The battle was immense. Everything going on within the dungeon had already riveted the spectators’ attention, but that showdown where one human took on at least half of the total competitors’ Darksigns all on his own was something else entirely.

Sridayne glanced at Vyournel, who had a suitably admirable look of astonishment. It wasn’t just at the proficiency their subject displayed when it came to combat.

Oh no, it was also at how amazing their numbers were doing. Just as she had predicted.

“How many?” she whispered to him.

“We have…” Vyournel’s eyes went unfocused for a moment as he checked their channel status. “Seven hundred thousand plus and counting.”

“Mm… we could do better.”

“You must be joking. The last spike we had wasn’t even half this many.”

Sridayne grinned. True enough. But she didn’t want to temper her ambition. That fight was basically confirming her suspicions that she had struck stardust. Raymond Dominick… She had picked up the name from the registrar, and she was going to remember it.

“Knock that glint out of your eyes.”

Sridayne turned to find Alecro limping over. The Halftyr in the crisp suit made in his home world’s fashion with the lapels and the pauldrons was as polished as ever, save for where his missing leg was replaced with a prosthetic. Shiny horns and a small goatee at the end of his ruddy face completed the professional look he was going for.

“The newcomer of yours might be flashy, but he pales before what Sameer is capable of,” Alecro said.

“Is that right?” Sridayne turned back to the screen as Raymond made three of the Darksigns attack each other. “Is your Sameer capable of something like that?”

“Oh, he’s capable of much worse. He’s just not stupid enough to get himself caught up in pointless fights.”

“Hmm, I don’t know, Alecro. The point of the fight isn’t the fight within the dungeon. It’s the fight outside it, you understand.”

Alecro glared at the rest of the spectators. “Bunch of fickle…”

His mutters dissolved into incoherence. Sridayne grinned to herself as she watched on. There were so many Darksigns… it was a small miracle Raymond had survived this long. Not only that, he hadn’t even suffered any wounds yet either. And then he simply quit the fighting.

One of his mimicking abilities created a fake version of him, like he already had a Darksign under his control. That was one of the things that had attracted such a strong viewership geared towards the human. His assortment of abilities allowed for quite the entertaining encounters, especially since it was obvious he hadn’t revealed his entire hand yet.

Especially considering he had something that was worth over one-hundred Mana pearls. Definitely insane.

Right now, the audience was reacting favourably with gasps and points as Raymond simply quit the arena. While his fake versions engaged the remaining Darksigns in the chamber, another little summons of his slipped through the cracks.

Then he simply disappeared.

Sridayne wasn’t the only one to express her surprise vocally. Brilliant. They had already seen him using his little teleportation powers. And now, he had used it to get away from the—she looked to Alecro—pointless battle.

“Say, Alecro,” Sridayne said, turning to her rival. “That is the final chamber, yes? Where your little human went?”

Alecro’s equanimity had returned. “Right. That’s where Sameer has already secured his victory. So all your little human will end up doing is getting himself killed.”

“Is that so?”

She and the Halftyr both turned to a different screen. This one was focused on the dungeon’s final chamber, the treasure room that held the final guardian the competitors would need to defeat to secure their reward. A room where, for now, one man was standing alone. But Raymond would soon—

Loud clanking noises made Sridayne and half the audience turn to the rear of their floating island. She frowned. What were they doing here?

A trio of Sylvans had landed, all of their armoured cloaks bearing a tabard depicting a hand with three, twisted fingers. The emblem of the Lord of the Third Floor.

“We have received reports that a belligerent has entered the Immortalizer Tournament,” the leader said.

His voice was firm yet cajoling. Ah, the Floor Lord had clearly been smart about sending the right person, as proven when the Sylvan continued speaking.

“We understand this belligerent’s conduct allowed no room for following the proper methodology of registration,” he said. “So we certainly don’t blame our good guards and registrars.” He focused on the very ones he was talking about. “So if you would kindly fill me on the exact identity of the belligerent and his current status within the dungeon, I would greatly appreciate it.”

Sridayne frowned as the Floor Lord’s hand-picked guards approached the registrars. This wasn’t looking good.

She turned back to the screen. The confrontation between Raymond and Alecro’s chosen one, Sameer, was only just starting. At this rate, the battle would barely get underway before they were interrupted. So he hadn’t been lying. Raymond really was being targeted by the Floor Lord himself.

“How many viewers now?” Sridayne asked Vyournel urgently.

“Um.” His eyes went unfocused for a few heartbeats. “Over nine hundred thousand. We should hit seven figures soon.”

“Good. We’ll have enough then.”

“Enough for what?”

“Enough to create a sizable investment.”

“Wait. You don’t mean…?”

“Raymond Dominick is the ticket we’ve been looking for, Vyournel. I don’t care if the Floor Lord has a grudge against him. I don’t care if the Tower Lord has something. I am not allowing this opportunity to slip by without doing something about it first.”

That something turned out to be a quick message to one of the bet-organizers operating at the tournament. Betting was one of the major earners in the entire tournament. A hot new prospect making waves wasn’t an opportunity the gamblers could pass up.

Farther off, the Floor Lord’s guards were done collecting what information they needed. They were about to head off into the dungeon proper.

Sridayne hitched in an anxious breath. She had to work fast. More importantly, Raymond needed to win fast.

----------------------------------------

Ray hadn’t been sure if entering the final boss arena would reveal that he was too late. Unfortunately, that was exactly what it turned out to be when he used Spectral Step after sending in a constructed chaos bee through the cracks in the door.

The chamber he ended up in was the biggest yet. Natural, since he was facing the boss of the dungeon and was seeking to attain the treasure to boot. The ceiling curved upwards in a dome that could have housed a small stadium. Unlike where the rest of the dungeon was made of obsidian-like glassy rock, this room had walls that appeared to be made of solid charcoal.

Ray didn’t look around for long, though. His eyes soon fell on the boss. Or what was left of it.

A huge, centipedal monster was lying dead. Ray couldn’t tell how exactly it had died. Way too many wounds were scored across its cherry-red body, adorning it with injuries of way too any varieties.

The fact that he could still recognize it as some sort of centipede-like creature was a stroke of luck. Really, he was just putting the segmented sections and the multiple short legs into a form that made the most sense to him. For all he knew, it could have been some kind of centipede-taur with a different creature set on top.

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At the same time, he received the backed-up notifications of the monsters he had called in the last furious battle.

[Enemy Defeated—Darksign]

Tier 20 Monster: Darksign [Level 55] x5

Essence: +55,000

Knowledge: +15

True Mana Restored: +5,500

[Level Up!]

Reward

* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.

* 1 True Mana Tier Point

* 1 Origin Mana Tier Point

Essence to Level 48: 6,650/221,200

[Reputation Threshold Crossed]

For reaching the 2,500-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 150.

Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,512/3,500

Oh, hmm. As glad as Ray was to receive enough experience to raise his level, it made him wonder if the battle outside the chamber had drawn to a close. He supposed he could check it out once he teleported outside. Right now, he had more important things to take care of.

“Congrats,” Ray said to the guy standing in the middle of the room, not far from where the dead monster was lying in a pool of black-red blood. “You don’t even look like you had much trouble beating that thing.”

The man was already looking at Ray. Had been, since the moment he had appeared inside the room. His clear blue eyes shone through the slit of his helmet. The rest of his garb reminded Ray of Sylvans—halfway between armour and a robe or cloak.

“You’re interrupting,” the man said. He sounded young. Younger than Ray, at least.

Ray grinned. “Well, I couldn’t just let you have the treasure all to yourself, now could I?”

He was answered with silence for a while, before the guy’s eyes sharpened. “Is that right? I got here first, I killed the boss fair and square, and now you come in to steal my credit?”

“What? I don’t see any rules or anything stating that the first one to kill the boss gets the reward. I’m here to take the treasure for myself, so put up or shut up.”

The man only continued to stare at Ray with growing disapproval. Somehow, he had a way of looking like a teacher who had just realized he had no other option but to fail a student. And the guy wasn’t even that old, for crying out loud.

Ray looked back at the dead boss. There was a strange object sitting atop the bloodied, chitinous segments of the monster. A weird crimson crystal that was pitted with writhing flesh.

Something told him that was the treasure the competitors were supposed to extract from this dungeon.

“Since you’re not responding,” Ray said, stepping forward. “I’m going to take that as a tacit go-ahead to take the treasure. Feel free to resist, by the way.”

“So, that’s it? You’re going to take just take the thing that doesn’t belong to you? The thing that I worked so hard to obtain? You’re going to profit off someone else’s hard work and steal like a common thief?”

Something about that irked Ray enough that he stopped walking to stare at the guy. Maybe it was the fact that he had just called Ray a thief.

Just like when the Marauder had implied Ray was one too, as a Tower Conqueror.

“I’m not stealing anything, pal—”

“Then what are you doing, huh?” The guy stepped forward. “I came here first, I killed the boss. You’ve been hanging back, thinking you could just take advantage of my hard work. Is that what you always do? Profit off of someone else’s effort?”

“You know, you could always try to stop me? Like, I’m giving you the opportunity to fight—”

“Shut up. I don’t want to hear any more stupid excuses from a bully like you.”

“Bully?”

“You’re a thief and a bully, using your power to take what belongs to someone else. That’s it.” He sighed heavily. Then he stepped back. “When I started this whole thing, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t hurt fellow humans. We’re the same race after all. We’re not supposed to be fighting against each other when we’ve got fucking aliens trying to steal Earth.”

Ray thought back to when he had killed Derrick Orden. That asshole definitely wasn’t someone who had deserved any mercy.

“You’d be surprised what some people can be like,” Ray said. “There’s no point in making hard distinctions between race. Judge a person, human or otherwise, by their character, not what race they belong to.”

The shining blue eyes glared at Ray. “I don’t want to hear that from a bastard like you.” He glanced at the flesh studded crystal, then started walking away. “Take your stupid treasure. I’ll find my own, and next time, I’ll be so fast and strong, no bully like you will come even close to taking it. That I promise you.”

Ray frowned. He was actually starting to feel a tiny bit bad. An actual worm of guilt tried to come alive within him, feeding off the line of logic that the guy was using.

But at the same time, he understood he was being manipulated. However sincere this man might have been, Ray himself wasn’t wrong. He was giving the man ample opportunity to prove that he deserved to hold on to the treasure. This dungeon wasn’t a race. There was no rule stipulating that the first person or team to kill the boss deserved the treasure.

For all they knew, Ray could have killed the boss too. Time wasn’t a measure of proficiency or strength. And it was those things that he was counting on to determine who should get out of this dungeon with the main reward.

“Feel free to run too, I guess.” It was time for Ray to use his own little barbs. “If you’re too afraid to face off against someone who’ll kick your ass and won’t have to kill you to do it.”

The man turned to face Ray. Another moment of staring. Then he held up a middle finger before walking off, disappearing into a little rent that popped open in front of him.

Ray blinked. Oh, so that was the guy whose Darksign had created that tidal-barrage-spewing rent. No wonder he was strong enough to kill the boss of a Tier 26 dungeon. It made Ray wonder just how strong the guy actually was. He grinned. Their fight would have been epic.

He continued staring at the wall for a while. Had that man really just left the treasure after killing the boss for it? Ray could see the guy was definitely… peculiar, but this seemed way too foolhardy for someone who had made it this far.

Spine still tingling with alarm, Ray turned and walked towards the crystal. The boss was such a mess. His nose crinkled as the smell of death and decaying innards hit him full force.

He had just pulled up the crystal when the rents reappeared.

Ray was alert immediately. Ignoring the notification from Primordial Gauge about carrying an item interacting with Mana, he turned a whole three-sixty degrees as the hair on his skin rose to attention. The rents were all around him.

“You really thought you could get away with your crime.” The man’s words echoed through the cracks in space like he was speaking into a megaphone. “Bullies and bastards like you don’t deserve to steal the hard work of others. All you deserve is pain and humiliation.”

Just as his words ended, the rents began spewing the same dark liquid as his Darksign’s ones had done. They flooded in with the force of an ocean hammering a beach with its wrath.

But it wasn’t just the liquid this time. Lightning sparked through several of the portals as well, their thunder crackling along the liquid surface. Ray cursed, then immediately used Soaring Wings to grant himself some elevation.

“What was all that about you not wanting to kill anybody?” he shouted. “Electrocution can be fucking fatal, you know.”

“Shut up, asshole. Suffer what you deserve. Don’t humiliate yourself further with your blathering.”

As if the chamber being flooded with shocking liquid wasn’t bad enough, the flood started exploding here and there. Arcs of electricity collided into detonations that send sparking liquid droplets shooting everywhere like shrapnel from a mine.

Ray did his best to avoid them all. Mottling Spiritguard sent out an array of revolving chaos orbs that kept him safe from the explosive blasts. Now he had to focus on getting out.

He looked around, trying to see if he could spot the doorway again. The rents were everywhere, covering up everything. He was pretty sure that going through one of those would not be good for his health. Using Spectral Step wasn’t working either. The battle outside the chamber had ended, and his mimic constructs had disappeared. Ray cursed.

“You feel it yet?” the man yelled. “This is the pain and suffering people like you make others go through all the time. How does it feel to taste your own fucking medicine?”

Ray laughed. “Ha! Bitch, I can fly. I haven’t suffered a thing.”

That probably wasn’t the right thing to say, considering just how short a fuse Ray’s enemy was turning out to possess. The rents grew larger, spewing out more liquid infused with more lightning. Their bursting torrents were now invading his ears, spraying everywhere so that it started to get a little hard to breathe.

Ray cast Mottling Spiritguard again, creating an even denser shield of revolving chaos spheres. There were so many of them there, all spinning around so fast that they blurred together.

While it kept him safe for now, he couldn’t see beyond them well. How was he supposed to find his way out before the entire room was flooded now?

“Come on,” the man said, his voice still echoing through the dark rents. “Why’re you silent now? Got nothing to say?”

Ray ignored it, trying to pierce through the wall of protective spheres to find a way out. He tried calling up a Scouring Eyeball but it couldn’t see well past the rush of orbs either. Nor could he sent it out beyond his revolving shield. The sparking water destroyed it far too quickly.

“Got no dying screams for me? No curses? Why’d you stop yammering?”

Ray’s heart was starting to pound. Bits of the gathering water was starting to bypass his shield, sparking and exploding near him. He even flinched at a couple of bursts. Fuck.

Think. He had to think. But to think, he had to calm down, and the situation really wasn’t helping.

“Why’d you stop talking?” the man continued asking. Ray had to wonder if the maniac was going to keep yelling it out even when Ray was drowned and dead. Or did he have some way of seeing through his rents? “Why can’t I hear your bullying cries anymore, you asshole? Why—hey! Who the fuck are you?”

The sudden interjection made Ray jerk. It wasn’t only the fact that he had been interrupted, but several of the rents were closing down. The intensity of the flood was going down.

Opening up an opportunity for Ray to finally get out of here.

He wasted no time finding the direction he had come through. There. The doorway was visible. Still solid, if cracked, but that was it. Ray wouldn’t mistake it. And that was all he needed.

Lifeblood Soulform sent one his bees shooting at the cracked stone like he had fired it from a gun. Ray gave it a second to pass through the doorway properly. In that instant of waiting, he noted that he couldn’t hear what was going on outside. The rents apparently only transmitted the man’s voice, not any and all noise around him.

Ray had waited enough. He used Spectral Step, disappearing from the boss room with the treasure in tow. When he was able to see again, he found out just who had interrupted his enemy.

“Marcus?” Ray stared at the golden light cladding the familiar figure of his new companion. “I thought you were dead.”