Heron raving wind, former silver ranker now gold ranker on the path of the raving wind sorely prayed to whatever supreme being was listening to preserve his soul till they escaped this dungeon, he swore to abandon ascension. Ragged with his armor dented and bleeding from shallow cuts on his body, he groaned as he sat up, pushing the body of some glowing sun silver ranker off his body. head ringing, he froze as he heard a shuffle in the shrubs ahead of him, the ship of the red dust kingdom had crashed on an island in the diamond ranked dungeon.

Bloodied and disoriented, they had been set upon by a flock of sonic avian beasts, Heron hadn’t seen a bird feeding in his life, he had witnessed it feed on a silver ranker from the black sword ship that broke in along with them and swore to stay clear of birds for the rest of his existence. The crew of the red dust ship had gathered round the gold rankers of the kingdom and together they had delved deeper into the island they had landed on.

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, it had turned out to be the nursery of the avian beasts, or at least one of their nurseries. Again, Heron had watched as one of the guild gold rankers, a large bald man with tattoos that came to life die at the hand or beak and claws of the level 550 avian beast that guarded the hatchery. King Biyo and commander Zortes had found a way to escape from the literal diamond claws of the creature, the two gold rankers left had helped the rest retreat.

It had been a serious wake up call to them, this was a diamond ranked dungeon, everything found here was a catastrophe if it attacked the kingdom itself. With the team scattered, Heron had managed to kill a level 500 avian beast that had been injured from what seemed like a previous battle, sneaking up on it as it shuddered in its death throws and using his twin daggers to end its life, pushing himself to gold. He wasn’t ashamed of the way he ended its life; no sane silver ranker could survive in this hellish dungeon and now that he was gold, he had a chance, albeit a minute one to survive.

He had ran across another avian beast, two in fact that were fighting over something and had fallen in the line of their sonic attack. His ribs and inside were crushed in an instant and only his quick thinking and activation of his wind step skill had taken him to safety, laying him down in a bush where her recuperated slowly. The bush spat out king Biyo, commander Zortes and Davin who was now gold also, the thought of Mira and the last guardian, a kid who had just joined their ranks being dead drove a sour taste through his mouth.

King Biyo paused as he saw him,

“Heron, glad you’re alive” the king whispered,

“So am I my lord, so am I” Heron whispered back,

Commander Zortes glanced at him,

“Have you heard from the rest?” he asked,

“No commander, but I doubt any silver ranker is left alive in this hell” Heron whispered,

“Your pessimism is noted Heron, but you and Davin survived, odds are a few other silvers survived” the king said,

“Besides, it’s wishful thinking to assume the other kingdoms are all but wiped out”

Heron nodded,

“My lord, we need to leave” Davin said as he stretched a hand for Heron to help him get up,

King Biyo nodded,

“We need to find shelter, plus this island is one of the weaker ones” Zortes said,

Heron wondered how they assumed that,

“They work on a system of glowing pulses, this island among those in this line glows the least” Davin explained,

That solved the mystery of the absence of the birds on the island since those two birds had left, it also left the question of what else occupied the island. Zortes drew a large bastard blade strapped to his back, the silver weapon gleaming in the moonlight, they left the safety of the bush and slowly crept through the trees, eyes vigilant. Davin was the first to see it,

“What the- “he said as a large green creature flew towards them,

In a move fast for even a gold ranker, Heron saw king Biyo turn and grip the abnormally large creature that turned out to be a snake, holding it down for Zortes to cleave through its head in one swing. The movements from the snake attacking to Zortes cleaving its head of its body took less than two seconds, but Heron understood immediately, the king and commander were now diamond rankers. Heron fell to his knees and spoke,

“Congratulations my lord on your ascension to diamond, long may the red dust kingdom live”

“Get up man, we have no time for that” king Biyo hissed as he glanced around,

Heron nodded as he stood,

“Zortes, run scout and interference, Davin, guard me as I set up the camp zone, Heron, stand guard also” Biyo said,

Like a well-oiled machinery, they all took their positions, king Biyo releasing a circular red construct that expanded into a gold ranked large box that immediately blended with its environment. Opening the door, Heron saw that it carried a spatial ability as the room inside seemed bigger than possible and went on infinitely,

“Diamond coins well spent” the king said as he entered, followed by Davin, Heron and finally commander Zortes,

The door closing with a silent thud, everyone collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Commander Zortes quickly bringing out a map he placed on a table.

The camp zone was a construct made by the androids of the construct empire whose major affinity were space and spatial travel. Worth over ten thousand diamond coins, it was a rare relic and Heron subtly wondered where the king of the red dust kingdom had acquired such. Capable of producing as much space as the user intends, it let off no aura or imprint to be tracked, the perfect hiding spot.

The map laid down lit up, five orbs glowing, three silver and two shining diamonds,

“So, the guilds now have two new diamond rankers, and oddly enough three of our silvers are still alive” king Biyo murmured,

“Good, perhaps they are under the protection of the diamonds, meaning we can harvest legendary rank relics should we time this right” Zortes said,

“Are the silvers by anyway the Kairos girl and her man servant?” Heron asked,

The silver ranker known as the titan blade irked him, but now that he was gold, he wanted to beat on him a little, humble the little silver ranker who was brazen due to the Kairos behind him. Commander Zortes shook his head,

“No, these are ours, although I doubt if they could make it, the dungeon as tough as it is”

King Biyo sighed,

“a pity, I believe our plan has been shifted to step 2?, clan Azartes wouldn’t live to see the new dawn” Biyo said,

Heron wisely kept his mouth shut, he knew of the plan, and while he had subtly objected, his voice had been drowned by the dead Mira and the other guardian. In truth they were meant to be five, their mentor, the great lava panther had been slain in a battle against the black swords kingdom years ago and in honor of his prestige the position had been declared vacant for as long as the five guardians continue to exist. With the death of Mira and the latest guardian who Heron didn’t even bother to learn his name for the few days he had served on the team, new guardians would need to be chosen.

The rule of clan Azartes had been tense, while not oppressive in its entirety, the descendants of the now, master ranked Jager Azartes were a pain in the neck. The three kingdoms on the continent had seen their resources, manpower and ascenders funneled into the seasonal clash between clan Azartes of their continent and clan Endora of their sister continent Vistea. While Heron didn’t know most of the plan, he was pretty sure something was brewing between the three kingdoms.

King Biyo sat up straight,

“Commander Zortes, plot a path for us to rendezvous with the other two diamond rankers and our silvers, we will clear the islands in a straight path leading to the boss” he said,

Commander Zortes nodded and turned back to the map,

“my liege?, would that be wise?, you’ve seen how strong these avian birds are, shouldn’t we let the other two kingdoms take the brunt of the attacks before we go in?” Heron asked, glancing at Davin to see he had wanted to say the same thing,

To be frank Heron didn’t relish the thought of going toe to with those overweight feathered birds, king Biyo turned to him,

“Diamond ranked dungeons have bosses and mini bosses my dear Heron, at the death of either of these two creatures, their essence form takes shape. These are valuable than your average rare relics or loot.” King Biyo started,

“These are known as pieces of authority, infused into whatever form your authority has taken can bolster it, plus they can also be used to forge rare or even legendary weapons”

Heron looked stumped, those were indeed good a reason to go after it, but the fear of death superseded his greed. He turned hesitantly to the king who sighed,

“Fine, I can see not even the presence of Jager himself would let you consider leaving this safe zone, you and Davin can hold the fort while I and Zortes massacre our way through this dungeon” king Biyo said,

“My lord, our place is beside you,” Davin said,

“there’s nothing that can harm a diamond ranker that a gold like you two can protect us from, the realm of diamond is…strange, you can taste the rank of master but it’s locked, it’s like being a lowly advocate all over again” the king muttered,

Heron like every other ascender had wondered how masters were made, the rank 500 was known as the diamond rank, while also the rank of masters. Whatever the secret was, diamond rankers refused to divulge it and no one in recorded history had been stupid enough to ask masters about it, or maybe someone did and had been wiped from existence.

Zortes turned to the king,

“It has been done my liege, we may proceed” he said,

King Biyo nodded and removed one of his rings, tapping it as a veritable sum of coins and loots ranging from elixirs to rare armor most probably recovered from battling the sonic avian beasts were present. Commander Zortes also emptied his spatial storage,

“Watch over our loots will you, we’d need the space for the fights to come” king Biyo said,

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Heron had his mouth open as he stared at the amount of loot in his front, enough to build ten of the red dust kingdoms from the gold coins present. He begun to reconsider following the king, perhaps he could get close to the realm of diamonds, the mythical realm where ascenders stopped being average and moved closer to the realm of gods.

As the king and Zortes exited the camp zone, Davin sighed,

“I don’t believe them dead” he said,

“Who?” Heron asked,

“The Kairos girl and her companion”

Heron snorted,

“I know I said they were absurdly strong for the rank of silver, but I don’t see them surviving those birds” Heron replied,

“Maybe, but she’s a Kairos, the rumored house of mythical monsters that even house Dracon wouldn’t dare antagonize” Davin said,

Heron laid back down,

“That maybe true, but they’re just that, silvers, and in this dungeon that swallows even golds whole like fledglings, it’ll take an absurd amount of luck even for them”

Davin sighed and nodded, Heron closed his eyes to rest when a bizarre thought came to him,

What if they made it to gold?

***********

Moyo danced around the level 520 Savar serpent, the last one on the island they were situated on. The trees had been crushed from their earlier battle with the Savar queen, Oro in one hand and dominion in the other, be stabbed at the eyes and mouth of the serpent that cried in agony, hissing as it tried to call on its other fellow serpents, serpents that were slain.

If Moyo thought ranking up at silver was slow, gold was terrible. At 401 and with 620 points to add to his attribute, ascending was now a chore. Even with the number of serpents he had slain, he saw his rank tick up by one in dismay, level 402 after clearing an entire island. As the serpent dropped dead, he landed on the ground, Ashira who had been lounging on top of a tree beside him in an instant,

“I scouted the other islands close to us, three islands ahead glowed brighter” she said,

Moyo nodded,

“Then that’s our destination” he said,

“The islands aren’t that close together we can jump to, besides, I’m of the opinion we scour all the lesser islands first, might get another primordial queen serpent” Ashira noted,

Moyo shrugged, with his Digi Aye skill, battling the serpents had been somewhat easier and the absence of loot wasn’t encouraging, but it was an avenue for him to hone his skills the more,

“are we going to talk about what your vault did?, that was creepy and powerful, like diamond rank powerful” Ashira said,

“I’d be lying if I told you I had an idea about what that was, speaking of which, there’s something I should check out” he said as he sat on the floor, eyes closed,

Going into his core world, he stared at the silver doors of his vault that had moved from the air which it floated, to carving itself into his mountain. Puzzled he tentatively floated down to the door, willing it to open with his gold ranked Ashe. It swung open with a loud groan, revealing his arranged stacks of loot, relics and weapon holders he had grown accustomed to. On the left were silver lined racks of coins ranging from iron that seemed near infinite to diamond that took up half of the arranged stacks.

To the right were his clothes, custom made for him by Mrs. Martha, neatly folded and arranged. Along with the empty spaces for relics. He glanced up to see the vault now had an opening, two openings really. One flowed with the purple tinged liquid that coming in contact with revealed it o be his intent, manifested in his core, somehow flowing from his mountain core. The second liquid revealed itself to be pure aether mixed with essence, a glowing blueish liquid that flowed from the accumulated aether and essence.

Both the liquids seemed to condense together into a spot, a large metal table, a table that blazed with a fiery purple fire that glowed. Captivated he placed his hands in the flames, instinctively aware it could not and would not hurt him. The power he felt there buckled his knees, pure Ashe, and if he knew better, diamond ranked. This was a forge, somehow a forge that been created inside his vault that was linked to his core world. The liquids dripped slowly unto the table in which they sizzled away.

On the table laid a large hammer, black with the head fashioned into the shape of a snarling dragon. He grabbed it and felt his mantle’s power settle on him. His mantle given from as an instrument to shape essence to his will, primordial essence. He dropped the hammer back on the table with a loud clang and stepped back, staring at the latest addition to his core world. This was where the primordial essence of the queen Savar serpent had been forged into the katana Oro.

Glancing at the weapons rack again, he noticed the green glass weapon holder beneath the golden weapon holder that held dominion. Whatever this forge was, he instinctively knew to keep it quiet, the masters probably know about it and until he met back with them, he wasn’t going to say a word about it. Removing himself from his core world, he opened his eyes as his HUD lit up,

Notice: due to overcoming the power of the primordial queen serpent in a battle of life and death, vault of the titan(R) has manifested primordial forge. A forge with the ability to contain and forge primordial essence into weapons suitable for only forge owner. Forge can only transform a primordial essence higher than its rank once per rank, infinitely for primordial essences of the same rank.

“So?” Ashira asked,

He sent the notification to her,

“a vault forge, can’t say I’m surprised” she muttered,

“you’ve heard of it?” he asked,

She nodded,

“Mostly diamond rankers and masters have it, few within their ranks though and mostly sought after” she said,

“Master vardant of my house possesses one and my blade was forged from the primordial essence of a creature known as a meta morph to suit the fluid nature of my path”

“So, it’s valuable?” he asked again, just to be clear,

She nodded,

“Best we speak of it when we get back to the masters”

The both of them walked to the edge of the island, squinting as they looked to the next island,

“So, three more islands to a brighter island, and then that glowing beacon of light I’m pretty sure is the dungeon boss” Moyo said,

“Odds are everyone will gather at that position, the dungeon draws us all to the boss” Ashira replied,

“Third day in and we’ve barely finished one island, we need to up our pace” Moyo replied offhandedly,

Ashira gave him a stink eye,

“You say it like we’ve been lazing off” she said,

Moyo shot her a grin as he bunched his knees together, gathering momentum before blasting off silently, flying towards the other island in the distance. Ashira flew right behind him as the two gold rankers glided through the air, actively using his Digi Aye, he looked into the aether and aura spectrum of the next island, affirming his suspicions. Oro in hand, he spoke,

“Savar serpents on the next island, draw them all to a spot and eliminate, can’t waist time on small fries” he said,

Ashira produced her bow, blazing with the green aura of her mantle, arrow forming as she drew the string. She released arrow after arrow at the forest, the resultant hiss filling the air as numerous Savar serpents shot their heads out of the trees. A loud cry broke through the air as a large sonic avian bird fell from the clouds above, talon out to grab a good number of the snakes. Moyo had wasted no time, using his gold rank strength to blast his way straight unto the sandy beaches of the island, Ashira behind him.

At his back another cry of a bird broke through the air,

“Wrong move” he growled as he rolled to a stop on the sands, Oro intercepting the talons of an avian swooping in to grab him,

The air was suddenly filled with avians level 500-510,

Ashira released her bow, blade appearing in hand as she took a stance, both hands gripping the blade,

“ROAR” she said and swung the blade,

The very air vibrated as a sonic scream tore through the air with the combined abilities of sound and intent. The birds retreating a good distance, Moyo locked his mantle in place, blitzing forwards as dominion appeared in his other hand, both blades humming. One step of Ogun and he was right in front of a bird, its eyes gleaming as it opened its beak to release a shrill scream. Grabbing both its beaks, Moyo slammed them shut with all the titans might he possessed, the bird choked on its own sonic scream, the force blowing apart its skull and beak, blowing, Moyo away back to the island where he tumbled to a stop, bleeding from a cut that sealed immediately, gold rank was indeed the real deal.

Ignoring his notification of ranking up a level, he dodged another beak spearing into the ground. Ashira had managed to push the bird assaulting her away and stood back-to-back with Moyo,

“Nice kill” she said,

“Almost died, let’s not repeat that” he said,

She laughed even in the face of death, Moyo decided to try out a theory. He expanded his realm around the two birds circling them and with his Digi Aye, began to tug at their aether and essence. The birds squawked in confusion as their weights seemed to hold them down, but Moyo could see the aether and essence pouring out of them, thick lines of silver energy that coalesced in front of him. He willed it into the air, dispersing the energy before drawing more out, his head banging in pain.

The birds cried out with their sonic scream, shattering his realm as he stumbled from the pain that spiked through his mind. He felt Ashira grab him and shot through the forests, dodging attack after attack from Savar serpents that struck at them. His Digi Aye sight clearing up, he released himself from the grip of Ashira and began running, his endurance pumping energy through his body as he twisted backwards and sent a hail of intents into the trees, cracking and cutting the trees up in such a way that the slightest touch of the snakes brought the trees crashing down on them.

The cry of the birds resounded again,

“I’m getting tired of this!” he growled as he and Ashira jumped off the island, all their gold ranked strength pushing them to the next island that glowed a bit higher. Even as they landed, they ran with all the strength they had into the cover of the trees before pausing in silence. He glanced at her,

“Still chasing us?” he whispered,

Ashira paused, closed her eyes as a subtle pulse of energy radiated from her,

“no” she replied,

He nodded and banished both his blades,

“While I can’t complain about the dungeon seeing as it broke me through to gold, I hate it” he said,

“All the more reason we need to meet up with the other ascenders from the red dust kingdom” Ashira replied,

Moyo expanded his realm in that moment, trying to secure their surroundings when he felt the aura and growled the command, even before the ascender could plunge his blade deep into the heart of Ashira from behind,

“HOLD”

The ascender clad in black froze, eyes wide, his gold ranked will pitting its full might against the realm of the titan, a most futile effort. Moyo grabbed his arms and crushed them in his grip, the ascender groaning in pain as his lips were frozen,

“Black swords kingdom, newly minted gold rank” Ashira said as she relieved him of his blade,

“Bold of you” Moyo said as he began drawing out the aether and essence of the ascender, watching as he buckled to his knees in exhaustion,

He channeled it into his body and core, a frown on his face as he realized it couldn’t be fed into his core. With a wave of his hand, he dispersed the energy into the atmosphere, grabbing the ascender by the throat, he spoke,

“Where are the rest of your members?”

The ascender, weakened from having his aether and essence forcibly drawn spat at him. Moyo dodged the spittle, smiled and with all the strength flung the ascender into the air where a serpent’s head appeared out of nowhere and clamped down on the ascender that screamed,

“Knew those slippery slithering bastards were somewhere here” he muttered,

“Black swords on this island” Ashira said,

“let’s hunt them out” Moyo replied,

“You won’t have to” a voice said as three consecutive realms of shadow and poison slammed into them,

Moyo grunted at the realm catching him off guard, his eyes glowing with his Digi Aye skill, he wrapped his realm tightly around his body as he dispelled the mana attack of the realm over him. Honing in on the position of the three gold ranked ascenders, he activated his step of the titan, appearing above one of them who cursed and used both hands to block the punch Moyo threw his way. Bones and muscles tore at the attack of the titan, rendering the limbs useless even as it healed with the superior speed of a gold ranker.

Punching the ascender through the chest, he caved both his ribs and chest armor as the mage flopped to the ground, possibly dead. Ashira had executed the second ascender in a smooth fashion, her blade glowing green as she pumped toxin into his body before decapitating the ascender. The last ascender, a body cultivator took a stance as raw earth and stone covered him into a giant golem suit of armor,

“Your petty tricks won’t work on me red dust scum” he growled from the suit that echoed his voice,

Throwing a punch down at them that screamed through the air with aura, Moyo met the punch blow for blow grinning. The golem arm shattered, Moyo jumping on its chest as he hammered punch after punch through the suit of armor, dodging an earth spike that pierced out of the suit. Ashira was at his side, bow in hand as she shot a green toxic arrow through the crack of the suit. The ascender broke out through the back, rolling to a stop,

“you two are better than the average red dust ascenders” he growled,

The tall and muscular man with red hair and beards looked like a body builder on steroids,

“Thanks! it’s my healthy diet, a glass of water and two apples keep the ascenders away” Moyo replied,

“Your illogical words won’t distract me” the man replied,

Ashira knocked and shot an arrow in that same moment, the man dodging the arrow to see Moyo’s leg coming down on him like a hammer. Wisely dodging it he flipped backwards, suddenly having gauntlets on his arms. Clashing them together he spoke,

“I’ll derive great pleasure breaking your bones”

Moyo smiled and flexed his hands, letting his titans might strength loose as space subtly warped around the evolved attributes,

“we’ll see” Moyo replied and blasted forward to meet him,

Two gold rankers began exchanging blows that released sonic quakes, pure battle of attrition. For every punch that stung Moyo a bit, a piece of armor broke off the body of the black sword ascender, Moyo weaving and dodging with pre-natural speed as the ferocity of Oshosi guided his reflexes, letting the two gauntlets slam into him, Moyo gripped the gauntlets and pressed down with all the gold ranked strength and titans might he could muster, the gauntlet shattered like glass, the ascender coughing out blood,

“My mantle” he croaked,

Not giving him a moment of respite, Moyo twirled and kicked him in the chest, sending his body exploding backwards with all the force of an object breaking the sound barrier and crashing into a tree. The gold ranker slumped into unconsciousness, Ashira landed close to him,

“That felt good, didn’t it?’ she asked, a coy smile on her lips,

Moyo grinned, eyes glowing with the purple and silver of Digi Aye,

“Yes, yes it did” he replied.