World Keeper

Chapter 1190: A New Challenger

When Aurivy told the information about the hidden dungeons to the guild of Fyor, they were at a loss for what to do. The world was still reeling from the shock of the mana spires suddenly turning into elevators capable of taking them to any floor of Fyor, or even to other worlds. With this, the long-standing role of Aurivy’s church in this world had been taken over by a natural force.

Of course, in order to properly use this new elevator, one had to have a certain degree of magical knowledge, which itself was rather uncommon. Still, as long as one studied the appropriate runes, it would not be difficult for them to reach the destination they wished to visit. No longer would priests of Aurivy need to be on standby to aid travelers in reaching the various floors. Now, all that they needed to do was help people reach the mana spire of whatever floor they were on.

Though, if one considered the requisite runic knowledge to be rare, the number of people that qualified to receive the information on the hidden dungeons was absolutely abysmal. There were less than a thousand combatants registered to Fyor that had surpassed level six thousand, and all of them were visitors from other worlds that had only recently arrived when the level cap had been removed. Of those who were native to Fyor, there was not a single adventurer that had yet to reach that level.

This was only natural, since the level cap had been preventing anyone from becoming that strong. That was why the guild had created the concept of Maxers in the first place, those that focused primarily on one or two classes, only training in other classes in order to balance their physical stats as needed.

But now, Maxers were completely irrelevant. The system no longer awarded special skills to a particular class after they surpassed the level five hundred limit, and it was all about individual training. The only reason to pursue further growth in that class would be because of personal interest or talent.

Still, the adventurers of Fyor, who had previously been the ones to pioneer new territories, had already begun training on the upper floors of Fyor. It would take quite a while before they were qualified to receive the new information that came from Aurivy, but it was inevitable.

Meanwhile, there were numerous adventurers that had gone to visit the various other planets accessible through the crystal spire. Some of them were well received, while others tried to act as local tyrants, and required the assistance of the guild in order to send a subjugation force to bring them back.

As for those few adventurers from abroad that did qualify for the information on ‘hidden dungeons’, the guild provided it to them in secret. They ensured that the information would not be spread, in order to avoid unrest among the general public.

Once they received the information, these adventurers began to gather together. There were no ships within Fyor designed for interstellar travel. Even ships from the Metong would find it difficult to traverse the ridiculous distances needed to explore within Fyor’s universe. For that reason, they could only rely on exceptionally high level abilities, such as godhood.

With just the most basic understanding of distances, any would-be traveler knew that attempting to explore on their own, regardless of how fast they were, would only result in them spending eons in solitude. Thus, they created groups between three and ten people large, with each group having a specialist in travel-related abilities. Only then did these several hundred adventurers take to the stars.

When Petra heard about this, she couldn’t help but chuckle. Even if you have someone capable of teleporting you, it will still take you a long time to reach a hidden dungeon. This was not baseless confidence, but rather something that she came to understand due to her studying Fyor’s universe through her World Shadow.

There were only ten thousand ‘normal’ dungeon planets within Fyor’s galaxy, while there were roughly three hundred thousand ‘hidden’ dungeon planets. Still, this meant that there were several hundred thousand stars per dungeon planet. Unless they took the time to set up a long-term observation and discover the crystal spires of the relevant planets, they would be flying blindly.

Petra lamented that she herself was not high enough level to properly explore these hidden dungeons, as she had been bound by Fyor’s level cap for too long. Now that the cap had been removed, she and the rest of Thelsa’s main shadow troop were all training diligently, planning to earn the right to visit these dungeons themselves.

Petra had already tried to talk Thelsa into letting them go early, since they did already know the location of every hidden dungeon. Even if they left, who would know? Still, Thelsa wanted to err on the side of caution, and refused to let them leave until they met the proper level requirement.

Thankfully, Petra and the others had a rather intense training plan, so she was confident that they would reach their goal before too long.

Udona couldn’t help but click her tongue when she heard the news of the hidden dungeons. If not for the fact that he had been imprisoned for so long, Sinclair would have been the perfect navigator to the dungeons. All that he would need to do is decide that he wanted to visit one of those hidden dungeons, and his divinity would take him there. Granted, it would never take him to the same one twice, but that was besides the point! Once he visited there once, he would be able to use the crystal spire if he ever wanted to return.

Unfortunately, Sinclair’s long absence from the world meant that he was far too weak to be sent to such places. This was why Udona had sent him out to train after he had returned, as he was by far the weakest of her Holy Knights. There were even those among her serving staff that were stronger than him at the moment. Granted, most of those members of the staff were shadow units produced by Dana, but still.

She let out a forlorn sigh at the missed opportunity. Had he been stronger, she would have sent her nights out for a joint training program. At that thought, Udona tilted her head, a small smile forming on her face. She might not be able to send her Holy Knights out on such an expedition, but there was another that would be capable of benefiting from this. And, unlike Sinclair, she was more than qualified to do so.

Priscilla was enjoying a cup of tea, sitting beneath the shade of a large tree when she received a message from Udona. With wide eyes, she immediately stood at attention, her tea discarded. Even after the battles against the monster swarms, Priscilla never ceased training both herself and the knights that had been left in her care.

In the process of her training, she had created multiple legends, allowing her to surpass the limits of such classes as Leader, Cleric, Templar, and Paladin. Taking into account all of her classes, she was approaching level eight thousand.

However, Priscilla’s true value was not as an individual, but as the commander of the Keeper’s Holy Knights. Thus, Udona informed her about the hidden dungeons as a way to further train both herself and her units.

Priscilla, upon hearing this information, immediately thanked Udona and set off for Fyor. Between her numerous knights, there were many that had the powers to traverse incredible distances in the blink of an eye, and others capable of tracking the location of a designated target.

Between these abilities, it took Priscilla less than an hour to track down the location of a hidden dungeon. Specifically, according to the translation of the runes, she had found X-72. With a surge of determination, she entered the hidden dungeon, finding a vast ocean.

Calling upon the tracking knights, she located countless massive, aquatic beasts roaming within this ocean. Many of them were even larger than the greatest of monsters that they had witnessed from the last great invasion.

Realizing the sheer scale of these creatures, which would not even be fazed if Deckan itself crashed into them, Priscilla clenched her fists. Her eyes blazed with a burning passion to grow stronger.

Without delay, Priscilla began to engage the nearest monster, commanding the Knight of Gravity, Knight of Ice, and Knight of Darkness to work together to create a black hole within the heart of the giant monster. Against such a massive beast, even a black hole did not pose too significant of a threat… unless that black hole appeared in a vital area near their core.

This was what Priscilla was counting on, having located the core with the aid of the tracking units. She sensed the monster flail about for a moment, before its energy core shattered, and it began to dissolve. In reality, this was just a test run, seeing how much effort it would take to kill one of these monsters.

What Priscilla had not expected was for a message to appear in her peripheral vision, informing her that she had received one reward point for killing a monster. Udona had informed her about the reward spheres, but she had not said anything about there being a reward for killing individual beasts.

Granted, a single point was likely not worth much, but Priscilla had no intention of stopping there. This battle was only just beginning. “Holy armaments, form!” She shouted, and several of the knights around her seemed to dissolve. One of them became a helmet, another a spear, while more formed into her armor, shield, and wings. This was one of Priscilla’s legends, which allowed her to combine the power of multiple divine beings under her command.

With a flash, Priscilla vanished from her previous location, soon appearing atop a giant mountain. Golden feathers fell from her wings as she perceived the land below through the gap of her helmet. Far below, she could make out ferocious beasts fighting one another, and a smile formed on her lips.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

She dismissed her spear and shield, instead granting herself a bow and arrow. The bow was made from the Knight of Archery, while the arrow was made from the Knight of Death. This was the strongest ranged attack that she could create against a single target. “It’s time to hunt.” She muttered to herself, nocking the arrow on the golden bowstring.

Like Priscilla, Tsubaki was in the midst of her hunt. Her eyes were focused, standing before a hulking fire giant, whose eyes were like blazing suns. She had hunted numerous beasts already, and had naturally seen the reward message. However, she had largely ignored it, finding it irrelevant to her current objective. After all, she was not there for these reward points. Instead, she was fighting purely to train herself.

As such, she had descended five floors into her own hidden dungeon, X-444, and found it to be claimed by massive elemental monsters. These creatures did not seem to have any higher intelligence, driven by an intense desire to devour powerful foes.

The beast’s fist drove down towards her, looking like a massive meteor descending. Tsubaki let out a deep breath, activating her Stealth domain while pushing her speed to the limits to avoid the attack. This was not her first time facing a monster like this. In fact, her avatars had already been killed twice due to underestimating its speed and destructive power.

This newest avatar, however, had learned from the mistakes of its predecessors, and dodged the seemingly slow attack to the full extent of her ability. She knew that it only looked slow when comparing it to the overall size of the beast’s body. In reality, that ‘slow’ punch was moving several times faster than the speed of light, and required her to operate her energy senses at their maximum in order to be able to follow its movements.

“Cold light.” She muttered, one of her nine orbs lighting up. A blue pillar of light began to surround the beast, causing it to roar in anguish as its flames struggled against the cold energy contained within that light. Naturally, this was not enough to kill such a monster, but it was enough to distract it, allowing Tsubaki to move towards its nape. She had to endure devastatingly powerful flames in order to make it to her target, but this was another reason why she had released such a large ‘cold light’. Otherwise, her avatar would have been destroyed just by touching its flames.

Once she had reached the monster’s neck, she imbued her daggers with her severing will, slicing forward to cut off the flaming giant’s massive head. Doing so had released a torrent of molten energy, which flooded past Tsubaki’s avatar, instantly destroying it. Still, she had managed to kill her target, though now she needed to figure out how to kill said target without dying herself. After all, her ranged attacks would not be as effective against a beast that strong…