Three months have already passed since the first tournament. On Monday of next week, I also checked their status for the first time. I looked at Kira's status first, as she was the first one awake. I was quite surprised by her value, as it was higher than I thought—her status is 510,000. For a supporter, that number is huge.
Lisa - Power: 3,700,700.
Suri - Power: 1,802,500.
Lilly - Power: 1,605,900.
Milo - Power: 1,210,400.
Luna - Power: 1,450,440.
All the status values are impressive, especially considering what they were before. Milo definitely has the biggest increase. After that, I also took a look at my own status, where the number has also risen significantly. Before it was 4,050,000, now it's already 6,950,400. The next status check day isn't until after the next tournament, which is tomorrow, because today everyone wanted to do guild work one more time, even though the tournament was actually supposed to be today. In these three months, we have already organized eleven tournaments; this is the twelfth tournament. Since then, I haven't seen anything regarding changes in strength via numbers for a long time.
"I still have to do a little work on the battlefield; last time quite a bit was destroyed," I mutter quietly to myself. I go to the battlefield, which is full of unevenness and holes in the ground. I go to a hole and hold my hand over it; the ground becomes nice, smooth, and even again. I clap the dirt off my hands and get a broom. "It's so dirty, I don't want them to slip," I say to myself. I start sweeping.
Milo is the first to return from his quest. I have already made rice with vegetables for everyone, as it's the easiest and fastest. "Wow Min, did you clean all of this?" "Yes, I did, why?" I reply to Milo's question while he looks around in surprise. His gaze falls directly on the warming containers holding the rice and vegetables; six of them are standing there on the table. "Because it's quite a lot, how did you manage all that?" Milo says as he opens his thermal container. "I started when you guys left," I answer his question. He just nods and then starts eating.
Over time, everyone else returns home and starts eating immediately. Meanwhile, I take a warm bath and relax a bit to get fit again, as lately things have been very exhausting. During a mission, I found a dungeon; these are labyrinths or temples located underground. There, I found some treasures from more than 1,000 years ago. There were ten levels, and each level had a level monster that held a key.
I'm walking through the forest, about to defeat the monster horde listed on the quest sheet, when suddenly a small tremor occurs. "Oh, what was that? Whatever, I'll finish those off and then I'm gone," I mutter quietly to myself while already holding my daggers ready. I take just one step and appear directly behind the monster horde; almost all except for one monster fall over dead, covered in blood. I swing both my daggers diagonally backwards, causing the blood to fall off the blades and splatter onto the ground. The last monster is just about to attack me from behind when I throw one of my daggers and stab it lightning-fast in the neck, causing blood to splatter onto my body.
"I only showered today, I'll just go take a bath after this is finished, that should be enough," I mutter quietly to myself. Suddenly another tremor occurs, but this time even stronger than the first. Suddenly a stone tablet appears in front of me, behind which is an archway. I read the writing on the stone tablet, which says: If anyone finds this hiding place, please go into the dungeon, for that just smash this stone tablet... I'm just about to kick the stone tablet when I read something else: ...but wait, don't be too hasty, this dungeon contains ten levels with bosses that go up to strength 6,060,900, enter at your own risk. Thus ends the writing. Someone must have created this dungeon as a residence; it is quite safe if you do everything right. I wind up for a strike and shatter the stone tablet into individual pieces. The stones fly off to the sides and I simply walk inside. My current power level is 4,050,000. If only the dungeon boss is that strong, I should be able to get that far with tactics.
I walk through the corridors of the first level until I see a treasure chest. I look around with Magic-Eyes so I don't fall into a trap. Under the chest is an illusion stone, but it's already empty. I approach the chest to check if the trap really is deactivated and briefly throw a pebble against the chest; nothing happens. From that point, I am sure everything is fine. I open the chest and a rusty rapier lies inside. A few minutes later, I already find the boss chamber for the first floor.
"I think I'll look around a bit more, maybe I'll find some more weapons or magic tools," I mutter quietly to myself. I go into the alley to my left. I keep looking around. After a few meters, I reach a dead end. I walk back relaxed, and right where I should have arrived at the boss chamber, there is now just a dead end. What the hell is going on here? I go to the wall and take both my daggers in hand. I look at the wall for a moment and touch it with my hand. "Hm, no, feels like a normal wall." I take a step back and cross my arms in front of my chest. I simply swing both daggers forward, creating a shockwave. The stone wall collapses and the boss chamber appears behind it, though without a door.
The boss chamber is a circular battlefield. At the edge, there are stone statues of strange birds and dragons everywhere. In the middle is a giant petrified bull standing on two legs, holding an axe. I enter with a rough idea of what's going on. Having reached the center, I directly touch the bull statue. The battlefield begins to shake and the statue slowly takes on the color of a bull. I take a few steps back. The bull swings the axe uncontrollably and then looks around. I draw both my daggers with a quick movement. The bull starts running straight at me while I go into a fighting stance. I also run towards him. I cross my arms again, suddenly disappear, and appear behind the bull. Blood comes out of the bull, crossed across the stomach. I'm just about to turn around to leave when I see that a bird statue is suddenly missing.
"Wait, if the bull can de-petrify, then the birds and dragons can too, why didn't I consider that?" I say to myself. My face slowly becomes strained as I have to think carefully about how to fight now. In front of the bull, the bird falls down, having a crossed wound on its stomach. I look around and see 20 bird and 21 dragon statues. Then it occurs to me that stone magic is unstable. I slowly lift my hand and fire an explosion at the stone statues, creating a huge cloud of dust. I turn self-confidently toward the bull and prepare my daggers again. The bull slowly turns its head in my direction; its eyes are now bloodthirsty and murderous. I look at him victoriously and disappear again. The bull prepares to parry my strike, which was clear to me from the start. I appear above him; with crossed arms, I plunge toward the bull, which notices too late that I am above him. Suddenly, just before I reach the bull, fire comes at me from the side.
Damn, I thought the statues wouldn't hold up that much, but that must be ancient magic. This is magic that was lost 2,000 years ago; even I can't do it. I barely dodge the fire and pull a poison needle out of my dimension hole. I hold it between my index and middle finger. I swing my hand forward with a quick motion and the needle flies through the hard scales of the dragon and gets stuck in the wall behind it. I fly toward the bull again, but he is no longer standing beneath me. I go into a safe landing position while the bull prepares behind me for an axe throw. I am just about to land when the bull winds up for the throw. I just touch the ground and the axe flies off with a hiss. I hear the hissing and am just about to dodge, but the axe catches me very narrowly on the cheek.
"I have to destroy the statues first," I say quietly to myself. I run toward the statues with the daggers in my hand. I cut the first statue in the middle; I do the same with the other statues until not a single one is left standing. Meanwhile, the bull tries to hit me the whole time, but I dodge narrowly every time. All the statues are broken; from now on, I can concentrate on the bull. I run toward him, but this time without the daggers in my hand. The bull looks at me confused for a brief moment, but after only a few seconds, he also runs toward me. I disappear again in mid-run and appear behind the bull, who turns around exactly as I appear and swings the axe. I'm just about to dodge when the axe already hits me. Blood sprays from my side and from my mouth as well. I fly across the field. Just before I hit the wall, I brace myself with my legs and spring back toward the bull. I cross my arms in front of my head, which is pointed straight forward. I fly across the ground so fast that the dust is kicked up. I fly through the bull, leaving a hole in him. I land on the ground and the bull falls to the floor. I approach him with a respectful smile.
"Wow, if you were the first one, how strong is the next one?" I say respectfully to the bull. That was by far the most difficult fight since the Star Orc Lord, although by now he would be easier than this one. I go to the door, which slowly opens; behind it is a staircase going down. I walk down the stairs, which takes about ten minutes. I arrive at the second level, where ten gecko-like monsters are immediately waiting for me. One of them immediately starts breathing fire. I barely dodge it. I sprint directly toward the gecko monsters; I manage to kill three of them at once, but the remaining seven now have all the more reason to hate me. I turn my head toward them and see all of them firing at me with different elements like electricity, water, fire, and even darkness. I dodge each of their attacks with precise movements. I cast an illusion magic that makes it look as if their attacks are going through me, while I am already behind them. I take my daggers again and cut all the gecko monsters, which are still firing at the illusion. I put my daggers away and all the gecko monsters fall to the ground, halved.
I walk along the corridor, which ends at a fork left and right. I go left first, as I feel a strong mana wave from the right. I walk along the corridor and turn directly left. I arrive in a room full of spikes on the floor. I look around to see if there is another way besides walking over the spikes. I find nothing, so I use a magic to blunt the spikes, allowing me to simply walk over them. I reach the treasure chest, which contains a greatsword, but it's completely rusty and broken. I go back to the crossroads, because if I were to continue left, it would only be a dead end. I arrive back at the crossroads and this time take the right path instead of going straight. Only a few steps later, I find the boss room, but I keep walking first to take everything in. However, I find no sign of another treasure room. I go back to the boss room and open the door. I look around first before going further in, but nothing is to be discovered. I walk further into the room until suddenly the laughter of a girl appears.
"Oh, someone who made it this far," the voice says softly and kindly. I look around hastily as a female figure appears before me. I look at her confused. With her, a table with a chessboard appears. On my side are the black pieces and on her side are the white pieces.
"Huh, what is the meaning of this and who are you?" I look at her confused as she finally fully appears before me.
"I am the guardian of this level and the trial is a game of chess," she explains with a cheerful face. I sit down on the chair by the table.
"Fine, then let's play," I say determinedly. She nods to me and we start playing right away. Since she is white, she is naturally allowed to start. Bit by bit, we set our pieces until the first one can lose a chess piece. On the chessboard, she can just take one of my bishops with her pawn, but then I could also take her knight with my rook. She does it anyway and takes my bishop. Shortly after, I move my rook onto her knight, taking it out, but at the same moment, a horse with a human head and human arms—a kind of centaur—appears behind me. I look at the girl and then at the centaur as he aims at me with the bow.
"I almost forgot to explain that: every piece you take out faces you in real life," she says with an innocent face while smiling. I look around carefully so I have the best chance of dealing with it. I jump into the air as the centaur draws the arrows in his bow. I spring off the ceiling to quickly approach the centaur so he can't hit me. I land on his back, take out my daggers, and slit his neck, whereupon the game piece on the chessboard flies to the side and is out. I sit back down on the chair at the table and wait for the girl's next move.
We play for 20 minutes, and sometimes she takes a piece out and sometimes I have to fight to take one out. By now, all her pawns are still on the field, along with only one rook, one bishop, the queen, and the king. For me, there is still one bishop, two knights, the queen, all the pawns, and the king on the field. Both of us can currently take out the other's queen, and it's my turn, but I have no idea what the queen can even do. I risk it and take out the queen with my last bishop.
"Damn, I wasn't paying attention," the girl says with an annoyed voice, while a laser beam appears from behind. I quickly set up a weak barrier, which barely deflects the beam. I run toward the queen, who quickly teleports away. I look around hastily hoping to find her, but by then it's already too late and she fires another laser beam at me. I dodge the beam perfectly; only my cloak is slightly grazed. I disappear in the movement and appear above the queen, who however foresaw it through a magic eye and therefore already fires an attack at me, firing a large ice splinter exactly at the point where I appear. Fortunately, I notice at the last moment and create a wall of fire in front of me, in which the ice splinter melts in seconds. Then I fall down upon her and split her in two with the daggers. I go back to the chair at the table as if nothing had ever happened.
"How can you be so relaxed when you were just almost..." She wants to finish talking, but I stop her.
"That is simply the most important thing: he who is afraid of death is human, he who has no fear is stupid, and he who wants to die is not human. I am none of those. I am used to death, which is why I have no fear of it, yet I still do not want to die," I answer her question. She looks at me confused and I go back to the chair and simply sit down. She is allowed to make the next chess move, but what we haven't noticed yet is: as soon as she takes my queen, I will be able to take her king. She takes my queen, giving me a clear path to the king. This will be a complete victory.
"And out with the king," I say confidently to her as I move my rook toward the king. Her eyes widen in panic and fear of losing after so much time. The round has already been going for three hours, which is not exactly a short time for a game of chess. I immediately move away from the chair, because until now everyone I wanted to take out had aimed at the chair from behind. An older man with gray hair and a small beard appears behind me, and behind him all the pieces of hers that were still alive.
"That is the special feature of this piece," the girl says with a smile. I look around and am completely surrounded by the pawns that were on the field. I jump up and immediately cast a lightning magic that fires several bolts at different opponents. Two pawns and a bishop die in the process and they are also removed from the game board. Only eight pawns, the king, and one rook left. I run toward the rook, who is just a man built very broad and hard to move. The rook protects the king with everything he can. The pawns also come at me and start shooting with spears and arrows. I dodge all attacks except for one arrow that hits me full in the leg. I look around so I can bandage the wound, but find nothing far and wide. I quickly pull the arrow out of my leg and stab it into the chest of the rook, who falls down dead immediately.
"Damn, this is going to be harder than I thought," I mutter quietly to myself. I run toward the remaining pawns and halve them all with one strike.
"How can you move so fast despite the wound in your leg?" the girl asks confused. It might look like I didn't use my daggers, but in truth, I had them out the whole time; I just used an illusion that made it look different. Exactly the same with the arrow and the wound. The girl slowly realizes it too, but by then it's already too late. I finally see the thread controlling the puppets and cut it.
"So you are a puppeteer," I say, realizing it, and separate her from the puppets, causing the king to simply fall over for no further reason.
"Good, you have won. Congratulations and good luck in the rest of the dungeon," she says with a kind voice and then slowly disappears again. I go to the door leading to the third level and walk down the stairs there.
"Onward then," I mutter quietly to myself.