Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 358: Survival Strategy 101 - Don’t Be Everyone’s Target

The night was at least as long as the day, which was kind of annoying. He was stuck with these idiots for over sixty hours until the system message popped up. The leaders of Hydra had already positioned themselves around him so he couldn’t run. Not that they could stop him. One interesting piece of information had been revealed. You could find maps in small castles or ruins that showed the locations of the next safe zones in the area. When the sun appeared in the sky again, a system message followed.Congrats

You have survived the introduction phase

Welcome to stage one

The higher the stage, the greater the treasures you can find

With every stage an unique way or an additional quest will be added that allows you to get additional points for the leaderboard

On stage one the added rule is Beastslayer Merit

From this moment until the end of the event you will get points for killing beasts

Good luck on stage one

As the world that had been disintegrated began to heal, Thalion noticed it was not the same world. It was something completely different. A dense jungle rose before him, massive trees visible in the distance. You could immediately hear the loud sounds of beasts roaming the undergrowth. It looked like jungle all around them and they were the only clearing. That annoyed Hydra, of course; they wanted to rush to the next safe zone to recruit new members. Thalion swore to himself that next time he would just kill them. How did their gang even work? They would appear in different positions on New Earth, if they would last that long anyway.

If this had been the introduction before, then they hadn’t faced any real challenge yet. None of them were particularly strong, and in the higher stages safety in numbers would stop working. The moment the area attached and the first man stepped onto the jungle soil, Thalion activated Mistform and shot into the air so fast it was hard to follow with the eye.

He was mostly focused on putting out the flames behind him. He steered toward a direction that looked the most mundane—without any massive trees—since those would draw treasure hunters. Thalion wanted peace for now. The action would come in the higher stages anyway.

Thalion hadn’t even looked back at the Hydra idiots. He simply left, intending never to see them again. They were all so weak. Killing them felt wrong, but he hated the greedy expressions on their faces. Their attitudes in general irritated him—so demanding, acting like he owed them everything because they were “awesome” and deserved to know.

He hoped his own people wouldn’t behave like that in the system event. It was truly time to unleash some blood zombies. In such a tutorial this would be the ideal way to test the curse, since everyone would be dead by the end of the day. He doubted Hydra would find the safe zones in their lust for blood. On the other hand, they gained a clear mind as long as they consumed enough blood. At least that was his current knowledge. He really needed to experiment later.

For now, he had to continue practicing and studying the scroll of the Crimson Rite. He wanted to master those ritual spells to lay waste to anyone who stood in his way. Those spikes looked cool as hell. He would do everything in his power to get there as fast as possible. There was a lot of work to do, but he wasn’t that far away anymore: first master control of his abilities, then learn the powerful rituals and skills from the scroll, and finally run tests with the curse.

After making enough distance from the Hydra idiots, Thalion stopped Mistform, shifted into Eagly, and launched himself like a missile into the sky.

What frustrated Thalion the most was that he still couldn’t perform the great blood ritual spells. He wanted to execute them flawlessly. Thalion also longed for perfect control over his abilities. At the moment, life seemed relatively simple, but sooner or later, he would have to face and slay a chosen in this system event. That was neither easy nor safe. His life would be on the line, and the situation would likely be far worse than the battle against Ankhet. No, he needed to hurry and make progress—fast.

Thalion landed on a massive tree near a colony of apes. They were E-grade gorillas, each over three meters tall, leaping between the branches in search of prey. None of them seemed interested in the countless fruits hanging from the trees. Thalion didn’t identify them, not wanting to alert the pack that he was nearby. Instead, he shifted back into his human form, trusting the runes on his cloak to conceal him, and concentrated entirely on his training. The distant roars didn’t distract him in the slightest.

He had roughly sixty hours before nightfall and still needed to find a safe zone. Thalion suspected that it wouldn’t take long until all the weaklings he had met so far were either gone or dead. This was no simple trial. This was the official first stage, and the beasts here already posed a serious challenge. Even with all his advantages, Thalion could tell from their aura alone that these creatures would be difficult to kill. The next stage would only be harder. And if the system ever added a rule granting points for killing other participants, then the true slaughter would begin.

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After ten hours of focused work, Thalion switched into the Tidecaller Serpent to make sure his soul body wasn’t being distorted by the crystal again. It also helped him circulate the crystal’s mana evenly through every part of his body so that all improvements progressed at the same rate. That should have happened naturally, but with such immense power behind the process, it was better to be safe. Fortunately, the gorillas had already left; without his concealment runes, they might have noticed him.

Sadly, all good cultivation is interrupted at some point and in Thalion’s case, it was by a snake. The serpent was as thick as his leg but stretched over twenty meters long. Its green scales blended perfectly with the leaves of the canopy. It tried to bite down on Thalion’s head from above, but he had sensed it long before, thanks to his blood sense and the danger alert from his title. Pretending ignorance, he spun aside at the last moment and decapitated the snake in one smooth motion. Perfect execution.

That was when Thalion discovered that, in this stage, the beasts themselves were likely the greatest treasures. From that single kill, he earned twenty leaderboard points. Speaking of points, his gaze flicked to the current rankings, and the first name he saw was definetly a suprise.

1. First Daughter of the Hive – 2680 Points

2. Prince Vorathis of the Vorakai – 2450 Points

3. Urgol, Chosen of Ghol’Var – 2380 Points

4. Ethan, Chosen of Aeta – 2340 Points

5. Zargaz, Chosen of Tenebrice – 2160 Points

Thalion had completely forgotten about the termites. He hadn’t expected them to enter the system event, but they must have gained rings from humans to participate. He should have known better—their strength during the tutorial had been formidable. And now, it seemed the First Daughter was even surpassing a few chosen.

Being at the top on the very first day might not mean much, since the rankings could shift drastically depending on the available quests. Still, hunting seemed to come naturally to the top five—far more than to anyone else. Thalion decided it would be best to avoid them altogether. They were likely the strongest combatants in this stage. Maybe he was giving the leaderboard too much credit, but if he could choose, he’d rather not cross paths with those at the top.

There was also the question of what placement would count as “good enough” for his divine class, but that was a problem for later. For now, he had to grow stronger and that fast. All the chosen were E-grade. None of them had missed the boost from the tutorial. Meanwhile, Thalion was still stuck at level 80. Not good. No, not good at all. The more he thought about it, the clearer it became. The odds were stacked against him.

Besides the First Daughter of the Hive, there were a few other names Thalion recognized. In fourth place stood the Chosen of Aeta. He didn’t know this chosen personally, but he had heard the name Aeta before. That was the god who had blessed Kael and also the creator of the item that allowed the Sanguis Impera to grow not only through blood but also through fire.

How quickly could that information have spread? Had Kael managed to reach Aeta’s chosen before the tutorial ended? Or was that even necessary? Could a god simply relay such messages directly? The chances were high that this chosen was now searching for him, likely together with every elf that had joined the event.

That was interesting in itself. So far, Thalion hadn’t seen a single elf among the top five on the leaderboard. The Prince of the Vorakai or Aeta’s chosen could be elves, but Thalion doubted it. Aeta was not of elven origin, and elves were far too arrogant to serve a non-elven god. It could still be the case, of course—but in Thalion’s mind, it was rather unlikely.

Then there was the Chosen of Tenebrice. Thalion didn’t know this chosen either, but he knew the god and in fact, he had seen that deity with his own eyes. That one, too, might come for him. After all, it was Tenebrice’s patronage from which Thalion had stolen the Sanguin thorn at the beginning of the tutorial.

Actually, when Thalion thought about it, almost every chosen in this system event had a reason to kill him, or was already hunting him. The elves wanted him dead. The vampires wanted him dead. Aeta surely wanted him dead. Even those without divine orders probably had reasons to seek his end, since Thalion doubted the termites had forgotten what had happened back on the third stage of the tutorial.