The tension in the air was almost delicious as Creed stood in the glowing corridor of the Pyramid of Dominion, eyes locked onto the golden announcent screen that shimred before him.
The letters still floated ominously, pulsating slightly, like they were alive and breathing.
Beside him, Lilith and Tierra peered over his shoulder, their faces a mix of curiosity and bubbling anticipation.
But for Creed, this wasn’t just another trial. This was war. The war of strategy, of speed, and of seizing power before anyone else even realized it was up for grabs.
His expression turned sharp, focused, the wheels in his mind spinning faster than a caffeine-addicted hamster on a treadmill.
He took a deep breath and turned to face the girls, his tone calm but firm.
"Alright, I need you two to listen carefully. This entire pyramid is more than just a trial—it’s a strategic battleground."
He smirked. "The system said sothing very specific; whoever manages to sit on the throne for the required tir gets guaranteed admission into the elite class.
"But that’s not all. The first person to et the requirents before anyone else, gets extra rewards. And knowing how powerful this academy usually is, those extra rewards are definitely worth fighting for."
Lilith’s eyes narrowed, catching on. "So basically... we’re not just running a race. We’re trying to lap the competition before they even know they’re in a race."
"Exactly," Creed nodded. "Which ans I need to be faster, smarter, and hit harder than everyone else. And that’s where you two co in."
He paused and looked around the corridor, scanning the black and red walls that seed to shift ever so slightly, like the place was watching them back.
The air slled like a mixture of old parchnt and sharp ozone, as if lightning had just struck a library.
He activated the ntal link they shared and sent a sharp pulse of thought.
"Lilith, Tierra—fan out. Scan the entire vicinity. Check the corners, the walls, the ceiling, everything.
"If you see anything unusual like runes, doors, strange patterns, energy signatures, you let know through the link. Don’t engage unless it attacks first. We’re not here to win fights. We’re here to win control."
"Roger!" Tierra said cheerfully, vanishing into a streak of grey and space.
"Got it," Lilith added, flipping her scythe onto her back and sprinting off down the opposite hall with her usual smooth, predatory grace.
Creed stood there for a mont, his hand thoughtfully stroking his chin.
So candidates entering the pyramid probably assud they had to fight their way through the floors and hope to survive until the end.
But Creed saw through the illusion. The real ga wasn’t just about reaching the top floor, it was about territory, influence, and domination.
A lot of planning and strategy had to be done before even reaching the top!
That’s why this was called the Pyramid of Dominion!
Every floor had an Arena Lord; an artificial intelligence programd to mimic the strategic mind of a master commander.
These AIs weren’t simple bosses.
They commanded entire forces of guardian units, created traps, and could manipulate the terrain to make battles as unfair and chaotic as possible.
Defeating one wasn’t just about throwing power at it, it ant cracking its strategy and taking over its territory.
’If I can take down the Arena Lord of this floor quickly,’ Creed thought, eyes gleaming, ’I can seize the floor control key before any other person takes it!’
’That key can be used to take control over any floor. But the unspoken and most important use is to use it to take control of the Final Floor!’
’This would be useful to block the bombardnt of the other 11 contenders on the floor. Based on this speculation, there would most likely not be an Arena lord on the final floor.’
’Once I have it, I can rewrite the floor’s terrain. Turn it into a death maze for everyone else till the duration of the tir elapses!’
’I could basically beco the floor’s ruler before the other contenders even figure out what to do!’
But of course, that was only possible if he was the first to arrive. That was still uncertain.
Although it was very likely given how the worm labyrinth was ant to weed people out, there was always a chance so other top genius or geniuses had found a hidden shortcut or awakened so other chanism to skip the trial altogether.
After all, no one truly knew how many ways there were to get into the pyramid.
He couldn’t rule that out.
Still, Creed had two powerful advantages that no other candidate had. First; his summons. Lilith and Tierra weren’t just extra hands in battle.
They were intelligent, powerful, independent units that could move freely, scout, gather information, create distractions, or execute multi-layered tactics.
And second—his power. His strength: he had three paths and a domain. There were very few tier 1 geniuses that could compare with him at the mont.
With enough strength, even bad luck could beco an opportunity!
His train of thought was interrupted by a sudden pulse in his mind.
"Creed," Tierra’s voice ca through the link, breathless but sharp. "I found sothing weird."
Creed instantly froze. "What kind of weird?"
"I... I’m not sure. It’s like a wall that’s not a wall. I can see it, but it doesn’t reflect light right. It looks like it’s flickering slightly, almost like... like a hologram or an illusion. I can’t classify it yet."
That was all he needed to hear. "Stay where you are. I’m on my way."
Without another word, he darted into motion, his boots slamming rhythmically against the ground as he sprinted down the corridor according to Tierra’s guidance.
His surroundings blurred into a red-and-black kaleidoscope as he activated his aura enhancent, his shirt flapping behind him like a cape in a superhero movie.
An illusory wall? In a trial like this, that could an anything; a hidden control center, a bonus chamber, even a secret passage to the Arena Lord’s lair.
Whatever it was, Creed wasn’t about to let anyone else claim it before him.
Within just a minute, he was already at Tierra’s location—yeah, that’s how fast he could move when he was serious.
The red labyrinth still stretched out endlessly in every direction, the walls glowing faintly with that sa eerie crimson hue, as if the whole place had been dipped in molten lava and frozen mid-bubble.
But sothing was different here. Right in front of him and Tierra was a bizarre sight.
It was a shimring wall that flickered in and out of existence like it was made of smoke and moonlight.
It looked like soone had tried to paint over reality with Photoshop and then forgot to press "save." The illusion looked like it could vanish if soone sneezed hard enough.
Creed raised a brow, stepped closer, and sure enough, a soft ping echoed from the red and black badge stuck to his chest like so weird futuristic na tag.
A glowing notification popped up right in front of his face:
[This is a Gate to the Next Floor. Requirents: 50 Dominion Points. Current Balance: 0 Dominion Points.]
Creed blinked. Then, rather than frown or curse the heavens for giving him a balance that would make even a broke potato laugh, his lips curled into a smirk.
"Nice. That’s half the work done," he muttered, earning a puzzled look from Tierra.
But for him, this wasn’t bad news; it was progress.
He had already found the door to the next floor, and that ant he could now focus purely on hunting for points without the stress of roaming around in a maze hoping to stumble upon the exit.
With a flick of his wrist, he whipped out the crude map he’d been drawing on a folded piece of paper.
He marked the shimring wall’s location with a quick scribble, circled it twice, then tapped the pen against his chin.
’Lilith, found anything yet?’ Creed asked through the ntal link.
’Nope,’ she replied flatly. ’Just more red walls and corridors. If I see another one of these twisty dead ends, I’m gonna punch the architecture.’
Creed chuckled and glanced over at Tierra. "Alright, ti to split. You go west, I’ll head north. Don’t engage anything too ridiculous alone—just mark and report, got it?"
Tierra nodded with a confident grin, then vanished into the corridor with a burst of space.
Creed sighed and turned to his own path, but not before thinking to himself that this wasn’t just about exploration.
It was strategy. His luck, frankly, was trash. A disaster.
anwhile, Lilith once sneezed near a bush and found a freaking pure crystal inside it!
So splitting up was about maximizing search power, but it was also him shalessly piggybacking off his girls’ superior luck.
But just as he finished that cheeky thought, the entire hallway trembled, and from a hundred feet ahead, a thunderous roar shattered the silence like a sledgehamr through glass.
Roar!
Creed’s eyes widened slightly. A flaming lion, no less than three ters tall, stomped into view, its mane a seething inferno of molten fire and crackling sparks.
Its eyes were molten gold, and smoke puffed from its nostrils like steam vents about to explode. It saw Creed, and leapt forward without warning.
Boom!
"Bold," Creed muttered dryly. "But also dumb."
He activated his Path of Freedom, and in a blink—literally—he vanished and reappeared directly in front of the lion’s face.
Swoosh!
The beast’s molten eyes widened comically, like it hadn’t signed up for instant teleporting spear-wielders.
It tried to leap backward in a panic, but Creed was already there, his spear out and gleaming. There was no place to run to with him around!
The lion roared and unleashed its ultimate move.
Boom!
A scorching sea of fire erupted around it, turning the air into a furnace and lting even the stone floor beneath their feet into bubbling lava.
Steel would’ve turned to ash. Ordinary humans would’ve beco barbecue in an instant!
Creed, however, simply exhaled and activated his Path of the Mountain.
Ooom!
His body pulsed with a heavy aura of stillness, a majestic illusion of a towering mountain forming behind him. The flas licked at him, but his aura didn’t waver.
He was unburnable. Unshakable. Unbothered.
With a subtle twitch of his hand, his spear humd violently, a red aura coating its length like a snake coiling around prey.
Then—boom!—he thrust!
The weapon shot forward faster than blinking, slicing the air with a sonic crack before piercing clean through the lion’s heart.
The flas died instantly. The lion froze mid-roar, eyes bulging in confusion, and then crumbled into red and black ash with an anticlimactic poof.
Inside the ashes lay a single red-and-black coin. Creed picked it up with a curious hum, and instantly, his badge let out a happy ping.
[3 Dominion Points acquired.]
Creed smiled faintly. "Only 47 more to go. At this rate, I’ll be kicking back on the next floor in no ti."
But just as he was about to head off, Lilith’s panicked voice echoed through the ntal link. ’I FOUND IT! I SEE IT!’
Creed blinked. ’See what?’
’The FLA OF RIT!’
Creed froze. Ti itself seed to pause. The Fla of rit was the symbol of luck and fortune in the Pyramid. Securing it ant bonuses. Advantages. Maybe even a shortcut to the throne!
His heart skipped a beat, but before he could speak, his badge let out another ping. Another notification appeared.
And this one was just as shocking!
[Candidate Alan Snow has defeated the Arena Lord and beco the new Arena Lord!]
"...Are you joking?" Creed muttered, eyebrows twitching.
Alan Snow. That na again. The guy who instantly qualified in the first trial by soloing a Treeman Chieftain, and now he’d already seized the throne on this floor?
Creed’s brain kicked into overdrive, calculations firing faster than machine gun bullets.
That ant Alan could now summon guardians. Create obstacles. Control the field. If Creed didn’t move now, he’d be trapped playing catch-up forever!
’Lilith, follow the fla! Don’t lose sight of it!’ Creed shouted ntally while spinning on his heel and dashing full-speed toward her location.
’I’m trying!’ she shouted back. ’But—I’m surrounded! Knights! Wearing red and black leather armor! They’re everywhere!’
Creed’s face darkened instantly. ’Alan...’
Suddenly, a thick wall slamd down in front of him, blocking his path. He skidded to a halt, only to hear a loud stomp from behind. Slowly, he turned.
A ten-ter tall knight clad in obsidian and crimson armor stood there, muscles bulging unnaturally, and its glowing armpits—yes, armpits—flared like molten furnaces.
It held a massive long sword, its blade etched with burning runes, and it charged without a single word.
Creed’s spear spun into his hands like an extension of his own will.
"Alan, you really want to play it like this?" he muttered, cracking his neck. "Fine. Let’s dance."
Then, with no hesitation, he lunged forward, spear first, ready to carve through anything in his way.
Boom!
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