Back at the Mountain-range.
For the past two hours, Max had been hiding between the trees in a secure spot at the base of the mountain.
He was patiently waiting for Lucy to complete her task.
Thankfully, unlike the previous occasion when he moved out of kain city and had to cautiously hide while Lucy took charge of the mountain, this time Max felt more confident.
Armed with his hammer cold blood, and his E-rank Vitality, he can be considered an E-rank tank. This was enough for anyone to feel secure here on the outskirts of the beast forest.
Soon Max received the mental message from Lucy.
'done.'
"good job Lu, first lead me to an isolated high-ground, and fill the mountain with Mist, make sure it's light enough to be taken for normal mountain fog.
Also, Lucy, make sure to not alert anyone to your existence. "
'OK!'
Max planned to stay low key until he understood the situation.
Thus, he needed to have Lucy abduct someone from the crowd to gain that understanding.
To do this, he sought out the high ground to choose a target. Max couldn't simply tell Lucy to abduct someone because that air-head will surely pick one from the middle of the crowd alerting everyone and take him to Max, waiting for praise.
....
Max started moving according to Lucy's directions, sometime Mist appeared to help him cross difficult Terrain, but he didn't use the Mist to fly this time to not draw any unwanted attention.
...
He soon arrived at his destination. Pulling out his sniper, he took aim in the direction of the crowd.
At this time, the group became much more organized, and most of them stood in a line in front of a small pond.
' someone should've taken charge of the situation. ' thought Max.
He moved the scope a little and stopped in surprise as he locked onto a group of people standing in line.
"isn't he that idiot Hu Wang, also that brainless bitch police woman? What was her name?. "
Max didn't have any feelings towards Hu Wang. He worked for the guy for some time and that's it. There was no conflict what so ever so Max didn't care about him.
As for that policewoman, Max wouldn't mind having her get into an accidental death case with the Oubach as the killer if he had the chance.
But since benefits were in front of him, he planned to be the bigger person temporarily and ignore them for now.
Max kept looking, and soon he locked his target.
"Lucy, it's those two. Take them and don't alert others.. "
Through their mental link, Lucy was able to locate the target easily and started slowly increasing the Mist around them.
........
Far away from the main crowd, two figures stood between the trees.
One man and the other a woman.
Their current state wasn't good, both being injured to different degrees.
"it was all your fault, amir, if we just waited for our turn and didn't start fighting immediately after the first group left the dungeon.
We could have had a chance if the young master hadn't kicked us because of you. "
"Lilly, do you really believe that we would've had a chance?
Just look at the long line. The dungeon would have been cleared long before it was our turn. "
Lilly wanted to argue more, but she noticed that the surrounding place was too foggy.
Earlier fog filled the mountain, but no one thought much of it.
But the amount of fog around them was too abnormal, almost solid.
"Amir, something is wrong with this fog. "
"huh? What is I..". Mist suddenly turned into thick robes and in tangled the two of them, starting with their mouths preventing them from screaming.
Vvvvvvv...
Next, it formed a circle around them and swiftly dragged them towards a specific spot.
Wooosh..!
.........
Soon, the scared and confused pair opened their eyes inside a cave.
The Mist has let go of their mouths but is still binding them.
Unable to move, they wanted to scream for help, but looking at the Misty figure in front of them, they instantly shut up.
It was Max, standing in front of them, covered in mist.
Even though he never planned to let the pair leave alive, but being cautious was never a bad thing.
"you two, I have some questions and you will answer them honestly, otherwise you do not want to know what's going to happen to you".
"Sir, just ask. I will answer anything, I will do anything for you, just let me go". spoke Lilly first.
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'Bitch,' cursed Amir inside his mind, but nevertheless he spoke cooperatively.
"this boss, please let us go. We are normal folk, and don't know anything important that would be of interest to someone as strong as you. "
"First of all, it's me who decides whether you know something important or not, and second, the next time you speak without me addressing you.
Well, let's say you will lose an arm or a leg, base on your preference of course. "
Both of the captive went quiet, waiting.
Lily just wanted to please Max to get out of this alive, so she cooperated well. As for Amir, he still had hope of walking out of this alive, so he didn't argue.
the reason he was so optimistic is the fact that Max was too strong, in his eyes he suspected that Max is above the C-rank.
so this strange person should not be interested in an E-rank dungeon, since he can't go inside anyway, so there's no reason to kill them to shut them up.
If Max was just slightly stronger than him, then he would be desperate, and just ignore Max waiting for death, because he would be sure Max would kill them once he get the information.
"The woman can speak first. Why are so many people gathered around here? Tell me everything you know and don't spare any detail. "
Lily started talking immediately, and soon she divulged everything she knew.
About the Legacy martial art dungeon, and how the two of them bought the information from the black market, and she even explained what a legacy dungeon was.
And Amir confirmed her words.
There are a lot of dungeon types, but legacy dungeons are the safest among them all.
Lily didn't know why, so she didn't explain it, but Max knew the reason from the simulator's random articles.
the Legacy dungeon is actually a dungeon from a dead world.
When a certain world participating in the void Battlefield completely dies.
what's left of it will be turned into a legacy dungeon, pure profits for the central world.
Sometimes it's the last inhabitants of that world making the dungeon, wanting to integrate into the central world in some form as pets, summons or maybe slaves or companions.
Other times it's the void Battlefield planning this specific dungeon, which was recorded as a super rare event when no one from that world was left alive to make a decision.
As for why the government didn't participate, Lilly didn't even realize they didn't, while Amir was confused by this matter, but just ignored it.
But Max knew the reason. What Lily said just confirmed his earlier guesses, the government is most probably scared of starting a Continental War, and other strong forces already know about this matter and the complication around it, so they didn't participate.
But as a lone individual, he wasn't scared of the elder association, since they didn't have much influence on the Star continent, and couldn't track him down, and from the relationship between the continents, the government will never help them.
Lily also told him that the initial participant in the dungeon had shared the information and name of the dungeon with them for a price of course.
Even though they didn't succeed in clearing it, they managed to acquire valuable information, which they ended up selling for money.
The dungeon name was ( mountain peak tournament ).
The rules are simple: defeat all 18 disciples, then the dungeon boss.
before every fight you have 1 hour of preparation or just to rest.
Every win will gain you some rewards, and only after the 19 match fighting the master who is the boss of the dungeon will you gain the biggest award: the martial arts scroll.
Max smiled, very satisfied by the information he gained
"Thank you for cooperating, as a reward for that. I will make it clean."
The two of them were confused by Max's words, but Amir soon realized what's happening when he saw Lily's head crushed by a blood red hammer held by a person that showed up from behind them. It was Max.
Bang…!
Max was a cautious person, so he never showed up in front of them from the start.
Until the end, it was a Misty figure in front of them while Max stood in the thick fog not far from it speaking.
Crush!….
Amir didn't even have the time to curse at the Shameless bastard before the hammer struck his head, crushing his skull while blood rushed out of his orifices.
"Lucy, get rid of them."
Crack..!
The ground opened up under the dead bodies and swallowed them.
..... Crack! Cash!.
Soon the scene became clear like nothing happened even the blood was pulled underground.
.........
Max immediately forgot about the unfortunate pair and started thinking about important matters.
Since it was a legacy dungeon and there was no danger to his life, Max plans to participate.
More importantly, it was such a lucky coincidence that the dungeon terrain was a mountain.
With Lucy as his pet, Max can claim everything to himself.
Max scratched his chin. 'From my knowledge I am 99% sure this situation is just luck.
As for the other 1% maybe a mistake.… meh anyway there is no danger to my life so it's not a big problem.'
Max stopped thinking too much. It's time for action now.
"All right, Lucy, cover me in Mist and take me there in a grandiose manner, and you come after me.
But don't switch back to your physical body. Instead, go inside the dungeon after me in your spiritual state.
Possess the mountain in the dungeon immediately, without anyone realizing.
'OK!'
Soon Max was covered in mist, and started flying towards the dungeon gate.
... back at the scene, the another group just came out of the dungeon. They also failed.
After all, legacy dungeons are much, much harder than normal dungeons, since there was no danger to life.
Everyone waited for young master Gu to give the pass so the group after them can go in.
Young Master Gu is the one managing everyone over here.
right now he was standing at the back of the crowd, watching the process.
When he came here in the morning, he planned to lie low since he thought he would be just a small fry in this competition, but soon he realized something astonishing: he was the one with the biggest background around.
Of course, young master Gu wasn't stupid and realized that something was wrong, but even so, he didn't plan to give up the benefits in front of him instead; he planned to take the best from both worlds.
He jumped up, yelling righteously that he will not participate, but he will manage everyone instead, since he was unable to witness them killing each other for some small profit.
So in the eyes of everyone, the Gu family didn't participate, and just manage the scene for the commoners, so whatever trouble that comes from this shouldn't hit the Gu family.
However, young master Gu wouldn't do such a thankless job
Everyone that went first in the line was one of his followers, or distant relatives
.
...... .........
Suddenly, young Master Gu noticed something strange.
The fog around started dissipating as everyone on the scene watched a person covered in mist descending from the sky in a grandiose manner.
Looking at this scene, young master Gu didn't say anything, turned around and left.
After all, although he was raised with a golden spoon in his mouth, he still had a functional brain inside his skull.
..........
Looking at Max, who was clearly going to the gate, the crowd first was stunned, then angry, but no one moved.
someone yelled, "ask young master Gu to interfere, he will solve the matter, this person should also stay in the line".
"Yes, where is young Master gu. ". another called
"young master Gu please teach this person a lesson. "
...
But even after Max was only a few meters away from the dungeon gate, there was no trace of young Master Gu.
....
Someone was brave enough to stand up to Max
"Hey you, you should stay in the line too. "
But the guy didn't even finish his sentence before a giant hand made of mist slapped him away.
Max jumped into the small pond, and space started to twist around him.
At the same time, he could feel a connection being made to something, it should be the dungeon.