Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice and Wolf continued to battle. They eventually killed each other, and Kretchof went berserk. He put the chaos heart into Wolf, and Voice got a new dungeon boss.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment and rate!

After selecting yes the announcer caught my attention again. It was deathly quiet, and he said, “And so, without further ado! Let’s announce the top three group winners!”

He opened an envelope he was holding in his hands.

“Third place. With an outstanding amount of points, this group had to have been on a killing spree! The prize for third place is one additional teleport token! When used this token will provide a second city one can teleport to. From then on you can change both as per the rules of the first one! Perfect for merchants or travelers.

Group led by Di Xing!”

A roar of applause erupted. Each member walked up the stage, passed us, and took a token after giving a slight bow to the audience.

“As for second and first place, well I’ll announce them at the same time! I feel like that would increase the excitement a bit!” He smiled at the crowd.

“First place receives an experience ring for each of their members. The ring will award a 50% increase in experience gain. The ring cannot be unbound once equipped, and will permanently take up on ring slot.

“Second place will earn a unique skill granted by the great mother goddess herself. Each member will earn a different skill scroll. The scrolls will each contain a very rare, very powerful skill. These skills are normally only granted by the Elder Gods, but this one time will be given out to the second place group!”

He looked around the room to make sure he had everyone’s attention. Most of the people looked at the envelope hungrily. It was obvious that they weren’t in contention for the winning.

Even I was worried. I didn’t know how many points the third place group had. I knew I killed a lot of the lower ranked people, but most of the higher ranked people had gone away. I did kill a decent amount of high and mid ranked people in the dungeon though. Plus I killed Wolf. I was sure he was worth 256 points.

The problem was he killed me. My points were worth 512! With a total of 4500 points or so total, it was very possible that my death had made Wolf win. For me to win meant I had to kill a vast amount of mid to high ranked people, which I did.

It also meant that in addition to all of those, I had to meet Wolf tit for tat on the other points. Otherwise I had no chance of winning.

The man summoned a drum, and a drum roll began. I saw in the crowd, the harp guy. He was glaring at me angrily. He obviously wanted to do something to me, but didn’t have the chance here. Not like he would be able to even if we left. I was way more powerful than he was.

The announcer looked around slyly. “Well, let’s make this a bit more interesting, shall we?” He smiled at our trio on stage.

“These two groups were the ones that got first and second place. To determine which group got which place, let’s do this.”

He cleared his throat. A large dry erase board appeared out of nowhere.

“I’ll tally the kills in each category. These kills were recorded as having been directly caused by this group. Even if they tricked others to kill for them. In that case both groups would get the same point block. For instance if Wolf and EDI’s army had killed Voice, they would have all gotten 512 points.

Group Wolf: 0 one point kills. 0 points.

Group Wolf: 3 two point kills. 6 points.

Group Wolf: 12 four point kills. 54 points.

Group Wolf: 4 eight point kills. 86 points.

Group Wolf: 3 sixteen point kills. 134 points.

Group Wolf: 3 thirty-two point kills. 230 points.

Group Wolf: 1 sixty-four point kills. 294 points.

Group Wolf: 2 one hundred and twenty-eight point kills. 546 points.

Group Wolf: 0 two hundred and fifty-six point kills. 546 points.

Group Wolf: 1 five hundred and twelve point kill. 1058 points!”

Applause rang out from the crowd. That was a phenomenal amount of points. A few minutes of their highlighted battles showed on a projector like screen.

“Now! On to the final tallying of Voice! Remember, he could not have gained any points in the 512 point category. That means his points will stop accumulating at the 256 points.

Group Voice: 9 one point kills. 9 points.

Group Voice: 9 two point kills. 27 points. He’s doing good so far!

Group Voice: 4 four point kills. 43 points.

Group Voice: 23 eight point kills. 227 points. With Wolf and EDI gathering all of those low to mid level people, Voice gained a lot of points!

Group Voice: 0 sixteen point kills. 227 points. He’s still ahead, but barely!

Group Voice: 2 thirty-two point kill. 291 points.

Group Voice: 0 sixty-four point kills. 291 points. It’s neck and neck folks!

Group Voice: 2 one hundred and twenty-eight point kills. 547 points.

Remember guys and gals. He cannot gain points past the 256 mark. He is 511 points away from Wolf and EDI’s points. He has to have two 256 point kills. We all saw him kill Wolf. The question is, did he get credited with EDI’s death? Did EDI in fact die at all?

Group Voice: 2 two hundred and fifty-six point kills. 1059.

This makes Voice have a total of… 1059 POINTS! THE WINNER BY ONE POINT! VOICE!!!!!”

The crowd went wild. I realized I had been holding my breath the whole time the points were being announced.

Wolf and EDI picked up their scrolls. The applause was loud, and excited.

As I took my turn the applause was deafening. There were clear groups of people that didn’t applaud though. I waved and smiled at the group of people before me.

After I took the ring I walked off of the stage. The announcer went on and on about something, but I was speaking to Kretchof in my mind.

I had him give me all of the information about the thing he created.

From what I understood, the Quasi-Chaotic Lifeform was able to absorb any type of mana. It could convert it to any other type. It could store it, or instantly use it.

The time it would take to change the ownership of the dungeon was 24 hours. If no one attacked the boss in that time it would change to a new boss.

So basically all I needed to do was wait one in-game day. After that the dungeon would change into a new type. Even Kretchof had no way of knowing what kind of dungeon it would become.

I decided it was best not to let Davros know. I had a suspicion that I hoped was wrong, but I feared was right. If anyone found out I would be put into danger. There was a reason all of the chaotic lifeforms had been killed off before.

The announcer continued to speak, but many people lot interest. Conversations began to spring up around the room. Eventually most of the people had either left or were ignoring the announcer. It was amusing to see his flustered face.

He hrmph’ed, and spoke one last time, no one but I probably heard. “Fine, the next test starts in one in game week. It’s the last one.”

During that one week I planned to spend most of my time experimenting. It was about time I did. I was determined to become as powerful as possible.

Several people began to approach me as soon as the announcer left. I simply waved and disappeared to my DI space. There were some experiments I wanted to do here anyway. One of which I carried out right away.

As I sat in my house I accessed the mana around me. Just like the last time I was here I could quickly feel it. The giant marketplace I created was within biking distance of my home, but that wasn’t why I came. It was bustling though. It seemed as though everyone that couldn’t play the game was packed in there.

It had expanded quite a few times over since I had last been there. I didn’t know that A.I. I put in charge of the market city would expand it! That’s great!

I was genuinely pleased. The more work the automatic programs did for me, the less I would have to do myself. I didn’t even mind not making any DI bills or gold from it. Eventually I knew it would pay off.

I sat down outside my house, and tried summoning my fairies. Think of my surprise when it worked! Before they could actually understand where they were, I quickly dismissed them.

I smiled while starting to prepare a separate room. I built it using mana instead of DI bills. I made a small stone structure. It was just large enough for the biggest summoning circle the special summoning book described.

After that I went back inside and sat on my comfy sofa. For the next seven days I began to manipulate the mana in my buffs. I had learned during the trial that spells weren’t just in 10% increments. They were in 5%!

With that info I began to experiment. If spells were like that, then most likely buffs were as well. During the first day I quickly found out that the buffs weren’t just 80% light and 20% something else! For instance, a defense buff was 80% light and 20% earth. I had already tried 80% light, 10% earth, and 10% fire, but nothing had happened.

Now I tried 80% light, 15% earth, and 5% fire. Instead of a 20% increase in ‘general armor’, I got a 20% increase in fire resistance! Obviously I tried that with each of the mana types.

By focusing on the movement buff, but adding in 5% fire mana instead of 20% water mana. I got the increase in movement speed, but it was focused on certain areas on my body!

With 5% earth mana I actually made my skin more resistant to slashing and stabbing effects.

After figuring that massive goldmine of information, I began to do countless experiments for the next six days. I didn’t sleep at all. With my nature buff keeping me awake, I was able to actually continue my work for longer.

By doing the same fusing of ten buffs at a time, I actually made even more buffs and debuffs. My favorite, by far, was the enhanced seeing buff tree. By changing the 20% light to 5% wind, I gained better hearing. With water I could taste better. With earth I grew more sensitive to touch. (I didn’t do anything naughty with it though. Pervert…) With fire for some reason I could smell better.

Of course, like the first seeing buff, I had to concentrate these buffs on those certain areas. When I used two of each though, my jaw nearly dropped.

Superior Self (Minor)

The target gains a bonus to all five senses. The target of this spell will note an increase in ability to receive information. This duration of this spell is (10 + (light affinity/10) * Aura) seconds.

The base spell cost for this spell is 500 mana.

As soon as I used the buff, Ancestor mentioned a large increase in my inspect skill.

There were other buffs that were great, but the massive amount of information increase given to my inspect made that buff the best one.

Sometime during this entire thing I had an idea that was so perfect and cunning, that I couldn’t even believe myself.

Over the course of my time in the dungeon, my task master skill had come to level 42. I could do four tasks as once with my skill being at rank Apprentice. Since I had only been doing three, I added the fourth.

I didn’t think about it anyway, but this would make a perfect fourth thing. I had to let the other tasks complete at least 100,000 times in total before I could add a fourth task. Since they each had a little over four hundred thousand or so, I could easily add a fourth thing.

I added breathing. Who hadn’t breathed at least a hundred thousand times in a few months? The average human breathes about 15,000 to 30,000 times a day. By adding in a fourth task, my skill would level up that much faster.

One week flew by quickly. During that week I got the notification that the chaos lifeform had taken control of the dungeon. I actually got a familiar notice. It was exactly the same as the first time I got it, but jut had two new options.

Congratulations! Your dungeon has been modified!NameChaotic Dungeon Of UndeathRankVariesCurrent Dungeon Level10The master of the dungeon has given you full control. Please choose abilities for your dungeon.[/tr]

Attention! Dungeon types ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Chaotic’ have high synergistic effects! The labyrinth abilities of your dungeon have been upgraded to a new level. Corridors can now randomly change location. (*Note that the labyrinth will still be able to be completed*)

Teleport pads have been installed in your dungeon. For having the first player upgraded dungeon you are granted an additional 5000 DP.

Chaotic Dungeon of UndeathThe dungeon needs to kill trespassers to level up. Dungeon level squared times 100 is the total amount of player/npc levels it needs to kill. For instance, a level 100 player will level a dungeon up to level 2 by dying inside. 4 level 25 deaths will level the dungeon up by the same amount.Undead Dungeons resurrect any that die within the dungeon. Undead Dungeons may cause any monster or animal that wanders in to become an undead over time.Expanding Labyrinth Dungeons will change layout at set intervals. Expanding Labyrinth Dungeons may have a set amount of rooms that do not change location at the set interval. The boss room will not change locations.Dungeon Connectors are a unique dungeon type. When a dungeon, or system of tunnels, connects two or more dungeons it becomes a Dungeon Connector. Dungeon Connectors force tunnels that connect them into a dungeon.

x% of all monsters that would normally overflow from the connected dungeons will flow into the Dungeon Connector. These monsters will be immune to the effect of the Dungeon Connector, but will still be under the control of the Dungeon Connector.You currently have 1250 DP(Dungeon Points) to use. Please adjust the following:Undead Conversion Type InclusionUndead Conversion TimeLabyrinth Change IntervalAmount of Set RoomsPercent of Overflow MonstersOverflow Monster Ability PercentageCorridor Change IntervalAmount of Teleport PadsOther

Corridor Change Interval is the estimated amount of hours until the one random group of corridors will exchange their locations. Each subtracted hour will cost 100 points. Minimum hours until change is, at this time, 5. Current amount of hour: 24.

With my 5000 points I chose to make it only 5 points. That only cost me 1900 points. I still had 3100 points.

Teleport pads will remain in place (relatively) even when the labyrinth changes. Each teleport pad costs 10 DP. These pads will be placed randomly throughout the dungeon.

Current maximum teleport pads: 100

I made the 100 maximum pads, and still had 2100 points left over.

Since my dungeon had leveled up to level 10 through upgrading the dungeon boss, and the large amount of levels people dying, I could upgrade the other parts of the dungeon as well.

I spent 1500 points, leaving me 600, to upgrade the influx dungeon monster’s power to 100%. That way the dungeon power would be excessively powerful.

I added in another 5 safe rooms, for a total of 10. With that I gained another 1250 points. I used 1000 of those points to upgrade the overflow amount to 100%.

The minimum amount of time I could make the labyrinth change interval, went down to one day. Since I could, I made it that quick. It only took another 400 points away.

With my 450 points left over, I looked around the things I could do. Then I noticed something that brought a light to my eye. For only 500 points I could add an entire level! I had no idea what it would do, but I was SO going to do that.

I quickly took off 5 of the teleport pads, and made a second level.

Your dungeon has added a level. All mini bosses will be located on the top level. The bottom level will lead to the final dungeon boss.

For reaching dungeon level 10, your dungeon loot has increased. Anything killed in your dungeon will have a higher chance of dropping loot. Better loot has a slightly higher chance of being dropped.

I was really excited to hear that news. With just the items dropped by players, the dungeon would not be extremely enticing to others. With the monsters inside dropping more and better loot even people with no chance would start to covet the items.

After that was the second test. It was actually quite simple. When we appeared in the room, the announcer gave us all a serious look.

“Well everyone. This is the last test. The ‘winner’ will not get a prize. However, the ‘first place’ person will have a beacon put on them. As soon as the voting is over, everyone that voted for that person will know their exact location for 35 in game days. When the voting is over all of you will be sent back to the original game world where the other players have already started to play.”

A white sheet of paper appeared in front of everyone. Over half of the group of people stared angrily at me. Well I guess that assures that I’m in for some trouble.

Everyone put there papers into the box next to the podium up front. After they were all tallied the man looked sympathetically at me.

“With nearly 80% of the votes, the ‘winner’ is: … VOICE0FREASON!”

No applause rang out. Instead a sinister smile seemed to creep on nearly the entire room. This was going to be troublesome.

“Now remember folks. You all have to stay in your company pods for at least another three months. Otherwise you will lose the renumeration.”

Everyone disappeared. In a moment of disorientation, I held my head. My eyes swam, and my head throbbed. I looked around after a few moments.

Around me where large stone walls, covered in darkness. To my far left and far right were light sources. Then I remembered! I was in an alley in the dwarven city of Ysga’s Hall.

The memories started to flood back to me. I thought back to before the tournament. I had left here afraid for my life, poor, and weak.

Now I returned. I felt confident in my abilities to at least run away from SD. I was by no means right, but money wasn’t a problem, and I had several ways to strengthen myself.

My body suddenly trembled. The world suddenly spun again. I appeared in a blank landscape. The background were filled with stars, accentuating the void around me.

A man stood before me. His body and face were pure silver. There were no distinguishing marks on the body. The void god stood, not saying anything. After a long while he finally spoke.

He spoke in a completely monotonous voice.

“You’ve succeeded in our bet. Congratulations.”

Even without any inflection, I could tell he was upset. He turned his body and gazed, without eyes, at the stars in the distance.

“You’ve won, so I will keep my side of the deal. You need to be wary though. I had decided to make you my Chosen, so I still want one. I’m going to pick someone else. I won’t bother telling the other Elder Gods about your obvious plans, but I will have my Chosen stop you.”

I could tell that he snickered for a moment. “Speaking of people chasing you, have fun running for your life for the next month.” Even without any inflection I could feel the mocking tone.

He waved his hand and the void began to push at me. I was thrown through some vortex, that spun with purple and black colors.

Instantly he was gone. I noticed an icon in the corner of my eye. It had a shape similar to my compendium.

Your Compendium has absorbed more than 25 other books. Current: 26. Your Compendium has absorbed at least 1 language translation book. Current: 1. Your Compendium has absorbed at least 2 books regarding the evolution of Compendiums. Current: 3. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 2 books studying in-depth mana workings. Current: 2. Your Compendium has absorbed at least 3 books that have information on the Elder Gods. Current: 3.

Current Books: 1 Susan the Alchemist’s Alchemy book. 2 Voice the Alchemist’s Alchemy book. 3 and 4 Two Volumes of the series written by Hermit Mirror. 5 Creation of A Compendium. 6 Knowledge of Creation of Compendiums. 7 Evolutions of Compendiums. 8 Discovery of Divines. 9 Training for the Mind. 10 Dwarven Translator. 11 Arms and Armors of Ysga. 12 Locations of Minerals and Gems. 13 Qualities of Minerals and Gems. 14 Learning to Learn, Philosophy of Ysga. 15 Dwarven Smithing and Masonry. 16 Mana Lost to Dwarves. 17 Strengths and Weaknesses of Dragons. 18 Engineering for Beginners. 19 A Miner Task. 20 Complete Summoning Book. 21 Dr. Falcon’s Seed book. 22 Dr. Falcon’s Written Notes. 23 Origin Garden. 24 Recognizing Plant Linage with a Glance. 25 Dungeon Master’s Handbook. 26 Complete Study of Mana.

Your Compendium has the ability to start the evolution path once it has gained more than 25 books. Would you like to set the path of your Compendium now? This path cannot be changed later. Current Path: Devourer.

*Warning*

If you choose to forgo this path, all books in the Compendium will be erased.

I was given no info on the Devourer path. I assumed it was one that just consumed a bunch of books. It probably consumed them at an even faster rate than normal.

I sighed despondently. Even though I had just been given such a gift, I had no choice. There was no way I was willing to give up the mana book as well as the massive amount of alchemy info contained in the compendium.

I selected yes. I shook my head, and looked down. My compendium had flown out of my bag, and was glowing with a dim dark purple light.

It changed from its previous black cover, to a deep purple and black swirled pattern. It looked almost identical to a black hole. It wasn’t called ‘devourer’ for nothing.

In the middle of the purple and black hole- like spiral, was a single mouth. It had razor sharp teeth, and seemed ready to consume anything that got near it.

Besides that, it wasn’t really any different than before. I could till open it and read it. Even the mouth felt smoot to the touch.

Without any prompt giving me information on the new book, I stowed it away. I decided to leave the dwarven place today.

SD had basically told me I was going to be his bitch for the next good portion of my gaming life. Like hell I was going to accept that!

I quickly snuck through the alleyways, and arrived at the ledge of the cliff. Before me stretched an endless sea of grassy plains.

Various flying mounts were coming and going. I looked around, scared. After taking a deep breath, I fell past the edge.

A scream came from the mouth of a woman. Seeing my kill myself like this was too much for her. I fell faster and faster. Narrowly avoiding several rocks that jutting out from the surface of the mountain.

Less than a hundred feet from the fast approaching ground, I used my flying suit ring. I cast a large gust of wind at the mountain. After hitting the mountain all the wind could do was blow back at me.

With the assistance of the wind I flew high up in the air. I knew exactly where I was heading, so I didn’t need to slowly get there. I should have been there months ago, but the slavers threw a wrench in that plan.

With my fast gliding speed I would only take about three days of constant ‘flying’ to get there. I could try to constantly fly for three days, but that wasn’t likely to happen. Instead I would take a bit longer, but I had something I was determined to get done before reaching M’ Path.

After gliding for a while my altitude began to drop. Instead of boosting myself I let myself continue to descend. When I was close enough to the ground I landed.

I could meditate while standing in the air. I could manipulate mana while meditating. Why was it that as soon as I started to doing something even slightly physical I could no longer meditate?

That was my goal before reaching the city of M’ Path. I was going to be able to meditate while even doing physical activities. If I could do that, I would have essentially doubled my mana regen.

I continued on the most likely path I had discovered in the forest. Running back in forth didn’t require much thought. So I would just run while trying to meditate.

I called out my fairies.

“Alright. I have tasks for you guys. Eli, I want you to make sure there are no jutting rocks, or pits in the area I am going to run.” I pointed in the general direction, and Eli instantly went to work.

“SparrowHawk, you are in charge of keeping me on balance incase anything happens.” With a nod the little bird flitted around happily.

“Sol, you have to scout out and see if you see any light mana signatures. Tell Moro and Golem if you do. I want both of you to scare the creatures that Sol finds. That way I won’t be stopped by anything.”

I had Tear keep me moist so I could keep going for longer, and had Drake make sure I didn’t overheat. The fire mana my body would naturally produce while exercising like this would all go into Drake’s mana pool.

The only one left out was Kretchof. I had him simply stay in the dungeon though. I want to make sure the girl didn’t get any ideas. If she spilled the beans about my unique dungeon, I knew something bad would happen.

Sometimes running, sometimes walking, I continued to my destination. What could have taken three days, took much longer.

I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate so easily, had I not buffed myself with the nature buff. With 80% light, 15% nature, and 5% fire, I actually got a boost to energy, not just a wakefulness charm.

With my fairies protecting and expediting the process, I forced myself to ignore all of my worries. I stayed in the meditative state for the majority of the journey. I only left it to correct my path, then re-entered.

With the massive amount of meditation, my wind mana purity rose constantly. That wasn’t what the main purpose was though.

After the first two days, I became convinced that I couldn’t get anything out of just walking. Thus I began to run. It took a few tries to actually get into the state, but i did it within an hour.

When I got tired, the meditation broke. Even the energy buff couldn’t do much to stop that. When that happened, I would just walk while meditating.

On the third and fourth day I decided running wasn’t going to give me any other bonuses. After the fourth day I noticed I was about half way to the city.

I realized that at my current rate of travel I would most likely not find what I was looking for. To slow my speed without intentionally being lazy, I added a bit of training to my daily routine.

I would go out and catch monsters, and cook and eat them. During the entire time I would try to use my meditation. Of course emptying your mind while attacking and killing, is not an easy task.

I went off the path a bit while hunting. I didn’t need to eat, but the food tasted good anyway. My survival cooking hadn’t gone up in a while, so I wanted to work on it.

During my hunts I did increase my breakdown group skill a bit. I also had a nice bit of demon rabbit fur and demon rabbit meat. After the first week I did not learn anything helpful. I did learn one thing though.

After the seventh day of traveling, Ancestor spoke to me. Ancestor had been the one controlling the inspect skill, and so was watching the surroundings for animals to hunt, or anything dangerous.

Ancestor found one very dangerous thing after the seventh day.

In a worried tone, Ancestor spoke to me. “Voice! You need to turn around! Look behind you!”

Feeling the urgency in the tone, I was pulled out of my reprieve. My head involuntarily towards where Ancestor indicated.

Behind me was a large dust cloud. I took over inspect. I quickly enhanced my senses, and concentrated on the cloud.

As soon as I looked closely, I was horrified. I had no plan. I had no tricks or traps ready. I had nothing.

Before me was a veritable horde. I counted. One dozen. Two dozen. Six dozen! Six dozen people were rushing towards me.

Many had huge flying beasts. Many rode on large heavily trotting monsters. All had one thing in common.

Every one of them had the obvious desire to kill me written on their face.