When the Mist Queen finally fell, a system prompt appeared, informing them of the rewards they had earned for defeating her.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief as the rewards scrolled across their panels. But before they could fully relax, another sound filled the chamber.
[Solaris Kingdom Announcement]
Congratulations to player Raen for being the first player to reach a city in Glory. This deed will be recorded in the Hall of Fame. Rewards include: 100 Honor Points and +2 Reputation Level in Astralis City.
The announcement echoed in the dungeon chamber. The players from Genesis froze for only a heartbeat, and then the room erupted. Excited shouts filled the air as their voices overlapped. Cheers, laughter, and celebration poured out in waves. After the tense fight against the Mist Queen, the sudden burst of joy carried an energy that shook the walls of the dungeon.
Smiles spread across everyone's faces. For them, this was more than just an announcement. This was their leader, Raen, showing the entire Solaris Kingdom what true strength meant.
Even Mei Rin, though exhausted, found herself smiling. The exhaustion in her body faded into the background as pride filled her chest. She had fought hard in this battle, but the announcement made her heart lighter.
Still, her emotions were mixed. Beneath the happiness was a thread of frustration. She had always wanted to catch up to her brother Kaito and fight side by side with him. Yet now, while he had already reached the city, she was still stuck just short of level 20. The gap between them weighed on her.
Her smile faltered for only a moment as she thought about it. But then her expression hardened with determination. This battle had shown her something important. The skill she had just used the Ravenous Shot was only an introductory skill she had obtained at the start of her Predator hidden class storyline. Yet it had been powerful enough to shatter the Mist Queen's diamond shield and strip away a quarter of the boss's health in one blow.
If a beginner skill could be that strong, then the Predator class itself must be far more powerful than she had ever imagined. The thought sent a shiver through her, but it was not fear it was anticipation. She made up her mind on the spot. No matter what, she would complete the hidden class quest and claim the Predator class as soon as possible to become stronger.
While Mei Rin was lost in her thoughts, one of the team members approached her. It was the thief who had fought alongside her against the Mist Queen. She looked at Mei Rin with excitement sparkling in her eyes.
"Sister Mei Rin," she said breathlessly, "Brother Raen is really powerful. Nobody else could have done it. He was the first to reach the city stage in all of Glory. He's beaten everyone else who was thought to be a god-level player in Glory until now."
The words pulled Mei Rin out of her thoughts. She turned to look at the speaker. The thief was none other than Nyx Blade, a player she already knew well.
Nyx Blade was the same thief who had once helped Kaito during his battle with the Everhold Dominion. Later, when Kaito had invited her to join his team, she had asked for time to discuss it with her own teammates. After some thought, they had all then decided to join Genesis.
That choice had come at just the right time. It was shortly after Kaito had led Genesis to clear the King-level difficulty of the Misty Palace Dungeon. The victory had given Genesis massive fame, even more than when they had cleared the Echoing Deep dungeon earlier.
Actually For a long time, Nyx Blade's team had operated as independents. They had done the same in other games as well, relying on themselves instead of joining larger guilds or organizations. But Glory was proving to be different from anything they had played before.
The more time they spent in the game, the more they realized that Glory could not be compared to other virtual games. They had already faced bounty missions where they had clashed against solo martial artist players. Those battles opened their eyes. The difference between ordinary players like them and martial artists who played Glory was too wide. Even a solo martial artist player could overwhelm them, something they had never experienced in other games.
The realization had been sobering. Nyx Blade's team began to see that if they stayed independent, sooner or later martial artist players would surpass them completely.
It was this understanding that pushed them to rethink their approach. They even discussed joining martial arts gyms in reality just to keep up. But that path was not easy. Joining a martial arts gym came with heavy conditions. Either one had to sign away their freedom and commit themselves as lifelong students of the gym, or they had to pay exorbitant fees. And paying fees was not enough either after joining, you still had to pay continuously for the resources required to train. The costs were endless.
Even though they wanted the benefits of martial arts training, they quickly realized it wasn't something they could just buy into.
Even during that time, several organizations and guilds from other games, as well as new ones forming in Glory, extended invitations to Nyx Blade's team and including Kaito's invitation, Genesis also became one of the options. At first, they decided to take a practical approach. Instead of jumping into one guild blindly, they contacted each group to learn what conditions were being offered if they joined.
What they learned surprised them. Even though guilds wanted new members, they didn't hand out resources like martial arts techniques or other required training materials, right away. It wasn't a simple trade. These organizations would first observe the recruits for some time, testing their abilities and loyalty. Only after proving themselves would the recruits be given the most basic martial arts resources.
In other words, simply joining a guild was not enough to get what they wanted. They would still have to prove their worth like everyone else. Even though they had been invited, which might shorten the process a little, the requirement was still there.
This made Nyx Blade and her teammates think even harder. They wanted stability, but they also wanted growth. If they stayed on their own, they would definitely fall behind the martial artists sooner or later in the game.
And the reality that Nyx Blade and her team faced was not something unique to them. It was the same reality that many other players in Glory were beginning to face as well.
Although martial arts and martial arts resources had existed long before the arrival of Glory, they had always been extremely expensive. The cost alone had been enough to keep ordinary people away. Most people were not willing to invest such large amounts of money into becoming martial artists.
On top of that, the world was currently at peace. There were no wars or monster outbreaks like in ancient times. Because of that, most ordinary people saw martial arts as something unnecessary. To them, martial arts were skills meant only for turbulent times, back when people needed to fight monsters and enemies for survival.
Now that the world was stable it had become a thing only for the rich and higher class people, so many asked themselves, what was the point of practicing martial arts and wasting so much money? And even if someone wanted to spend that money, another hurdle appeared immediately. Finding proper martial arts resources was not easy. No matter the era or the time, martial arts techniques and martial arts resources were always in high demand. They were rare, expensive, and carefully controlled.
So in the Earth Federation, the vast majority of people did not practice martial arts. At most, some tried out the free martial arts technique that the Federation distributed to all of its citizens. But that technique was extremely basic. If someone used it, the time needed to reach even Rank 1 was at least ten years. And even then, it was uncertain whether they could reach it at all.