When C looked over his notification screen, he didn't believe his eyes. Two fourth-tier creatures dying back to back historically heralded disaster.
"L, pull up the data on world 601-B" He requested.
L waved a glowing wand in a precise motion, pointing it to a corner of a starry map. She twisted it with one motion, zooming in onto the concentric systems of a star system.
"All of it?" L protested. She began to open Her hand over the hellish red planet, when C shook his head.
"Correction, 601-D. Specifically the combat data."
L sighed, scrolling the map with her free hand towards a much friendlier-looking sphere of green and blue, white clouds rolling across it's surface.
"Someone's projects are being outclassed~" sang L, filtering for kills on tier IV beings. A tier two creature killing not just one but two beings of tier 4 was heard of only once. And fittingly, on another of M's little side projects. C focused on the source of the messages, zooming to a mountain range near the planet's equator. Zooming into the top of the tallest one, to a long dead dragon being carved up by kobolds. C pressed the air and flicked back, carving playing out in rapid reversal and slowing back to a pause as a black firey dragon landed on the plateau. C and L watched the fight scene play out, pausing to examine the damage numbers. Lifebars emptied over the heads of all participants, fading from green to yellow at half-full to red at a fifth,
"She's growing to be a menace, and those fancy little cheat skills F designed won't save you from someone used to fighting above her weight class. Those contestants are too... risk-averse" L mused, viewscreen frozen on the double-bite to Marazel's heart. "Say, doesn't S owe you a favor or two?"
C sighed. "Dungeons always give me the creeps. Her avatar had better at least wear clothing this time."
From the planet, a Dungeon received a notification. Gold, divine light fell to the hill formerly owned by moles, spreading to it's owner with an itch across her Dungeon cilia.
"Again? Fucking really?" the dungeon asked.
Not long after, a barely-clad human rose up to the black-walled room. She looked to her compatriots, sighed, and gestured downwards, forming a dress comprised of fine crimson bricks. "You called? I was busy." She snarked.
"We called." L agreed, nodding Her head.
"Yes, we called." C stated with impatience. "To finally cash in that favor. You'll be opening up dungeons across the planet to train the Contestants."
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"Like I get a choice in the matter?" S challenged.
"We figured you'd say that" L playfully added. "So big C here's got a stash of quintessence saved just for the occasion"
C glared, but knew he was unable to back out, lest the politics of the Administrators spiral out of control.
"Very well, it seems L has sweetened the deal."
"I'm in. Didn't even need the quintessence, but if you're offering I'm taking."
C gestured with a black and gold card, summoning shimmering coins to shower S. S opened her arms, seeming to absorb them like raindrops down a drain.
"Deal's a deal. M's going to be sooo happy I'm helping with his pet project."
Administrators needed no sleep, but some, especially the former humans, preferred to rest. The next morning, after all were operational, a handful of them convened in a large, circular room. Orders were transmitted, quintessence was passed around, jobs were sorted, and an announcement descended.
Throughout the planet, Contestants everywhere heard a resonating message.
"Greetings, contestants!" A familiar master of ceremonies intoned into their minds. "That extra contestant has slain a tier four being."
The umbral queen looked up from her shadowy pawns, and the axe hero fell from his crowded bed nearby.
"It seems you're lagging. As such, I have been given clearance to incentivize more intense progress. Monsters of tier IV are now allowed to spawn, and monsters of any sort are now allowed to grow to tier VI."
The Predator licked his lips, stolen from a wolf-bear hybrid and replacing his much weaker human mouth.
"You are not, however without gain, Administrator S has chosen to lend a hand, or cilia, to efforts of improvement. She is opening doors to her Dungeons across the world, for all to challenge and grow. Administrator P will be upgrading your Appraisal skill to work on these Dungeons, so that you do not bite off more than you can chew."
The Grandmaster Cultivator of the Five Heavens snapped out of a flashy meditation with a burst of gold light. "The gods will not coddle me."
"In addition-" The voice developed an evil, icy smile to it. "Dragons of any sort are worth triple EXP, and award Fundamental Power equal to a third of their tier. If there's a tier III dragon out there, you would be wise to slay it"
Baldemar began to celebrate this new vector of power, but Topaz swore with the sudden implications.
The world would not be the same, by any stretch of the imagination.