CHAPTER 65: [ DUNGEON SETTERS ]

Alexander was looking out the window, on the fourth floor of his hotel located downtown.

It was entirely reserved for dungeon runners, every room running at half the price they would normally have. It wasn’t necessary to use them, but its proximity to the stadium made it convenient.

With his limited funds, there weren’t that many places to go to, and there was no way he would go back to the apartment.

The room was nice, a chandelier at the ceiling elevated the room’s otherwise simple decor. It wasn’t an expensive one but it fit the room’s aesthetics.

The walls were painted cream, while the lower half was covered with pale wooden panels, giving the room an old-fashioned feel. There were paintings on the walls, fake ones, but they looked good. They all depicted majestic landscapes, grassfields or mountains—all closely tied to the summer season.

Summer was long gone, now. He became a dungeon runner, and lost a few months sleeping in a cave, the cold breeze outside reminding him constantly that winter was around the corner.

He could see outside as the event planners were working tirelessly to setup everything.

The main entrance’s gate was getting assembled by a small team, as well as the various fences and tents that were all outside up front.

People would most likely queue up for tickets, and walk around the few stands underneath the tents for food, drinks or festival games that would be dungeon runner-themed.

"I can’t believe it," said Alexander.

He could feel Fae’s hand petting his back. His eyes were stuck on one part of the entrance, near the street where advertisement spots were being setup by the Dungeon Setters team.

Across one big advertisement panel that stretched four meters wide could be read ’Free-tier Tournament — A New Formidable Adversary Makes Its Entry: [ The Cultist ]’.

They didn’t bother using a picture, instead opting for a digital painting of him that looked insanely good, if it wasn’t for the scary look they gave him.

It was posted right next to the bigger S-tier tournament panel, which had the top ranking Gilded Order members on it. He could recognize most of them, Midas right in the middle with his ever-serious expression.

"This is all Sunder’s fault," said Alexander. "He made sure this would happen."

Fae kept rubbing his back while looking at her companion who couldn’t help but shake his head while repeatedly looking at the panel standing high in the sky.

"There’s a few days to go, let’s do a dungeon."

Fae tilted her head, uncertain.

"We have time. There’s no way I’m wasting time doing this stupid thing."

She tilted her head further.

"I know. I don’t have much of a choice. Which is why..."

He trailed off while looking at her, bracing for impact. He could see that she eagerly waited for him to finish his sentence.

"...I need you to complete them alone."

He felt her finger tense up, her nails digging in his back as she heard those words exit his mouth.

The gaze he felt beneath the mask was extremely cold, making the conversation harder than he anticipated.

She shook her head rigidly, her hand leaving his back so that she could cross her arms on her chest.

"You’re crazy strong. We completed high C-tier dungeons together. You could easily do a D-tier dungeon by yourself. While you complete dungeons, I can participate in the tournament. The experience is shared, the system considers you to be my companion, so I should be able to still level up while I’m not present."

He could feel the freezing gaze worsening by the minute. He couldn’t tell what was going on in her mind, but whatever it was, wasn’t good.

She didn’t care about grinding levels for him. The problem was the separation.

"I’m not leaving you behind. You can always find me, can’t you?"

She didn’t answer, but he knew he was right.

"I have this scroll," he said, after taking it out of the bottomless bag. "If there’s any issue during the tournament, I’ll summon you. We’ll look through the app and make sure the dungeons you run are nearby, that way it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to use the scroll."

He knew he couldn’t convince her, he’d need to force it. Forcing it while she categorically was against it would be futile, he needed to just open the door. Just the tiniest hesitation would suffice.

"We’ll go through one today while I observe, then the next days you can run them alone. If we do one dungeon a day, then you can come back in time to sleep with me. If you complete them even faster, then you could be back before the day is even over."

If the temptation of sleeping by my side isn’t enough, then the opportunity to finish faster if she works harder will be the final nail hammered in.

It was manipulative, but necessary.

It broke his heart to see her standing there, staring at him blankly while internally dealing with the words coming out of his mouth.

He was certain that she would comply, opting to finish the dungeons as fast as she could.

Alexander’s phone rang, notifications appearing on it.

An email?

He opened the email, the sender was the organizers of the event.

It explained how everything worked for the free-tier events.

The first part of the event, spanning the early weeks, would be a tournament within tiers.

His guild being in E-tier, Alexander would fight through its bracket until the finals. Winning that alone would grant him the base prize money.

But the second part was more complex.

The A-tier finals were reserved for this later phase, to maximize public attention. Meanwhile, winners from B through E-tier would battle up for a single spot in those finals—essentially a wild card slot.

The format was familiar. S-tier tournaments used something similar—but with a losers’ bracket instead of tier-based promotion.

Similar in concept, but different in execution.

At the end of the email his first opponent was already written down, the Havoc guild.

"This is the guild Silver joined."