I woke up the next morning raring to go for my first round of the competition. I knew it was a round-robin thing, like back in Dawnhold, but hadn't yet seen exactly how it was organised. It lasted the same two weeks as Dawnhold, so there wouldn't be time for a hundred people to all fight each other. It would probably use the same setup of subdividing everyone into groups.

My slightly unusual armour wouldn't stand out as much here, with the greater variety, as it would have done in Dawnhold. I tied on the various pieces, complaining in the privacy of my own head about how much more effort it was than the slip-on bodysuit version. A few attempts at getting dressed with [Item Box] had been enough to inform me that the skill simply wouldn't work that way, alas, so that option was out. I'd need to keep getting dressed the hard way. Vyre's squad were all suiting up too, and soon the five of us were heading downstairs for breakfast.

The pub was packed to bursting, without a single spare table, leaving us to eat standing. They did at least have a bunch of food pre-prepared, so we didn't have to wait for it; presumably they knew how many people to expect and that they couldn't operate normally, given that this was the second year, and had prepared accordingly. Alas, the mass produced meals were nothing special, consisting of relatively normal breakfast items like eggs, mushrooms and sausage crammed into a bread roll to make it easy to eat without cutlery and while on the move. Basically, just a breakfast baguette, and they didn't even have ketchup.

The arenas were spread around the headquarters building, some smaller ones in the basement, and larger, more reinforced rings outdoors behind the building. The rank threes and fours would take the outdoor facilities, while we were in the basement. We didn't need to go outside to get there; a doorway in the inn led into the side of the headquarters' reception. Back home, the groups had been put up on a reception noticeboard, so I looked around for one to check.

There was indeed a noticeboard, but there weren't any full lists of participants, only general information. I did see a more updated version of the [Failed Delver] notice, but more interesting was a large-font notice titled 'Warnings for those entering the great dungeon'. Point number one was to never refer to the sixth floor boss as 'blobby', regardless of what appraisal skills might say. It was in bold, and underlined. Twice. That was... concerning. Hadn't Simeon said something about the sixth floor boss?

Having heard about the strangeness of the great dungeon, I wanted to read through the whole list, but only got as far as point three, not to play cards with the goblins of floor four because they cheat, before Vyre called me away. I couldn't say that I'd ever seen the goblins of Dawnhold playing cards, but obviously the things were a little more intelligent around here.

Our party headed downstairs to the training area, which was far more organised than back home. A well-lit corridor ran for far longer than the size of the building above should have permitted, with evenly spaced doors marked with room numbers. Another notice board was hanging at the bottom, containing a long list of names and which rooms each should go to. It was arranged alphabetically by name, which made finding myself easy, but meant I couldn't see who else was in my group without carefully working my way through the whole thing. There were only about fifty names on the list, presumably because being over level forty while remaining rank two wasn't the most common advancement choice.

I wasn't with any of Vyre's party, who all split up to head to separate rooms, the one non-combatant sticking with Bluvre. I didn't recognise a single face in my group, and neither did anyone there recognise me.

"It's that side for spectators," one of them helpfully informed me, in a polite and non-condescending manner. Dogkin? He didn't look quite right for that. Wolfkin, maybe? "This side is for the competitors."

"Thanks," I replied, reining in my sarcasm given that he was just trying to be nice, "but I'm in the right place."

Recir, Beastkin, Warrior (10/50)

"You're rank two, and over level forty?" he asked. "Sorry, I thought you looked human. No, you do smell human. But you can't even be an adult yet?"

"Unique trait. I'm older than I look." I'd found that the phrase 'unique trait' could be used to explain away pretty much anything. And I really was older than I look, mentally.

"Ah, say no more. You're probably fed up of the confusion already."

Yes, yes I was. And alas, not everything will be solved in two years' time; I may be allowed into dungeons, but that wouldn't magically mean that my silly high level will suddenly make sense to anyone. I expect reactions would be much the same if a twenty-year-old showed up with the rank threes.

There were ten of us in this group, and there were five groups. The winners of each group would progress to the finals, as before, but this time it would be the top two who were let through, instead of only whoever placed first. Among the other competitors in my group, I saw a couple of demons, a fairy, an elf, a dwarf, two beastkin and two more humans. Certainly a more varied collection than the last time I did this.

My match turned out to be against Recir, and I fought without magic, able to overwhelm him with stats and proficiency skills thanks to the boost from finishing [Spatial Mage], in conjunction with my new artes.

ding

Skill [Swift Strike] advanced to level 2

I didn't want to pay close attention to the remaining fights, not wanting to spoil the surprise for when my turn came around. Winning wasn't my aim; rather, I wanted to try to get as many levels for my new class as possible. Having to react to surprises would be a useful step towards that, as would relying on my artes rather than spells as far as possible. It was the same reason why I was avoiding hitting anyone else with [Analysis] for now.

I hung back with my eyes closed and cycled through my various skills. The protection in this area did help shield the great dungeon from [Mana Perception], and while it was still very obviously there, it was no longer blinding. I'd be able to use it in combat after all. Invoking [Clock] proved interesting; the final number had changed to 00.00. My immediate thought was that it was some sort of location reference, where zero was the position of the great dungeon. I wished I'd checked it back when we were in the Emerald Nest.

My biggest discovery of the day came from watching a fight with [Soul Perception]. I wasn't expecting to see anything fundamentally new, but as I watched the demon launch a punch, one of the crystalline branches shimmered moments before his fist accelerated. Did I just see the activation of a skill? I would need to do some more introspection while activating skills of my own, but that would be a potent technique to use against sapient foes if so. Useless in a dungeon, of course, unless dungeon monsters somehow had souls when mana field ones didn't.

My musing was interrupted by the ringing of a nearby bell. Two loud tolls rolled through the room before it stopped. It took me a few seconds to remember that I'd just checked [Clock], and it was nowhere near the second hour. That had passed before I'd even woken up. Opening my eyes and looking around, I could see some amount of confusion on everyone's faces, and the demon against beastkin match had unceremoniously come to a halt.

"For those not normally based here, that was the dungeon break warning," called out the referee, despite looking somewhat confused himself. Half the competitors and spectators relaxed, but the rest didn't change their expressions. "It should continue ringing until the wave ends, so ringing only twice isn't normal. Hopefully, it was a false alarm."

Dammit, Erryn... What did you do this time? That explains the continued confusion at least; the ones still looking uncertain are those who knew full well what that bell signalled. I could hear some voices out in the corridor, presumably from people heading out to check what was going on. I stood up, intending to head out too; the timing was way too suspicious for me to not suspect it was Erryn getting up to more shenanigans, so it was probably best I was at the front.

"From what I've heard, there haven't been any dungeon breaks anywhere in the past few years," commented one of the spectators as I walked past. "Hope we aren't saving up for a big one."

The voices out in the corridor changed; suddenly there was shouting. My [Mana Perception] couldn't pierce the room, as the great dungeon was still overwhelming everything outside of the shielding, so I took a look with [Soul Perception] instead. There was clear shock evident in the souls of those out in the corridor as they all backed away against the walls, leaving the corridor clear. A new soul stepped into view, or rather, flew into view, speeding down the corridor, and it wasn't like anything I'd seen before. It was completely spherical, floating in mid-air, yellow patterns arranged almost mechanically in a silver orb. It also lacked any of the chains that bound every other soul I'd seen.

It came to a halt outside the door to our room. The handle started to slowly turn, and the moment it did, my whole body started itching. I found myself reflexively taking a step back.

ding

Skill [Danger Sense] advanced to level 2

Skill [Danger Sense] advanced to level 3

Skill [Danger Sense] advanced to level 4

...What? What the hell was on the other side?! I had a sudden burning desire to not be here, but the room only had the one exit. Dammit, why had I taken [Apprentice Fighter] and not [Spatial High Mage]? I want to teleport away! What else did I have? [Concealment]? No chance; it only disrupts sight, and if whatever was out there knew I was here through a closed door, then mere invisibility would be useless. I was in a room full of delvers, so perhaps if we all worked together...

The door was thrown open, and in stepped... something. It was definitely female; the way all of her clothes were transparent left no doubt whatsoever there. Her body was transparent too, and I could see straight through her to the delvers now standing in stunned silence out in the corridor. She was wearing a simple yellow dress, sandals and a sun-hat, but her body was blue, and completely homogenous. She had eyes, ears, nose and mouth, among other surface features, styled to look like a human, but it was obvious just by looking that they were non-functional; the holes didn't go anywhere. In the centre floated a faintly glowing yellow orb, patterned very much like the dungeon core I'd seen back in Dawnhold. The soul I could see didn't cover her full body, but just that floating sphere.

Her body looked very much like the slimes I'd dealt with back when I was five, but I couldn't imagine any of those in a dress. This was something on a completely different level, and [Danger Sense] was still screaming at me that it was an enemy so far beyond me that if we were to fight, I wouldn't even get a chance to blink. I laughed at my naivety at thinking working together might help. Even if everyone in the room attacked at once, we still wouldn't get a chance to blink. There was no way out of this by fighting.

"So, you're the reason mother has been so preoccupied that she's hardly had a chance to talk to me for the last decade," she said, in a perfectly normal human-sounding voice. "It's nice to finally meet you!"

Despite how she started that sentence, she didn't sound angry. She had a soul, but it was a strange one. Was she a monster or not? Who was her mother? For that matter, who was she?

Blobby, Sentient Slime, Level 70

It seemed that the dungeon's infamous sixth floor boss had decided to visit the surface.