THEOS

What the–

Luke barely had a second to orient himself before the large and ornate double doors leading into the room were blasted open with such force that he was surprised they stayed on their hinges.

“WHO GOES TH–” Cyzicus shouted as he flew into the room, a curtain of molten spark trailing behind him. Only to come to a complete halt when he saw who it was that had intruded. “Oh.. Luke?”

“Yep.” Luke awkwardly waved at the emperor. “Nice to see you again.”

“You as well.” Cyzicus said slowly, a hint of disappointment slowly clouding his expression, before he hid it entirely. “I take it you were eliminated as well?”

“Umm– I don’t think so?” Luke hedged, feeling rather confused about the situation himself. He had gotten two scrolls, and shuffling around, he found them nowhere on his person. Even though he had been in contact with both of them moments ago. “I should have passed– I don’t know why I would–”

A light buzzing noise drew both their attention, and one of Hepheastus’s drones came flying somewhere.

“Congratulations Luke of Sylcra. You have successfully completed the round. The next and final round shall begin in two weeks. You may invite up to one hundred individuals to join Olympus in the festivities” Then before departing, it flew right over Luke’s head, deposited an intricately crafted storage ring, and disappeared without a trace.

On instinct, Luke caught the ring as it fell, and at the same moment, the ever present icon of the red eye, informing him that he was under the observation of a god disappeared. Leaving him alone with Cyzicus.

“Phew.” Luke sighed in relief. “Looks like I really passed.”

And more importantly it looks like I’m not being watched anymore either. Fuck yeah. He celebrated internally, already planning all the ways he could take advantage of the situation that hopefully wouldn't draw unwanted attention when the last round started.

Slim pickings, if I’m being honest, but I should be able to push a little. At the very least, making as many iterations of the fire spell is a must.

“You weren’t sure?” Cyzicus said, his voice chalk full of amusement and curiosity.

“I was pretty sure. I just didn’t think I’d be back until it was all over, and it wasn’t exactly my choice to advance, so–” he trailed off, and turned the ring over in his hand. It was glowing.

Immediately, the Emperor’s eyes locked onto it, shimmering with excitement. Even to a Hero and Emperor, a gift given by a god was no small thing. “What’s inside it?” Cyzicus asked, appearing next to Luke in a blur of motion, and began looking over his shoulder.

Luke hesitated, he knew full well what kind of defenses storage rings came with. Both of his were capable of bringing down even the strongest warrior with the right tuning, while his Saint tier ring could potentially even kill a careless Hero tier. Of course, knowing what he knew, there were ways around those measures if you were patient, careful, and clever. Even if they were risky.

Luckily, there was an easy way to check if a ring was already bound or not.

Cutting his thumb on Maximus’s edge, Luke let a drop of blood fall onto the intricately etched surface of the bronze ring. If the blood was absorbed, that meant the ring was unbound. If it wasn’t… then it was better not to risk anything.

It sank in.

Grinning, Luke sent a surge of mana into the ring, and eagerly began to explore what was inside. Immediately taking note of the fact that the space within was much bigger than even his Saint tier ring and that it was almost entirely empty, save for a hundred tokens similar to the one he had gained when he completed the qualification, vials of many colored potions neatly arranged in rows of ten, what looked like some neatly folded clothes, a few different stacks of talismans, a book, and a letter.

The tokens are probably the invitations. The potions, I’m not sure what they do exactly, but they should be good. Pulling them in and out of the Seed’s inventory should tell me everything I need to know. Same with the talismans. The book I can read any time. The clothes… they might be enchanted with something, which is yeah. The letter though–

Luke withdrew the envelope from within the ring, and tore it open with Cyzicus still peering over his shoulder and began to skim over it.

The contents weren’t as exciting as either of them hoped, but they were informative nonetheless. The rules for the next round were listed, and they had changed slightly.

The biggest difference was that everyone competing was allowed to use a total of ten warrior tier talismans. Any combination of the explosive or protective variety that was left up to the individual to decide on. The rules on artifact use were also laxed, allowing them to use up to three warrior tier artifacts instead of one, and as many mortal tier ones as they wanted with a warning not to be excessive. Meaning Luke couldn’t splurge on a thousand shields and put them between him and his opponent. Where exactly that limit was, wasn’t strictly defined, but Luke decided not to push.

Standard regalia would have to do. A shield, and something that gave him long range options, combined with Maximus would fill his three warrior tier slots. A full load out of mortal tier armor, from a helmet to boots would fill the rest.

Beyond that, there was an itinerary of events. The next round wouldn’t start right away, and instead there would be some kind of mandatory event immediately before the tournament began, and then a host of voluntary events after the winner was decided.

Luke didn’t know what to make of it, but he knew he didn’t like it.

Going to a high-brow social function with at least one god in attendance didn’t seem like a good time. Considering that at least two gods had children competing, there was a good chance of them showing up. Zeus being there wouldn’t be out of place either, and with that many gods already there, others may just come for a reunion. Luke felt his mouth dry in nervousness at the thought alone, but he also knew a lot of the people there wouldn’t see it that way.

Making the right impression on the right god could drastically change the entire course of events of a cultivator's life. Even a random handout from someone tiers higher could change a person's destiny. Luke didn’t have to look higher than Cyzicus to realize that.

The manasinks he had given them, while not necessary for Luke, had been instrumental in raising most of the people he had selected to compete on his behalf to the warrior tier by giving them a way to improve arcana.

Something that was, while not impossible, exceedingly difficult to do. Without a high arcana value, a cultivator's body would naturally stop cultivating mana, forcing them to manually knead it into an attribute of their choice.

Luke had tried it once for curiosity's sake after pestering Clite about the proper method. It wasn’t easy. At all.

For starters mana that wasn’t immediately absorbed eventually evaporated back into the air. It wasn’t quick, but it wasn't a slow process either. It was a race against time. The cultivator would desperately try to use as much of it as they could, while it slowly but surely slipped from their grasp.

Then, even when the energy was successfully massaged into place, Luke had quickly discovered that the end result was only a shallow mimicry of the real thing. The human body was a complex masterpiece. Difficult to understand, and even harder to improve. The end result of manual cultivation was workable, because people can and did ascend to the warrior tier and higher relying on it, but anyone who had cultivated naturally would be a magnitude stronger. At least in the short term. If, and it was an if, a cultivator succeeded in breaking through the next tier, they would have the ability to smooth out the wrinkles caused by the improper method, but in the short term they would be drastically weaker than anyone who had cultivated the right way.

Perhaps someone supremely talented after many years of study, trial, and error could get better and better, maybe even capture ninety percent of the easy grace of natural cultivation. Luke was pretty sure that was what most saturated warriors did when they hit the wall.

That was besides the point though. If even Cyzicus was sitting on something that could let nearly any mortal climb to the vaunted heights of the warrior tier, then what could a god have? Any random trinket could be the difference between stalling at the Hero tier for millenia or rising to the Saint tier in decades.

The fact that they were once mortals who had faced the same problems, it begged even bigger questions. What did the gods know that let them break free of the mortal coil?

More importantly, would they share any such information?

Luke was inclined to think they were.

The Tournament was clearly a way to raise those deserving to higher tiers, and it stood to reason that if a competitor managed to make a good impression, they may find some deity or another nudge them along on their path.

It’s probably the purpose of the meet and greet in the first place.

Before Luke could mull on the subject any more though, dozens of warriors, armed to the teeth, suddenly stormed into the throne room. All of them with pale faces, and haunted eyes. If Luke didn’t know better, he would have thought they had seen a ghost.

“Lord Cyzicus!” Clite said, breaking away from the crowd. “A Hero tier giant has spawned!”

The rebel’s ring flashed on Cyzicus’s finger, seamless silver armor encompassed him from head to toe and a spear appeared in his hand the moment the words left her mouth.

The emperor blinked, and a look of absolute horror appeared on his face, before he once again schooled his features.

“Evacuate the city,” he barked.

Within the span of a single second, a tremor shook the earth. A monster bellowed in the distance. A golden glow emanated from the open doors as a barrier once again engulfed the City for the second time in a year.

Lightning cackled around him, and Cyzicus disappeared.

Heart racing, Luke shot out of the castle and beheld his first Hero tier monster. It was big. Bigger than any creature Luke had ever seen before. It loomed over the city, and its shadow cast a large chunk of it in ominous darkness.

Like its lesser brethren, it had six arms. Three on each side, all them scraping the ground. Six eyes the size of houses looked on in malevolent glee as one after another, boulders the size of hills smashed into the barrier. Each one breaking free of the earth seemingly of its own accord, while the giant looked to the sky. An invisible seam split its face, and it howled in laughter.

Then as if the gods themselves were punishing it, thunder roared in the cloudless sky, and lightning rained down on it. Striking it hundreds of times in the span of seconds. The vague figure of Cyzicus could just barely be seen flying a mile above it.

Waves of warriors flew out from the city and formed ranks. One after another, they let loose what must have been thousands upon thousands of talismans and arrows. Each one struck the monster without fail.

All of them were ineffective.

Luke raced to join them, flying past countless mortals on the way. Only dimly aware of the blue and black robed cultivators pouring onto the streets, and funneling denizens of the Capital to different destinations in the city, where they would be teleported away to safety.

He was half way there, when the Argo took to the sky behind him, and joined the battle. Beams of destructive red light, fired from cannons along its stern, one after another. Each one aimed perfectly at the boulder the monster was lobbing at the city, destroying them before they could damage the barrier. Ignoring the monster that Jason knew he couldn’t harm.

Before he even got there, Luke knew that this wasn’t a battle he could affect.

Killing a wounded fleeing Hero was one thing. The Rebel was half dead when Lukeus, Heracles, and him had set off after her. Unable to use mana, she had endured their attacks for as long as she could, before expending the last of it in an effort to teleport away. An act that had been her ultimate undoing.

This was different. Absolutely nothing in Luke’s arsenal was capable of doing that thing even the slightest bit of harm. His blade was too small. He had hero tier weapons, but his mana was too weak to power them. Even his newly advanced Technique, didn’t know what to do. Just activating it alone had drained a quarter of Luke’s mana, before he forcibly shut it down. Reminding him once again, that the price of using it against a being of a higher tier was much too steep.

Even so, it came as no surprise to him, when the God Seed, freshly awakened, issued him a Quest anyway.

Quest Alert: Giant Slayer