MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

"Huh. Guess it's my turn to go first."

Hearing his nickname be called, Valyr looked at Ataraxia with a teasing grin on his face.

"As if it matters." The latter rolled his eyes at the young man in response. "With how much information everyone has obtained on the beasts so far, whether I go first or last doesn't really matter that much."

"True…" Valyr nodded in agreement, only to grin once more. "But I still find it amusing how I'm going first this round."

At that point, Ataraxia could only let out a low sigh. "Well, best of luck either way. I hope your batch doesn't get to fight one of the worse beasts."

"I hope so as well." Giving the young man one last nod, the two eventually went their separate ways, with Valyr heading up to the surface along the other participants that were called.

On the other hand, Ataraxia remained where he was seated, shifting his attention towards the magic screen as he took a bite out of the light meal he ordered.

"…Decent luck." Looking at the other participants that made up the batch Valyr was in, the young man faintly nodded in satisfaction, seeing that a decent number within the batch were Rank 5 class holders.

"How about the others…"

Confident that Valyr's batch would have no problems fighting the beast they're assigned to, Ataraxia proceeded to sweep his gaze over the four other batches that would be fighting their own beasts at the same time as his other identity.

"…Oh?" Eventually, his gaze stopped on a certain someone wielding a spear, only to then smile as he took note of the body language that person showed.

"If she passes through the second round, then the third round might just get a bit more interesting," muttered the young man to himself before letting out a slight chuckle.

After checking to see what kind of beasts the other batches would face during their attempt at the second round, Ataraxia eventually rested his head on the battle, which allowed Valyr to make use of all of his attention in the upcoming beast.

…

"This is the 258th batch, right?"

Slowly making his way through the various batches of participants that had been called, Valyr eventually found the batch of people he was looking for.

However, not wanting to mess up his attempt on the second round before it even began, the young man went ahead and asked one of the batch's members just to make sure.

"Ah, yes, this is the 258th batch," replied the man he asked, only to then do a double take as the man's eyes widened in disbelief. "You're… you're Ylvar, right?"

"That I am." Valyr nodded, faintly smiling as he noticed how everyone else in his batch immediately looked at him the moment his name was mentioned.

Unsurprisingly, once he confirmed to the others that he would be in their batch, a great portion of them immediately let out a wide sigh of relief, certain that they would make up for their lackluster performance with progress in fighting the beast.

Of course, there were also those who looked at Valyr with the flames of competition kindling within them, curious as to whether they were stronger or the young man before them was stronger.

"Ylvar, right?" While he was in the midst of familiarizing himself with the other members of the batch, a tall yet stocky man appeared in front of him, asking him a question with a slightly ferocious grin.

"That's me." Valyr nodded, looking at the man with a slightly raised eyebrow. "And you are?"

"You can call me Machaga," the man replied, his tone brimming with self-confidence. "You think we can fight the beast up to the fifth stage?"

"I'm pretty sure we can," replied Valyr with a nod after sweeping his gaze over the other members of the batch. "Aside from you, a decent number of people here are also at Rank 5."

"Although our strengths would be locked to the start of Rank 3, it's not as if our comprehensions would be locked as well."

"You're… not wrong," said Machaga after a while, feeling slightly taken aback by Valyr's indifference.

"…Huh. I thought you'd respond that you could take on the beast on your own. I guess the rumors weren't true, then."

"Rumors…?" asked the young man, only to then shake his head as he quickly understood what was going on. "In any case, can you tell me what you excel at? I need the information to come up with a plan that would make the fight easier."

"…Ah." Though he was briefly left at a loss for words at how Valyr easily brushed the previous topic aside, Machaga went ahead and shared his strengths and weaknesses with the young man, subconsciously accepting the latter as their batch's leader.

Gradually, the other Rank 5 members of the batch also came to the young man as well, sharing their strengths and weaknesses with him after hearing that he was coming up with a plan to make their fight easier.

Eventually, by the time the four other batches had begun fighting their own beasts, Valyr's batch was called to enter their platform, finally coming face to face with the beast that they had to fight.

"Lion, serpent, bear, wolf, and gorilla," muttered Machaga as their batch entered the platform.

"I wonder which beast we'll have to fight?"

Grrrrhooo…

Hearing a guttural growl echo throughout their platform all of a sudden, almost everyone in Valyr's batch instantly had grim expressions on their faces.

"Gorilla, huh…" Naturally, Valyr had a similar reaction, frowning as he looked at the beast they had to fight.

Thanks to the information the participants had gathered on the five beasts, everyone eventually came to the conclusion that out of all the beasts the participants could fight against, the gorilla was considered the worst among them.

Not only was it because the gorilla was the most human-like during its previous fights with other participants, but it also boasted a high level of intelligence thanks to its high class rank.

Add on its innately high strength, as well as innately high defense thanks to its race, the gorilla was pretty much a nightmare to those who hoped to reach farther in the tournament, yet lacked the strength to do so.

Grrrrrhooo…

Feeling the gorilla's gaze land on them, Valyr went ahead and made everyone arrange themselves into the positions they discussed earlier.

Then, once everyone was confirmed to be in their respective spots, he then glanced at the organizer that led them into the platform, who nodded in return before locking their strengths to the start of Rank 3.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Taking a brief moment to adjust to the great reduction in his strength, Valyr soon let out a long exhale before giving everyone a nod.

Seeing everyone nod back at him in return, the young man then told the organizer that they were ready, prompting the latter to signal their attempt at fighting the gorilla.

Hoo… hooo… hooohh!!!

"Charge!!!"