Elizan and Karkatrix, both of whom had been poised to attack Ray, now turned to Gritty and her horde of… her own selves.

“You figured it out, huh?” Eliza said. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll kill the whole lot of you.”

Ray was about to send out the same warning he had before, but Marcus got there first.

“Don’t let her get too close, Gritty,” he yelled across the chamber. “She’s got time powers that’ll kill you with one touch.”

Eliza turned and glared at Marcus. “Hey, stop lying. My powers really don’t kill in one touch. If you’re not satisfied with your arm cut off, maybe I can pull out your tongue next.”

“Weren’t you yelling out about Ray’s abilities moments ago?”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t lying.”

“I can confirm,” Karkatrix said. “Eliza was indeed not lying.”

Eliza rolled her eyes. “Thank you.”

While their bickering conversation was going on, Ray switched to the chat to state his intentions. He had questions about a lot of stuff, but they could wait.

Ray: There’s no point in fighting. We need to get out of here now that I’ve got the treasure. Can you guys distract them?

Gritty: Shit, you got it already?

Marcus: How the hell are you going to get out of that mist? Or are we going to carry out the treasure and leave you behind?

Ray: I think I can blow it away with my wings. Just stall the other two for a second and we can start running.

There were no further responses, which meant they were both onboard with the plan and preparing to carry it out. Indeed, as Ray watched, both of them acted fast.

Eliza and Karkatrix had decided they were going to take on Gritty and Marcus respectively. But that wasn’t how it turned out. Gritty used some kind of skill, something that made Eliza squawk and trip backwards, her body jerking and moving almost on its own. At the same time, all the Darksigns of Gritty rushed in and attacked Karkatrix.

Marcus was as surprised as Ray, though unlike Ray, he had moved in to stand next to Gritty. Which left Ray as the only one who hadn’t made a move thus far.

Well, nothing for it. He was already floating with the help of Soaring Wings, so it was no big deal to draw his wings closer to himself and flap them outwards. The constant flapping motion effectively created a fan that propelled the gas away from him. It eventually opened up a clear path for him to take, and Ray wasted no time joining his companions.

“This isn’t over,” Sameer said. His voice was low, his body still jerking with the white sparks dancing over his skin. “You can run for now, but you—you’ll face your punishment in due time.”

“Oh, fuck off and die, Sameer,” Ray said, before turning to the others. “Let’s go!”

“Don’t you dare go anywhere,” Eliza shouted from the pit she had fallen into.

But she had no way of stopping them. Neither did either of her companions, with Sameer debilitated and Karkatrix busy handling all the Gritty Darksigns.

“Follow me,” Ray said as he rushed outwards.

He took the same path he had taken to come this far. The Mana portals were still active, thankfully. Just because he had used Core Deconstruction on the major portal that led to the boss room to destroy it didn’t mean every single on within the dungeon would be destroyed.

Gritty and Marcus were familiar enough with them too, so they had no issue following along.

“How’d you stop her?” Marcus asked. He had to mean Eliza and how she had fallen into the pit seemingly on her own.

Gritty grinned. “Tricks of the trade, my man.” She turned to Ray as they hurried onwards. “Do you really have it?” Her glance fell to the little, flesh-studded crystal in his hands. “Oh, is that it? Looks very… fleshcraft-y.”

Ray groaned. “Good thing we can sell it soon.”

“You think they’re all like that? You know, all the treasures in all the dungeons. Don’t think I like that, if that’s the case.”

That was a concerning issue. Was this whole tournament just a way for the Tower Lord to gather all the bits and pieces he needed?The Sylvans—at least the ones running the Tower of Forging—were all aligned with the Fleshcrafter. The Lord of the First Floor had been collecting little artifacts and relics to help with the Fleshcrafter’s takeover too.

“What do you guys mean?” Marcus asked. “Who’s this Fleshcrafter?”

“Oh, boy.” Gritty sighed. “Do I have a story for you, Knight Guy.”

“We can talk about it later,” Ray said. “First, we need to get out of this dungeon. Karkatrix, the six-armed guy, mentioned that most of the other teams are down. Can you guys confirm that? Also, Marcus, why couldn’t I get in touch with you?”

“Why couldn’t I get in touch with you?”

“What?” The surprise at the reverse question made Ray actually pause for a second. They were at the end of the chamber where Ray had fought Eliza, standing before the Mana portal that would take them to the room where he had fought Karkatrix and seen the Ryous kill a fake Marcus. “What do you mean?”

“I contacted you, but it wouldn’t go through. I kept getting some kind of warning that the chat couldn’t reach you. Right, Gritty?”

She nodded. “Yeah, we figured you were already inside the boss room or something. Which turned out to be true, I’m assuming.”

“That’s right. He came out of the boss room with the treasure in his hands, although, there was that other guy attacking him from outside.”

Gritty grinned, then slapped Ray on the back. “I knew you could do it, wingman.”

“Do you never call anybody by their real names?” Marcus asked.

“Your real names are as boring as celery. Now, you were called something like Karkatrix, I could see myself getting used to that…”

Ray shook his head. “I got more question, but let’s keep going. They’ll be after us soon.”

As they rushed through the next chamber, Ray couldn’t help himself and voiced his next question. He was curious as to how Gritty had figured out the thing with the Darksigns.

Turned out, she really hadn’t. It was the team she had been following who had started doing so. Even by observing them at a distance, Gritty wasn’t sure about the details.

But then, they had been attacked by another team. All that time while observing them, Gritty had been debating how she could figure out what they were up to, and when they had been attacked, the opportunity to find out had presented itself.

She assisted them in beating the other team. In return, the team of Sylvans explained how the Darksigns had to be collected by manipulating the conditions for them to appear. They only presented themselves to members of a team who were partnered up with the originator of the Darksign.

“Oh,” Ray said as he understood. “You mean that’s why I only ever saw Darksigns who took your and Marcus’s form. Which means you guys saw my Darksign and vice versa.”

Gritty nodded, jumping across another bridge of obsidian-like rock. “Exactly. That’s why I ended up teaming up with the Sylvans so I could collect my Darksigns too.”

“Wait. You betrayed us?”

She rolled her eyes. “Temporarily, sure. I made sure to tell Marcus about it.”

That was basically a segue into Marcus explaining what he had been up to. He explained that he had actually been unable to take down the very first Darksigns Ray had warned them about, so he had to run. He was rather ashamed about it. For some reason, he had begun to suspect that the Darksigns could see into their chats too, so he had stopped using them.

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By the time he was free from the Darksigns and could focus on the messages, Ray was already beyond reach. He had gone too far into the dungeon and the messages wouldn’t go through.

But at least he had been able to contact Gritty, who had explained what was going on. Marcus hadn’t been able to acquire new teammates to perform the same trick of gathering all the Darksigns, so he had instead headed towards the final chamber of the dungeon.

“We just couldn’t tell how you had figured out how to get into the boss room,” Marcus said.

Ray grinned. “I wasn’t fully sure it would work but looks like my spells can work on Dungeon Obstacles too. We might need that in other—”

“Hey, who’re you?”

The three of them turned to see another trio at a different end of the chamber where Ray had fought Karkatrix. They were small since they were distant, but as they rushed closer, Ray recognized them. It was same group he had first seen figuring out the Dungeon Obstacle that required gathering all the Darksigns.

“Run!” Ray shouted. “Don’t let them get you.”

They ran.

“Hold!” the Sylvan in the team shouted. “Or we will attack!”

“Ha, good luck with that, pal,” Gritty flung back as she leaped from rocky bridge to rocky bridge.

Their pursuers fired off skills from the distance. A beam of energy crashed into the ceiling above them, spilling glassy rocks falling around them. A quick look back showed streams of Growth Mana flying towards them.

They were moving fast enough, in Ray’s opinion, but it couldn’t hurt to slow them down. As such, Ray cast Lifeblood Soulform a few times, creating his mimic construct and two flying Windbane maws. Those should at least distract their pursuers for a while.

But Ray wasn’t the only thinking along those lines. Marcus used his golden mine setting skill, studding the walls, floor, and ceiling with blots of auric energy.

In seconds, after Ray and his team had travelled for about a minute, they felt the detonations of Marcus’s mines going off. The tunnels shook, dust and tiny stones raining down on them.

“Good thinking, Knight Guy,” Gritty said.

“What about me?” Ray asked. “I left some of my constructs there too.”

“I’ll buy you a nice treat with my auction money.”

Ray snorted. It was ludicrous imagining Gritty buying him a meal at any restaurants in the Tower. Though, come to think of it, surely there were restaurants, considering they had an active audience that the Floor Lord had invited into the Tower. There were probably even hotels or their equivalent too. It was… quite wild to think about.

“There!” Marcus said. “Feel that? A draft. From outside.”

Ray could indeed feel it. A fresh breeze caressed his face and hands, the breath of the world welcoming them back into its embrace. It took only seconds before they saw the exit.

Within the next minute, they had reached the end of the dungeon.

They had won.

[Dungeon Cleared—Obsidian Halls of Dark Reflection]

Rewards

* 10 True Mana shards

* 5 Origin Mana shards

* 1 True Mana Tier Point

* 1 Origin Mana Tier Point

* 1 True Mana Skill Point

* 1 Dark Reflection Chunk

* +5,200 Essence

* Reputation: +25 Cooperative

Essence to Level 48: 11,850/221,200

Cooperation to next Threshold: 85/100

There were quite a few rewards to consider from that notification. Besides all that, Ray was also wondering why he had also received the dungeon clearing notification in the first place.

Was coming out of it with the treasure the condition for clearing it? It confused him a little, since killing the final boss of a dungeon had always been the condition before. He had assumed that Sameer would have received the dungeon clearing notification after killing that centipede-looking monster.

Ray wasn’t going to complain about free rewards. Just something to consider going forward, since there were a lot more dungeons coming up.

But right that moment, he was heavily distracted by something else.

As soon as he and his team had come out of the dungeon, the first thing they were witness to were all the people staring at them. There was wonder greeting them, alongside amazement, calculation, and a whole host of other things spread across too many faces for Ray to properly decipher in the short time he got.

He got the main takeaway, though—the three of them were now under a lot of radars.

The time to take it all in was short because despite holding everyone’s attention, it was actually a small group who didn’t look as appreciative as the rest that approached Ray’s team.

A trio of armoured Sylvans came to them. While the two at the back maintained neutral expressions, their leader had enough scathing disapproval on his face to make up for his lackeys. Ray tensed when he saw the emblems on the Sylvans. It was his first time seeing them.

But they held a pretty clear message—these Sylvans were from the Floor Lord.

“And here I thought we were done with fighting for a bit,” Marcus muttered.

“What?” Gritty stepped forward, a manic grin slowly stretching across her face. “You afraid of a few Sylvans?”

Ray stepped forward. “Don’t worry, I got this. We might not need to fight our way out of this if we’re careful.”

“We? You just said you got this, wingman? The fuck you mean we?”

“Raymond Dominick,” the Sylvan leader, ignoring their muttering. Despite the look on his face, his words were inflectionless. A picture of careful control, in so far as his speech went. “You are under arrest.”

Ray took careful note of the situation. The spectators were watching with great interest, but not necessarily with benevolence. They were merely curious, waiting to see what his reaction would be, waiting for more entertainment.

That was all Ray and his teammates were to them. A source of fun. Just because they had exited the dungeon didn’t mean they had ceased to be that.

Ray had expected something like this to happen. No way was the Floor Lord just going to sit back and let Ray do whatever he wanted. He had hoped that participating in the tournament would be enough of a countermeasure against any direct actions by the Floor Lord going forward. Maybe it was. Maybe all he needed to do was sell it.

“You’re going to arrest a legal competitor of your Immortalizer Tournament?” Ray asked. He smiled. “Why’s that? Are you afraid that I’m just too good for the rest of the competitors to keep up?”

He wasn’t afraid of fighting the Sylvans before him. Unlike the tournament participants, these ones didn’t have Amulets of Blindness. Primordial Gauge revealed that they were all below the Second Floor Lord’s level of fifty-five. No doubt, being run-of-the-mill Sylvans, they were significantly weaker than her in other regards too. Basically, Ray could take them.

But if there was a possibility of averting conflict, he would prefer that route instead. No point in aggravating the Sylvans any further.

Although, considering the fact that he had already killed quite a few, that might be a forlorn hope.

“You are the aggressor from the Second Floor,” the Sylvan said. “You have killed many of our kind, you have significantly destabilized our operations within the Tower, and you have murdered many of our Brighthorns as well. You will pay for your crimes.”

Ray tutted, looking around. “This is direct meddling with the tournament.” He turned his smile to the spectators, hoping his confidence would help project that he was on the right side here. “Interference of the highest order. If they can pull me out with trumped-up charges like this, they can do it to any competitor. That’s a blatant violation of any fair competition.”

He could see several of them nodding in agreement, although, not as may as he would have hoped. Most of them just looked more eager, like they were appreciating that he was incorporating them into the ongoing entertainment and couldn’t wait to see what he’d do next.

The Sylvan trying to apprehend Ray seemed to resent that he was being accused of being unfair. But that resentment didn’t unmoor him. It only made his words sharper.

“You think such base pleas will work?” he asked. “A criminal attempting to use a public competition as a means of avoiding the punishment for his crimes. No one here is a fool, Raymond Dominick. Surrender, or we will be forced to take you by force.”

Well, looked like he was dealing with someone intelligent. Someone who knew just how to play the public so that they were always on his side. This was turning out to be more annoying than Ray had expected.

Ray was trying to think up some other means of convincing his would-be apprehenders that he needed to stay in the tournament, but he was distracted by another Sylvan coming up. It was the reporter.

“We have a bit of a situation on our hands,” she said, sounding perfectly confident. Perfectly practiced. Like she had created the situation.

“I told you to stay out of this, Broadcaster,” the Sylvan leader said. “Interfere any further and your channel will receive sanctions from the Floor Lord.”

“Interfering? Me?” She made a dismissive sound, accompanying it with a wave of her hand. “I am simply pointing out that the man you are trying to harm has a lot riding on him.”

“You have already interfered. The bets you showed will be revoked as soon as he is delisted from both the tournament and the auction.”

Rays eyes widened. Was the reporter Sylvan trying to help them? Had been since the moment the Sylvans from the Floor Lord had appeared?

Marcus stiffened beside Ray. “Bets?”

“I am glad you asked,” the reporter said. “Have a brief glimpse of how the speculative odds have changed since the moment you and your team won this last dungeon trial.”

Her finger pointed to the large, central screen which was indeed displaying a list of the up-and-coming most profitable bets available. Ray wasn’t just on the list. He was at the top.

“Holy shit,” Marcus said. “Someone bet twenty Mana pearls on you winning the entire tournament!”

“Impossible,” the Sylvan leader said. He stared accusingly at the screen. “That much on an unproven newcomer? There must be some sort of mistake.”

Ray didn’t have a proper frame of reference on how high bets could even go in this system. But considering the only way to win the tournament was to acquire a thousand Mana pearls, he was starting to get a small idea.

“So you see.” The reporter’s eyes met Ray’s own. “There is a lot riding on Raymond.”

Ray nodded, his confidence growing. He could see the way out of this mire now. One that didn’t involve violence just yet. “People believe in me. But more importantly, I believe in me too. In fact, I believe in myself—and my teammates—so much that I’m going to place a bet as well.” They all turned their attention to him as he smiled. “I’m betting my entire auction.”

“That’s over a hundred Mana pearls!” Sridayne said, loudly emphasizing the last bit. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Hey, if I don’t have full faith in myself, then who will, you know?”

The Sylvan leader still didn’t look convinced. Even though the momentum was clearly against him, he turned to Ray with a scathing look. “If you think that’s enough to—”

He was delightfully interrupted by a rush of awed gasps and murmurs from the spectators. They turned. Everyone stared at the screen again where a new face had popped up. A very important-looking face.

“Congratulations to the victors of the Tier 26 dungeon, the Obsidian Halls of Dark Reflection!” said the Sylvan with light-grey skin and red tattoos. A ruby-studded gold earring dangled from his only ear. “Well done! Such a marvellous showing. We cannot wait to see what you do next, and eagerly look forward to your next participation.”

And with that brief message, the Sylvan disappeared.

The reporter wasted no time taking advantage of the shocked silence that followed. “Well, there you have it, apprehenders. The Tower Lord himself has approved Raymond’s participation. You wouldn’t go against that, now would you?”