Chapter 55: First Kill, Legendary Tier

A chill ran through the room at how casually Sterling had just talked about murder.

This early into the merge, most ordinary players still hadn’t fully processed what any of it meant yet.

Hearing a man in an immaculate suit discuss killing someone like he was reviewing a quarterly budget landed with a weight none of them were prepared for.

One of the assembled players finally spoke, careful, testing the air. "Kael Mercer’s good. Genuinely good. Killing him won’t be the easy part of this plan."

Sterling only huffed, entirely unmoved. "Good doesn’t matter without backing. Without a club behind him, he’s just talent with no resources a casual player, same as anyone else out there."

"Extracting gear into the real world isn’t cheap. You all know exactly how much gold the club spent getting your own equipment pulled through."

He let that land for a second. "You think a solo player affords that kind of expense on his own dime? Unless"

He paused, gaze sweeping the room with something close to amusement.

"unless he’s actually Unrivaled."

A beat of silence. Then, almost in unison: "No. Absolutely not."

"Kael’s the best melee talent this server’s ever produced. Why would he throw that away on a Beastlord build?"

"Besides, the way Unrivaled plays doesn’t line up with Kael at all. Different rhythm, different instincts. No chance they’re the same person."

The room settled on that conclusion fast, heads shaking in easy agreement.

Sterling let it go without pushing further.

"Fine. Either way I want him."

"Play along, come back to the club willingly, and this ends easy for everyone. Don’t, and there won’t be anywhere left for him to hide."

His smile didn’t reach his eyes.

None of that reached Kael. He was still buried in the Hollow Vein, three companions carving through everything the mine could throw at them.

Half an hour of sustained fighting finally cleared the last Bloodfang Bat out of the chamber thousands of them, reduced to nothing but a carpet of loot and a satisfying wave of shared experience for both Kael and every companion at his side.

The cavern floor sat buried under gear and coin thick enough that scooping it all into his inventory took several solid minutes on its own.

One word summed it up.

Beautiful. The Hollow Vein’s real value wasn’t any single chamber it was the network connecting them, cave after cave.

Branching off the same central shaft, each one packed with its own colony of monsters sitting there like a sealed vault waiting on the right person to crack it open.

Kael led his three companions through the connecting tunnel without wasted motion, and a few minutes later, a second massive chamber opened ahead — different tenants this time.

[CRYPTFANG ANT] (Elite) Level 32

Calf-sized, armored in glossy black chitin, moving with the kind of raw strength that came standard on anything built like a small tank.

The colony surged forward the moment it caught his scent, a dark, rolling tide pouring out from a dozen burrow mouths at once.

Kael didn’t bother changing the formula. Spectral Aspect split Void Leviathan into two, both forms planting themselves across the chamber entrance as a living wall.

Wraithlord’s spear rose next, and eight Bonecaster Mages clawed their way up out of the stone behind him, staves already crackling with necrotic fire.

Ghostfire rolled out across the entrance in a wide, eerie green sheet, and the front ranks of the ant colony caught it full force carapaces blistering, health bars collapsing under the sustained burn.

Thunder Roc had no patience for staying grounded this time, climbing instead, weaving low passes through the chamber’s open air and hammering lightning down into anything still standing.

Chitin shattered under every strike, ants folding one after another into piles of scattered loot and drifting light.

Kael stood at the center of it, directing without needing to shout an entire ecosystem of monsters being dismantled by a party of one, in a zone most players wouldn’t touch in a group of ten.

This is what everyone else calls a nightmare zone, and it’s basically a shooting gallery.

Elsewhere on the server, players were still forming full parties just to scratch a level-25 trash mob off their list. Kael was clearing level-32 elite colonies solo, back to back, without breaking a sweat.

If this footage ever got out, the forums would never recover.

He lost track of time entirely, caught up in the rhythm of it kill, loot, advance, repeat until the clock quietly slipped past nine in the evening without him noticing.Then the sky split with two chimes at once.

"Server-Wide Announcement: Congratulations to player Unrivaled for defeating the Legendary-tier boss, Voidweaver the first Legendary-tier kill server-wide.

Rewards: Reputation +1000, Luck +4, Gold +10,000, and the Beastsoul Relic (Legendary)."

"Server-Wide Announcement: Congratulations to player Unrivaled for reaching level 30 and completing Third Class Advancement the first player server-wide to do so.

Rewards:

Reputation +1000, Luck +4, Gold +10,000, and the skill Phase Shift (SS)."

The server detonated.

Longtime followers of his climb had mostly gone numb to it by now another day, another impossible record.

Newer players hearing a server-wide announcement chime for the first time in their lives had no such immunity, and two landing back to back, ringing out like some kind of celestial fanfare, sent the forums into total chaos.

"Okay, WHO is Unrivaled?"

"Ten players hit second advancement by noon today. How is this guy already on his THIRD?"

"You don’t know who Unrivaled is? Where have you been man’s sitting at the top of the Ascendant Rankings, untouchable."

"Every major first-kill reward since launch has had his name on it.

Every single one."

"Wasn’t there a whole Ironclad Esports crew that tried to jump him? A dozen-plus geared players, and he wiped the floor with all of them solo."

"Even accounting for talent, there’s GOT to be a ceiling somewhere, right?"

"Game’s barely three days old and Legendary-tier is already cleared. What’s left for the rest of us to even chase?"

"Somebody’s out here throwing real cash around guy’s calling himself Marcus Wellington, says he runs Wellington Hospitality.

Offering a hundred million a day for Unrivaled to personally power-level him."

"Wait, THE Marcus Wellington? Dude’s on every rich list that exists."

"A hundred million a day for a carry run? That’s insane even by billionaire standards."

"Cash won’t matter for much longer anyway.

In-game gold’s about to be the only currency anyone actually cares about."

"Gotta respect the confidence in that gamertag, though.

Naming yourself Unrivaled before you’ve proven anything takes nerve. Naming yourself that AFTER? Yeah. Checks out."

"Some guy just proposed marriage in world chat. Said he wants to have Unrivaled’s kids. Forums are UNWELL tonight."

None of it reached Kael. He wasn’t paying the noise any mind at all every ounce of his attention locked on the notification panel hovering in front of him, lines of text scrolling past one after another.

"Level 30 reached. Class Advancement complete: Beastlord Sovereign."

"Attribute growth increased: Free points per level, 40 → 80."

"Companion capacity increased: 4 → 5."

"Class skill unlocked: Stormlash."

"Primordial Bloodline integration continuing current progress: 21%..."

"Primordial Bloodline integration continuing current progress: 22%..."

Kael’s eyes lingered on the companion capacity line the longest.

Five slots now. One more than I’m currently using.

He glanced between two options already forming in his head one small, fast, and easy to overlook; the other massive, dangerous, and worth every bit of the risk it carried.

Bigger, or smaller?