Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power C.544

All of the matches in the first round finish before the hour is up.

The rankings get closer to even as the matches go on, so many of the final battles are evenly matched and take up the entirety of the 2-minute timer.

Once the 33 vs. 34 match comes to an end with 33 winning in the last 10 seconds, the leaderboard screen shows up projected on the top of the blue mana dome.

There are 33 applicants left, so the scoreboard shifts and creates a brand new matchup between the two lowest-ranked fighters. Rodrigo announces a final match to finish round 1.

This is between fighter 33, who just won, and the fighter ranked 32.

There were 66 applicants at the start of this trial, meaning in the second round there are 33 left.

If the event organizers were to just allow 1 applicant to move on without fighting because of the odd number of matches, round 3 would be filled with 17 fighters, making there an odd number continuously.

The best way to make things fair is to have an extra elimination match this round.

The match is close, but fighter 32 wins in the last 20 seconds of their long brawl.

He walks back to his room, and the final matchups for the second round begin to shape up.

All the fighters that defeated hunters at a higher rank than their own had their rank changed in real time.

The most noticeable shift is that Phantom Region fighter who was in the high 40s last round but moved up to slot 27 in just a single victory.

Those that lost to fighters with lower ranks than them fall in rating too.

The next round's matchups move around to make some of the matches far more fair.

It's not only low vs. high this time around; it looks as if someone is pulling the strings to create exciting matchups for this event.

Once the rounds start, this rank movement becomes far more apparent.

One of the first matches in this event is Ember against an Apex Region applicant ranked number 4.

He puts on quite the fight, battling against an extreme wind magic user over level 680.

Wind blades and fireballs fill the dome, but after a full minute of battling back and forth, Ember squeezes out a victory.

His speed and power during this event reached peaks equivalent to the highest skill we showed off during the simulation trials.

With mana control and speed peaking around that of a 750-800 hunter, the match finishes with Emrie Carter being announced as the winner.

The Apex Region's applicant falls down 1 slot in the ranking, hitting position 5, and in turn moving me up to the 4th slot without even taking part in the fight.

Ember moves up two rankings for his victory, hitting the 7th slot while there are loud claps and cheers coming from the Bedrock Region as he walks back into his room.

Dane is matched up against a similarly strengthened opponent as he fought in the previous round, defeating fighter number 31 in under 15 seconds.

Marcie also has an easy time taking out number 22 in her match, finishing the round in 4 solid blows without being struck even once.

Natalie's picture matches up with a hunter ranked 28 from the Raya Region.

It seems like many of these matches are far more fair than the earlier round one matchups. As insurance during her fight, I still use my ranked-up buff to share 5% of my base stats but lower the mana control I share down to 0.25%.

It's more than enough for her to have the advantage during the fight.

While many hunters present are waiting to see her fiery display like last round, I decide not to give her this skill and let the audience believe this is her natural state.

She keeps the round going for over a full minute before finally ending it in a flash of white light.

I can see the Regional Directors watching with much more interest, but they seem disappointed when her massive burst of power like last time isn't shown.

I smile inwardly, whispering to myself, knowing they'll get what they're looking for soon.

"Patience..."

A few rounds after this, I have my own battle against the 3rd ranked fighter from the Apex Region.

He's an ice mage that uses two longswords to fight. His armor is all specially ice imbued and crafted by a specialist.

Once we enter the ring, he wastes no time before running forward and freezing the entire floor of the arena in an icy covering.

I jump in the air, filling my feet with lightning, and dodge his attacks for over 30 seconds while letting him get more and more comfortable getting closer to me.

This fighter is very strong. With strength, power, and mana control rivaling that of a level 800 to 850 monster.

Given the speed and power I've shown in all of the previous trials and stages of this exam, I really shouldn't be able to beat him.

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Using lightning in my footsteps and boosting my mana control just slightly, I manage to become agile enough to dodge all of his slower-moving long-range attacks without showing off mana control or abilities too far out of reason.

My long-range attacks are all dispelled by sheets of ice every time I send them out, but I find that every time he gets close enough to me to try and send fatal blows my way he leaves a weak spot open near the back of his left knee.

When following through with his swings, he also leaves a small opening in his armor near his right shoulder too.

After a few exchanges, I decide to act on this weakness.

While I could fake the activation of my ranked-up buff, I want to save that for a future round.

As my dagger slashes through his knee and shoulder, I let surges of electricity rattle through his body, narrowly missing his right ice sword's swing by less than 3 millimeters from my neck.

I laugh while lightning stepping up to the top of the dome and dodging his counterattacks.

They're even slower than before, and once we exchange more near misses and he goes in for another fatal strike, I'm able to pinpoint his weakness even easier.

There's another yell as his insides are cooked and his respawn item is triggered, leaving me in an icy ring with Rodrigo yelling my name out as the victor.

I slowly walk back to my room while my ranking moves up to [3] and the Bedrock Region's cheers echo through the room.

There is only one more notable fight that I witness before this second round is over.

It's the man from the Phantom Region that has that very odd skill called shadow step.

He's faced up against the rank 10 applicant from the Vice Region.

The water wielder has an enchanted blade that I created for him, one of the strongest artifacts in this entire tournament.

I'm very surprised when I see the man in black robes disappear from everyone's eyes the moment the water swordsman swings his blade.

The same exact scenario plays out as the last match with this Phantom Region applicant in it...

He reappears right behind him, stabbing him in the back with his blade and thrusting upward to finish the match in just a few seconds.

The Director from the Phantom Region gives him another nod of approval as his ranking moves up to the 20th slot.

The man from the Vice Region falls to 13th place, and from this movement, Marcie automatically gets pushed up in the rankings to 12th.

Rodrigo announces the winner, then shows the matchups for the next round of this event with only 16 applicants remaining.

There are four notable matchups this round.

Dane faces the healer tank from the Vice Region.

Their skill levels are nowhere near equal.

While Dane is capable of maneuvering away from the tank's attacks, the large man pulls out a hammer with multiple high-level enchantments that easily dispel every wind attack Dane throws in.

The wind mage plays on the defensive for a majority of the match.

I consider giving him a boost in power, just like Natalie, but hold off.

Dane is ranked 15. Even if he loses this match, there's no way he could fall below the 20th rank no matter how many more matches pass.

As a matter of fact, all 16 applicants left now are in the top 20. No wins or losses will push anyone out of the exams, everyone is just fighting now for a chance at winning first place in the tournament.

I allow the match to go on as intended.

In the final 15 seconds, Dane gets desperate and uses his ranked-up buff, manifesting a massive wind blade, but at the same time, the tank activates his own ranked-up buff too and creates a white glowing shield around himself that deflects the attack.

Seconds before the timer hits 0, the Tank jumps in the air for the first time and lands a single deadly attack with immense speed that wasn't shown previously. Before, he was just playing defense. This attack makes direct contact with Dane's chest and he's eliminated in a flash of white light instantly.

After this match, surprisingly, both the Raya and Silca Region's directors stand up to give an applause of respect to Dane for making it this far.

Marcie has a very tough match too.

She faces the water wielder from the Vice Region for whom I made the water armor.

Its design is very similar to the set of armor she wears.

Their defenses are equal, but the armored fighter from the Vice Region doesn't have a weapon as powerful as Marcie's spear.

She slowly tears away at the fighter's HP with very strategic blows. It takes over 45 hits, and she too is hit a few times by his counters, but almost 5 times less. The battle finishes with a flash of white light, and Marcie is declared the winner. She moves up to rank 11 after this victory.

After Ember's tough matchup in the last round, he's given a far easier opponent this time, a random Veridian Region applicant ranked 16th.

He doesn't hesitate to take him out in a series of blows, finishing the match in under 5 seconds.

Nat gets an opponent of similar strength.

One of the Vice Region Applicants made it to 17th place; however, this is the strongest opponent she's faced all night.

Just like the previous match, all eyes are on her.

To prepare, as she walks into the ring, I match the power I shared with her in her first match, and even give her fire summoning, but give her instructions to follow out.

As the two applicants are left in the ring, they slowly walk toward each other.

I can see the fear on the Vice Region applicant's face as he walks forward.

Then, Nat looks to the sky and whispers under her breath.

The moment she looks back down at her opponent and the timer of the match begins, fire starts to flicker in her eyes and gasps fill the arena again as everyone witnesses the flames creep down her arms and into her daggers.

Nat's mana control increases at a rapid rate, and her aura spreads throughout the ring, sending a wave of warning through her opponent.

Less than a second later, a yell comes from the applicant across the ring.

"I-I give up- I surrender- I'm not risking my life against a possessed fighter! I don't want anything to do with this Flame Emperor!"

He kneels on the ground and puts his hands in the air.

"I'm already into the next round- There's no point in fighting a demon like this...."

Nat smirks and her flames disappear as the man is automatically teleported away from admission of defeat.

While Natalie walks back to her room, there are many mixed reactions from the hunters and even regional directors.

Some are still mesmerized by this power, while others are angry and are starting to think it's all just a trick.

These seeds of doubt are most likely coming from the angry yells pouring out of the number [1] rated room with Trax in it from across the ring.

"She's a fraud! Don't fall for her illusions! So what if she won in the first round, that guy was ranked in the 40s, of course, she'd beat him! That last round too, you saw she took almost the whole two minutes to win, she didn't even use this so-called Flame Emperor's power. You're giving in to her tricks! She's fooling you all!"

These words are echoed and repeated throughout the ring, even people in the audience begin to discuss if what they saw in that first round was real or not.

Once she's back in her room, Rodrigo's voice rings out.

"Well, it seems we have some rumors going around about our applicants..."

He turns down to the lightning user that said these statements.

"That's enough. Let the fights speak for themselves. We will all know soon enough if these powers are real or just an illusion as you say."

There are 3 matches already made for the next round.

Natalie is already set to go against one of the remaining Apex Region fighters that was on the team of 6 in the simulation trials.

Ember is set to fight the 2nd ranked fighter, Callum.

Marcie is facing the healer tank that eliminated Dane this round.

Then lastly, Trax's name is all alone, waiting for the winner of this round's final match to move up on the chart to face him.

The final matchup is [3] vs. [20], me and the disappearing man from the Phantom Region are up next.

The door to my room opens and I walk out into the empty ring, taking out my lightning-filled daggers and pointing them straight ahead at the man in black robes that has won every match up until now in a single strike.

Whoever wins this matchup will be facing the number [1] ranked Apex Elite in the next round.