MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

'A few more days, and then I can go hunting for that bastard,' Alex thought, the image of Caden Silver flashing in his mind.

It had been over two months since the event ended, and Alex isolated himself in the training chamber, doing nothing but enriching his battle experience and improving his elemental manipulations, edging ever so closer to the Fifth Rank.

When the event ended, Alex's understanding of darkness was at 22%, and of Chaos, it was at 11%, while his mana body was at 97%, which grew to 98% after he fully recovered from the damage his body accumulated throughout the month.

Alex was just a small push away from advancing to the Fifth Rank, but because he had a glaring mental weakness, he wanted to improve it before progressing to get the utmost out of the boost of the Rank promotion.

So, besides improving his understanding of chaos and battle experience with his complete set of knives, Alex spent a decent amount of time improving his mental defenses by going through hellish scenarios and even getting some help from natural treasures.

As there were no soul treasures available that could help Alex at his stage of strength improve his soul strength by a decent margin, he was forced to use treasures that each exceeded the combined worth of any guild upwards of the top 100, and he consumed six of such treasures before hitting the limits of improvements he could receive.

After two months and four days of training, Alex's mana body was 100%, and his understanding of the concept of darkness was at 27%, while his understanding of the concept of chaos was at 23%.

As for his mental defenses, he was capable of brushing off most Sixth-Rank attacks with ease, while the ones that affected him did not make him completely helpless, and once he advanced to the Fifth Rank, he would be capable of even tanking attacks of such caliber.

Alex's strength also improved by a large margin, as all his base stats were above 81K, with mana surpassing 89K, thanks to the 8K intelligence stat reward he received after the promotion of the Domain connection to second Rank.

With his Domain connection reaching the second Rank, Alex Ruler's authority also advanced to the second Rank, giving him access to much better things in the Ruler Shop, but besides some decent things, there was still nothing broken available like the Nirvana elixer.

Alex also learned the truth behind the small event he went through in his battle against the Corpse Dragon, and as he deducted, he was possessed by the Dragon Monarch Ynnir, at least at that moment, and the best part was he was not in any danger.

Alex learned about Monarch Ynnir and found out that he had quite a history, as more than a millennia ago, he was a permanent summon of Erebus the Dark King, and even at that time, he was the Dragon Monarch, a true monster if described in simple words.

However, Alex's happiness to have a wild trump card did not last long, as he quickly realized that no matter how many times he lost control, each and every time, his instincts were the ones to take over and not the Dragon Monarch.

So, while there was a possibility that the Dragon Monarch would possess Alex, it was extremely likely that his instincts, fueled by unbridled pride and wrath, would be the ones taking over.

While in the berserk state, Alex would have his elemental abilities boosted significantly, but it would end with him having a severely injured body that could take more than a month to heal.

While on what the demons had planned, there was no progress, as every major cult member was gone, nowhere to be found, even when Alex decided to butcher each member present at one of the Chaos Genrel prisons.

The cult did not send their members to retaliate but instead just sent new members and hired mercenaries to guard the area, not even letting the news of the slaughter spread to the common folks, making it appear nothing ever happened.

Alex did think of killing strong cult members he knew about, including the Duke of the Kingdom of Ice, but seeing how his actions brought no countermeasures from the cult, he understood that besides spreading chaos, it would serve no other purposes.

The only major things that happened in the past two months were the addition of four SSS Rank legacy holders, with one of them being Lady Sylvana, the holder of the life guardian legacy, and Alex opening seventy-two of the one hundred free health centers in various cities of America in the name of Shadow Oblivion Organization.

Alex also made the Life Pod technology freely available to everyone but made sure to set the rule in place that whoever bought a pod would need to do 60% charity work, meaning that for every ten patients, 6 of them needed to be treated free of cost.

These actions, in turn, only increased the popularity of the Shadow Oblivion Organization as well as the criticism, but Alex couldn't care less about both of them.

'It's also about time that I bring that little glutton back,' Alex thought as he wondered how his little friend Ricin was doing after months of his own training.

Alex wished, and the next moment, he was outside the training chamber, where a portal was waiting for him, and he stepped through it with an anxious heart.

As the darkness vanished, Alex was welcomed by the sight of a dense and humid atmosphere, where the air hung heavy with cold and dampness and the presence unique to deep caves.

Alex looked around the vast stretching cave that was well illuminated because of the massive opening far above, but the majority was cloaked in darkness, with a ceiling that was hundreds of meters high, cloaked in massive stalactites that hung like jagged teeth, dripping with moisture, with the flowing cold wind creating eerie notices.

'I was expecting a jungle or an open savanna, but definitely not a cave,' Alex pondered as he looked around, trying to locate his little friend.

'What the?' Alex felt his vision blur as the scenery changed. The massive walls of the cave vanished into smoke, and the light was devoured by the surrounding darkness before there was nothing but pitch darkness.

"Impressive, considering it has been less than two years since you acquired your status," A deep voice, one that commanded attention, and with it came an aura that was suffocating even though Alex could tell it was not directed at him.

Alex swiftly regained his vision and located himself standing before two sets of crimson eyes that hung high in the expanse of darkness, staring down at him, and slowly, as the darkness faded away, he recognized he was never inside a cave, but that was the least of his worries.

A massive king cobra stood before him, regal and imposing, its hood spread wide open that resembled wings while its sinuous body was weaving through the maze of surrounding trees that had trucks that took tens of meters of the surrounding area yet beside the massive frame of the creature they looked small.

Alex controlled his emotions as he stared back at the creature and seeing that the creature was still standing and not dead after attacking him, he comprehended that the one before him was Varon's friend.

"Varon, You were not exaggerating when you told me the kid had potential," The voice sounded as his body began shifting, and in a blinding flash of light, he took his humanoid form.

"I am known as Regalis Naja, and I hope you don't mind my way of greeting," The middle-aged man said, a kind smile stretched across his face as he extended his hand in greeting.