Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 417: Everything Will Change

Not the worst stage—definitely not the worst stage. Thalion thought as he flew through the snowstorm. This time, he didn’t feel the slightest shiver from the cold. He had to be quite far from the icy mountain already, because the storm felt almost warm here in comparison.Thalion would have liked to see the faces of the two Chosen, but he had decided that seeing the wild expression of the girl when he ripped the ugly cat in half was more than worth it. In hindsight, it had been the better decision anyway. He would surely meet the Chosen again sooner or later, but the chances of ever seeing that elven girl and her hideous pet again were far lower.

The little imprisonment had taught him a number of things. He could now properly body-temper both Eagly and his human form. On top of that, he had secured the grand treasure of the stage—snatching it right under the eyes of the elven Chosen, which was a bonus all on its own.

He wondered what they were thinking right now. The odds of them ever figuring out who the snow eagle had belonged to before were slim. Thalion doubted that any of the elves wanted to involve themselves with him at the moment. Even the one with the long nose would keep her mouth shut out of fear of the Chosen.

Thalion had a feeling their mood wouldn’t be particularly good after what had happened. The mission of this stage had been to keep the planet cold—or something along those lines—and Thalion had no idea how many points they must have lost after he stole all the tiny crystals along with the big one. It couldn’t have ended well for them.

Sadly, he didn’t know what Kaelir’s leaderboard score had been before his stunt. The only thing Thalion knew was that he was now twenty-four million points ahead of the First Daughter in second place, who sat at roughly one million points. She must have had an excellent stage to reach that number—but even so, it wasn’t nearly enough.

The gap between first and second place was greater than ever, and Thalion had managed to maintain his streak. The real question now was whether he could keep it going.

This was the last stage in which he still had a real advantage over the others. What if someone managed to earn enough points to catch up? Thalion was simply too weak to compete head-on with the other challengers. Taking hunting tasks for the king in the next stage was out of the question. He would have to hide—or maybe do some crafting. Anything else would be suicide with so many powerhouses in the area.

His good escape tokens were gone. All he had left were the trash ones that took minutes to activate—easy to block if he didn’t trigger them early. That meant escaping a Chosen would be nearly impossible.

Yes. It was definitely time to hide in the coming stages and hope the others couldn’t surpass his score.

The odds of someone stealing the king’s grand treasure weren’t that high, given that the king was D-grade. But the stage after that would be different. If his bloodslaves had been right, the next grand treasure would be the prize every single trial taker would be hunting for.

Thalion could only hope that it wouldn’t grant too many points.

The rewards for second and third place were good—but they paled in comparison to first place, especially for someone like Thalion, whose class rarity was already absurdly high. No. He had to secure first place.

Even if a top-ten finish might be enough for a divine rarity class, first place was still an enormous boon—possibly even enough to narrow the gap between him and the very top of the treasure hunt. Those people would likely advance to D-grade shortly after the hunt ended, and keeping pace with them would become nearly impossible.

Right now, Thalion didn’t stand a chance against any of the Chosen in direct combat.

There were many paths in the coming war, but Thalion knew one thing for sure: he didn’t want to live on a planet dominated by elves or vampires. Orcs probably wouldn’t be much better—but at least they weren’t actively hunting him like the others.

The zone of nothingness was already approaching fast.

Thalion rose higher and higher into the snowstorm, scanning for a safe zone. This time, he wouldn’t be alone. He could already see multiple figures below him, moving swiftly through the icy winds.

That meant he had to stay out of sight—creating as much distance as possible.

The storm was in constant flux. Even inside a safe zone, it would eventually drift into the zone of nothingness and expose him if someone happened to look up. To be safe, Thalion pushed himself to gain as much distance as he could in case someone started chasing him.

The moment the safe zone closed around him, he shot straight upward at full speed.

With the zone of nothingness already so close, his escape token must have placed him near the edge of the stage—meaning the time he would remain in the safe zone was far longer than usual.

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A Chosen might even be fast enough to catch him before they were teleported to the next stage. There, he could use one of the bad escape tokens to save his life. Hopefully, Thalion would spawn in a forest where he could remain until the stage was over.

Thalion really didn’t want to interact with anyone. There were many Chosen who hated him with every fiber of their being.

After the storm had parted, Thalion risked a glance downward. Below him stood what looked like a normal party gathered on the snow. There didn’t appear to be a Chosen among them. The group was strong, but they treated each other as equals and didn’t bow to a single leader.

Still, there was no need to take chances. Thalion continued rising, even if he slowed down a bit. There was no reason to stress himself when his life wasn’t in immediate danger.

The night stretched on, and with the sky so dark, Thalion shifted into the Crippled Eclipsari and summoned a disk of pure darkness beneath him. Floating high above the world, he settled into meditation. With a starless sky overhead, the chances of fighters far below noticing him were slim.

For the rest of the night, Thalion focused on strengthening his soul. A powerful soul was always an advantage, and there was little else he could do so high above the ground.

Time passed, and eventually the zone of nothingness disappeared. Thalion was then teleported to the eighth stage. This time, the transition was a pure teleportation—not like the first stage, where the new zone had formed within the zone of nothingness around a safe zone.

Thalion appeared beneath a bright sky, the sun blazing down on him. Below stretched an endless curtain of white clouds, and ahead of him floated multiple islands, each crowned with massive cities.

To Thalion, the view resembled a medieval skyline—towering spires, layered streets, and countless structures stacked upon one another. It looked almost surreal, watching people fly freely between the islands. He was still too far away to discern individual features or even the races of the inhabitants, even after shifting into Eagly.

This situation was problematic. There were no forests where Thalion could simply wait out the stage. Everything revolved around the cities, and everyone would inevitably converge there.

Before deciding what to do next, Thalion checked the traditional welcome message.

Welcome to Stage Eight

This is the stage where everything will change

In this stage, you will encounter the powerful Kingdom of Edoria

The king and his subjects have been notified of your arrival

Join the Kingdom of Edoria and restore it to its former might by completing missions

A regular mission rewards 500,000 leaderboard points

A mission labeled as difficult rewards 1,000,000 leaderboard points

This stage will last five days

At the end of this stage, there will be no zone of nothingness

Instead, you must earn at least 2,000,000 points to advance

When the time runs out, you will be automatically teleported to the next stage

From now on, you may exit the treasure hunt and receive a reward for your efforts

Exiting will take ten minutes, and you may not be in combat during that time

This option only applies to placements below rank 500

Anyone seeking the lucrative rewards of the top rankings must stay until the bitter end

Good luck

Thalion swore when he read the message. One million points for a difficult quest? Laughable. A Chosen could likely complete several of those quests in a single day. On the other hand, Thalion would have to fight tooth and nail just to reach the two million points required to advance to the next stage.

This was the perfect opportunity for everyone to close the gap and surpass him on the leaderboard.

There wasn’t much Thalion could do to stay ahead, aside from somehow stealing the crystal. The only way he could see that happening was by putting it into his spatial amulet a second before being teleported to the next stage. The king was D-grade, which meant someone like Thalion wouldn’t stand the slightest chance of outrunning him. Thalion was still F-grade, after all.

Even so, despite not gaining many levels, he had made significant progress throughout the treasure hunt. He could now properly control his movement skills in human form, and his other forms had improved as well. The only real downside was the loss of his armor and sword. Those two items had been game-changers, allowing him to push his skills to another level.

Even without them, his human form remained his strongest thanks to his bloodline and curse. The bloodline empowered everything he did, and with his movement skills nearly mastered, it was ready for combat.

His other forms were in good shape too. The Tidecaller Serpent was still digesting the crystal, Eagly had gained an ice affinity, and the Crippled Eclipsari was broken as ever.

All in all, things were looking good—if not for this stupid stage that threatened everything he had worked for.

Thalion felt uncertain about what to do next. He didn’t want to head straight for the massive city ahead, knowing that everyone else would be doing the same. There were only a little over two hundred thousand trial takers left now—the absolute elite.

At this point in the trial, fights were dangerous even without a Chosen involved. Everyone left should be such a high level that Thalion would struggle to kill them outright.

On the bright side, they would make excellent bloodslaves.

Unfortunately, it likely wouldn’t be possible to bring them back into the Empire itself. Thalion briefly toyed with the idea of infecting everyone and letting the apocalypse run its course, but he still needed quests to advance to the next stage.

No—there was no other option.

He would have to fly toward the city and take a quest.

Thalion glanced downward to check on the group below, but they were still talking while standing on a floating disk.

Thalion thought as he activated his skills and surged forward at full speed.

Every second mattered now, and he really didn’t want to run into another trial taker. Moving through the city unnoticed would be nearly impossible once he returned after completing his first quest.

The wind howled around Thalion as he shot toward the city. From the corner of his eye, he spotted more figures moving in the same direction—tiny black dots in the distance, closing in fast.

This wouldn’t end well.

The king had better have a large number of guards and strict rules forbidding killing inside the city—or Thalion was done for.