Darius Supreme

Safemoon City was usually very busy due to its nature as a business area, but today this was more true than ever. Today, there was an element of danger in the air.

The reason for this was the life and death competition!

This competition was hosted by the Lord of Safemoon himself, as a testing place for the Five Apprentices he had been raising. The interest for this event was threefold.

Firstly, the various powers around the continent were curious about the Lord of Safemoon and who backed him. By observing how his Apprentices fought, they might be able to discover a clue towards that end.

Secondly, the various powers obviously knew that the quality goods of Safemoon must have been used on these five to raise them. As such, they were like live samples as to the effectiveness of Darius' goods in the long term. If the apprentices slaughtered everyone, Safemoon's business would soar even higher.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the quality of the rewards were too tempting! Many who were normally rational and even a bit righteous had still trekked over, lamenting that they were going to have to kill kids.

Others though, wondered why killing brats had never brought them such a chance before.

Whatever the case, those interested used various means to reach Safemoon, the fastest being the rail system developed by Miranda. With every kingdom Gunner had conquered, Miranda would send over their robots and refurbish the whole place, turning it into a technological marvel.

Of course, the robots used here were the same type as those from Gravitas and had no similarities to the ones on Pokterr, lest a link be drawn to them. If everyone who used bots was suspected, Gravitas would long have been persecuted.

Whatever the case, the kingdoms would then be upgraded and the citizens given HoloBraces. The HoloBraces would then inject all the necessary knowledge into each citizen about their new tech and how to use it, turning them into the equivalent of earth's digital age consumers.

It should be noted here that they only knew how to use the tech, not how to make it. They weren't even allowed to dismantle and reverse engineer, as that was a crime.

Obviously, Miranda would know if anyone tried with 15 satellites and everyone stuck with a HoloBrace.

The point of this was that one half of Fallon was like a different land altogether. The quality of life had increased and the people were excited about their new toys.

They regretted that Safemoon hadn't taken over earlier, and the needless waste of troops from fighting back against them. However, how could they have foreseen such a future at that time?

Now, the kingdoms on the continent had been renamed into provinces and their areas had greatly expanded. Their previous marked territory was kept, but not expanded.

The various 'holes' and gaps' in between their territory and the next, which formed smaller territories of unclaimed land, were also claimed by Safemoon as 'unclaimed provinces'.

The use of them should be obvious.

And so, traveling to Safemoon for the northern residents of Fallon was no longer a hurdle that required months or the use of portals. Roads had been constructed between territories while rail carriages ran at high speeds between them.

Did you live in Dernia Kingdom near the southern belt? No problem, board a high-speed carriage and pay 2 SC for a straight trip to Safemoon that would take 6 hours, or use connecting trips at 0.15 SC each.

As such, the population of Safemoon reached its peak instantly. Hundreds of visitors came over, either to spectate or participate. Not all contestants were limited to Fallonians.

There were those from all the other continents as well, making this an interesting challenge for the lads. However, their studies included the fighting style of the various continents - obviously - since Darius had all the wealth of information.

Currently, an arena had been set up in the center of the outer area, one that was big enough for two Grandmasters to fight. Darius sat at the topmost VIP room with clear, transparent glass so that everyone could see him.

At his current level of power, he had no fear announcing himself as the Lord of Safemoon compared to when the auction had been held and he had to hide in a backroom while an illusion of Deia had handled things.

Below Darius were other VIP rooms meant for his people to spectate. Much to the disgruntlement of other forces, who were only provided normals rooms at best, while others had to sit with the spectators like common floor members.

However, they understood that Safemoon was sending them a message.

This was their turf, and as the number 1 city in the world currently - now undisputed since Elysium was temporarily out of commission - and they called the shots.

No matter who you were outside, it meant little to nothing in here, and that was a matter of fact. Normally, it would be dangerous for Safemoon to try this, but the fact that no one else dared to cause trouble showed that it was the right move to make.

Nicholas Spencley, the Mayor of Safemoon, ascended the stage calmly as he addressed the crowd using his HoloBrace that magnified his voice.

"Greetings, everyone from far and near! Welcome to Safemoon City, a place where all things you dream of can be acquired for the right price!"

"Today is a special day, as the City Lord of Safemoon has decided to test the five apprentices he has personally groomed together with General Gunner. Each one of them has been stuffed to the gills with the resources you are dying to buy, allowing them to grow beyond sensible limits!"

Nicholas smiled playfully. "According to Lord Darius' very own analysis, despite having yet to cross over to the Adept stage, their power level is equivalent to that of a Low-to-Mid-tier Grandmaster!"

The crowd gasped with shock. What had just been revealed was enough to make goosebumps rise on the skin of everyone!

Common sense dictated that fighting beyond one's stage was suicide.

Journeymen could only fight Journeymen, Adepts could only fight Adepts, and so on. A Journeyman being able to fight a Grandmaster was like seeing a chihuahua beat up a lion.