Outside of what had once been Cairo, Egypt, there stood an A+-ranked temple: the Temple of the Sun God. The Faction there, the Order of the Nile, had extended an invite to one of the strongest men in the world to come clear it.
They'd heard he was on something of a dungeon clearing spree in preparation for a rumored super fight in two weeksโa duel between two of the world's very best.
The details hadn't been fully released yet. The contract negotiations for streaming rights and sales revenue were still underway. But just the rumor sent legions of fans all around the globe into a frothing frenzy.
Most of the fandom took place in local clubs. Fan clubs for certain fighters popped up all over the place. They'd get together and pool money for tickets, or organize big 'fighter-watching' trips to see the latest dungeon clears. Some of the most ardent fans even modeled their whole Paths and Skillsets after their favorite fighters.
They tended to go by regionโIrina Volkova and her daughter, for instance, got most of Eastern Europe's support.
Same with Japan's #1, the Sky Painter, had one of the most popular and rabid fan clubs around. Though he drew a lot of fans from all around for both his beautiful powers and his boy-band good looks.
The most popular by a good margin, though, was a certain fighter who made his home in Washington State. A fighter who still got a little baffled by all the kerfuffle when he set foot on Egyptian soil, and saw they'd had to section off the whole teleporter landing strip just for him. Outside lines of guards was a sea of fans chanting his name, running out into the horizon, waving streamers and Luminous Faction flags and 'SAVAGE SAGE!' banners.
Zane went off to the Temple, managed to skirt around the big welcome ceremony they wanted to throw for him and got to business. It was a pyramid that scraped the clouds, and it looked to be constructed entirely out of a glistening white marble.
He went in at the top.
There were a great many BOOMs and BANGs. A crowd of a few tens of thousands watched on from the same distance, gasping and pointing.
About twenty minutes later, Zane got to the bottom.
He found a Level 170 Boss called the Scarab Sun God there.
He wrecked it with a single Stormfire Punch.
Punching through several feet of enchanted gold felt about as easy as punching through paper for him. In seconds Stormfire roasted it inside out, and that was that.
Zane was quite pleased with the treasures in this place. The chest density was very high, even for an A-rank dungeon. He lost track of how many max grade essence stones he'd picked up. A bunch of Vials of Essence too, which he drank like tap waterโ
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐๐
A big knot of it was still dissolving in his belly.
He cracked open the dungeon chest and found an 'Imperial Gold Helm,' A+-rank. Pretty nice-looking thing.
He melted it down and drank it. It took a while to go down, but he managed.
Soonโ
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ โ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐
He patted his belly, satisfied. There were some Steel Law treasures here, a few more blocks of gold he happily chomped up. Lots of max-grade essence stones. A 'Purified Vial of Essence' made by some Sage of the World Tree Faction. He drank that up too. Soonโ
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐๐
***
Later that day, noted field reporter Christina Chu, who was covering the breakout of a major A-ranked dungeon up in Alaska, caught an astonishing sight.
They were covering the Ursa King Sanctuaryโa dungeon of waterfalls and caves all set in one giant sleet-riddled river. Trouts big as tugboats swam up currents strong enough to move whole islands. And they were being hunted down by the apex predator of this dungeon.
The Great Ursa Monster. These shaggy beasts were big as pickup trucks, with furious red eyes and teeth like jagged icicles. Their bite force could chew up high-grade Spirit Steel blocks. They were some of the strongest creatures on the planet by pure physical power, dominating everything they came across.
The Diamond-Antler Stags that prowled the region were physical marvels tooโbut every time they came across a Great Ursa, they were left crushed to a bloody, shredded pulp.
Field Reporter Chu was out there with her cameraman David, tracking the outskirts of the dungeon. Reporting on recent breakouts.
But today, there were no Ursa Monsters to be found.
A few Giant River trout, a few mountain Moose. But that was all.
"What's going on?" muttered reporter Chu. She was tall and beautiful and poised, with long, perfectly straight black hair. She wore camouflaged robes and an anti-detection charm.
She crossed her arms, frowning. Then she gaspedโ"Look!"
Smoke drifted from upstream.
When they investigated, they found massive craters, forty or fifty feet across, riddling the length of the icy river. Still smoking, burning with a pale blue fire so intense they didn't dare get much closerโฆ
"That fireโฆ" she gasped. "Could it beโฆ?"
She and David exchanged a glance. She turned to the camera, put on a serious faceโ"Stay tuned, folks! We could be onto something big here!"
They climbed up the banks, still following the outer edges of the dungeon. The main dungeon was deep upriver, running through terrible whirlpools and all manner of nasty underwater traps. Like currents that funneled through tunnels a thousand feet deep to deposit your bones in a lightless watery grave. It was a white-water menace that chewed up anything that dared come close. The currents would get you if the bears didn'tโthat was what all the locals knew. What everyone who tried this dungeon found out, including powerful World Rankersโฆ
"There!" cried Christina.
A half-naked man was forging right up the middle of the river.
White frothing currents surged around his waist, wrestling at his legs, trying to drag him inโbut he hardly felt it.
A horde of Great Ursas surged around him, lashing out with limbs big as tree trunksโ
The man caught a flailing claw in one huge fist. Snatched hold of the arm. And threw the creature head-over-heels, before smashing it into the riverbed with such force it exploded like a bloody water balloon. It barely had time to scream.
He turned. Greeted an Ursa's slash with his own flaming punch. The Level 140 Bear's Ice-Claw attack pinged off his bare skin, did nothing.
His fist not only wiped it out of existenceโit blacked out a burning line stretching across the river. Any water that touched it went up in Stormfire.
Zane came across the last bear. Much larger than all the rest, with white spots splattered across its face like a constellation.
It was the Ursa King. Level 166. The Final Boss.
And it was a sneaky one. Somehow it made almost no sound as it approachedโZane was still standing there, massive body heaving, muscles glistening with sweat. Looking the wrong way.
It tried catching him from behindโit bore down on him with all its body weight, right about to crush his head as it had so many World Rankers before himโ
"Look out!" cried Christina.
Then she could only watch as Zane turned. Caught its claws in his bloody fists. Looked it dead in its eyes through locks of dark hair matted to his head.
Zane shoved. His massive back muscles strained under his skin; you could see a moment of utter disbelief in the Ursa's huge eyes.
Then Zane picked the creature up, held it overhead like it weighed nothingโand crushed it into the ground. Not a Skill. Just pure raw force.
There was a cacophony of ear-splitting CRACK!s.
It was like a meteor striking the middle of the river. The reporters had to run to find cover, hiding behind a row of trees as huge waves of ice and water leapt up the bank. Only when they sloshed away did they dare look again.
The Ursa King lay splayed out against the ground, giant limbs outstretched. Its eyes were dull. Blood spilled out from the corpse.
Its body was reinforced by Elemental Steel. And a Mythic-Grade Passive Skill.
And every last bone in it had just been shattered.
A stifling aura of raw aggression spilled out from Zane Walker as he stood over its ruined corpse, fists clenched; his huge body was still heaving with effort, burning with fighting spirit. His dark eyes were lit up bright. Standing over that giant fallen Boss, it made for quite a striking sight.
He kept accidentally looking like he'd just stepped out of a movie poster.
Reporter Chu just stood there, mouth open.
Then he blinked a few times, scratched his head, and ambled off.
***
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐๐
He really got into it there. He almost thumped his own chest for a second. He enjoyed that little tussle.
He was calming down now.
He looked down helplessly at his shredded shirt. Reina had gotten him a more durable shirt this time. Another A-ranked treasure, charmed to be burn- and tear- and smash- resistant. Somehow it still ended up in ribbons. He just kept ending up shirtless in these raids.
There was also a big uptick in subscription revenues these last few days, which was also a little baffling. He didn't think he was doing anything different.
Anyway.
He broke through a big waterfall, and found what he was looking for. A dungeon chest.
Inside he found a heap of 'Flesh of the Devil Trout', an A-ranked treasure soaked in Water and Ice Law. That was lost on him. But the essence gains weren't.
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐๐
Then there was a 'Thousand Year Ginseng' and a 'Blooming Ice Lotus,' which were both A-ranked Alchemy treasures. A bunch more essence stones. A fragment of an Ice inheritance. Another solid haul.
He moved on.
***
That night he and Reina really went at it.
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐๐
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐๐
He left her deeply asleep as he went off to the next dungeon.
The Forgotten Silo was an A+-ranked dungeon deep in the deserts of Nevada, where decades ago a series of nuclear tests took place. There were still a huge collection of warheads stored near there when the Change took place. They warped and changed and took Monstrous, living formsโฆ
Luckily few people lived here. Only a select few could afford those fancy cross-country teleporters. So most who traveled across the country did so by foot. They knew to give this region a wide berth nowadays.
Strange monstrosities of steel and poison and lightning stalked these deserts.
Zane crushed them pretty easily on his way to the final floor. He didn't bother using Stormfireโa few raw punches did the job almost as fast. It was more fun when he felt them the steel crumple under his knuckles.
He made it down a deep winding tunnel to the Reactor Core, the Final Bossโa tentacled menace spewing lightning and fire. A bunch of radioactive steel limbs stuck onto a glowing churning steel tank chock-full of energy.
But it turned out one Stormfire Punch could overwhelm the force of an atomic blast. It did destroy his shirt, though. He wondered if he should just stop wearing these.
Zane collected his treatsโan A+-ranked 'Decayed Energy Crystal,' which had a lot of essence.
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐ผ๐ค๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ -> ๐๐๐ก
He also ate some radioactive waste, which was a bit of a mistake. It gave him a little essence but also mild indigestion.
Then there were some Earth-Law treasures, set of cuffs that he melted down and drankโ
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ก!
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ โ๐๐๐ ๐๐ -> ๐
A few dozen max-grade essence stones. And that was most of it.
Each Level was a good deal harder than the last. He knew he had to make up a lot of ground. But he was determined to do it.
There was a little more than a week left until fight day.