MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

In the three months of training, Alex had made significant progress, as his mana body was reaching a purity of 92%, while his understanding of the concept of chaos was around 11% and darkness was 17%, which in turn had greatly improved his control over both elemental manipulations.

All his stats were above 80K each, and when he used Ruler Pride and Dragon Might, his base stats were pushed to 320K, and with the boost from his items, being 15 to 20%, they easily pushed past 350K.

Alex could go toe to toe with any peak Elementalists when going all out and could dominate even the most anomalist of individuals, with his only weakness being mental or such form of attacks that he could not defend against, but it was only a matter of time before he covered even that weakness.

Alex had also made progress with his two battle arts, learning Void sense, which was much harder to use and even harder to main than mana sense but was also much better.

Alex was close to learning the void step, and he also learned five blade intents, gaining information about the concept of blade intent, but the information was like a complex puzzle, so the progress in learning it was slow yet steady.

Venedikt had also awakened, and following that, Saahira was informed about the process of awakening and given a guild house under the control of a guild working for Shiekh.

Saahira would be working alone for the time being in the training chamber, as Alex didn't trust anyone enough to expose them to his budding inner circle, but to make sure everything was secured and looked normal, he had the house filled with an AI robot of the highest grade.

While in the ancient world, Venedikt, Andrei, and Saahira had advanced to Fourth Rank, barely meeting the event deadline, but they did so by achieving the goal Alex had set for them.

Venedikt and Andrei both reached the stat maximization, but to make it possible, Alex had to burn through close to 7 million Ruler points, on top of a few billion worth of resources, while Saahira advanced to fourth Rank with all her stats being above 16.5K.

It did what it could for Saahira, but because she didn't have a high-grade physique like Venedikt or a broken skill set like Andrei, it was taking 10x the resources and time for just half of the result compared to the other, which was only going get worse.

Alex knew that stat maximization was not for everyone, not even the best of talents, but he was willing to give Saahira time and resources until she the wall, which she did at 16.5K point average.

As the three-month period for team selection was over, every team was given a week of time to make the last of their preparations before the event to be streamed globally began.

Alex, Venedikt, Andrei, and Saahira were the confirmed team members, and while no other member was needed to win the event, and no one could question his team pick.

But Alex still decided to arrange a small event where members will first have a contest among each other, and the final ten will each have the chance to four selected members.

If one of the selected team members lost four of the ten battles, then his position was up for grabs, while the fifth seat was also open for grabs but not through a competition but who could best impress the boss.

In the last three months, SSS Legacy holders have increased from 6 to 11, and after including Alex, Boras, and the team, the number reached 16, while then there was the legacy of Life Guardian and the Dragon King waiting to be acquired.

Venedikt won all ten battles, Andrei lost one, and Saahira lost twice, and now Alex was currently having a one-on-one with the same individual who won two battles, which was being streamed live in the organization chat from his and his opponent's perspective.

'He is good, truly a 0.01% elite player,' Alex thought, amazed by the performance of the assassin, shifting in between real space and void.

The Assassin was the SSS Legacy holder, named Ravyn, a player whom Alex suspected to be The Ghost, the best or at least most well-known assassin of his previous life.

After seeing his performance against the trio of his team, Alex was getting more and more convinced, as he killed both Andrei and Saahira in what could be called class as he did so with a single strike, even after Saahira took great defensive measures.

Ravyn only lost to Venedikt simply because he had the skill called void collapse, which on its own was useless as it did no damage to real space, and while a bane for the assassins, it was still a tricky skill to execute.

The skill began and ended in three seconds, and even in that frame, the target had a small window to escape, so timing needed to be spot on to catch a target, but if executed perfectly, then the target's death was certain.

Alex had played with every opponent in their strong suit as he showed his strength against the berserker, used chaos manipulating to dominate in magic, and used his sword in a battle of skill.

So Alex did the same with Ravyn, as he tracked his location using void sense and matched his speed using phantom walk, but even that didn't affect the cold look on his face, as the light-bearded man stared back at him as he continued to switch places.

The chase continued for a few seconds before Ravyn vanished, his presence gone from both real space and void, at least to Alex's scenes, and moments later, two links materialized, each emerging from opposite sides, moments before they were about to make contact with him.

The gleaming sickle blades attached to the chains were far in the back, being in place to hit Alex, and as the gleaming dark blade moved for his abdomen, it explained the chains were just to throw him off and create an opportunity.

Ravyn had seen Alex toy with every one of his opponents, individuals whom he saw as good opponents, and having seen that told him he was not winning, so he decided not for the win but to impress the man and possibly land a good strike.

The links phased through Alex as he caught Ravyn's wrist with his left hand, stopping the blade in place, and gripped him by the neck, neutralizing him.

Alex had seen Ravyn completely vanish, even from his void sense, and while at the last instant, when he appeared to land the strike, he could sense, but at that point, it was hard, if not impossible, to avoid the attack.

While Alex could have avoided or defended against the attack, he knew better than to think that Ravyn would repeat the same old trick while knowing it would likely not work.

So Alex had activated the Chrono Displacement, slipped out of space at the last moment, avoided the chains, and took the moment to neutralize the target.

Ravyn performed the best, and he was the last candidate, Alex didn't waste any time and gave him the last slot before also starting a conversation with him to learn more about him.

Ravyn had an short-cropped hairstyle, with dark hair, dark eyes, a light beard, and a mustache, standing at 6.3 ft tall, built like a runner athlete, and had a decently handsome face with slightly darker skin, and he looked to be in his early thirties.

Alex learned that Ravyn was from Guinea in West Africa, and his age was 37, lived alone, had no relatives, was born and raised in an orphanage, and had spent his life first working as a hustler and the last fifteen years as a private guard.

Now, with the team complete, Alex waited for the occasion to begin, and a few days later, as the last second of the seven-day passed, every player received a system message, while the dark screens of both the virtual and real world came to life.

The display began by showing a large island stretching for at least two thousand five hundred kilometers in length and six hundred kilometers in width at its center, which got lesser and lesser toward the ends.

It was a strange island, to say the least, as one zone was cloaked in frozen mountains with constant snow, and one was a dark land with flames and lava burning on the ground, with the sky covered in dense clouds that were running fire.

There were tens of such areas, from normal to extreme, and after seconds of overview, Zero's voice began narrating what the island had to offer.

Zero began by sharing about the various biomes, showing them as he progressed to the creatures that inhabited the area, and this was where everyone received the first surprise as even the most common creature was considered extremely rare in reality, while the rare ones were myths and legends in reality.

Everyone understood that the hundred teams were in for a task and a time of their life, while they would have a show of excitement and beauty to enjoy.