I went to the Citadel of Ancient Gods on Sunday and skipped class on Monday so I’d have two days to explore.
I was in a vast space beneath a sky so blue you wouldn’t believe it was in a dungeon, the final floor of the Citadel.
The sky was blotted out by a flock of massive dragons with white, bird-like wings. These Heavenly Dragons had halos of light over their heads that seemed to insist these weren’t dragons, but servants of a god.
Heavenly Dragons fought with a breath attack of light that they unleashed at incredible speeds, and swords of light they gripped in their taloned hands. Both forms of attack were powerful enough to break through my Impenetrable Defense—if they hit.
I raced through this horde of more than a thousand Heavenly Dragons, slicing their giant bodies in two with the mana blade that grew from my sword. The ones I couldn’t reach with my sword, I slammed with a compressed tier-ten area of attack spell. Usually, an AoE spell would fail to take them out because their HP was too high, but that wasn’t a major problem if I compressed the spell.
The Heavenly Dragons couldn’t hit me now. I was too used to their attacks. The reason I kept trying to complete the Citadel of Ancient Gods solo was to get stronger by repeating battles that were so hard I couldn’t risk losing concentration for a second. If I constantly pushed myself, I could feel myself growing stronger. And if I were stronger, I would be faster and more capable of fighting for long periods.
Wiping out the Heavenly Dragons was, of course, not the end.
Light like a shooting star dropped from the blue sky and slammed into the ground with a roar, where an abnormal knight with six wings of light appeared. It had grotesque, black, full plate armor that made it look like the Knight of Death. This was the final boss of the Citadel of Ancient Gods, the Ultimate Knight.
“How many times must you defeat me before you are satisfied?” it commanded as it fixed me with a glare. The final bosses of extreme-difficulty dungeons were conscious. I don’t really know why, but they remembered being defeated.
The Ultimate Knight’s six wings of light extended like tentacles, shooting out to attack me. They moved irregularly, as if each one had its own mind. The Knight also attacked with the two flamberges it held.
Eight attacks at once have got to be breaking the rules somehow, right? Each attack was powerful enough to take out half my HP in one hit.
But there was only one Knight.
Its armor was tough, and the Heavenly Dragons had nothing on this thing’s HP. Going solo meant I didn’t have enough firepower, but that just meant I needed to get more.
I poured in extra mana, focused it more, then slammed my highly dense blade into the Knight’s arm, severing it.
“How strong do you intend to become?” it asked as it disappeared in a puff of light, leaving behind a massive magic crystal and a sword. I wasn’t massively impressed by this, seeing as the final bosses of extreme-difficulty dungeons always dropped an item.
It took me ten minutes to defeat the Ultimate Knight. Obviously, I took no damage in the process. The first time I beat the Knight on my own, it took me over an hour, which meant I’d gotten quite a bit stronger.
With that, I’d accomplished my current goal of a perfect solo run of an extreme-level dungeon, but I was nowhere near satisfied. After all, the Citadel of Ancient Gods was the easiest of the extreme-difficulty dungeons.
The second easiest was the Devil’s Prison. Monsters stronger than the Heavenly Dragons spawned on the first floor of that dungeon, and the level bosses were of a completely different league. That was just how extreme-difficulty dungeons were; even more powerful monsters were waiting there.
I wanted to fight stronger opponents; I wanted to get stronger so that I could fight even stronger opponents. That’s why I was going to continue my solo runs of extreme-difficulty dungeons and keep going as far as I could.
Stats
Arius Gilberto (Age 15)
Level: 2361
HP: 24678
MP: 37712
STR: 9498
DEF: 9495
INT: 10676
RES: 10062
DEX: 9497
AGI: 9498
✦ ✦ ✦
“IN the end, we learned essentially nothing from the attacker,” Eric told me on Tuesday morning in his salon.
The Intelligence Ministry had made full use of their mind control spells, but all they learned was that the attacker was a cleaner by the name of Zack Trigger and that he was equivalent to an S-rank adventurer. Zack had been acting under orders from Altana, the Merchant of Death.
I had heard the rumors about the Merchant of Death. For the right price, they could supply anything from assassins to mind-control magic items or drugs. They were a broker for the black market who would contact these criminal cleaners, but no one knew who they were.
“The fact that we found no connections to Duke Jordan is likely less to do with the duke’s abilities and more to do with how competent this Merchant of Death is,” explained Eric. “The cleaner only received orders. He was given barely any information.”
Which meant Altana had complete control of all information. But would someone that calculating not think the attack might fail? Even if I wasn’t in the picture, Altana would’ve known Darius and the people from the Intelligence Ministry were at the arena.
Or perhaps their calculations included the fact that it was always going to fail. But if that was true, then why attack?
“I believe Altana didn’t care whether the attacker succeeded or not. They simply acted as a go-between for clients and cleaners. A failure doesn’t hurt them. In fact, a failure means Duke Jordan is now pushed into a corner where even more money can be extorted from him. That’s how these brokers in the dark operate,” continued Eric. He was the scheming type himself, so maybe he understood how the Merchant of Death thought. “Altana isn’t so stupid as to think Duke Jordan has a chance of winning, which means there’s only one reason for them to lend a hand to the duke: to bleed him dry of all his assets until the moment he falls. That’s why our enemies are the cleaners Altana sends, but not Altana themselves.”
“Are you saying Duke Jordan hasn’t given up yet, even though he’s losing allies by the minute ever since Keith was put in custody for insulting royalty?”
Keith had been in custody since the day of the Combat Tournament. Not only had King Albert not pardoned him, but he had publicly announced that Keith was being formally charged for his crime.
Obviously, Eric was behind this. It was a threat to show the anti-royalists what would happen to them if they didn’t leave Duke Jordan’s faction.
“I don’t intend to let Duke Jordan escape, and I won’t let him give up so easily,” responded Eric with a fierce smile. “Arius, this weekend I am planning a three-day vacation at my family’s manor in the countryside. As I am going to clear my head, I’ll only be taking a skeleton guard with me. Doesn’t it sound like the perfect opportunity for Duke Jordan to exact his revenge on me?”
We had no classes this coming Friday because it was a holiday. In short, Eric was inviting Duke Jordan to come at him. If the duke could kill all witnesses, there would be no evidence. But this was Eric we were talking about. Not only had he arranged things specifically so that the duke would attack, he’d also, of course, prepared countermeasures.
“I’ll leave my schedule open then,” I replied. “I know you’re planning to take down Duke Jordan yourself, but I’ll follow your orders if it’ll mean fewer casualties.”
“Thank you, Arius. I appreciate your help.”
Eric wanted to finish things himself if he could, but he wasn’t the kind of person to let his pride direct him into making the wrong decision.
“Are Zeke and Sophia going with you?” I asked.
Eric had at one point told Zeke he needed to fulfill his duty as a member of the royal family. Sophia would offer to go herself if Eric told her about this.
“I plan to let them decide. Considering Sophia’s personality, I’m not even sure I need to ask her.”
He knew Sophia well. Their engagement was political, but they respected each other.
“Eric, there’s something I want to tell you too. I’m not certain yet, but…” I went on to tell him what I’d noticed when I captured Zack Trigger.
“I see… The timing’s too convenient for me to think that’s a coincidence. I’ll investigate it a little as well.”