Pov Ace

Ever since I learned that the dragons have disappeared, things have just gone downhill. It only took four days after I found out for the rest of the world to learn that the dragons disappeared. No one still knows who is capable of spreading this kind of information without being found out, but I’m starting to not care. Whoever they are, they are obviously motivated to make sure that there are no secrets the public doesn’t know.

There wasn’t a big fallout from that knowledge being leaked. For most people, dragons were just scary stories, as they haven’t been a problem for the people of this age, so no one really cared much.

That was, until a few weeks ago. Many, even in the great powers, advocated for the eradication of the dragons, yet the populace didn’t really understand that stance, so those responsible for the leaks decided to educate the populace once again.

Now, most of the world knows that dragons used to tyrannically rule over civilization. On its own, I don’t think this knowledge meant much, but even now, I’m getting so many questions asked about when did that exactly happen.

Normally, we could just say that it’s a fabrication of facts, except these leakers haven’t gotten a single fact wrong yet in the past decade or so they’ve been operating, so people have come to trust them.

These are questions every diamond rank knows the answers to, but even if I wanted to, I literally couldn’t say anything because of the restrictions in my mind about speaking of such things. I don’t know exactly why the secret of the ages has yet to be revealed, but I’m guessing that will come in time—which I don’t have much left of. Perhaps the world doesn’t have much left of it as well.

I don’t understand how these leakers could be my best source of information, but they are. There have been several clashes of diamond ranks in the Black Ocean. Entire islands have been wiped out of existence. No one should have been able to report what happened, but somehow those people are still capable of doing so. Many, including me, are starting to think there might be some secret diamond ranks out there, but I guess only time will tell.

Most of the fights were to destroy dungeons that had been secretly cultivated by all four great powers, but mainly the Pixies. They had agreements in place to protect all the known dungeons they had, but apparently, every single one of them decided that having a few secret ones was important for some reason.

None of that has actually been too big of a concern for me—at least not right now. The biggest problem was the economy. With every nation taking sides, trade has become difficult. It has been a convenient excuse to stock up on resources we normally wouldn’t and focus more on developing self-sufficient solutions for resource shortages.

My mind was also in turmoil because of what was about to happen. Currently, I was sitting alone in my throne room, with only narrow beams of moonlight lighting up the room. It set the mood quite well. ETG has assured me that it could protect me and mine from the fallout of our decision, but I’m having a hard time seeing how he could protect my entire nation.

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I think I’ve grown too attached to the people I need to protect, who expect me to protect them and who have given so much to me in return. Yet I do not see a future where I can save them. There is only one future that I can see where I could live on with my wife and my close friends. It would still be a selfish decision to abandon everything else, and perhaps I could protect them. You never truly know.

It’s expected that there will no longer be any free dungeons soon and that every great power will claim each and every one of them. While some might have fights to see who will have dominion over them, I suspect that the Masters, especially with what’s about to happen during the breakthrough to platinum rank, will take control of this dungeon.

The problem is, even shackled, I am confident that ETG will reach the end—which means diamond ranks fighting over it, which in turn could mean my entire nation being wiped out because of it.

I hated having so much power coursing through me, which has gotten so much more powerful ever since I got my skills fixed, but I still couldn’t protect the people I promised to protect. Currently, the plan is to get as many people into the dungeon as possible after we are discovered, which I think will happen as soon as the breakthrough occurs, and we go down there with my minder.

But once again, ETG has assured me that if everything goes correctly, my minder and I will go down to his core, complete our mission, and walk out of there with ETG still free and the Masters none the wiser. I’ve tried to puzzle out how that’s possible for months, but I have literally no idea how it could even be possible.

Then I felt it—it was so much more powerful than the other breakthroughs I’ve felt. So, it was time. It was now or never. I stood up and started to walk towards the meeting point, which we had set up deep in my manor. I could feel my minder already waiting. When I got there, it was hard to miss the huge device sitting beside him.

“That looks bigger than I expected.”

He looked towards the device with a smile on his face. “With everything that’s going on, the higher-ups decided to go all out. These are the highest-grade diamond-rank dungeon chains we have access to. This will make sure this dungeon doesn't get free ever again. You’re certain that this gateway leads directly to the core, right? You should have at least that much control over it?”

“Don’t worry, I have enough control over it, and you know exactly what I can and can’t control. It has a strong will when it comes to training adventures. I have barely managed to slow down how many platinum ranks are being produced. You’ve gone over all of this, so why do you ask? Let’s just go.” I expected him to follow me, but he didn’t.

“We’re still waiting for someone.”

My steps stopped, and it was hard to keep my panic down. What did he mean, we’re still waiting for someone? Immediately, I tried to sense if there were any other diamond ranks, but I didn’t sense any, and he started to chuckle.

"Trying to find another diamond rank, are you? You’re getting better at sensing. You won’t have to search long because she’s coming right now." I looked where he was pointing and saw someone descending the stairs—a short-looking woman who wasn’t a diamond rank. That’s some really good news.

"I’d like you to meet Vivian. She’s from the beast faction, a brilliant dungeon scientist, and one of the only diamond ranks capable of completely hiding her presence—and ours—so we won’t hurt the dungeon with our brief presence there. The higher-ups have high expectations for this dungeon, and the beasts agree with that assessment. So, your concerns over our presence hurting the dungeon’s definition are no longer a factor."

During the explanation, Vivian revealed her diamond rank and then just as easily made it completely disappear. I didn’t even know that was possible. It was so hard not to react in a way that wasn’t expected of me. Why was she even here, weren’t they enemies right now?

"That’s great news, but why did you keep that until the last moment? You could have saved me a lot of headaches."

"It wasn’t certain if she could make it here or not, so I didn’t want to get your hopes up," he said in a nice way, almost like a friend, but I could see through his facade. He enjoyed it when I felt uncomfortable, but I didn’t care about him at the moment. I didn’t even know what the plan was, but I had a feeling it was no longer going to work.

Without a word, because I wasn’t certain I could keep my voice steady, I turned around and started to walk toward the gateway that would take us directly to the core. In just a few steps, I was through the gateway, staring up at a huge dungeon core, perfectly round and glowing with brilliant white light, that must have been more than 500 meters across—and I could see it steadily growing larger.