CHAPTER 87: The Gathering of Earth’s Alpha Chosen [(Part-3)/3]

I continued the one-sided fight against the Ogre till the 3 minute duration of ended before finishing it off.

The One-horned Ogre had a Weapon Category Innate Talent, Grade-4.

But I didn't loot that from the Ogre, because if I did, I would be left with no choice but to increase to Stage-3 in order to meet the Tier-3 Evolution.

Even though I won't be evolving anytime soon, I don't want to waste my time on when I am focussing on Sword and Glaive Mastery.

However, what piqued my interest was the Ogre's Innate Racial Skill, Lv.30.

[Lv.30 (Rare Grade): As long as the User's muscle mass exceeds the targeted opponent, the user gets a temporary buff of STR+10%, END+10%, VIT+10% for the duration of 3 minutes.

Cost: 30 Stamina

CoolDown: 30 minutes.]

That was the first skill I came across that only requires Stamina to activate it. The best thing about , was that it stacks up with the other temporary boost skills like .

Also, it's best suitable when I use mode, since I would be 10 meters tall with muscles matching that hunk of a size.

After looting that skill, I turned to look at the other Earth's Alpha Chosen and judging from their reactions; I realised that I overdid the fight, as most of them didn't even dare to make direct eye contact with me.

Still, I am satisfied with the result. Using that to my advantage, I stated, "Now coming to the real topic, the thing you all have to know is that the upcoming tournament won't just be an individual competition among the Alpha-Chosen, but rather it will be a competition among the 1000 Trial zones in the Trial Region we are in."

I continued after a brief pause, "That means we won't be fighting against each other in the upcoming tournament, but as a single team against the Alpha Chosen from other planets, i.e. from other Trial Zones."

"The Trial Zone that has all 11 of it's Alpha-Chosen alive by the time the 1st Tournament starts will have a great advantage over others. If it was just a competition of individual strength, I am sure I alone would be enough to sweep away the competition. But, unfortunately, that's not the case here.

To put it simply, the fewer the Alpha-Chosen in a Trial Zone, the more trouble they have to face in the tournament, which in turn reduces the chances of winning it. That is the reason why I gathered you all here; to make sure that none of you die till then."

Passing my gaze over each one of them, I continued, "I don't care if you form groups or organisations on Earth, but when you are in the Trial World, all of you will be under my lead; in return, I will offer you all my protection, provide you with resources, and crucial intel that can help you grow stronger here."

Even though none of them raised their voice to disagree with me, I emphasised in an authoritative tone, "If any of you can defeat me, I will be under your lead instead. Are there any of you who wish to challenge me?"

Right then, everyone other than Olivia, Sergei and Brandon turned their heads at once to look straight at Henry, who hid behind Kasim and Dante.

I could hear Henry muttering at them, "Why are you punks all looking at me? Do y'all want me dead or what? Turn around already!"

Dante nodded at Kasim with an evil smirk, and both of them slid aside, bringing Henry into my line of sight.

When Henry noticed my piercing gaze, he wiped the sweat off his head and stuttered, "Mr Jay, don't bel...believe them, I wouldn't dare challenge you."

Ignoring him, I told the others if they do intend to challenge me in the future, they would only be qualified to do so if they could defeat any of MJ's monster forms.

Following that, I sent each of them a party invite, and had MJ explain to them the uses of it.

The most important one being the restriction that wouldn't let party members harm each other. (E/N (Yuno): Time to go crazy with those AoE attacks, friendly fire is just that good)

The next one was the communication aspect; each party member could contact each other wherever they were through the party channel.

As for the sharing of the Life Energy I gain from monsters, I could decide whom I could share it with.

Other than those who already reached Tier-3, I adjusted the Life Energy link in my party so that only those who were just a level or two away from satisfying the Tier-3 Evolution requirement, would have a share of the Life Energy I obtained from then on.

Since even MJ doesn't know how many Alpha Rankers there would be among the Alpha Chosen of the remaining Trial Zones in our Trial Region, it was better to have the Earth's Alpha-Chosen who were in Tier-2 reach Tier-3 before the 1st Tournament began.

While I was in my thoughts, I overheard a few of the Alpha-Chosen discuss among each other on whom to send towards me, to suggest that I select a location, where they could begin preparing a camp since that could be done easily by Kasim, who has Grade-8 Earth Innate Talent.

Finally, they selected Dante to convey their suggestion to me, since Dante was the one who was the most familiar with me among them.

If I wasn't in the state of harmony, I would have chuckled at their behaviour.

I thought back to when I ended the One-horned Ogre by brutally blasting it into pieces, and could only sigh in my mind for overdoing it to the point where others were too intimidated by me, to even hold the most simple of conversations with me.

Before Dante could pass me their suggestion. I approached the dome and placed my hand on its barrier before closing my eyes.

From behind, I could hear Hobgoblin MJ saying to the other Alpha-Chosen, "Hmph, why do you all need that, when this great venerable has already created something no camp can be compared to. Prepare to be amazed."

By the time Hobgoblin MJ finished his sentence, I was done with making changes in the dome, and the blurry barrier of the dome turned transparent, making everything in it visible.

I could hear gasps as they caught sight of the futuristic constructions within the dome, which had a radius of 250 meters (820 feet).

Within it's centre, there stood a nine-storey tall tower that was surrounded by ten six-storey tall towers.

Other than them, there were several three-storey tall constructions of strange aesthetics spread out within the entire area of the dome.

Looking at them, Dante couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Awesome!! This looks like some kind of futuristic village."

Hobgoblin MJ puffed up his chest and boasted while stroking his chin, "Of course it is awesome, I designed it myself. The central tower is Master's residence. Whereas, the surrounding ten towers are the residences allotted for each of you.

As for the other ones, some are training arenas with environments that suit your respective Innate Talents, others are especially made to sustain sparring between Tier-3 individuals. There are even advanced recuperation chamber centres and many other facilities that can help you grow stronger at a quick pace."

After that, I let them pass through the dome as if it didn't exist in the first place. Back when I placed my hand on it, I didn't just turn the Dome transparent, but also altered it so that only those I let in could enter it.

That was all made possible thanks to reaching the peak of , i.e. Lv.30.

I had MJ to be their guide, so that he could show them around while introducing them to all facilities available to them in 'Earth's Foothold'.

That was what I decided to call it, since that would match the events that would eventually take place in the future.

To create this, MJ used the metal ores that were extracted by the Earth Wyrm, which was MJ's 5th Corpse Integrated monster.

I wanted to use that last slot for a water-type monster but since the Earth Wyrm was most efficient in extracting ores from depths of the Trial World; I chose it instead.

Those metal ores were already tougher than any other metals on the earth, and using spirit engineering on those made them even stronger, to the point even my strongest punch wouldn't leave a small dent in it.

Their toughness would in turn make it harder to use them as material for the construction.

Even to create a deep underground secret base on Earth, it just took MJ and thousands of his Quantum A.I's just 12 hours, but for the construction of Earth's Foothold to complete, it had taken them nearly 200 hours (8 days) of continuous effort.

Those 200 hours included the 18-hour rest periods of Day-4 and Day-5, which were actually counted as 72 hours in the Trial World, since the time here flows four times slower than the Earth.