The research teams found another problem. It seems that gravity wasn’t going to be the only problem when we got to space. Fortunately, that problem was mostly solved, but it seems that not entirely like I had expected.

  Turns out there are terrifying things out there that have such strong gravitational pull they even drag light into them, and nothing seemed to be able to escape when you got too close.

  That can be avoided, we just couldn’t go close to them. What couldn’t be avoided was the new problem found out: that of radiation. What also should be addressed was the lack of atmosphere.

  Fortunately, that could actually be fixed with dungeon rules, but the radiation problem was a bit more difficult—mainly because our defenses would be somewhat open, and of course my entrance as well. Dungeon rules weren’t really that good against blocking such things and would require a lot of mana.

  There also wasn’t a quick solution because this hasn’t really a problem before all of this. So new missions were added to try to develop spells or other ways to deal with this problem.

  Getting my mana expenditure as low as possible was incredibly important. The less mana I used, the longer I would be able to survive without the support of this world, and we need the extra time because currently, we still only had one option—and that was to return to this world when it was diamond ranked.

  I simply couldn’t seem to figure out how to make a skill that would allow me to count things inside of me as outside. I was just missing something on that front, and I simply couldn’t figure it out.

  It was frustrating because if I could, it would mean, well, I would be a lot safer if I could just go from here, capture a few planets, and then just hide myself until I’m strong enough to face whatever else is out there.

  We were also more and more certain that there are proper civilizations out there. It just wasn’t possible for there not to be, as we have already found life on one of the moons around a gas planet in this solar system.

  They were currently bringing back samples. It was simple life—just a few plants surviving in the waters of one of the moons, but it was life not of this world, and that was exciting.

  That meant that out there, there were going to be more patterns for me to collect, and with the advances in technology, I was certain my creatures could go out there into the universe when they were strong enough and bring back more patterns for me.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Now, when I looked at the night sky and saw the stars, I saw the possibilities—that around them, there might be planets with life or even civilizations filled with stories and patterns I could get. That’s not to say that I’m not excited about my own world, as I was constantly being surprised even by them.

  The competition was one of these perfect examples. As I suspected, everyone was doing excellently. Even the Assassins Guild master, now known as the Leader of Clan Black Cloth, was doing excellently.

  In fact, he would be in the top three during this phase if he could compete. That didn't mean they weren’t getting things done—they already had a bigger hideout and had gained a reputation for excellence by spycraft.

  Everyone had been a bit surprised when two months had gone past and this phase was still active. It was now the end of the third month, and everyone got a notification—except it wasn't what they expected it to be. It wasn't the end of this phase. No, it was tournaments for the young. Now it was time for the younger generations to prove themselves and show what they had accomplished.

  There had been tournaments like this before during this competition, but they were smaller ones, isolated, and nothing on this scale. I even purposely made a huge room with many fighting grounds and other places where other types of tournament could be run. While fighting was incredibly important, so were all the other skills.

  Let’s see what they can do.

  This would also be a chance for people—especially young people—to show what they had, who weren’t part of large clans or other organizations taking part in the competition to get land. Everyone who was at a proper age could join, and when they found that out—especially the prizes that could be won—well, there was no shortage of signups.

  “I have to say that this might be the largest and most extravagant tournament I have witnessed,” Ismael spoke when he finished reading and seeing the number of signups. “This would be something I would enjoy seeing a bit closer up. Would it be possible if I could somehow be involved in some official capacity?”

  It was an interesting proposal, and I guessed I would need someone to be in charge.

  “How about you be the main announcer, someone who is in charge of the entertainment part? There is a reason why I made so many seats in the main arenas.”

  A huge smile showing the dragon’s teeth that could rip through basically anything appeared on his huge face.

  “It would be a true pleasure. It has been getting a bit stuffy in this cave, and I still don’t have any proper conversation partners. I forgot how we are when we were so young.”

  Now, in that front, he truly wasn't incorrect. There had been two more dragons who had reached diamond rank, and all three of them were, as the adventurers liked to say, proper jerks.

  Ismael sometimes taught them a few lessons, which calmed them down for a bit, but they certainly weren’t ready to enter the larger dungeon community. Ismael transferred into his human form, and I opened the gateway to the tournament room.

  “Wow, this is even beyond my expectations. How many people do you expect to come here? Because this is a place where tens of millions could come and enjoy all the competitions that are about to happen.”

  “I still don’t understand how I keep underestimating you, because you certainly don’t do things in half measures. This is going to be so fun,” Ismael said while rubbing his hands together and walking further into the tournament room.

  It would be a bit of time before it would be opened up, and I still hadn’t made the staff needed to run all this. It was going to be easy enough to accomplish that, and I made sure that all the monsters I made would be as close to real adventurers as possible—but I also made sure that none of them were copies of real adventurers.

  I even made quite a few diamond-ranked ones, as we needed to keep order, and some of the fighting could get quite serious, so referees needed enough strength to immediately stop attacks that would be too damaging. But of course, I would also have the arena system that would teleport out anyone who was about to die.

  This was also a good opportunity to get a lot of coin out of circulation, as anyone who wanted to visit—who weren’t the guardians of the people who signed up to take part in the tournaments—needed to pay for a ticket to come and see how the young fought each other in every conceivable way.

  The link is here :)