Chapter 492 The shape of the days to come (1/2)

Granin and I end up sitting facing each other. Though in my case 'sitting' is more of a comfortable crouch, which brings us reasonably close to eye level. Although again, in my case, I technically have a heck of a lot of eyes.

[There were a hundred and twenty-eight monsters at the start of this tournament. After just two rounds, we're down to thirty-two.]

Even through the rock on his face, I can see his disgust plain and clear. He looks like he wants to spit.

[Nearly a hundred projects that the Cult had invested in, gone to waste. The amount of effort, care and expertise that has been utterly wasted here is a travesty.]

I'm a little confused. Don't these monsters always end up dying? What the heck do they do with them?

[Usually, we release them into the Dungeon,] he replies after I query him. [Once we've done everything we can, training and raising the monster to the best of our collective abilities, we let them go out to the Dungeon to seek their destiny, hoping that they'll descend to the deepest Dungeon and become the final Ancient.]

[You just let them go? Like, releasing them into the wild?! Surely they all die?]

[We don't know if they're all dead,] he grumbles, [and even that's beside the point. Unless we let them out to fight and grow on their own, there's no chance they'll become an Ancient. The idea that you can keep and control a creature of that sort of power would be insane.]

He makes a decent point there. Trying to hold onto a monster as it grew increasingly strong would be difficult. These aren't pets; they have absolutely no issue biting the hand that feeds them. While many of the monsters are smart and can be reasoned with, eventually they'll get to tier eight or nine and can the Cult keep them caged at that point?

Doubtful.

[Anyway,] Granin waves a hand, [the third round is coming, after which there'll be four more.]

[Four more rounds?! Holy moly.]

[Four. Round of sixteen. Round of eight, Semi-final and Final. That's why I wanted to talk to you. If you go ahead and use your mega spell, or whatever it's called, in the next round, then you'll have to contend with the knowledge of it being revealed for the remaining four. Those monsters that are left are going to be no pushovers either. Regardless of how I feel about this tournament, the winners are getting stronger as the compet.i.tion goes on. Some of these beasts are powerful.]

I hesitate for a moment. The first fight was a piece of cake, but the last round nearly killed me. It was way too close, insanely close. If I have to go through that another four times … I don't want to go through that another four times.

[What are you thinking? Do I need to hold off further? Wait for another round? I barely made it past the last opponent. If the next one is going to be even worse, then will I even be able to survive without using my most powerful card?]

The crusty old Shaper leans back till his head thuds into the wall and he's looking straight up. The stone head must be helpful sometimes.

[I'm not sure,] he admits. [It's a risk, either way. I'm reasonably sure that we'll be able to protect you in the event your magic leaks out. Is this spell something you can try and whip out mid-battle?]

I think about it. It takes a significant amount of time to create a gravity bomb. Compressing the mana is mentally taxing and draining as h.e.l.l. I was able to do it against Garralosh mainly because she was incoherent with rage. Perhaps one day I'll have the raw mental strength to crunch out a Gravity Bomb on the fly, but not yet.

[Unlikely. I'd need to prepare it before the battle started.]

Granin sat up.

[You need to compress and prepare the spell? Are you sure it'll hit?]

[Oh yeah. It's hard to get away from it.]