Pov Carl

  I was trying to enjoy my quiet meditation session, but I knew that the time I had was cut short, and it was only a matter of time before someone burst through that door. ETG could have at least given some more time for everything to settle down, but from the rumors we had heard, I think this is a better alternative to the wars that were brewing.

  The ladders and positions that had chances to win large rooms or even worlds just made me realize how big he truly was. The challenges were interesting—basically, we would just be doing what we had been doing, but we were just going to need to do it the best we could for the next year.

  Of course, there would be some other avenues we might explore, but I think trying to do everything would backfire because you wouldn’t get the higher rewards. Doing something deeper would get you further.

  And there it was—I could already hear footsteps rushing toward here, with the door swinging open a moment later.

  "Clan leader, an emergency meeting has been called. Everyone is to get to it post haste!"

  "Yeah, I’ll head there. You go notify the next person."

  "Thank you, clan leader."

  She was off like the wind. Time to get up and see what position we should aim for. There’s no way we could get the first position—I bet that would go to the Runners’ Guild.

  For the other leaderboard, I’m guessing the Ant Nations will get first place. The real question was who would come second. I think it will come down to Ace's nation or the Orcs, although, if I understand correctly, there are some other civilizations that are well-developed, even though they haven’t made much contact.

  Well, whatever the result, next year was certainly going to be interesting.

  Pov Vivian

  "Grandfather, did you see? Even at position 50, we would get a bigger room we are currently in! We should even be able to change and add some resources we’re missing from here. This should be an excellent opportunity. We should try to aim at least for the top 10!"

  My smile froze when I saw the look my grandfather was giving me.

  "Child, why are you underestimating everybody who lives in this dungeon? We are just barely established—some of them have been working together for half a century, building up their power bases, if not longer.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “I would suspect that we would have seen a lot more death if violence was permitted between the challengers. But did you notice that sabotage was not included? That is one of the advantages we have. We don't have any assets outside of here, and our relative newness affords us some bonuses."

  "I might have been a bit too eager. This sounds like quite the fun. Did you see the milestone competitions? They have everything! The best of the best can truly gain a lot of points if they win those competitions."

  "Yes, there are even a few fighting tournaments for peak diamond ranks, so even I will get to stretch my muscles. It is going to be fun, as you said."

  The way he said fun sounded like it physically hurt him to say it like that. But I could see his excitement—he had come alive during the war, even though he almost died multiple times. There was no longer the apathy I had seen before.

  I saw it slowly creeping back, ever so slowly, but now it was completely gone. I guess when this dungeon finally has diamond-ranked dungeon rooms, as it's referring to them, he will never go back to what he had fallen into.

  Pov Assassin Guild Master

  I was looking at another report, and I think it’s time to stop running this failed guild. It was tough to see something you built crumble like this, but in the end, I was the reason why it was like this.

  The other big reason was the war. Almost everyone was recruited into the war, but the assassins I trained were not really meant for this. I had specialized them too much, isolated them, and in the end, if they needed to do something else besides assassination, they failed.

  Of course, I could have helped myself, but that dungeon is too interesting to let be destroyed—at least by my hand. Of course, I’m not even sure if now even I could end it now, but I think my assassination days are behind me. Time to move on. At least, being solely in the assassination business has gotten quite boring.

  What I do enjoy is teaching and helping others—to a certain degree. It felt amazing being a hero once again, even though no one knew what I did.

  Perhaps this would be enough to purchase me a safe hideout inside the dungeon so I could bring the truly loyal with me—the ones that are not here just to get training to become killers. Or, as they want me to believe, assassins. They just want to kill.

  It took me a bit to get this particular drawer open. No one else in the world had ever managed it without being destructive, and you wouldn’t want this canister to be opened. To my knowledge, it was the last to hold the small pattern that would kill this world—and this was the hidden kind.

  Many of the masters didn’t understand why I didn’t join the fight. Well, a part of the reason was that I didn’t want the dungeon destroyed. The real reason was the Pixies. They thought I didn’t know what they were planning. Damn, it took a lot of traveling, but I managed to kill their search teams that were trying to get their hands on this small pattern.

  Only two times had the dungeon’s creatures failed. The first time, I destroyed the canister immediately. But the second one—I almost lost before I could kill those Pixies. My plan to wait and slowly dismantle my Guild seemed to have robbed me of a good opportunity to properly establish myself in that dungeon. No more half-measures.

  I picked up a bell and rang it.

  Throughout the entire compound, large bells rang, and every officer rushed towards my office. They all lined up—some a bit worried, some curious. The last time I used this, we received orders to go to war.

  "As of this moment, the Guild is disbanded. Notify everyone. Everyone is to vacate, and those who wish can stay behind to help me dismantle this compound and the few other ones we have."

  There was some confusion, but none of them spoke out.

  "Why are you still here?"

  There was anger now. One of them threw a dagger at me while spouting some nonsense about what a mistake I was making, and so on and so on. I threw the dagger back through his eye—at least that shut the others up. Now, let’s see who are the smart ones who got the secret message in that order.

  After that, it’s time to head towards the dungeon. It's only a matter of time before it starts making diamond-ranked floors where I can finally start practicing again. It’s been such a while since I had any challenge.

  Pov Rafe

  "Father, about this competition… could I take part as well?"

  "I guess there’s no reason an individual can’t take part, but it’s going to be hard to compete. Although… well, it’s you. Yeah, I don’t see a reason why not. But why would you want to? What would you do with such land?"

  "Well, I have been thinking about getting offspring. And with the way I can change my body, I think I could have quite the colorful family. Also, I think raising some offspring sounds quite nice right about now, and for that, I would need more space than my current hideout."

  "I could always just make you a large world."

  "But where’s the fun in that?"

  "Right, you are."