Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power C.542

Once the timer reaches five minutes remaining, I begin to feel the room around me shift and rotate. The ceiling lights up green with a new message telling all applicants to move to the front half of their rooms and equip all items necessary to fight.

I do as it says, and a wall comes out of the floor, cutting the room in half and leaving me staring at the silver door.

Soon after, the mana shielding around the front half of the room falls away, revealing heavy-duty glass imbued with the same blue mana as the shielding that makes up the dome.

Even the silver door fades away into a semi-transparent material.

As I look around, the walls of the fight area are all made of the same see-through substance. Behind every door, there is another applicant in an identical room, ready to fight.

The timer counting down hits zero, and a new timer floats in the air, set at two minutes, while two doors of applicants open up.

Once they both step out, the two-minute timer begins. However, it is paused at [00:01:58] after a bright flash of lightning fills the arena.

Rodrigo's voice fills the room.

"In the fight between applicant 1 and applicant 66, Trax, from the Apex Region, has moved on to the next round!"

There are a few laughs that ring out from the audience above, but the next match starts almost immediately after, and the same result occurs.

The clock is stopped mere seconds after it starts, following a massive blue flash of mana and a barrage of water jets.

"In the fight between applicant 2 and applicant 65, Callum, from the Apex Region, has moved on to the next round!"

The following two rounds are the same as a fire and wind user from the Apex Region both demolish their opponents in seconds.

Then, my turn comes, and the transparent mana shield door opens up to put me in the fight ring with applicant 62. 𝑓𝓇𝘦𝘦𝔀𝓮𝒷𝘯𝓸𝓋𝓮𝘭.𝓬𝓸𝘮

He's sweating all over and holding a long silver sword along with armor that I'm positive came from the resting room rack that we were both just offered items from.

He's level 516, and on his wristband, I see he's from the Raya Region.

I let out a sigh and pull my daggers from my waist, sending a single crescent of lightning magic his way faster than he can see.

It collides with his midsection before he can even block it, and the timer above our heads stops as a flash of white light teleports him away.

"In the fight between applicant 5 and applicant 62, Ray, from the Bedrock Region, has moved on to the next round!"

At this announcement, I feel many eyes from the audience above turn to look at me as I walk back to my transparent room.

Director Maylack is smiling wide and clapping for my victory while the Vice and Veridian Directors both look at each other, then stare at my back until I'm in my room again.

The tension clears once the next match begins.

It's over very quickly just like the others.

It takes no time at all to make it to Ember's match.

"In the fight between applicant 9 and applicant 58, Emrie, from the Bedrock Region, has moved on to the next round!"

The same reaction takes place when he wins his match in a single punch of hot fire.

While these matchups are very unfair, placing the strongest against the weakest to start, this blue barrier still allows for hunters outside the ring to feel the power of mana being used inside.

Although they aren't full fights, every match right now is giving both the Regional Directors and all the other fighters in the tournament a taste of what they can do.

The only notable matches I see next are the two Vice Region fighters ranked 10 and 11; they too quickly dispatch their enemies.

A few more matches go by until Marcie wins hers too without any issue. At slot 13, she faces one of the remaining Bedrock applicants at rank 54 and finishes the match with a single strike of her spear.

Dane at 16 defeats 51 with ease, but the two have an actual exchange of blows. The match takes over 20 seconds to complete.

He's up against one of the members from the Phantom Region.

Using an extreme speed skill along with advanced wind magic and many speed and perception-boosting items, the applicant dressed in black robes is quite the tough adversary.

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The two of them fly around the dome and send wind slashes at each other, but Dane's extreme-grade skill along with slightly higher mana control allows him to win the battle by pure strength.

His wind blades shatter the Phantom Region applicant's blades every time they collide, and eventually, he lands a few clean shots that bring him the victory.

Even so, as he walks back to his room, he is breathing quite heavily.

There's a single region clapping for him as Rodrigo announces him as the victor.

It is the young woman that sits on the white throne. Before, I couldn't tell if she was the Director of the Raya Region or Silca, but if she's rooting Dane on, then my guess is this woman is the Director of the Silca Region.

As I observe her much closer, her eyes, hair color, and facial features share traits with Dane, but it must be a coincidence.

Before I think of this too much, the next match begins, and applicant 17 defeats 50, another applicant from the Phantom Region in a match that also takes more than just a single blow.

Their brawl goes similarly, with 17 just scraping out a victory because of a difference in mana control and element strength.

The next match is 18 vs 49, and the outcome that takes place is not what I expected.

Applicant 49 is from the Phantom Region, just like the last two fighters; however, he doesn't have an elemental skill.

When I look at his status, all I see is one called Shadow Step, and it's legendary grade.

When the match begins, he lunges forward with a black sword in hand, then disappears right before 18 lands his attack. The Ice mage in the ring is a strong fighter from the Veridian Region that carries large white ice-imbued axes.

If the man in black robes was hit with the attack that was hurtling toward him, he would have been killed on the spot...

However, he's nowhere to be found.

The audience goes silent for a moment, and the ice mage looks around the ring, waiting for the announcer to call out his name as the winner.

It looks as if this fighter was teleported away, possibly the teleportation magic was just not present or masked by his black robes.

Many theories are thought of, but when he reappears behind the ice mage and shoves his black sword through the hunter's back, thrusting upward to eliminate him on the spot in a flash of white light, the audience realizes what has happened.

He puts his sword back in its sheath and bows, then walks back to his room as Rodrigo announces him as the winner of this match.

No one claps, not even his own Regional Director. Although, I do see him give a subtle nod of approval.

The room is eerily silent until the next match begins.

Natalie walks into the white arena in new armor from the preparation room, along with two silver daggers in her hands.

Number 48, her opponent, is another applicant from the Phantom Region.

All four of them are right next to each other in ranks.

Given their abilities so far, it seems like they did very poorly on the written exam, decent on the physical, and all shared the same score for the simulation trials as they are clumped together here.

However, their fighting capabilities are far higher than their base rank shows.

Natalie is the opposite. Her knowledge in the written exams and contribution as a healer during the simulation trials is what brought her rank up so far.

The worried expression on her face shows that she is thinking exactly the same thing.

In a battle of pure strength and mana control, she has no chance of winning and moving on.

After the verbal disagreement she had with Trax before this tournament even started, her losing a match like this will only add fuel to the fire.

I do a quick scan of both of them as they face each other in the ring. The Phantom Region applicant has mana control higher than Nat's, and even an advanced earth element skill that will make for even more of a tactical advantage.

He uses an earth-imbued longsword, and all of his dark robes are imbued with speed and agility buffs just like the other applicants from this region.

The match begins, and as he sprints forward, it's clear that Natalie is most likely going to lose this fight.

There's a bright clash of mana and stone as they collide in the center of the ring, and the earth sword clashes with Nat's enchanted silver daggers.

She manages to block the first incoming strike but is blown flying backward by its force to slam back-first into the side of the ring against a random transparent door about a dozen rooms away from me.

She coughs up blood but gets to her feet in time to see the earth user ruthlessly coming in for another attack.

My eyes wander around the ring, and I see all of the Apex Elites watching the match with their arms crossed and smug looks on their faces.

Their internal affairs have nothing to do with me, and as much as I want to see Nat win and rub it in their faces, I whisper to myself and try to think about the situation harder. "Does it really matter if she wins or loses...?"

In the same instance, Nat is hit with another heavy slash from the earth user, only one of her daggers manages to land a clean block, allowing his sword to slide by and rip a gash through her side.

Blood stains the white floor as she jumps away to dodge his second incoming strike in the same motion.

Her eyes are still sharp and her breathing is heavy.

Nat grips a dagger with one hand while dropping the other and using her now free palm to heal up her side to make sure at least the bleeding slows before anything else.

She could surrender at any time, but is still looking for a way to fight back.

The muffled yell of Trax comes from behind his transparent door as the direction Nat managed to flee from her attacker is right in front of his room.

"You'll lose. Ha! You'll lose to a lesser region. And you'll drop below ranking 20! Once I win this tournament and get a place on the Apex's B-Class board, I'll make sure you never get your license no matter how many times you reapply."

As he taunts her, another earth-magic-filled slash comes toward her, and with only one dagger to block, she's hit again in the side and her previous wound opens up while another is created.

Trax laughs and yells out as she flees again.

"And after today's showing, the Veridian Region will never take you back either! This is what you get for betraying the Apex Elites!"

She grits her teeth and tries to heal up both of the wide-open wounds in her stomach with one hand, but it isn't enough.

Nat has to use both hands to stop the bleeding before it's too late and is completely unarmed for the attack that flies at her next.

Even now, she stares the sword covered in earth magic down without fear, but I'm certain this hit will end the match.

Even if her stare looks like it's full of resolve, there's nothing she can do, and she knows it.

After thinking about Trax's words for a moment, and considering the prize of this tournament, a plan begins to formulate in my head.

It includes securing a future trade partnership with the Veridian region and at the same time will bring me one step closer to figuring out what really goes on within the higher ups of the Apex Region.

To follow it out, Natalie can't lose this fight...

So, I make the decision to open my telepathy link from across the ring and send her a message.

"Listen to me very carefully. If you want to win, you're going to have to do exactly what I say."