at 2 days. I will very likely get more shards than I ask, but for now, I try to lowball them to get as many people as possible to bid on them. If the shop is the same for all the rounds, there should be a lot of people capable of bidding, and later I will also check what others are selling.

There is just so much to do. Again.

Before confirming the asking price, I check the items one more time. As has been my experience, they aren't that… good looking, but the performance is something I can vouch for, at least.

I teleport and arrive at the training circle near the huge tree. Sophie is still there, the Golem Heart hovering in the air, a piece resembling a lump of clay from something broken. Black smoke drifts around it.

“I'm trying to improve my connection to it through my bond. Blackie should take control and act independently quite well if I use a lot of mana,” she explains the moment I join.

“I see. Did you check the barrier around our hill?”

“Yes. We even had Lily try to damage it, and she couldn't—and it seems like no other round was able to do so. Currently, the system wants to keep the rounds separated.”

“At some point, it will likely go down. What happened while I was gone?”

“Well, Lily killed a lot of people. Some of them multiple times.”

“Anyone important?”

"Samuel, five times, until the guy finally shut up. His guild tried to help, so some of them died too. These guys from Hard difficulty thought they could pile on her and take her down together. Lily didn’t even use mana."

“That’s what they get.”

“I guess. Then she killed Adam, Brainiac, BenDover, and Bard. It didn’t even look that much more difficult to her than dealing with people from Hard difficulty, Nat. I think she would have done the same to Gareth if Maya and I didn't step in.”

“You should have let her.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Nat, we are trying to cooperate with these people, not fight them.” She pauses whatever she is training and looks at me.

I return her gaze, “It's okay. Lily and I will be the bad guys while we make you, Maya, and Channeler appear more reasonable. Some of them, after a year, probably forgot what we are capable of or thought they maybe grew faster than we did.”

“I know you don't care, but do you want them all to dislike or even hate Lily?”

Just that much betrays something. I shake my head and grab Golem Heart from the air and put it into her hand, “It seems like I know Lily better than you.”

***

The 1st event – Clash of Rounds will start soon!

In one hour, everyone will be transferred to the event area in a single round, with all difficulties participating together. The terrain will be picked from the system’s database.

The 1st round of the Earth tutorial will face the 2nd, the 3rd will face the 4th, the 5th will face the 6th, the 7th will face the 8th, and the 9th will face the 10th.

Your 5th round will face the 6th round of Earth's tutorial.

The 1st event will take place over the course of 24 hours, and the contenders will be rewarded according to their performance, the time it takes to win, and the points.

Each participating round will get the same fortress to defend and 12 hours for preparations. The remaining 12 hours will be used for the clash.

Your objective is to collect more points than your opponents. The winner is decided in one of three ways:

1st – Having more points than the opponent after 24 hours.

2nd – Fulfilling both requirements: taking over the opponent's Throne Room and eliminating their [King].

3rd – Eliminating all of the opponent's forces.

To take over the throne room of your opponent you have to stay inside it for 1 hour. It will also reward you 10,000 points.

All winners of their round's first tournaments will be classified as [King]. Defeating the [King] rewards 5,000 points. If the winner of a round's tournament is not present, the position of [King] will be passed to the next in line based on tournament placement.

Points will also be given for defeating your opponents as follows:

Easy difficulty attendee – 1 point

Normal difficulty attendee – 5 points

Hard difficulty attendee – 10 points

Hell difficulty attendee – 20 points

Beyond attendee – 100 points

After reading it all, I wave at Gareth, who is watching me, then glance at Myrra as she moves among guys from lower difficulties. I wonder what he thinks about her being here. I’d be dying of curiosity—how is it possible that a native of the floor is here?

Plenty of people recognize her as Myrra from their 4th floor. There are also a lot of Easy difficulty attendees with phones who ask her to take a selfie with them. Myrra, curious, lets it happen and, with wide-open eyes, looks at the screen. She then even poses and makes grimaces to the sheer amusement of these people.

The problem ensues when some middle-aged guy with a shirt featuring an anime character on it asks her to say, “Nya.” But that I leave for others to resolve as I move toward the main group that contains the strongest among us.

Tacita is on a thick branch of the tree nearby, and even Savant is here a bit away from the group—usually quiet with the same long black hair tied into a ponytail, green eyes, and a beauty mark under the corner of his left eye. But he feels different; it’s hard to explain, and even as I glance at him with my Mana Wavelength Iris, I get blocked. It’s not in the same way Tacita’s field does, but something more annoying.

Out of everyone here, he is also the only one deflecting my probing so easily. Even so, I can tell that his body feels like a mess, incredibly chaotic, and even more than last time. I wonder how much of it is his original self.

Lastly, his Sword of Aeons seems to be in better condition than before. Known as the best mana battery of Eladore, the world where Lissandra was Absolute, the blade is still broken with half of it missing, but the rest of the sword is in much better shape.

Surely at least low arcane, likely nearing mid arcane. My Fracture is mid arcane, but a lot was sacrificed to reach that level, while Savant’s Sword of Aeons seems to be progressing differently, taking a slower path. Patience subclass indeed.

I refocus on the conversation just in time to hear Sophie say, “I think this event is here to reflect the pairing in a small way. The king is absolute and the throne room is likely Earth itself or some important place it might have now after awakening. The [King]/Absolute having a worth of so many points likely serves to show the importance of that title.”

It's an interesting thought, and I would say I agree with her. In another situation, I would probably spend more time thinking about the intention of the event, but I do not do so this time. Instead, I continue to make my preparations. Only a small part of me listens and observes it all.

Sophie and Gareth mostly try to lead it all, as our Hell groups have the most members. Whitewing has 7 and group 4 has 9—well, 8 since Tess isn't here, but 10 with Myrra and Liss included. Hearing that neither of them will be participating, we can scratch it down to 8.

Even if we had the same number as Whitewing, I wouldn’t worry about it. Group 4 is clearly stronger, with more Beyond attendees and Champion candidates. Out of theirs, only Gareth is one declared by who knows who.

Then there is Tacita and Savant, each from their own group. IDK, with 3 members—BenDover included. TheGuild has 5 members; Swordmaster and AnotherOneHere are the most notable. And of course, the mysterious missing group.

There is also the fact that during the previous tournament, we couldn't challenge the avatars of the winner of the 6th tournament since the rounds weren't synced, leaving us with no idea of what to expect.

Obliterate everyone in your way. That's what the price for Tess's life is according to Lissandra.

And I plan to make it happen.

***

POV Min-Jae

We enter and find ourselves in what I can only describe as a throne room. It's massive, and as far as I can see, only people from Hell difficulty are here; the others were likely moved elsewhere.

The throne room is square with four huge pillars supporting it. Each of these pillars is delicately ornamented and inlaid with gold. There is even a thick red and gold carpet heading toward the throne at one of the ends of the room. The floor is white marble with veins of light gray running through it.

While I look around, steps reflect in the room as someone starts walking.

I turn and watch as Nathaniel walks across the marble floor, steps on the carpet, and heads towards the throne. He takes a step onto the elevated platform and sits down on a throne that is, unlike the room, very simple—a huge block of pitch-black stone that seems to absorb the light, with bits of golden and copper veins running through it.

There is a text floating above his head, a single golden word: [King].

Nat sits there as if it were natural, and his lance forms over his shoulder, just a single one. The one with a white and golden core, swirling with pale blue and violet hues. That lance seems almost alive, pulsating in sync with something.

The crown that had disappeared from over his head when we entered reappears again. And he just sits there. But no one complains or tries to talk to him.

(Kim, let's go, you will come with me; Maya, you can go with Gareth and make sure Samuel doesn't do some stupid shit. You can let Samuel lead—Hard difficulty and Normal difficulty guys seem to like him, but make sure he knows his place. Lily, you…)

(I'm sorry, Soph, but I will be staying with Nat for now for the preparations. I will join you guys later.)

(Okay, do you two need Dennis and Aaron?)

(Not this time.)

(Good, Dennis, Aaron, you two will be working with me to set up defenses. Kim, please look around for things you could throw later. Since we are missing Tess, you will be our sniper and I will be marking targets for you.)

(Sure! I can do that,) I answer.

We head out, and the door on the opposite side of the throne opens, a massive two-part door made from what looks like a single piece of dark brown wood, as thick as I am tall. Outside, we move through the hallways for a while before exiting the building.

When I look back, I have a hard time taking in the scale of the massive building we just exited—the majestic, towering stone building that seems like it would stand here forever.

Passing through the courtyard, we see Hard and other difficulties moving around, and some of us split away while I use [Telekinesis] and pull myself onto the first walkway. It's so tall, thick, and stretches so wide I don't think anything like that would be very possible on Earth.

Underneath, I see another courtyard that is also mostly empty, and down the hill we are on, there is another wall— even thicker and taller. The area we are in is cloudy, with the sun only rarely poking through the clouds—like an ugly day of snowless winter.

I use mana to strengthen my sight in a way Tess taught me and observe the exact same place mirroring ours that is a few miles away, also at the top of a hill that is exactly the same as ours.

In between us, there is that empty plain where, once in a while, leafless trees and boulders appear, as well as craters adorning the area. I fly higher and notice multiple expressions of envy from some attendees from Easy difficulty. It's almost to the point where I can feel it. Flying maybe longer than I should, I reach the highest place I can find and land there.

A ring of communications for private channels sounds to me, and I allow it to connect.

(Kim, Nat says he will make some mana projectile orbs for you. I'll also make some javelins from my bones and send someone to bring them to you.)

(Thank you, Lily.)

(No problem! They will probably create a barrier to defend against attacks, but he said he'll be breaking it, so I'll make sure he doesn't die while doing so. You know him...)

(I will do it. If he needs anything…)

(It's okay. Lissandra’s requirement is simple and direct, so it's mostly up to him—he can't get that much help if he wants to follow that. I said it to others, but please don't be saddened by the way Nat might act during the tournament.)

I move closer to the edge of the wall and sit with my legs hanging over the edge in a similar way Nathaniel likes to do when he finds a high place.

I ask Lily carefully, (Is… is he okay?)

(He is the angriest I have seen him in a long while,) Lily sends back.

(Sorry, I have to go,) I send to her and quickly sever the connection.

Next to me sits a beautiful woman with long silver hair and hazel-brown eyes. She lets her legs dangle over the edge as she gazes toward the second fort.

Lissandra remains quiet for a moment, her gaze steady, as if lost in thought. The wind tugs at strands of her silver hair, carrying with it the distant sounds of battle preparations. A faint smile plays on her lips—amusement or something else, I can’t quite tell.

Then, finally, she speaks, “Envy directed at a single person can be really powerful—especially if that person is deserving of it. But at the same time, that envy will crumble the moment that person loses.”

She reaches out and taps her fingertip against my forehead, observing me like an interesting animal. “People with envy like that either become the best followers, worshipping the subject of their envy until the end of their days or, once they see an opportunity, they become the worst of all traitors. I wonder which one you will be, little one.”

With that, she leaves as she likes to do.

I think of her words as I watch Sophie, with the help of others, form the web. Maya, Gareth, and Samuel organize the others; they even make plans with the help of Savant and the rest of group 4.

The doors into the throne room open only once, and Channeler rushes in with a few Easy difficulty people, and they start carrying out a lot of items: swords, javelins, spears, orbs, arrows, and others. All of it made of mana or bone. Much of it, they bring to me here as well.

While holding one of these orbs, I watch the last minutes tick down.

The world feels frozen, the wind barely stirring the dust along the ground. The sky remains an endless gray, the light dim and cold. Even time itself seems to hesitate, dragging out the final moments.

The barrier forms around the other fort—dark blue mana coiling tightly, its surface covered in shifting inscriptions that pulse with power. It doesn’t flicker or waver. It stands firm like a wall of pure will, likely fueled by countless individuals. The sheer density of it makes it feel less like a shield and more like an unbreakable fortress.

While we are staying in our base, the other round sends a few thousand people our way. They now stand with large distances between them on the plains surrounding our base. I count thousands, and there they are likely attempting to attack in one quick swoop.

They are led by two men. Neither of them has that [King] indicator over their head, but out of all the people there, they look the strongest. Just the way the others react to them shows it.

One of these two men has a [Mana Crown] over his head and a long staff with a big mana stone at the end.

And the other one has a different crown. This one is bigger, rougher, and looks as if it's made of iron, but I don't think it has to do with metal. The crown feels… strong. That man is also wearing black armor that has no other color in it and holds a helmet in his arm. There is no other weapon on him, but he clearly seems to be the strongest.

10 seconds remain when the door to the throne room opens one more time.

I feel the change in gravitational waves and Nat lands next to me.

Simple clothes, a calm face, and that lance floating over him. Just the way the gravitational primordial energy reacts to it sends a shiver down my back.

“Hey,” he greets simply.

“Hey,” I answer back awkwardly.

Five seconds remain.

Nathaniel's face grows even calmer, his expression untouched by the tension in the air. Below, the two men glance up at him, their gazes sharp, questioning—but he barely acknowledges them. Just a fleeting look before turning away, as if their presence is meaningless. As if they are nothing.

One second.

The system’s barrier around our fortress vanishes, not shattered or overwhelmed, but simply gone, dismissed like an afterthought.

Nat fires a single orb toward the enemy fortress, likely stretching one of his Ley Lines toward it. The moment it moves, they react. Shields flare, forces surge, and unseen defenses lock into place. The air bends as something fights back against him, a final line of resistance, but none of it matters.

None of it holds and he teleports through.

Over the enemy fortress, beyond the dark blue inscriptions pulsing with unbreakable power, light erupts in gold and white, streaked with violet and deep blue. It flashes only once, a single perfect moment of radiance.

And then, like glass struck at its weakest point, the unbreakable barrier shatters, its intricate inscriptions unraveling into nothing before the entire structure collapses, fading like it was never there.

A notification follows soon after.

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Nova (Beyond) +100 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Rico (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ UltraAlpha (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Baron (Beyond) +100 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ DuskDuke (Hell) +20 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ sahgjtxcvdsa (Hell) +20 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ CatHater (Hell) +20 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Hellfire (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ SupremeFurry (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ xxx_420_69_420_xxx (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ StormChaser (Hard) +10 pts

***

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