The Gohkamorian gurgled two final, shallow breaths before succumbing to his wounds and the poison residing within his body. The moment he died, Eik felt the Living Manifestation that had been ravaging his opponent’s insides mercilessly for the last few moments of life disconnect from the system at once. They had absolutely no interest in an expired system at all.

  Full of energy, the little blue guys jumped out of the horrific neck wound that still spilled blood ceaselessly into the grass. They slithered over to him and dive back into his skin.

  Leaning back on his arms he looked up into the sky with a tired sigh. This life was one insane experience after the other. He had just murdered an alien from the multiverse whose race of militant super beings were responsible for flooding Earth with monsters through inter-dimensional wormholes. Try telling that to some 2020 fool going to Starbucks and complaining about bus schedules. Stop playing video games, they would say.

  His eyes scanned the text carved directly into the glass surface of the raised platform. Finally some god dammed information.

  Challengers.

  Welcome. You’ve done well to come this far. You make your peoples proud and the Nidafjeld Alliance is lucky to be able to count powerful, young warrior like you among our ranks.

  Welcome to the first challenge of the Championship.

  Your goal is simple — collect life stones from fallen opponents. Each challenger will leave a single stone upon death, found in the palm of their hand.

  Wildlife will leave stones according to their strength. Weaker monsters will not leave a life stone on their own, but accumulate a sufficient number of kills and you might be lucky enough to find one. Stronger monsters can leave a life stone on their own or, in rare cases, more than one.

  Upon the end of the challenge, those still alive will have five minutes to get to one of the light beacons atop the monoliths, such as the one on which you are reading these words. Offer your life stones to the light and to register your collection.

  Only those who have managed to collect a sufficient number of stones will be allowed to advance to the next stage of the Championships.

  The life stones can not be registered before those final five minutes. Don’t count your blessings too soon, Challenger.

  In this challenge, willingness to risk one’s life and take chances to get ahead is rewarded.

  Good luck!

  Why the hell had this damned cascade of useful information not been provided until now? A nice little sign hammered into the ground at his point of arrival would have been immensely appreciated.

  Well, the information itself didn’t really change much in terms of his behavior. Finding and killing other challengers and strong monsters seemed to be the best way to ensure a pass here.

  Two issues did present themselves immediately, however. The first was the fact that there was no information about the actual duration of the test. For all he knew, it could end in in five seconds or three weeks. There was no telling. The other issue was that the required number of life stones offered was described only as “sufficient”.

  What was “sufficient” even supposed to mean? He currently had fifteen of them in his rucksack of holding, excluding the ones he would most likely find on the dead Gohkamorian and the corpses in the bushes. Was that enough? Was the number established from the beginning, like, say, twenty? Or did it scale relative to the success of other candidates? Would one guy having a hundred life stones in his possession mean that Eik now needed eighty for the number to be considered sufficient?

  With another sigh, he got to his feet and checked the Gohkamorian’s body for anything of value. Most of the important stuff was obviously going to be stowed away securely in his bag of holding, which was inaccessible to Eik who was not the bound owner, but it was worth a look anyway.

  Clutched in the gigantic man’s left hand was a single life stone, most likely the one spawned by his own death, while his right overflowed with them. Seven of them, in fact. Those must have been the ones he had claimed from monsters or other challengers. Eik’s eyes wandered to the bloodstained bushes a little ways away.

  It would seem that the entirety of a challenger’s stash of life stones was forcefully pulled from their bags of holding upon death. That was good to know.

  That brought his total to twenty three life stones. Not a bad haul. Hopefully…

  Five vials of red healing potions were strapped to his belt. They appeared to be untouched. The guy had talked a lot about honor. Was that what had kept him from using the potions despite the terrible wound? Interesting fellow.

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  He had nothing else on him, and the corpses in the bushes were also stripped clean of any useful items. Eik bagged the Gohkamorian’s weapons and armor, as well as some of the armor still on the corpses. It was dirty and encrusted with dried blood but being a fresh civilization as they was, they severely lacked knowledge of magical items and techniques.

  Even if he could persuade Atla or Mikla to teach them some things or gift them a couple of pieces, any magical item they could study would be worth its weight in whatever alien material was worth a hundred times more than gold.

  The rucksack of holding had a decently large dimensional space as far as he had understood, but the thing was beginning to feel a little stuffed. He had shoved many, many things in there, just on the off chance that he or someone in Forest find a use for it. Plants, animal parts, metal, rocks, anything. It was all potentially valuable when you didn’t know what it was.

  Taking out his wooden plaque, he checked to see if he had leveled up.

  [Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 29]

  [Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 30]

  [Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 16]

  [Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 17]

  [Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 18]

  [Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 19]

  And they kept coming. Finishing off the hydra as well as both the Gohkamorian warrior and the elemental mage on the ground had not been a small feat at all.

  [Acquired (Unique) Profound Toxin — Lv. 70]

  [Acquired (Unique) Profound Toxin — Lv. 71]

  [Acquired (Unique) Profound Toxin — Lv...]

  [Acquired (Unique) Profound Toxin — Lv. 74]

  [Acquired (Unique) Profound Toxin — Lv. 75]

  Damn… There was no doubt that using the new type of Profound Toxin, Visage of Death in actual combat had played a role in the number of levels he had earned.

  The question now was whether to stay where he was and wait or go out to hunt for other challengers and monsters. At first thought, leaving to earn himself more kills seemed to be the best way to ensure that he would end up with enough life stones to advance to the next round, but after more consideration waiting seemed to be the best option.

  The top peak of the monoliths would be where everybody sought to go. That much was obvious judging by the several corpses hidden in the rows of bushes. Rather than running around blindly, hoping to get ambushed by some stealth archer, setting up his own ambush here would be both safer and probably about as profitable.

  Eik dragged the Gohkamorian to his original seat on the glass platform. Taking the man’s gigantic blade back out of the rucksack of holding, he rammed it deep into the grass and leaned the man’s elbows on the guard, forcing the body into a somewhat passably natural-looking sitting position.

  Four little Living Manifestation were deployed into the back of his shirt to keep him stable to the best of their ability. A quick toxic wash saw the remnants of the warrior’s life blood erased as well, leaving him looking almost alive if a little tired.

  Next, Eik fished out the large shield looted from the tank and lightning user duo. This shield he also slammed into the ground a few paces in front of the corpse of the Gohkamorian. With an assortment of armor pieces, he constructed something resembling a humanoid form. Luckily one of the dead in the bushes had been wearing a helmet complete with a face visor.

  Releasing twelve more Living Manifestations, they spread throughout the medley to act as limbs and body parts. With the shape kneeling behind the massive shield, it would be difficult for anyone to see that there wasn’t actually anybody inside the armor. And the blue glow from the toxic snakes was barely visible in the light of the sun.

  The ascent from the side that Eik had also climbed had definitely been the easiest, so that would probably also be where most other arrivals would come from.

  Having finished the setup, pulled a cloak around himself and settled onto a low branch in a tree with good leaf coverage.

  Now was the time to wait.

  ***

  “Eik is doing incredibly well,” Mikla remarked, awe clear in his voice. “There is no other way to describe it. What a talent for battle.”

  “The more we watch, the more I realize how much he’s pulling ahead of us. We can’t keep up at all,” Heath mused. “I mean, he’s further into D-rank than I am into E-rank. How can I even compete? How can I even… support him anymore? I’m—… We’re being left behind…”

  Michael put a hand on Heath’s shoulder as the tank’s head drooped, his hair covering his face. Mikla answered.

  “This happens sometimes. I’ve seen it before. Some people are just extraordinary, to put it in simple terms. They do things we can hardly imagine. Again and again they throw themselves into situations that make us say ‘This will be what kills them. This time it’s over.’ But then they pull it off, to great success, and they’re all the stronger for it afterward.”

  Mikla leaned back in his seat with a sigh. “Did you know I used to aim to be water manipulator? And a combat specialist at that.” The clear liquid swirled up and out of his drinking glass, his control immaculate.

  “That’s the first time I’m hearing that,” Heath said, the others nodding along.

  “Well, it was a good number of years ago, so that doesn’t surprise me. I was in a team with two of my childhood friends. One was a swordsman, the other a martial artist. We dreamed of climbing the ladder to the top together. Boyhood dreams, you know. Well, by the time I finally hit D-rank, the martial artist was a few months from reaching C-rank. I began to realize that the one to reach the top might be him alone, without me. I was lucky that I had taken abilities that allowed me to pivot into my current profession. There are many ways to help and feel useful.”

  “And the swordsman?” Heath asked.

  Mikla’s jaw tightened. “He died. The fire in his stomach never went out, but he became reckless, and he paid the price for it.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Sonja said. Heath had grown silent, lost in thought.

  He waved dismissively. “Oh, it was a long time ago. It happens. My point is that Eik, like my friend, is extraordinary, but even more so. I’ve never quite seen anyone like hi—”

  A commotion nearby drew their attention. A number of Alliance-affiliated guards in uniformed armor stood gathered around something on the ground. Moments later they left, carrying several heavy-looking sacks.

  “That’s a lot of people to carry potatoes,” Heath said to glances from the others.

  “Those sacks are containment devices,” Mikla corrected, his eyes suddenly serious. “I wonder what’s going on.”

  It was another few minutes before murmurs and whispers spread far enough to reach their ears. What they heard was not comforting. Numerous powerful individuals had been tracked and caught.

  A major raid had been launched right here in alliance headquarters.

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