Chapter 133 – The Rigidity of Stone.

Dawn in the inner courtyard of the Lower Cauldrons Estate began two hours before sunrise.

Diana stood barefoot on the fine gravel, stripped of her leather coat and Dragon Chestplate, wearing only linen trousers and a loose black shirt. She held the black steel dagger in her right hand, blade aimed forward without channeling mana into her body's circuits.

She tried to recreate Kaelis's movement.

Diana took half a step to the left, trying to loosen the musculature of her torso and let her body weight flow with the wind, without anticipating the incoming strike's vector.

The result was an awkward stumble on the gravel.

Her Archdemon legs locked on instinct, her fingers clamped the dagger's hilt with excessive force, and her brain immediately started calculating wind velocity, heel inclination, and pebble friction all in that very second.

She tried again.

She took another sidestep, trying to think of nothing. But the millisecond she moved her foot, her 213 Intelligence mind was already tracing three imaginary defensive lines and gauging the distance to the wall with millimeter precision.

It was not working.

Diana's soul had been forged in absolute control, rigorous accounting, and the imposition of her will upon the world. Attempting to act with the empty calm of one who offered no resistance to the wind felt like an impossible biological contradiction to her very nature.

Zarek sat on the roof parapet, eating a crystal apple and watching the Commander for nearly an hour. The swordsman let out a low chuckle, chewing the fruit:

“You're trying to relax with the face of someone about to bite through stone, Diana. Give it up. You aren't a temple monk and you weren't born to be a ghost. You're a machine designed to calculate and incinerate things.”

Diana stopped in the middle of the courtyard, drew a deep breath, and slid the dagger into its sheath with a crisp snap.

“I don't like failing to understand how a technique works,” she said, picking up the towel from the wooden bench to wipe the sweat from her neck.

“You understand the logic behind the technique,” Zarek said, hopping down from the roof with an easy leap. “But your body wasn't built to yield softly. Your Greed wants to hold onto everything it touches. Trying to fight like Kaelis is fighting your own essence.”

Diana took a sip of water from her waterskin in silence.

She knew he was right. Kaelis had spent centuries refining a style of void that Diana would never master in three weeks of backyard sparring. Insisting on it now meant losing focus on her real objective.

***

At seven in the morning, Diana gathered the five squad members around the dining room table.

Rhea, Kael, Aurelia-Elysia, and Seraphina sat with their teacups, while Zarek leaned against the kitchen doorway, hands behind his neck.

Diana unrolled the city's official calendar across the wood.

“The next official tournament at the Red Cauldron Arena will only open registrations twenty days from now,” Diana explained in a direct tone. “And the rules of Beelzebub's arena carry a fixed restriction: gladiator matches are fought in pairs at most.”

Kael looked up. “Only pairs?”

“Yes.” Diana surveyed the six around the table with a small, sharp smile:

“We are six elite combatants now. When the tournament opens next month, we aren't putting just one team into the arena. We are registering three complete pairs into the Conquerors' Bracket:”

She outlined the rosters:

1. First Pair: Diana and Zarek (Heavy magic artillery and kinetic vanguard).
2. Second Pair: Rhea and Kael (118 Agility assassin and 1,020 HP tank with damage reflection).
3. Third Pair: Aurelia-Elysia and Seraphina (1,000 MP priestess with quick barriers and Level 42 summoner with three imperial beasts).

Aurelia-Elysia clapped her hands with an excited smile, while Seraphina adjusted her glasses, eyes gleaming. Kael let out a broad laugh, slapping his gauntlet against the arm of his chair.

With three formidable pairs entered into the same bracket, the mathematical probability of the Arcane Greed Faction securing the Official Border Pass in the next tournament bordered on absolute certainty.

“Until then,” Diana continued, her voice turning grave, “we aren't sitting idle waiting twenty days to tick away in the city. We are heading into the high-level dungeons of the west sector.”

***

Diana pulled over the map of the outlying regions and marked the target of their new expedition with the tip of her black nail:

The Pit of Ancestral Embers (Level 48-50).

It was a five-floor deep dungeon carved into an inactive volcanic rift, teeming with black stone constructs, magma drakes, and floor bosses guarding Level 50 cores.

Before setting out, Diana went to the local hunting guild hall and paid the deep-expedition permit fee for six members, while also purchasing an additional batch of mineral solvents and runic whetstones for the squad's gear, spending seven silver coins.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

[DUNGEON LICENSE AND MATERIAL EXPENSES]

- Embers Pit Permit (6 Members) + Repair Reagents: -7 Silver Coins (700 Bronze).

[NEW VAULT BALANCE: 490 SILVER COINS (49,000 Bronze / EXACTLY 49 PURE GOLD COINS!)]

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Four hundred and ninety silver coins kept safely in the faction vault. Exactly Forty-Nine pure Gold Coins.

***

At nine in the morning, the band of six warriors departed the Lower Cauldrons Estate.

Diana led the march, her black leather coat flowing and the Crown of Arcane Sovereignty gleaming between her horns.

Kael marched with the Volcanic Shield held firm on his shoulders alongside his 1,020 hit points. Aurelia-Elysia gripped her staff backed by 1,000 mana points. Rhea moved flush against Diana's shoulder with 118 Agility, Seraphina carried her Level 42 grimoire, and Zarek brought up the rear with his twin lunar swords.

Hunters and cauldron merchants cleared the way along the packed-dirt streets upon seeing the formation advance.

Diana did not look back.

The frustration of morning training was buried in the courtyard gravel.

The Commander knew exactly what she was: a mage of destruction and a leader who ruled through power and the accumulation of resources.

And the Arcane Greed Faction's march toward Level 50 drove forward in full force, straight into the depths of the Pit of Embers.