Galaxy's First Ruler

BOOM!

As Tomislav got his senses back after coming out of the portal, he heard a tremendous blast. The sound attracted his eyes towards it, and he saw a distant blurry snowy peak shaking like a pendulum. But in the next moment, all things returned to rest.

"What was that?"

Tomislav felt Christin tugging on his jacket as she asked.

"Lo-and-behold, the Demon is a noob."

Trifon shouted with his hands up, making Christin tuck herself to Tomislav's back.

"Seeing that there is only one mountain, and it's blurry, that's where the Boss should be."

Viscount Rayko commented, putting a hand on Trifon's shoulder to shut him up.

Tomislav finally got time to observe his surroundings. They were standing on a snowy flat roof, giving him a glimpse of the rest of the Dungeon. There were many houses and a few large buildings. The most baffling were the wires all over, connecting many poles.

"What's this, some kind of primitive village?"

Tomislav heard Viscount Rayko's question, and a distant memory surfaced in his mind. He looked at Christin and found her looking in a daze at the city. The corner of her eyes had become wet and as she tightened her grip on the jacket, Tomislav felt a forgotten emotion too and muttered.

"This is a city from Barren Earth."

"Haha… I heard many Barren Earths got annihilated by natural calamities in the 1st Quad six months ago. If they all had these fucking ugly cities, then good riddance, I guess."

Tomislav snapped his head at Trifon, hearing his disgusting sarcasm. And he chanced upon the unseen and unheard mutters on Christin's lips. Even if none could interpret or see what she was saying, Tomislav was familiar with every quiver in her body.

Kill! Kill!! Killl!!!

He vainly gulped a mouthful of saliva to wet the dryness of his throat but failed. The slight fear in his eyes didn't go unnoticed by Berb and others. For a moment, silence took over the party of 8 Dreamers. The howls of chilly wind and the coolness of falling snow on their bare skin made the men realize they were still alive.

Tomislav shared an incomprehensible look with Trifon and looked at the Quests' notification.

[…

You have 3 new Quests

Quest 1 (Party): Secure a Return-Stone

Quest 2 (Party): Hunt Elite Crawler

Quest 3 (Party-optional): Land a hit on Boss

…]

Tomislav could hardly make any sense of these Quests. Viscount Ellington and his group had formed their own Party, making them appear at a different place than that of their own. But even then, his Party had two Viscounts and three Barons.

To even consider landing a hit on Boss as an optional Quest was terrifying to him. Tomislav looked at the Recordless, who served the purpose of high intelligence Items. But lost in his thoughts, he missed the horrified look on Trifon's face.

Tomislav approached Viscount Rayko, who was also baffled by the strangeness of the Quests.

"Guess we now know why all the Parties of Barons couldn't come out alive. If I may, My Lord, what Rank the Recordless had when they were Dreamers?"

The Party leader, Viscount Rayko, took his eyes off the notifications and replied.

"They were all Barons."

Tomislav nodded and looked to Berb. The mummified-looking Berb opened his mouth and spread the insects in the surrounding region. The city, which felt smaller than other Baron-level Dungeons, was still big enough for them to not stumble onto the other Party.

"I am getting a weird vibe. Things are too quiet here."

Tomislav agreed with Berb's raspy voice and waited for Rayko to lead. He had already done his part. The only thing left to do was to remain alive while the two Viscounts have their fun in the Dungeon.

*

On the other side of the city, Viscount Ellington looked at the Quests and shared the same baffling look as of Tomislav.

He looked at the 'compass' in his hand and stared at the red needle, which kept rotating without stopping. The two beauties approached him and the doubt in their eyes was apparent. They were still wearing only a bikini with their bare perky breasts and erect nipples. It almost felt like the cold didn't bother the three Viscounts at all.

"Is the 'compass' faulty?"

Ellington asked and only got a slight shake of the head from one of the beauties. He looked back and found the five soprano brothers had already taken out a few wooden logs from a house and were trying to make a bonfire. The Party members were standing against a high wall of the building, named School or something, saving them from the chilly gusts of wind.

Ellington calmly approached them and eyed the five brothers. The tattoo on his bare chest squirmed as if it had come alive.

"Boss, we are making fire."

Ellington's eyes blazed with rage and he kicked the well-placed logs, shattering them on impact.

"You cocksuckers! Is the only reason for your existence making fire and introducing big characters like me?"

The brothers looked at the ruined logs, dumbfounded by what happened. One of them went to the edge of the wall and picked up a fairly larger broken piece of the wooden log.

"Ah, Boss! What you do that for!?"

"You piece of shit! No wonder you are rotting in the Death Separation at this age and time. Now go…"

Ellington cut off his word as he felt a fluctuation in Mana. The two beauties had yet to pick up on his abnormality. The wind felt the same, and the snow was still cold. But Ellington felt pain between his eyebrows as if marked by something extremely terrifying.

'This is bad!'

Saying nothing, Ellington ducked down. His actions looked more comical than strategic. But in the next moment, a blue flash appeared where his head was. Missing its target, the elongated flash kept going and struck the head of one of the Soprano Brothers, standing with a wood fragment in hand by the wall.

BOOOM!

Ellington stood up and saw the upright headless body of the Baron. The shower of blood had tainted the snow with dark red. And stuck in the cracked wall, he saw a meter-long arrow made of pure sizzling Mana.

He again felt the same fluctuation as the arrow in front of him vanished, turning into tiny Mana bubbles.

"EVERYONE! SPREAD OUT."