A day later, Ron headed to the demon king's castle.
Compared to the common and more accessible rooms on the first floor, the second floor was a place that needed strict permission.
Even though he was a prince, Ron had to show his insignia to the guards for permission.
'I drank too much yesterday.' Craning his neck to the left and right, Ron opened the door of the meeting room and was about to begin addressing the hunting teams.
"Huh?"
The foot he raised to step forward froze in mid-air as he found something weird.
Var.
Prince Var was missing.
"Prince Ron." The hunting team members greeted him with a smile and Ron returned a polite smile.
But he didn't respond any further as he was lost in his thoughts. 'He's here way ahead of time in the previous meetings, what happened now?'
"-egin?"
The words of an abyssal snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Huh? What?" Ron blinked twice and looked around.
"Can we begin the meeting?" Trak, ranked number three on the human hunting list, said, failing to mask the confusion apparent in his eyes.
What in the seven hells happened to make Prince Ron, a sharp and alert warrior, absentminded?
"Ah, where's Prince Var?" Ron asked as he sat on a chair in front of the group.
"Var…the new prince who's joining us today?" Vela, ranked number two, frowned.
There was a specific order in which hunting teams were arranged.
For instance, B-grade teams hunted humans ranking between 50 and 75.
A grade hunted those between 25 and 50.
S grade, which Varian joined shortly after becoming a prince hunted the top 25. But even S-grade was divided into S+ and S-.
S- was 11 to 25.
S+ was 1 to 10.
Upon entering, Var hunted down humans ranking 24, 19, and 16 in the first phase. Just the day before yesterday, he hunted down 13 and unexpected rank 9 too.
So, he was promoted to S+ teams.
Today was the day he was supposed to meet these teams.
'And Mendis also transferred me to look after S+ teams, but his intention is for me to look after Var.' Ron understood his intentions and agreed.
"I heard he killed the rank 9, Declan Xander. I wish to meet him." Trak said with burning eyes, battle intent bursting out of his eyes.
Since Var too down both rank 9 and rank 13 once, there were rumors saying Var was eligible to enter the top 3 of the hunting teams.
"He's praised by archduke Mendis. Now that's making me curious." The rank 1 on the human hunting list, Osbert, let out a meaningful smile.
"…maybe he got caught up by something. Let me contact him." Ron gave an awkward smile and tapped his bracelet.
"Var, it's time for the meeting. Are you on the way?"
"…"
"Hey, everyone is waiting for you."
"…"
"Var, where the heck are you?"
"…"
Ron's expression grew heavy with the lack of responses. He tapped his comm and requested permission to learn of Var's position using his position as the reason.
<Permission Granted>
The location of Var was displayed in a hologram and Ron's eyes almost popped out.
"W-What the hell is he doing there?"
Without another word, he rushed out.
The abyssals of the S+ hunting team also saw the location, so with a weird expression, they too followed.
*** *** ***
"Huff. Huff." Sharp panting sounds reverberated across a mountain range.
It was as if a giant beast was taking short breaths.
With every inhale, the flowers and plants were pulled towards a certain direction, and with every exhale, they were all pushed away.
A giant wolf, easily towering over a giant mountain, stood on its two hind legs as it breathed in and out heavily.
In front of it was a human whose height barely reached its ankle.
But the aura emitted by the human matched and even faintly surpassed the beast.
"Roaar!"
The giant wolf gave a deep howl.
The mountains began to shake and the stones on the ground vibrated like someone was playing drums on the ground.
Varian's expression distorted and he raised his hand.
A double-edged spear made of lightning on one side and ice on another materialized in his hand.
Noticing the danger, the giant wolf raised its feet to stomp Varian to death.
An invisible force struck its foot and slowed it down.
The wolf gnashed its teeth and lashed at Varian with its tail.
Varian's figure blurred and he appeared at the neck level of the wolf the next moment.
The wolf had sensed him and with its superior speed, swung its claw.
A terrible pain assaulted the giant wolf's brain and its eyes spilled blood. The force under its claw decreased considerably.
Then, the space around the wolf's claw solidified and stopped it for a short moment.
Varian raised the spear about his right shoulder and poured his strength into the grip.
Then, he launched the spear at its neck like a missile.
Boom!
Due to the sheer force behind that throw, Varian's own body was blown back and the numerous wounds on his body opened up.
But he didn't care. His eyes remained on the spear that reached the giant wolf's neck and lodged itself into the creature's chin.
Then, a blue light flashed and bone-chilling ice froze the creature's blood.
Before it could even struggle, a golden light burst out and the lightning blast exploded its neck into pieces.
The giant wolf collapsed onto the ground, its dark green blood pouring out like heavy rain.
Varian knelt on the ground as he took heavy breaths. His injuries were quickly healed by his Plantae powers.
But his whole body ached as the sense of fatigue filled him.
"F-Fuck…"
Varian couldn't take it anymore and collapsed.
Boom!
The giant wolf's corpse collapsed, right next to him.
The green blood spilled on him, drenching him in its blood.
"Wolf…I fucking hate wolves." Varian spat out.
Firewolf. Charles' Lykos.
"Still, this is my limit, I guess." Varian looked at the empty red sky and muttered.
After the talk with Ron, he was gripped by anxiety.
So, he ended up in this place called Dark Tower.
It was one of the famous training facilities in the demon abyss.
There were thirty-three floors, eleven each for levels 7, 8, and 9, with each floor representing increasing difficulty.
On each floor, you could fight a dangerous beast. There were no rewards for winning, but it's an excellent place to train yourself.
If there's any danger, you could hold a talisman they gave you while entering and you'd be teleported out of the tower.
The beasts were somewhat real, but Varian wasn't sure if they were really alive. Every time a beast was killed, it'd take several days before reviving.
It really defied common sense, but Varian wasn't interested in finding how.
As he entered the tower and cleared one floor after another, only thought echoed in his mind.
'I need to grow stronger. Stronger!'
Level 7 wasn't enough. Level 8 wouldn't help. Level 9 wasn't going to change anything.
Sovereign?
What about Sovereign?
He had seven paths and would get the eighth soon. As the system said, he needed to find a workaround to become a Celestial of eight paths.
If his origin got attached to one avenue, he'd lose access to other avenues.
That meant, he could only become a Sovereign once he figured that out.
'After becoming Sovereign, they link origin to the avenue. But with my talent, I'm sure it'll be done in no time.'
So, once he became a Sovereign, he wouldn't have much problem becoming a Celestial Ranker.
The problem was he didn't know how he could do this without losing his paths.
'Forget all that, I'm not even level 8 yet.' Varian grimaced and dragged his battered body up.
He was interested in what a day's worth of mad fight gave him.
'Status.'
