Weapons of Mass Destruction

Victoria (Beyond, King) ⟶ Spacewolf (Beyond) +100 pts

Victoria (Beyond, King) ⟶ Maple (Hell) +20 pts

Victoria (Beyond, King) ⟶ CarrotCake (Beyond, King) +5,000 pts

These are some of the notifications I see in my feed. These probably came through a few minutes ago. As reliable as always, Victoria dealt with them and then went on to do her own thing.

Flying high into the air, I observe the battlefield. Now, without the Kings, it should be easy to clean up the rest.

The bulk of the fighting is taking place between the members of our round, the remaining forces that make up Derick's round, and the forces responsible for defending the fortress that my round is attacking.

Down there in our fortress, I can see constant flashes of orange light from Savant's [Dawn]. Our sole defender seems to be fighting someone. The skill, powerful enough at the higher levels to wipe out everyone on Lissandra's home world of Eladore, continues to obliterate a massive number of enemies, as confirmed by the stream of notifications from the kill feed.

On the other side of the battlefield, the strongest combatants are being ruthlessly hunted down by Tacita. Even now, barely anyone has any hope of detecting her, and even if they do, hardly anyone is able to react in time. Not caring about efficiency or collecting points, Tacita just hunts the strongest enemies she can find, swiftly switching between the hoard of daggers in her possession, each with a different effect.

I even notice Noodle, as thick as a small tree trunk and longer than an olympic swimming pool, slithering around the walls, devouring any barriers in his path, his scales burning with the green, blue, and purple flame of the Fragment of Eternal Fire. Sometimes, I even catch glimpses of Izzy, shooting the same flame from her palms.

It appears they kept an eye on the notifications and know the event is likely won, and I did my part to fulfill Lissandra's requirements. Instead of going all out and collecting a few more points, they seem to have decided to hide the true extent of their abilities. It's something we talked about previously, and they take it seriously.

Passing over that battlefield, I reach the fortress belonging to Jean's round. Unlike Jean, who seemingly agreed to participate in Derick’s plan to take me down, they have chosen to take shelter inside. Even now, they work, stacking up their defenses and preparing any number of nasty traps; something to throw at anyone who manages to breach their walls.

And by nasty, I mean really nasty, something powerful enough to wipe out even Beyond attendees.

Their barrier is also two-sided, the front purposely weaker. Rather than being an integral part of the whole, it serves as a secondary barrier meant to be broken, allowing people to enter before the rest of the barrier reactivates to trap them. With certain poisons and collected energies activating, this could get interesting.

Floating overhead, I expand the Ley Lines in the area and twist them, creating a huge circle which I immediately begin filling with more and more Ley Lines. When I can no longer create more, I weave in dense threads of mana instead. Slowly, I start building up a giant inscription, using all the testing I did previously and the experience I gained with that Bloodroot Devourer on the 6th floor.

I separate part of my mind and, floating over the inscription, form an orb as big as a basketball before slightly opening a seal on the Sealed Ignition Heart. With each beat of my second heart, a small stream of that incredibly concentrated thermal energy flows into the orb, swirling inside it. When the orb looks ready to crack and break, I start spinning the thermal energy. It forms a whirlpool of golden flames inside, drawing in the flames I send to it at increasing speed.

All that mana within me, the thermal energy I now have to control, all with no passive protecting my mind. I push myself to the absolute limit, knowing exactly where it is from all the deaths during the tournament. I walk the edge, fully aware that a single mistake would trigger a backlash powerful enough to kill me instantly.

And that would mean failure of the task Lissandra has set for me.

But I do not fail.

I will not fail.

A high-pitched sound fills my head as mana seeps out of me, passing through the Ley Lines and threads of mana. It lights up and powers the inscription floating in the air above the fortress.

Then, silence falls, and the sense of pressure vanishes.

At that moment, I look down and see our round and Victoria's slowly making their way toward the fortress. They wait below like beasts ready to fight, while only small remnants of battle persist within our fortress, with a few smaller fights still going on against what's left of the other two rounds.

The moment passes, and my inscription flares to life for an instant before vanishing. It crumbles away, its threads unraveling into fine particles that drift into the air.

With it, the barrier surrounding the fortress shatters instantly. The disrupting wave from the inscription tears through, completely obliterating the barrier along with any traps or activate skills below.

My thermal orb falls like a meteor, its surface glowing in golden flames as all that energy tries to escape. It crashes in the middle of the fortress and bursts open like a bubble. From it, a massive wave of golden flames surges forward, crashing against the buildings and sweeping through the passages.

Over half of the remaining people from Round 1 die from that single attack.

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Then I reach down and pull all the remaining heat from the air back to my body, and, like another wave, Rounds 4 and 5 rush inside to deal with the rest. Turning away from it all, I fly to the side and reach the top of Derick's fortress. There I sit upon the broken roof that sways as if it is about to fall apart.

While waiting for it all to end, I allow myself to slip out of [Focus] and devote my full attention to the process of keeping my body alive and managing my mana.

I shudder as I feel as though I have returned to reality, and then I read the notifications.

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 63 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 64]

[Focus - lvl 63 > Focus - lvl 64]

[Perception - lvl 59 > Perception - lvl 60]

[Eclipse - lvl 26 > Eclipse - lvl 27]

[Eclipse - lvl 27 > Eclipse - lvl 28]

[Empyrean Lance - lvl 17 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 18]

[Ley Line - lvl 49 > Ley Line - lvl 50]

[Knitting - lvl 29 > Knitting - lvl 30]

I thought I would get more, and while this is good, it's not enough to fully satisfy me. As of late, I’ve been seeing more and more evidence of diminishing returns. It's getting harder and harder to show the system that you have enough mastery for it to register another level up. And I have no reason to think it will be any different in the future.

The rumors that it may be impossible to reach the level of Champion within the tutorial, which I estimate to start around level 450, are seeming increasingly likely to be true. Maybe at least a decade is needed for it? Maybe two? Probably even longer if you want to become a "proper" Champion, at least by Sandra The Cockroach’s standards.

Ten minutes later, I see the strongest flash of orange light yet and turn toward our fortress to see what's happening, only to witness it explode and disappear completely, leaving nothing behind.

What the hell?

I quickly open the notifications and scroll up a little, finding what I was looking for.

Hadwin (Beyond) ⟶ Savant (Beyond)

Savi, my unhealthily patient and cowardly not-a-friend, what could you have possibly done to piss off the Cockroach?

POV Kang Jiwon

As we agreed previously, both Master Baek and I enter the mountain of the 8th round. Expecting us, the guards let us pass, and one of them leads us toward the big house, a short distance away from the central area and near the edge of the forest.

We enter the same room as before, and while Master Baek takes his seat in one of the free chairs, I remain standing. Mister Kelley and his wife are already there, sitting next to each other on the sofa.

We spend the time in silence, waiting for Mister CarrotCake to join us, along with Mister Lucien.

"Greetings, my evil collaborators!" Mister CarrotCake exclaims with a big smile as he walks in, flopping down and crashing into the seat of the biggest armchair in the room, which still manages to groan under the strain of his weight.

"Jean," Mister Kelley greets him softly, "I didn’t expect you to be so happy after your stunning defeat."

"It's fine, it's fine," he says with the same smile, waving it off. "It's all about the process. Just like in the gym, you need to damage your muscles for them to grow. It doesn't matter if I lose once or multiple times. You know what? I think that's what actually makes it more fun."

"That's an attitude I didn't expect from you, especially with your subclass. So, how was she? Were the rumors true?" Mister Kelley asks, his curiosity clear.

With his smile growing even bigger, Mister CarrotCake says, "Oh, they were. Like brother, like sister. Or maybe like sister, like brother? You bunch also got the shit beaten out of you, from what I have heard."

"That's too harsh, Jean, even if it is true. But did you know Noname was holding back?"

Miss Kelley chimes in for the first time, "He didn't even heal his body, and we saw his incredible healing during the Beyond expedition. Some of his passives also seemed to have deactivated, and he appeared to be handicapping himself and not using most of his mana."

The room quiets, and I look at Miss Kelley, who meets my gaze with a calm, gentle smile. Master has already warned me that she has exceptionally keen eyes.

Meanwhile, Mister Lucien looks disinterested, as if the only reason he was here was because someone dragged him along.

Mister CarrotCake slams his hand on the armrest of his chair, "Isn't that obvious? He was clearly sending a message, the same way we heard he did during the first part of the 1st event. It's a shame I didn't fight him one-on-one, but his sister was also fun."

"Did she live up to the rumors?" Miss Kelley asks.

"She could create clones, duplicates, or avatars of herself. Her physical stats are incredible, and I have no idea how you would even go about killing her. As long as she has a piece of her flesh, she can regrow from it, and I couldn't tell which one was the original. But for now, it seems like the longer these 'clones' stay alive, the weaker they become, as if they degrade over time. That might change with more levels. She also likely has some physique-related trait and probably an upgraded constitution attribute."

I decide to join the conversation, "It's highly likely that she possesses a concentration-type skill, like her brother."

Master Baek reacts for the first time and tilts his head to look at me.

I return his gaze, and he sighs, clearly annoyed.

Mister CarrotCake, unfazed, says, "So, the sister is an immortal, emotionless maniac who’ll gladly rip your arm off and beat you to death with it, while the brother’s constantly zipping around like some glitched out ghost, spewing mana all over the place and wrecking everything in sight. Got it. And Derrick, what happened to that silver haired chick? Did she tell you anything else?"

The reminder of her involvement pulls my thoughts back to that woman, the one with all-seeing eyes that never seemed to miss a thing, as if she could see everything all at once. Even the way she moved left an impression.

Not long ago, she contacted Derrick and offered techniques if he could reel in the other rounds and get them to cooperate.

The samples of techniques she left with Mister Kelley for each of the Kings were so incredible that they even caught my Master’s interest.

"I would recommend that you never speak to her that way, Jean," Mister Kelley warns. "And as promised, she left a mana stone with techniques for each of you."

He carefully takes them from his wife and hands them to Mister CarrotCake and my master. Both accept them with care, immediately diving into the stone with impatience.

A payment for a simple request from that woman. For us to join forces against those siblings.