CHAPTER 85: The Gathering of Earth’s Alpha Chosen [(Part-1)/3]

***Dante's POV***

In the past few days that Jay left me with Olivia and others, I got along well together with all of them.

Especially with Andrea and Kasim, they were the ones who introduced the others in their group to me.

I was awed by their identities on earth as each of them were at the peak of their respective fields.

Even though it's natural for people of their statuses to look down upon a nobody like me, none of them treated me in such a way.

To my surprise, they even treated me with respect. Only through the chat I had with Andrea did I learn that just before Jay brought me to them, the Great Venerable, Hobgoblin MJ already informed them about me.

When I learned the details of that information, I could see that it was exaggerated. The Great Venerable proclaimed that even his powerful master, Jay, would find it troubling to defeat me if I used my abilities.

Even though I could predict Jay's movement and attack patterns ahead of time, I couldn't evade them due to the vast stat difference between us.

If I was on par with him, stat-wise, there might be a chance for me to hold up against him. However, if Jay activates that strange silver energy of his, none of my Fate-related abilities would work on him, making it my thorough defeat.

Without mentioning my lack of luck , the Great Venerable only revealed to them that I could see anyone's Fate, a minute ahead in the future and even alter that fate if I wanted.

At first, I didn't understand why the Great Venerable said those things about me. After giving it some thought, I realised that he deliberately said that so that none of them would think little of me.

I was glad that the Great Venerable was looking out for me.

During the past few days, Sergei helped me train basic combat techniques. Other than Sergei, Olivia also assisted me to hone my combat abilities by coming up with better ways to use my Fate related abilities in a fight.

Until Kasim spilled it out for me, I didn't know that the usually silent but warm-hearted Sergei was once a deadly assassin, whom everyone feared and the down-to-earth Olivia was the fifth richest person on our planet.

From Kasim, I also learned that Sergei used to be the strongest of their group and that seemed to change after they were hit by a silver shock wave.

Even though none of them know anything about it, I know where the silver shock wave originated from, since I was right beside Jay when that happened.

After going through the details mentioned by Kasim, I speculated that she must have received one of the sigils that Jay offered me at the beginning of Day-3. But, I didn't reveal anything about the sigils to them.

Upon adjusting ourselves to the stats gained from reaching Lv.25, On Day-4, the Great Venerable in hobgoblin form, took Andrea and me to a Dome where a Low-Phase Tier-3 Monster was restricted and made us battle it while occasionally assisting us from the side only when our lives were in danger.

Only by using my 2nd Innate Exclusive Skill, did both of us manage to kill that Low-Phase Tier-3 monster and gain the Rare Grade Achievement Title, which was the reason we were brought there. It is needed to fulfil the Achievement Title requirement for evolving to Tier-3.

With that, Andrea completed her Tier-3 evolution, whereas I couldn't, since my was stuck at Lv.20 without any signs to reach Lv.21.

Days passed, and the monsters became scarce, making it hard for the remaining members in our group to level up. I could tell that it was Jay's doing as I could see the Life Energy stacking up in my .

Even under such circumstances, Olivia and Sergei managed to reach Tier-3. On Day-6, we didn't even find a single monster, leaving Kasim to shed tears of frustration as he was just a few Life Energy points away from reaching Lv.25.

When it was around 11 hours into Day-6, the Great Venerable took us to a location outside a Dome saying that Jay wanted all of us to gather there to make an announcement.

By the time we arrived, there were already five more people in that location, along with the Great Venerable's Shadow Leopard form.

Andrea and I recognised one of them right away as we could see his name 'Min-soo' floating on top of his head. It was a Party function which lets the Party's members recognise each other.

Looking at Min-soo approaching us excitedly, I could tell that he also seemed to recognise that both of us were members of Jay's Party.

Just like Andrea, he was also at Lv.34, standing second in the Trial World Rankings. Looking at the both of them who were at Tier-3, I could only blame my innate talent for not letting me reach Stage-3 , which in turn prevents me from evolving to Tier-3.

Soon, the Great Venerable's Hobgoblin form and Shadow Leopard form left our groups before telling us to stay here until Jay arrived.

After that, Min-soo introduced their group to ours and I did the same for our group.

Other than Min-soo, there was one more person in their group, who reached Tier-3.

Upon noticing Min-soo taking glances at the person with blue eyes and blonde hair as if he was asking for his approval, I could tell that he must be the one that leads their group, just like how Olivia was to our group.

I looked at the two members that recently joined their group, Henry and Kensei.

According to the introduction Min-soo gave, Kensei Fujiwara was a prodigy kenjutsu partitioner from one of the four ancient samurai clans to still exist in Japan.

As for Henry, he is an Australian Boxer that seems to have won the World's middleweight Boxing Champion consecutively for the past 3 years.

When Min-soo introduced Henry to us, those who seemed to recognise him in our group had strange expressions over their faces.

Before the system's appearance, I didn't have much general knowledge about what's happening in the world and just lived my life. That was why I didn't even recognise Olivia when I first saw her.

I quietly asked Kasim, "What's with your annoyed expression, have you met Henry before?"

"Nah, I didn't personally meet him but he is infamous for his weird personality."

"Weird? In what way?", I asked, curiously.

Kasim replied with a sigh, "You will know soon enough."

I didn't ask Kasim anymore and soon, there was a bit of an awkward atmosphere between our groups since we just met with each other.

To clear that up, I began to share my side of experiences in the Trial World. That didn't bring much of a change, but it drastically changed when I began to mention how I first met Jay.

Everyone, including the members of my group grew silent and attentively listened to me as I shared a few experiences with Jay.

Even though I couldn't reveal details of Jay's appearance or his abilities, I could still mention the power levels of the monsters that Jay defeated when he saved me.

Awe was evident in all of their faces because according to the time of that fight I mentioned, every other Earth's Chosen were still in Tier-1, while Jay single-handedly defeated High-Phase Tier-2 Monsters

Following that, Andrea continued after me as she shared her experience where Hobgoblin MJ had saved them and took out Tier-2 Monsters with ease.

After her, Min-soo picked up the stage as he briefed on his meeting with Jay. Then, it was our group's turn to be shocked when we learned that Jay was powerful enough to even slay a High-Phase Tier-3 Monster when he was still in Lv.25.

I thought back to the moment when Jay told me that level isn't everything, as it does not determine one's true power.

All this time I thought that I would be able to assist him with the power I gained from reaching Lv.25 but it seems that his power remains at a whole tier above us.

Moreover, that was his strength from three days ago. By now, he must have grown stronger to the point where the difference between us would be beyond comparison.

Among our group, Olivia was the one who maintained her calm. I speculated that the sigil she obtained from Jay might have a way to let her estimate Jay's power for her to stay so calm, even after learning the extent of Jay's power.

While Min-soo was continuing his share of experience, his group member that recently joined them stepped forward and interjected, "Mate, that's bullshit. You guys are exaggerating that Jay or whoever too much. He must have had some trick to enter these domes and I am guessing his ability rotates around controlling monsters and he must have taken advantage of that to gang up on a single Tier-3 Monster."

"Moreover, he is not the 1st Alpha Ranker anymore and just like me, he is also at Lv.25. Just so you people know, if it comes to a one-on-one fight, I could defeat him easi…..."

Before he could finish, Min-soo shut him up by teleporting a Common Grade Stamina Fruit into his mouth.

Min-soo laughed embarrassedly, "Don't mind Henry, as you might have already known, he is too full of himself. When we first met him, he blurted out similar stuff and even fought against Mr Brandon saying that he wanted to defeat him and become our group's leader, only to get his ass handed over to him."

Everyone had black lines on their foreheads as they looked at Henry, who continued to babble with his mouth stuffed.

Then I understood why Kasim was annoyed at the mention of Henry.

Even though Henry was annoying, I should give it to him, he was quite lucky that the Great Venerable didn't hear him challenging Jay or he would have been in for a good-old ass whooping.

Right then, except for Olivia, all the Tier-3 individuals in both of our groups turned serious and went into a defensive stance as they cautiously looked in the North direction.

I right away activated to see every Being's Fate Halos within my 10 km radius and then I sensed it.

A three stacked Fate Halo was approaching us at great speeds. With how sensitive I was towards a Fate Halo, I was able to sense whose Fate Halo it was.