One by one, Jake and his party members entered their respective time chambers. They went in the order they had decided, so the Fallen King would finish first, then Sylphie, the Sword Saint, Dina, and finally, Jake would be the last one to appear back in Nevermore City as his fifty years expired.

When Jake was the only one left, standing right in front of his own chamber, the hobgoblin threw him a glance. ”So… you gonna win?”

”What?” Jake asked, a bit confused.

”Are you gonna beat Yip’s Chosen on the Leaderboards? In my mind, it’s pretty much down to you two for the top spot as far as I know. There are a few others too who may have a slight chance, but eh… not really,” the time mage said.

”Why do you care?” Jake questioned with a raised eyebrow.

”I am a gossip; what can I say? I just like those juicy-”

”There’s bets on, huh?” Jake interrupted him.

”Really?” the hobgoblin said, as he tried to look surprised. ”I would have never thought that! But say there truly is live betting going on regarding the finishing positions of all the different well-known Nevermore Attendees competing on the Leaderboards, then surely there would be a lot to be gained on betting for the top spot. Ah, by the way, I am talking about the Era Leaderboards here.”

Jake, not really in that much of a hurry to start his own time chamber, just got a thought. ”Whose the top seed right now?”

”Ell’Hakan, and pretty convincingly, too, so if you beat him on the Era Leaderboards; you should also top the universe one,” the time mage said. ”Followed by a demon prince, a young princess from the Regalflight, an elemental of some kind, and, of course, you. A few others in there, too, but I have my personal doubts about these individuals, and I tend to be pretty good at judging situations like these. The thing is, we don’t know your Challenge Dungeon score, and while it can be assumed that it’s good, seeing as you are also an alchemist and should do well even in those focused on crafting, there’s still a lot of question marks. Especially after you didn’t publish your results. Left many to believe you maybe actually did horribly and was embarrassed.”

”That Chosen of Yip is really rated that highly, huh?” Jake muttered, ignoring the last part of what the time mage said. He did know he had gotten a good score from the Challenge Dungeons, but…

”He passed floor eighty-two and did pretty damn well throughout the World Wonder. Only one other group did eighty-two floors, with even the majority of the top groups not managing to complete floor eighty, and even if they did, it wasn’t exactly with flying colors,” the hobgoblin kept readily sharing. ”Also, is it surprising for the Chosen of Yip to be rated highly? Based on what I saw when he came here, he is quite an unsettling entity… not that I wouldn’t say the same about you.”

”I see,” Jake nodded, thinking to himself.

”So…?”

”What?” Jake asked, confused.

”You gonna beat him or not? If you tell me, and you’re right, I’ll waive the fee for using the time chambers entirely for your entire party,” the hobgoblin offered.

you make a big deal about offering a

what do you want?” the time mage asked, seemingly not sure what to

thought for a second, and for a second, he considered what he would do after Nevermore and what would be of use then… and one thing instantly

musa… eh

I thought bananas grew on

multiversal competition on a few Leaderboards. ”They’re actually not trees, but a type of flowering plant that

you learn something new every day,” the hobgoblin nodded, sounding genuinely interested. ”You really are an alchemist. Either way, I got something I’m sure will

would place my money… because I wouldn’t say Ell’Hakan’s Challenge Dungeon run struck me as particularly impressive,” Jake

in kind. ”I’ll trust ya on this one. Cya around, I’ll

activate as time distorted. While time would be warped, he would still need to sit there for at least a few days, giving him plenty of time to have fun as he pulled out his Puzzle Box of the Seeker, an

asked the hobgoblin about potentially messing with Ell’Hakan’s time chamber to fuck him over on the Leaderboards, as

Jake also had to admit one other thing… for a moment, he had considered the possibility he would needto finish first. That he wasn’t the one with the top score. Jake knew he was strong, people kept telling him that, but it was still hard to

had been pure fighting, he would have been more confident. But it was so many other things, and Jake knew there were a myriad of different creatures and people in the multiverse who had their own unique advantages. In many ways, the words of the hobgoblin before he entered the chamber had calmed him. Hearing two groups had beaten two floors more than him wasn’t nice, but it told him there wasn’t some mega-outlier who had somehow managed to do ninety floors through

he had seen stronger C-grades. The face of the First Sage flashed in his mind as Jake realized a big part of his reason was

for him to do was wait

aware that it has been stolen. Please

thoughts… something he would only come to realize later.

in the eyes of

ever, even exceeding the time everyone went to enter the World Wonder. The massive city was housing guests from every faction, their many strongholds, and compounds filled with influential figures from all over the multiverse. Within many, even gods sat, covertly keeping an

another familiar-looking woman who stood beside two nearly identical copies of herself. It was one of the Witches

others to keep an eye

a bit unsure. This wasn’t her first time going to Nevermore because some highly talented member of the Order was doing the World Wonder, but as an S-grade, it was naturally her first time seeing a true Leaderboards competition like this. In preparations, she had read up on old procedures of the Order… but those had

are the Order of the Malefic Viper, loyal servants of the Malefic One.

”Then…”

Viper, a Primordial. Do not embarrass him, us, the Chosen, or yourself,” one of the other sisters said

”The will of the Malefic

show those uptight posers the Order of the Malefic Viper is not to be looked down upon or

eyes. As she walked through the compound, she gathered those who would walk alongside her. Among them were a few branch leaders and other

a few reasons for this. The first one was that vampires still didn’t have a good reputation in the wider multiverse and were often antagonized simply for existing. Among the influential factions, pretty much only the Order had any vampires, with the rest being solo or with smaller groups. Due to this, the Order usually didn’t have vampires with them whenever they participated in any social happenings like this, as that would just be inviting trouble from those

that the Order would do whatever they

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