The hunters grew visibly enraged as the king refused to die. They now fully charged their arrows before firing while desperately trying to keep their distance from both the king and his followers, who had entered some sort of berserk frenzy.
The creatures had become surprisingly fast and could leap absurd distances. The biggest issue for the hunters, however, was the matchup itself. Their weapons seemed incredibly effective against trial takers, yet strangely weak against everything else.
Thalion even watched the king headbutt one of the fully charged arrows, losing only a chunk of flesh in the process.
“Why are we doing so little damage?!” one of the hunters shouted in frustration.
“Because we were never supposed to get down here!” another hunter bellowed back.
That immediately caught Thalion’s attention.
Wait a second… the hunters weren’t even supposed to enter the underground?
This system event was even worse designed than he had originally thought.
“Hey man, when do you think the altar is finally going to do something?” one of the humans asked while narrowly dodging an arrow.
That was indeed becoming concerning.
The altar was practically shaking the entire chamber with power, yet nothing had happened so far.
“Can’t be much longer, otherwise the whole thing is going to explode,” Thalion answered, though doubt had already begun creeping into his mind.
What if the insane king had made a mistake and the altar really would just blow up?
One glance toward the entrance instantly crushed every escape plan forming in his head.
There were simply too many hunters. The only possible exits now were either the altar activating… or the king somehow slaughtering the hunters first.
If the hunters won, Thalion would almost certainly die.
There was still time left in the system event, which meant he would likely perish either to the hunters… or whatever the altar was preparing.
The battle itself had also become drastically more dangerous as the D-grades finally started unleashing their full power. Shockwaves tore through the chamber with every impact while the air itself vibrated violently from arrows and collisions.
The king was now visibly struggling.
One hand had already lost several fingers, chunks of flesh were missing from his legs, and deep wounds covered his entire body. Green blood sprayed everywhere whenever he moved.
The manic laughter had disappeared from his face.
Now he looked serious.
But the number of hunters was simply overwhelming.
“You will never defeat me!” the king roared, his voice shaking the entire chamber.
A massive shockwave exploded outward, forcing all the rangers to retreat so they wouldn’t be infected.
Then the king’s body began to mutate.
Another pair of arms burst from his torso while his entire frame rapidly expanded. His robes tore apart, revealing monstrous muscles beneath.
“Is he turning into an ape? I’m gonna puke,” a mage beside Thalion muttered in horror.
Thalion instantly used Telekinetic Dash to create distance while also rising higher to get a better view.
The king truly had transformed into one of the gigantic four-armed apes.
The newly transformed king unleashed another deafening roar, accompanied by an even larger shockwave.
Every remaining ape in the chamber became empowered, while the infected Unari began mutating as well. Their skin split apart as they transformed into towering four-armed monsters themselves.
That development changed everything.
Before, many infected hunters had still been capable of fighting normally. Now they fully transformed into apes and immediately turned against their former allies.
The battle descended into complete chaos.
The king had also become far more aggressive.
At some point, the cursed sword had vanished. Thalion briefly searched the battlefield for it but couldn’t find even a trace. The king’s hands were empty too.
Maybe the weapon had been absorbed during the transformation.
Not that it mattered anymore.
Right now, Thalion focused entirely on staying hidden while the chamber collapsed into absolute madness.
The hunters were beginning to lose their advantage. Earlier they could still kill the infected Unari relatively quickly, but now the transformed apes had become far too durable and dangerous.
Every hunter who got hit also began mutating into another ape, which only worsened the chaos further.
At least the hunters no longer had the time to fire deliberately at the humans hiding in the rear.
That didn’t make things safe, however. Random arrows still occasionally flew toward them.
“UHA!” the king roared triumphantly after crushing two hunters between his massive fists.
The transformed king was becoming faster and faster as he leapt wildly through the chamber, trying to slaughter as many hunters as possible.
Even in ape form, though, the damage on his body continued to accumulate.
The hunters had already adapted to the new situation, and the king was now taking far heavier damage than before.
Then everything changed as the altar finally activated.
Green power surged through the chamber while glowing symbols flared across the air, reminding Thalion of the moment Earth had first been introduced to the system.
Everything went black for a single instant—the familiar sensation of teleportation—before they suddenly appeared on the surface.
The blazing sun stood high above the endless desert while scorching heat rained down mercilessly. The combined pressure of so many D-grade auras immediately stirred a massive sandstorm around the battlefield.
The ape king looked utterly confused upon seeing the endless dunes. He had likely expected something closer to the jungle biosphere from below.
Rows of arrows protruded from his body, and his momentary confusion immediately earned him several fresh wounds while one of his right arms was torn off completely.
It was obvious the king wouldn’t survive much longer. Especially not while standing there in shock, staring at sand.
This should have been the perfect opportunity for Thalion to leave.
But he still wanted the king’s loot.
The surviving humans looked toward him for guidance, but Thalion ignored them while carefully observing the battlefield and slowly retreating backward.
There were over a hundred hunters present. Staying here was probably suicidal, especially considering the absurd advantages their equipment granted them.
Still… what if he looted one of the dead hunters?
How many points would they be worth?
And if he placed an entire corpse into the spatial ring, then all the hunter’s equipment should count as a single item together with the body. At least, that was Thalion’s theory.
Finding an intact hunter corpse proved difficult, however. Whenever the hunters transformed into apes, most of their armor shattered apart, which was incredibly disappointing from a loot perspective.
Thalion shifted into his newly acquired Sirokkar form and immediately began moving across the battlefield.
It was his first time using the form, and he had to admit the movement felt incredible. Smooth almost wasn’t enough to describe it. He was genuinely shocked by how effortlessly he could glide across the sand, and that was without even activating any of the form’s abilities.
After a short search, he finally found a dead hunter and stored the entire corpse—equipment and all—inside his spatial ring.
Fifty million points instantly appeared on the leaderboard.
Yep. There it is. The cheat code nobody discovered yet.
Excitement surged through him.
There was still one free slot left in the ring, though replacing the remaining loot would obviously be worth it now.
Thalion sprinted through the battlefield, rapidly collecting more corpses. After acquiring another hunter body, he returned to the humans who were slowly backing away while constantly glancing around for him.
To avoid terrifying them further, he shifted back into his human form before approching.
He already knew where three additional hunter corpses lay buried beneath the sand, and right now he felt surprisingly generous.
“Here. A few points for your troubles,” Thalion said casually before dropping the three treasures he had fought so hard to obtain directly in front of them.
“Jo—what the heck?!” one of the women shouted while jumping backward in shock.
With a quick wink, Thalion shot off into the distance before shifting back into the Sirokkar.
Now the others had definitely noticed him, but thanks to the fox form’s absurd camouflage abilities, he should disappear from sight again almost immediately.
After collecting three additional hunter corpses, his score had climbed to roughly two hundred fifty million points, not even counting the constant bonus points gained from remaining near the hunters.
At this stage, those extra points barely mattered anymore.
One look at the leaderboard made it obvious, that the victory was secured.
Thalion sat at over two hundred fifty million points while second place barely exceeded one million.
Catching up should now be completely impossible. He was likely still gaining the highest survival bonuses from proximity to the hunters, while all other sources of points were capped.
The hunters remained fully occupied fighting the apes, though Thalion doubted that distraction would last much longer.
Honestly, he was just incredibly happy none of the hunters were actively targeting him right now. They had clearly lost sight of him in the chaos.
Still, revealing his position again probably wouldn’t be difficult.
Or would it?
He honestly had no idea anymore.
Regardless, creating distance was unquestionably the smartest option now.
Thalion accelerated across the desert as Sirokkar with the intention of later switching into his wyvern form once he had gained enough distance.
The fox form was absurdly fast, but flying was still faster. More importantly, the strange dinosaur mounts the hunters used didn’t appear capable of flight.
True, he would become a far more visible target in the sky, but hopefully by then they simply wouldn’t be able to catch him anymore.
There was still the possibility of other hunters intercepting him ahead. His location was being revealed almost every second now, so it definitely wasn’t impossible. There were also still a few days remaining in the system event.
Still, with his speed and camouflage, he hoped the Sirokkar form would allow him to evade the hunt long enough.
He deliberately ran in the same direction as the surviving humans, hoping the hunters might waste additional time chasing them instead.
As far as Thalion was concerned, his work in this system event was done.
Now all he had to do… was survive.
And hopefully the king would keep the hunters distracted for as long as possible.
<--
“Welcome back, Honored King Solmyrion. How was the system event? I suspect for the strongest E-grade elf it must have been easy to claim first place,” Serion said with a deep bow.
He had waited days for the king’s return. Quite a lot had happened during the short time Solmyrion had been gone, and it was Serion’s duty to provide every important piece of information.
The first elves had already reached D-grade, meaning they could finally begin properly dominating the lesser races. The humans especially lagged behind and would make an excellent first target.
Serion didn’t dare identify the king to check his level. He was certain Solmyrion now stood at the brink of D-grade as well.
Yet when no response came, Serion slowly looked up in uncertainty.
“My king? Is something wrong?”
King Solmyrion looked utterly serious… and furious.
Attempting to identify the king now would have been unbelievably inappropriate. Just before Serion’s curiosity could overpower his common sense and make him do something catastrophically stupid, the king finally spoke.
“This system event was a failure. There were barely any monsters to kill, which made leveling horribly inefficient. Both of us will need to participate in the third system event as well.”
Serion immediately understood the warning hidden beneath those words and wisely refrained from asking further questions. Honestly, he considered himself fortunate he wasn’t the one greeting the queen right now.
“Report. What happened during my absence?” the king ordered.
Serion felt immense relief at finally having good news to deliver. Otherwise, his life might already have been forfeit.
“We made extraordinary progress, my king. We captured additional slaves, discovered new farming regions, the first of our Chosen evolved to D-grade, and most importantly, we injured two of the human Chosen and cornered Solarion’s Chosen.”
Serion’s enthusiasm grew with every sentence. So did his confidence as he noticed the king’s expression lighten ever so slightly. Had he not served Solmyrion for so long, he might not even have noticed the subtle change.
“Good. Did you manage to teleport to Ricarda’s camp and eradicate the traitors?”
“Eh… my king… the teleportation route remains severed. We cannot restore it while they continue intentionally disrupting the network,” Serion answered quickly before immediately explaining how scouts had already been sent to search for Ricarda’s location.
Unfortunately, the king’s mood visibly darkened once more.
“Redouble your efforts.”
With those words, Solmyrion turned and walked toward the massive palace at the center of the elven stronghold. His wife would soon return as well.
Until then, however, he had a deeply unpleasant conversation awaiting him.
“Solmyrion. How was the system event?”
His patron’s voice echoed through his mind like a bell far earlier than Solmyrion had expected.
“Horrible. The event was nonsensical and practically impossible to earn meaningful points in. Most survivors ended with almost nothing,” Solmyrion replied, venom still dripping from every thought.
Most of the elves who had entered alongside him were dead, and even repeatedly farming fifth-floor bosses hadn’t been enough to secure victory.
The enemies themselves hadn’t even been especially strong by D-grade standards, yet Solmyrion doubted any normal E-grade could have faced them at all. Even he would have struggled fighting them alone.
“Send me an image of the leaderboard.”
His patron’s voice had turned to steel. The god despised failure just as much as Solmyrion himself did.
Using every ounce of self-control he possessed, Solmyrion silently transmitted a copy of the leaderboard and waited.
“Sooo… you claimed earning points was difficult. Then how exactly did this, Thalion, obtain over two hundred fifty million points while you sit at a pathetic three million? Even this Tom managed twenty-five million. Explain yourself.”
Helioraxes’ voice filled with mounting rage as he continued.
“Solan has been bragging about this Thalion for quite some time already, and now this leaderboard will spread throughout the universe. Gods may begin withdrawing from our alliance because of this embarrassment. Do you understand what that means for my plans?”
The pressure behind the words intensified further.
“This Thalion needs to die. Preferably sooner rather than later.”
Listening to his patron’s furious rant was difficult even for Solmyrion. Normally, no one was permitted to speak to him in such a manner, and until now even his patron had never treated him this way.
Suppressing both his anger and humiliation, Solmyrion finally answered.
“It will be done. However, without a reliable way to locate him, I fear it may take time.”