Novel Full Chapter 606: King’s Mountain
Chapter 606: King’s Mountain
“Well, that was also easy.” Almond wryly smiled as he and others sat at the big table in the garden after returning to their residence.
“Our opponents were mostly Tier-9 and Tier-10, which means there was no one special there with powerful decks like us.” Ainen nodded. “I would like to compete with some SSS and X-rank potential people. They must have crazy decks like ours.”
“Well, we rise pretty rapidly, so even if there were such players in this layer before, they must have ascended.” Natalia grinned. “The third layer is more fun after all. We can properly establish our kingdom there, and it’s only after the third layer that people can return to where they came from.”
“This was pretty short, and we are not tired at all, so let’s start our S-rank game right away. We pick the one that has a lot of monsters.” Lily said as she began looking through the list.
…
“This looks good.”
S-Rank Game
KING’S MOUNTAIN
The description expanded slowly.
Participants: 10 Teams
Players per Team: 10
Battlefield: A single colossal mountain rising 10,000 kilometers into the sky.
Environment: Increasingly hostile biomes as altitude rises.
Resource Distribution: Tier-5 to Tier-10 resources scattered throughout.
Monster Presence: Tier-9 and Tier-10 lifeforms are abundant.
Victory Condition: The first team with at least five surviving members to reach the summit wins.
Natalia leaned back.
“That’s insane.”
Kayla studied the description carefully.
“The higher we climb, the stronger the resources.”
Saffa rubbed her hands together.
“And the stronger the monsters.”
Ainen grinned.
“And the stronger the cooking ingredients.”
“It’s interesting. Almond only need deaths of monsters to acquire Oblivion Spirits, and one part of a monster to create a Grimblade. I can make do with whole bodies, but I just need their cores to acquire their effects and blueprint to create Dreadlings.” Lily chuckled. “And you can burn the monsters’s others parts to acquire new flames or cook food using their meat.”
“Many birds with one stone.” Kayla chuckled. “You three X-rank monsters have a similar mechanism of infinite growth.”
“Heh, but we still gotta catch up to their power.” Natalia grinned. “Our decks also have infinite growth mechanisms.”
“Indeed.” Saffa nodded. “Now then, let’s have a blast with this game and get stronger.”
Light swallowed the courtyard once again.
When the world returned, the scale was overwhelming.
Before them rose a mountain so vast it bent the horizon.
Its base alone stretched wider than entire cities.
The lower slopes were covered in colossal forests and cliffs that climbed into clouds far above. Higher still, distant ridges glowed with strange colors where the air itself seemed thinner and more violent.
And the summit…
It pierced the sky.
Ten thousand kilometers upward.
Around the base of the mountain stood ten starting platforms.
One for each team.
Dozens of players appeared across the area.
Beastfolk warbands.
Armored alien squads.
Humanoid warriors surrounded by floating weapons.
One group looked like living crystal statues.
Another team rode enormous flying serpents.
The system voice echoed through the valley.
S-RANK GAME
KING’S MOUNTAIN
BEGIN IN 60 SECONDS
A shimmering barrier surrounding the base began dissolving slowly.
Beyond it, the forest was already moving.
Massive shapes prowled through the trees.
Tier-9 monsters.
And stronger.
Natalia looked upward.
“Well.”
“That’s a mountain.”
Kayla crouched slightly and touched the soil.
Roots slipped beneath the ground instantly.
“Life everywhere.”
Saffa cracked her neck.
“Monsters everywhere, too.”
Almond studied the slope calmly.
“We climb fast.”
He looked at the group.
“Collect resources when possible. Do not slow down too much.”
Lily nodded.
“Tier-10 resources appear above the mid levels.”
Ainen rolled his shoulders.
“And Tier-10 monsters.”
Gopu roared excitedly.
Velkris stepped forward silently, prismatic distortions already flickering faintly around him.
Alfred stood beside Almond like a silent executioner.
Above them, the countdown began.
10
9
8
Across the valley, other teams prepared as well.
Weapons ignited.
Magic fields formed.
Flying mounts unfurled wings.
3
2
1
The barrier vanished.
The forest exploded into chaos instantly.
Every team surged forward into the colossal jungle at the mountain’s base.
Trees towered hundreds of meters high. Their roots were thicker than castle walls. Strange glowing fruits hung from branches that pulsed with energy.
The first monster appeared within seconds.
A gigantic horned beast burst from the trees.
Tier-9.
Its body looked like a cross between a rhinoceros and a dragon, its scales glowing crimson.
It charged directly toward them.
Almond moved first.
His Exalted Grimblade appeared.
One slash.
Voidfracture lines split the creature in half before it even finished roaring.
Ainen’s butcher knife appeared next, as he used a card and perfectly skinned the monster with all of its body parts neatly separated in a second.
Lily took the core, and he stored the rest of the things.
The team surged deeper into the forest.
The frozen canyon roared with wind.
Snow blasted sideways across the cliffs, turning the air into a swirling white haze that scraped against armor and skin like powdered glass. The temperature had dropped sharply after the 3000-kilometer mark. Every breath now carried frost.
But the cold was the least dangerous thing on the mountain.
Movement erupted across the ridges.
Dozens of shapes burst from the snowfields at once.
Tier-9 frost beasts.
Twenty.
Thirty.
More poured out from ice caverns carved into the cliffs.
Massive wolf-like predators with crystalline fur and glowing blue eyes leaped across the ridges in coordinated packs. Their claws cut grooves into the frozen stone as they charged.
Behind them, the ice cracked open again and revealed a path.
The group entered and found themselves in a hidden, lush cavern filled with tens of resources from Tier-5 to Tier-7.
Everyone began collecting fast without speaking. Time was of the essence as this was a race.
The tricky thing was that this was a race, but everyone also wanted resources. The winner, however, would take 100% of the collected resources while the loser would keep only 50%.
But there were always some teams that focused heavily on collecting resources, such that even 50% would be more than enough.
As the group exited, they were welcomed by howls.
Massive wolf-like predators with crystalline fur and glowing blue eyes leaped across the ridges in coordinated packs. Their claws cut grooves into the frozen stone as they charged.
Three colossal shapes emerged not too far on the other side.
Tier-10 glacial giants.
Each one was as tall as a small skyscraper, bodies made of layered ice armor that reflected the storm light like mirrors.
Natalia whistled.
“Now this looks like a welcoming committee.”
The wolves lunged.
Almond moved first.
The Exalted Grimblade flashed once.
Voidfracture lines ripped across the snowfield like invisible lightning. The front row of wolves split apart mid-leap, their bodies scattering across the slope as the fractures continued through the pack behind them.
But that barely slowed the tide.
More beasts rushed in from the sides.
Kayla stepped forward.
Roots burst from the frozen ground despite the ice, thick green tendrils forcing their way through the permafrost like living spears. Entire sections of the battlefield suddenly erupted with twisting vines that grabbed wolves mid-charge and slammed them into the cliffs.
Dozens died instantly.
More replaced them.
Saffa laughed.
“Alright!”
A storm of chaotic ice constructs exploded from her hands. Jagged purple shards spun through the air like artillery shells, smashing into packs of beasts and detonating into freezing shockwaves.
Above them, Natalia’s orchestra ignited the sky.
Violins shrieked.
Drums thundered.
Golden sound waves rippled outward across the ridge, flattening entire swarms of monsters and blasting the rest off the cliffs.
But the giants had arrived.
One of the Tier-10 glacial titans swung a massive arm.
The entire ridge cracked.
A slab of mountain the size of a stadium broke loose and slid toward them.
Alfred stepped forward calmly.
Spectral chains erupted from the air and wrapped around the falling mass. With a sharp motion of his hand, he redirected the entire avalanche sideways.
The slab crashed into a charging monster pack instead.
Velkris blurred through space distortions beside him.
Prismatic shards flickered in the air.
The second giant froze mid-step as spatial fractures locked its limbs in place.
Then Galvaren descended.
Eight storm wings unfolded behind him.
Lightning erupted.
His spear pierced straight through the giant’s chest and detonated with thunder that shook the entire canyon.
The creature collapsed.
And still the monsters kept coming.
More wolves climbed the slopes.
Ice serpents burst from the frozen ground.
A flock of razor-winged frost birds dove from the sky.
Easily, forty monsters now filled the battlefield.
Lily smiled faintly.
“Perfect.”
Her Dreadlings surged forward like a living army.
Winged predators collided with the frost birds mid-air.
Serpentine horrors wrapped around ice beasts and dragged them screaming into the snow.
Shadow creatures slipped beneath the surface and erupted beneath enemies like ambush mines.
Within seconds, the battlefield had turned into a storm of claws, soundwaves, lightning, vines, and magic.
They kept climbing while fighting and collecting resources.
Stopping meant getting buried under monsters because the more they climbed, the higher the number of monsters.
Almond moved at the front like a blade cutting through the mountain itself.
Every few steps, the Grimblade flashed.
Every flash carved a path through another wave of enemies.
Behind him, the rest of the team followed, maintaining the momentum of the climb.
Hours passed.
The altitude counter continued rising.
4000 km.
4500 km.
5000 km.
The environment changed again.
The frozen canyon ended abruptly and gave way to a region of jagged floating rock terraces. Gravity behaved strangely here. Entire stone platforms drifted slowly away from the mountain, forcing climbers to leap between them while battling monsters.
Tier-9 storm manticores swarmed the airspace.
At least thirty of them circled overhead, tails glowing with lightning venom.
The moment the group stepped onto the first floating platform, the manticores attacked.
The sky exploded with movement.
Galvaren shot upward like a living thunderbolt.
His spear became a streak of lightning as he cut through the first wave of manticores, leaving burning trails across the clouds.
Velkris followed.
Space itself fractured.
Several manticores suddenly appeared dozens of meters away from where they had been flying, disoriented as spatial distortions threw their formations apart.
Natalia raised her baton.
The orchestra condensed into a focused formation around her.
A harmonic cannon formed in the air.
She fired.
The sound blast ripped through an entire cluster of manticores and scattered them across the sky like shattered glass.
Meanwhile, the ground monsters had arrived.
Stone-armored gorillas climbed the terraces in groups of twenty or more. Their fists smashed through rock as they charged.
Kayla’s root network surged through the floating platforms again.
Even here, life answered her.
Roots wrapped around the stone giants’ legs and dragged them off the edges of the drifting platforms, sending them tumbling thousands of meters into the clouds below.
They climbed without slowing.
Other teams appeared occasionally in the distance.
One group of crystal beings fought desperately against a swarm of serpentine dragons.
Another team used flying mounts to bypass sections of the terrain entirely, not wanting to waste time here.
But even those teams struggled as the monsters still swarmed them.
The mountain never stopped attacking.
Almond and others cut through the area with ease while curiously observing others.
“So far, only Tier-9 and Tier-10 people. No one impressive.” Almond muttered. Looking at his Spiritual Weaving Room, there were a lot of Oblivion Spirits and Grimblades already created.
’More. I still need more to create the second Exalted Grimblade. Good thing that the number of monsters is increasing as we climb higher.’