“I’ll be damned, that little runt managed to pass eternal drip cavern! Did you see that Walus?” Kiva howled.
“Yes,” bellowed Walus as he watched on intently.
“Is that all you are going to say? Aren’t you at least a little impressed?” That hidden dungeon has gone unfinished for the past thirteen training grounds that it has appeared in! Finally, someone who isn’t a complete weakling or idiot stumbled upon that cavern and solved the puzzles, and it just so happened to be the same initiate who received your gloves. What a development,” Kiva continued with growing excitement.
Walus just shrugged in response as he kept his eyes focussed on the large display in front of him.
“My god you are such a boring bastard,” Kiva whined as a few disapproving heads turned and frowned in his direction. “Sorry, sorry,” Kiva said. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand why people get so upset when someone mentions the god word in that way, such sensitive deities we have these days,” he thought.
Standing up, Kiva extended all four of his legs and rotated his body three hundred and sixty degrees one way and then back again.
“Ahh that’s better,” he proclaimed after achieving a series of satisfying pops in his back. “I’m off to find Selta, I’m sure she will be interested in the news,” he said as he worked his way up the stairs towards the exit of the great viewing hall.
As he exited the massive hall room Kiva was faced with the expanse of the holy garden. An enormous space that would dwarf most mortal cities in size. The garden contained plants and wildlife from all corners of the galaxy. It is from this grand garden that the training grounds for this generations training grounds were designed after all. Kiva always enjoyed exploring the many areas of this fabulous natural environment. Despite the many thousands of years he had been a god of this sector Kiva still wasn’t sure that he’d seen all that this place had to offer. But he was here for a specific reason, he needed to find Selta, greater god of sense. Luckily, Selta always tended to meditate under the same tree, the spirit oak.
Kiva passed the pine forest, then the exotic orchard before finally making his way to the realm of the oak. This section of the forest was filled with massive oak trees that stretched an average of two hundred metres into the sky. Each tree had thick branches, each wide enough to carve a home out of, and their leaves were as big as a person. However, one tree stood out above all others, its dark brown, twisting trunk dwarfed all other plants around it and it had an aura of its own that could rival many of the gods: the spirit oak. A natural monolith with no equal. It stood many hundreds of metres high, and its branches stretched out double that distance wide. Its spectacular trunk was over fifty metres in diameter, and it said that its roots spread across every corner of the holy garden. It truly was the king of the forest. And surely enough, at its base, sitting cross legged on one of its exposed roots, deep in meditation, was Selta.
Selta was petite for a god. Particularly compared to the other greater gods, the superiors to the greater gods such as Kiva. She stood no more than five foot tall, and her complexion was youthful, and beautiful. She had tan skin with flowing locks of pink hair that rested on the ground around her as she sat. She wore a golden, sequinned gown that sat lightly over her shoulders, exposing her arms and legs from the knees down. Her eyes were a stunning purple colour, and she had an additional larger eye in the middle of her forehead that mostly remained closed. On her back were two small wings that were tinted a pinkish-purple and seemed to shimmer in the light.
As Kiva approached Selta he briefly saw her third eye open to analyse him before it closed once again. Kiva had always been captivated by her beauty, and equally confused by her methods. She was as close to his opposite as was physically possible. Kiva excelled in battle and had almost entirely focussed his energy and efforts entirely on advancing his physical power. Whereas Selta excelled in mental fortitude and intelligence. In fact, Kiva had never heard of her engaging in battle at all, something that was extremely impressive. She was like the yin to his yang, and despite their differences, the two had always gotten along amicably. But none of that changed the fact the she outranked him and he needed to treat her with the respect she deserved.
“Selta, I apologise for interrupting you, but I wish to discuss something regarding the events in the training grounds,” Kiva said shyly, a complete change to his normal tone.
Selta kept all eyes closed but smiled as he got closer.
“Kiva, I think we are beyond the formalities by now, you can speak openly with me, there is no one else here,” assured Selta, patting the area next to her with her hand, showing off her perfectly manicured fingers and pink nails.
Kiva blushed lightly, a sensation he rarely experienced, before walking forward and sitting awkwardly beside her.
“I appreciate that Selta, but you know the deal, rules are rules here and there is a reason there is a hierarchy,” Kiva babbled.
“There is no hierarchy here Kiva, all must work together for the forest to thrive,” Selta replied softly.
“Yeah, yeah. Well as long as we are being candid you can cut out to mushy lectures, I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with Walus today and I’d love to just have a normal conversation for a change,” complained Kiva, regretting his words as soon as he said them.
Selta chuckled at Kivas words before replying, “Very well, why are you here Kiva?”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Shit, yeah right of course, about that,” Kiva stammered.
“Kiva please, there is a difference between candid and vulgar, but go on,” Selta scolded.
“Fuck, sorry. Woops, sorry. Anyway, I thought you might be interested to know that an initiate finally solved your hidden dungeon, endless drip cavern,” Kiva exclaimed.
Selta opened all three eyes and Kiva felt the full intensity of her stare as she looked his way.
“That is interesting, don’t tell me it was that cold hearted human fool who’s been stuck there for eras?” Selta asked with intrigue.
“No not him, he was killed by a new recruit who completed the dungeon in less than a day,” Kiva explained.
“You know I don’t condone violence, but even I had an issue with that man. He stalked the other initiates before eliminating them to get through to the third stage, he didn’t solve a single thing himself. Perhaps the universe is better without him,” Selta grumbled before regaining her composure. “Anyway, tell me about the one who completed the puzzles, she asked.
Kiva always found Selta’s view on the world confusing. Violence was an inescapable fact of life within the universe, for Selta to be so against it just didn’t make sense, and he had no idea how she had managed to progress so far up the ranks of the gods with her methods.
“He’s an unusual human initiate from the recent the Methyst universe integration,” Kiva explained.
“How so?,” questioned Selta.
“Well, firstly he wields a chain as his soul item. He also has an affinity for illusions. And finally, he almost entirely invests his stat points into vitality, with the stat making up more than half of his total points,” Declared Kiva.
Selta proceeded to fold her arms at Kivas description, “Hmm, that is an eclectic mix of traits. Just how did he defeat the other man, were they similar levels?” she asked.
“No actually the newcomer was a full two power levels less than the fool, and both were still under level ten. Even more impressive were the humans tactics, quite eclectic if I do say so myself,” Kiva declared.
By now the little god was rising to her feet, intrigued by Kiva’s words.
“He defeated him with his intellect! Oh, I can’t tell you how pleased it makes me to know that someone with a brain was the one to put that fool down and not just another brute!” she exclaimed, “I had all but given up on the initiates with the lack of progress in my dungeon over such a prolonged period of time, but this brings me great joy.”
“I’m pleased for you Selta,” grinned Kiva as he looked at the now beaming god.
“Well, what are we waiting for let’s go,” declared Selta.
“Go? Go where?” queried Kiva.
“To the great viewing hall of course silly! I can’t wait to watch the replay of that brute getting clobbered,” she replied.
“Gee Selta, I thought you weren’t a fan of violence,” mocked Kiva, a devilish grin spreading across his face, putting his tusks on full show.
Selta blushed and looked away with embarrassment.
“I meant I can’t wait to see those puzzles get solved, anyway let’s go,” she said, as she began heading off in the direction from which Kiva had just come.
Kiva chuckled to himself, before getting up and following after the little god as she floated forward above the ground, her wings flapping rapidly in front of him, leaving a cloud of glistening purple dust in her wake.
The deities entered the great hall together, raising a few curious eyebrows from the peanut gallery of lesser gods. Kiva responded with a glare in their direction, and they immediately looked away sheepishly. Just before the two separated to go to their seats a murmur spread across the hall as day three concluded and the first official ranking statistics spread across the circular viewing space for all to see.
“So, is the human that completed my dungeon up there? Surely he must be doing well with the rewards my dungeon granted?” Selta said excitedly.
Kiva’s eyes scanned the information in front of him. A multitude of different categories and criteria for individual initiates was available for viewing. Although he was tempted to go straight to the individual stats, he also wanted to assess how the training grounds were progressing overall.
Delta galaxy training grounds day 3 progress update, overall:
Total training grounds: 1000
Total initiates remaining: 17,500,227,422 of 24,784,500,698
Average power level: 3.4
Average soul item level: 3.6
Average soul magic level: 3.2
Hidden dungeons completed: 65
Kiva analysed the data before him and nodded, “Quite a small galaxy this one. Less than twenty-five billion starting initiates. But the quality must be high. Around seventy percent are still alive after three whole days. How interesting. Normally there would be only half remaining at this point,” he thought.
An impatient Selta was frowning at both the screen and Kiva.
“So much death,” she sighed before tugging at one of Kiva’s legs, “Well, what’s his name? Does he rank highly?” she asked.
Kiva turned his attention to the individual side of the screen and pictured the one known as Barry in his mind. Instantly the screen responded and changed, and Kiva smiled as he looked at the human’s position.
Delta galaxy training grounds day 3 progress update, individual Barry Wines:
Power level: Rank 10
Item level: Rank 5
Magic level: Unranked
Total stat points: Rank 2
Wealth: Rank 53
Vitality: Rank 1
Strength: Unranked
Stamina: Unranked
Dexterity: Unranked
Mana: Unranked
Perception: Unranked
Manipulation: Unranked
Willpower: Unranked
There he was, Barry Wines, the human, tenth overall for power level, fifth for item level, fifty third for wealth and impressively, second for total stat points and first for vitality. In fact, Barry had the highest individual soul stat of any initiate when Kiva had a quick check of the individual soul stat ladders. The only key stat that he didn’t rank in the top one hundred for was soul magic.
“He sure is, check the vitality stat ladder and you’ll find your man right at the top,” Kiva smiled.
He watched as a wide eyed Selta gazed over to the individual initiate stats section before frowning.
“Barry? Are you sure that’s him? Pretty basic sort of a name,” Selta said.
“That’s him alright. I’d recommend watching right from the start, he’s been thoroughly entertaining, and no one is really talking about him except for Walus and I, if you can even call that gods grumbling talking. Well, the others might start paying attention now that he’s top ten,” Kiva stated before the two parted ways and returned to their seats.
“What are your thoughts on this year’s initiatesss?” hissed Hentry, greater god of verocaty.
“I see potential, the most in a long time,” mused Yvalt, greater god of deception.
The two deities sat to alone on the periphery of the section of greater gods. Hentry was a snake like being, his body long and limbless, covered in jet black scales. Two long flowing yellow whiskers sat on either side of his face and his beady eyes too glowed yellow. His long, forked tongue flickered out of his mouth as he spoke. Behind his long tongue and scaled lips were rows upon rows of short, razor sharp teeth. Conversely Yvalt was a bony winged humanoid. His body most closely resembled a half decomposed human corpse that had sprouted leathery wings. His jaw jittered as he spoke, and he appeared to have a permanent tremor. In his limbs
“Who hasss caught your eye?” Hentry asked.
“The girl who wields the scythe is a generational talent for sure. There are some others though including that remorseless archer and the current number one ranked initiate for power level with the time affinity,” Yvalt answered.
“Of course, I would tend to agree with you, they are most impressssive,” Hentry added, “What are your thoughts of the human with the high vitality stat and the illusion affinity, could he be moulded?”
“Hmm, he is intriguing, illusion is a rare and appealing affinity I will give him that. But it seems he is barely scraping through each challenge he faces. I wouldn’t be expecting him to be around too much longer. Our attention and efforts would be better placed on the certainties,“ Yvalt declared as the pair returned their focus to the events of the training grounds.