Chapter 339: The tournament starts.

Suddenly, another sharp chime rang inside Zyra’s head, stopping her right in her tracks.

[Ding! Congratulations on successfully evolving two beasts.

Reward: 300,000 Resonance Points.

Your Resonance Level has increased to 85% _ State of Deep Harmony.

Unlocking: Resonance core Department in the System Shop.

Note: Feeding your beasts with specialized Resonance cores will permanently increase their core attributes.]

Zyra stared at the screen, her eyes wide as she read through the notification. An entire new shop department! Does this mean I don’t have to go into dungeons to find resonance stones?

"System these Resonance cores, can I give to other beasts as well?"

[Yes host.]

She didn’t even hesitate. Zyra spun around, took two running steps, and leaped straight onto Hunter’s back.

"Woah!" Hunter yelled, catching her legs just in time before they both tumbled onto the floor. He let out a booming laugh, adjusting her weight on his back. "Easy there wifey! What’s got you excited this time around?"

"Something that is better than Squirrel’s quiet evolution. I was waiting for that little thing to become a giant. But nonetheless, I have great news." Zyra cheered, wrapping her arms loosely around his shoulders as he carried her down the hall. "I just unlocked a place in the shop where I can get Resonance stones...no, cores."

"Resonance cores? Like the ones in the Somnivores?"

Zyra nodded. "I think so. What i do know is that it means I can make all of our beasts stronger. Now, no one needs to be jealous about the evolution of my beasts."

She leaned her chin on his shoulder as he walked. "Hey, Hunter? I’m going to need your help later. We need to go through all those captured beasts we brought back from Grimmark. I’m planning to form bonds with as many of them as my brain can handle. Then we register and vaccinate them. They will need baths...and treatment."

Hunter laughed, navigating the corridor toward the smell of the mess hall. "Sure thing. It’s not like I’ve got a busy day anyway."

****

The tournament had officially started in the capital, and the entire city was practically bursting at the seams. Vendors were screaming at the top of their lungs selling lukewarm meat-on-a-stick, candies, buns and other easy to sell foods. Children were weaving through the dense crowds pretending to throw weapons around, and every bar within five miles of the arena was already out of alcohol.

Colorful banners fluttered from every roof, and the stench of roasted pine and chestnuts that were a favorite around this time mixed with the unmistakable smell of hundreds of thousands of sweaty, excited fans.

At the center of all this madness stood Eros Stadium. It was a huge, ancient building made of old stones, reinforced with three hundred thousand energy stones and one thousand resonance stones. From above, it looked like a giant bowl. Its many levels of seats rose so high that the people at the very top looked like tiny ants.

The stadium could hold five hundred thousand people, and today, every single seat was filled. Half a million people shouted and cheered at once, making the ground beneath the stadium shake.

The fights had started bright and early at ten in the morning and were set to grind on until six in the evening with performance breaks every three hours.

Sitting in one of the middle tiers, Leif stared down at the arena with a face so straight and unimpressed he looked like he’d just eaten a sour lemon. Around him, people were jumping, screaming, and spilling drinks all over themselves.

"Look at that kick!" an overly excited fan next to him shrieked, spraying popcorn crumbs onto Leif’s sleeve. "Did you see that?!"

Leif didn’t even blink. Fighting humans? To him, it was like watching two toddlers slap each other over a wooden toy. Besides, his mind was completely somewhere else. The bird King Beast is dead, he thought, his stomach twisting into a cold knot. How in the world is the King Beast dead?!

He had personally sent that terrifying creature into the Wild Lands to create some chaos. It was a bird beast, heavily modified with ancient Somnivore knowledge _ practically indestructible! Nothing short of a legendary elder should have been able to pluck a single feather from it, let alone kill it. Yet, the tracker signal had been lost last night. Someone had slaughtered it and he wanted to know who.

Leif clenched his fist so hard his knuckles turned white.

"I need air," he muttered, grinding his teeth as he stood up from his seat.

A delicate hand yanked firmly on his hem. Ava, sitting beside him with her mouth stuffed full of candied hawthorns, looked up with wide, worried eyes. "Hey! Where are you going? We are supposed to watch and wait."

Leif let out a low, gut-rumbling growl. "Mind your own business, Ava." He yanked his shirt free and stormed off down the crowded aisle, shoving past a man wearing a giant foam sword on his head.

Meanwhile, on the fighting platform, the crowd was getting their money’s worth. A hulking fighter from the Xenex Clan was currently going toe-to-toe with Seraphine, the candidate for the Theta Clan.

At first glance, it looked completely unfair. The Xenex guy was built like a brick outhouse, his biceps bigger than Seraphine’s entire head. Seraphine, a slender Soul Maiden in flowing white silks, looked so weak, like a gentle breeze could blow her into the third row.

"Yield, little girl!" the Xenex brute bellowed, swinging a massive iron broadsword that whistled through the air. "I’d hate to ruin that pretty face!"

"Oh dear, please go easy on me!" Seraphine gasped, clutching her chest and looking terrified. "We are all friends here. A competition should not change that."

Behind the judges’ high table, some of the judges nodded approvingly. "Ah, such modesty. Such grace from the Theta Clan."

What the judges couldn’t see_ and what her opponent learned the hard way_ was that Seraphine was a walking, talking cheat code.

As the Xenex brute lunged forward, Seraphine flicked her wrist behind her back. A microscopic needle made of compressed ice shot out from her ring, pinging off the back of the brute’s knee. His leg instantly went numb.

"What the--" The brute stumbled, his eye twitching. "You bitch, what did you just do?!"