***

  It was late at night while Merrick was walking home with his shoulders slumped. He wasn’t the best-looking—he was too slim, too lanky, and he had even become a bit too old. He often wanted to change his life, and many times he tried to be more of what he needed to be to be allowed to become a diamond rank.

  Merrick wasn't a fighter, and while that was one of the easier ways to get to diamond rank, his brilliant mind had long ago qualified him—except for his bad habit of not respecting authority. It was especially hard for him to respect his superiors when he knew they were idiots.

  He was still creeped out that the city, which was once a center of commerce for the entire world, it was now so empty. He had been here for years already, trying to figure out what this dungeon actually was. Merrick was actually ahead of everyone else in his understanding of the Eternal Training Ground, what it could do, and the secrets it was hiding.

  The problem was, he didn't have any real evidence yet. His talent and his mind let him make connections that no one else could see, but even he was afraid to voice them all because, over the course of his life, he’d learned not to deliver bad news to his superiors. Yet Merrick remembered his last few conversations with the previous commander in charge of everything here, which made his back straighten a bit.

  It had been a while since he actually respected his superiors, and while the old commander was no longer directly his superior, he was the one who had listened to him the most. What surprised even Merrick was that there were no diamond-rank deaths just yet.

  The labyrinth was incredibly large and dangerous, but none of the truly important people had died, which Merrick thought was on purpose. He also shouldn’t have said that out loud in one of the latest meetings. Yet he could see others thinking the same thing—they were, however, smart enough not to mention it.

  The death toll of the platinum ranks sent into the labyrinth to help map it out was climbing every day. Most of them were missing, but even without being able to contact them, the diamond ranks had their ways of knowing if someone had died. Everyone was quite pissed off, especially the great four powers, which brought a smile to Merrick’s face—one he quickly made disappear.

  He still couldn’t believe their stupidity in telling that a dungeon got free and destroyed one of the newest yet most known and celebrated new countries. The city lord had spent his money wisely, supporting a lot of charities around the world.

  With all the news that came out before about the great four powers, most didn’t believe the propaganda they were still trying to push. Yet, when the trade winds stopped slowing down in this location, no one really cared about what actually happened, as it didn’t take long for the world economy to collapse.

  In Merrick’s opinion, it was actually a good thing. Everyone had gotten a little bit too rich, and when people in power became rich, they wanted more, which led to a lot of wars. Now no one had the resources or the coin to fund war, which, in his opinion, in the long run, actually saved more lives—even though the last year had been tough for many regular citizens.

  Merrick and Vivian were the first ones to figure out how the labyrinth was able to switch and change. The fact that it was a new type of gateway and what that actually meant was dismissed by most. They were just pleased that they now knew the secret and could start working on unraveling the new kind of gate network so they could control it the same way they could with the old gateway system.

  Merrick didn’t think it would be an easy task, but he had been constantly going into the labyrinth to try to figure out how the first new gateway, which appeared quite early on, worked. In the back of his head, there was an idea forming about how it worked; he just needed a little bit more time. Merrick hoped that it would be enough to get permission to be brought to diamond rank, and the old commander even promised him that he would do what he could to help.

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  When Merrick stepped into an alley, he knew something was wrong. For some reason, he felt like he was inside the dungeon; he felt the mana spike from the walls. His mind went into overtime, and even before anything else happened, he figured out that he was currently in the horizon of the new type of gateway. Before he could do anything about it, his surroundings changed, and he was in darkness.

  “Come, sit down,” a cultured voice said. In the darkness, he heard a snap, and light bathed the room. He immediately looked around to see that he was in quite a small room with no exits. There was a table with two chairs on either side, and a man sitting on the other side. Merrick knew exactly who that was, and it was hard for him not to shake in fear.

  The dragon pretending to be a man indicated for him to sit down, and Merrick did so. “So, it seems like your mind is quite brilliant. It would be a shame for you to figure out how the new gateways work this early. You have two options in front of you: you can either stay here as a prisoner, or you can join our side, where you could actually make that brilliant mind of yours work with all the resources you could ever wish for at your disposal.”

  Merrick was stunned for a moment. He didn’t understand how the dungeon could change the walls of that alley to be a gateway with the devices limiting dungeon territory expansion. “You haven’t just been waiting—you’ve been running secret missions, most likely replacing some of our devices with fakes.”

  Those words made Ismael smile. “See? You just need a single piece of information, and you simply come to the right conclusion, completely sure of it. You know the reason why you’re not diamond rank isn’t because you don’t respect your leaders—it’s because they’re afraid of that mind of yours. I bet you already see through all their bullshit.”

  “Of course I do. I figured it all out in the first week, but that doesn’t mean they’re entirely wrong. Dungeons could destroy this world so easily, especially in this age. There are only two options if anyone else wanted to survive besides them: it’s either to destroy them entirely or control them. Any other option would be way too dangerous.”

  Ismael’s jovial mood disappeared. “Do you not think that a peak diamond rank couldn’t destroy this world just as easily?”

  “Not as easily, no, but yes, I believe there are some who are capable of it.”

  “And why do you think they don’t do it?” Ismael interrupted before Mark could continue.

  "Because it wouldn’t be beneficial—only madmen would do something like that. Quite a desperate madman." Mark answered back, his previous fears long forgotten as he felt he could finally speak his mind without any worries. As he believed he wouldn’t survive past this meeting.

  "Perhaps you don’t think it, but the Eternal Training Ground, this dungeon, is quite reasonable and definitely far from a madman. What’s your decision, or would you like to speak more?"

  There was a pause where Merrick really let himself think. The way he was treated, the way some things started to make better sense to him—he sighed out loud. "Unfortunately, even if I wanted to accept that, which I kind of do, I am already too deep in." At this point, Merrick felt a burning sensation at the back of his head, which he didn’t let show on his face.

  "Unfortunately, I am just a pawn, destined to be used so the bigger pieces would have an opportunity to take more valuable pieces. Yes, I do know that pawns can sometimes win, but unfortunately, this isn’t that situation. And by bringing me here, you have doomed yourselves." Merrick barely got out the last word before he collapsed in pain, screaming out loud.

  The next moment, the screaming stopped, and five pops were heard just behind his chair. A while back, the old commander, with Merrick's permission, had implanted a teleportation beacon into his neck. It was an extremely hidden one, made by one of his party members. Now, their entire party, who had been together for almost the entirety of this age, was deep inside the dungeon.

  "Good evening, Ismael. I recommend your master start bringing in its most powerful. It's been a while since we have been able to truly exert ourselves in a proper battle, but I assure you, even if it takes days, you will lay defeated at our feet."

  Ismael didn’t seem too surprised to see them. He slowly rose from his chair and snapped his fingers once again. All of a sudden, the roof of the small room disappeared, and the walls fell down, revealing a luscious grassland and two other people waiting outside.

  Everyone immediately recognized one of them, it was Ace, the city lord. But everyone could also feel his power; he had already reached the peak of diamond rank. The other person was unknown, but they had also reached the peak of diamond rank.

  "I’m afraid that this isn’t a trap for us but for you. You see, the six of you—yes, I’m including you, Merrick —are basically half of the competent people out there. Ever since we figured out this ambush of yours, well, it has been hard not to trigger it," Ismael said as his body started to swell and he began to change into his true form.

  Rafe did the same, growing and changing—not into a dragon, but into something more monstrous, a creature made up of many other creatures.

  Merrick was especially scared now, as he knew he would just be a simple rock that was going to be crushed during this battle. The party of five looked toward Ace, expecting him to start changing as well.

  "Yeah, I don’t have fancy changing powers," Ace answered their unasked question with a sheepish look. "I’m still going to beat your asses, though."

  There was a momentary pause before skills were activated, and mana started to hum with violence.