The Dungeon Conquerors: Journey to the Peak

Just like last year among the 256 people, only 32 of them would be able to go to the third round. And the format of the second round this time was going to be a hunting competition.

Hunting completions had happened before and they were some of the most exciting events. But hosting a hunting competition was extremely hard. Mainly because someone needed to keep an eye on every participant to make sure that they did not cheat and at the same time there was also a need to keep the participants safe.

But another big problem associated with the hunting competition for UR gardes was the lack of suitable areas for a competition like this. It was possible to host the competition in an area filled with monsters but in that case the monsters there would be too weak.

So if the monsters were not strong enough to put up a fight against an UR grade, then it would just become a competition to see who was able to cut more grass in the shortest amount of time, which was not exciting at all.

But this time, the hosts of the competition had a perfect solution in mind.

This hunting was going to take place in a danger zone called the "Ashen Barrens". This was a desolate land with almost no vegetation but it was home to a large number of powerful monsters. As this area had a very good visibility, it was easy to keep an eye on everyone\'s progress through drones.

Even just 5 years ago, any gadgets taken to the Ashen Barrens would stop working so it was not possible to host this competition there. But a few years ago, one company had managed to create exceptional cameras and drones that were working even in the Barrens.

This was made using monster materials so it was quite an expensive item, but the organiser of the World Blessed Championship did not lack money and had bought enough to cover the whole Ashen Barrens.

Only because of those special drones and cameras, the hunting competition was able to happen there. After hearing all the explanations, the people in the audience started cheering in joy. This was definitely going to be a very exciting event to watch.

...

Sophia was also very happy about it. An event like this was very advantageous for her fighting style. It did not benefit Rein in any way but it was also not a disadvantage to him so he was fine too. Most of the monsters in the Ashen Barrens were as strong as a SR grade but there were also quite a few who were more than a match for a UR grade.

There were also extremely few monsters who could even kill top ranking UR grades. So this competition was definitely going to be very dangerous.

Killing monsters gave a certain amount of points. Killing stronger monsters gave more points than killing weaker ones. The top 32 people who managed to have the highest points after 6 hours would be able to advance to the next round.

How many points a monster would give was calculated by a very advanced computer who had almost all the records of the monsters that the humans knew about so far. It also had many powerful analytics and scanning techs so it was capable of assigning a value to the monsters depending on their strength. This exact super computer was going to score the UR gardes during the second round.

The Ashen Barrens was not far away from this nation but still many people needed to go there in a short span of time, so it was decided that the second round would start in three days. Competitors were allowed to go to the Barrens on their own or they would hitch a ride from the organisers for free.

Obviously Sophia and Rein were going to use their own private jet to go near the Barrens. Actually most of the UR grades were going to do the same. Almost all of them were super rich and a few who were not capable of going there on their own, their nation would help them in transporting there.

...

Even though Rein and Sophia were quite confident with themselves, they still did not want to take any risks. So both of them decided to go to the Barrens as soon as possible to scout out the area. Not many people lived in that area so not many humans bothered to go there to risk their lives without any reason. So all the available information about that area was superficial.

For that Rein and Sophia were planning to research that place. Any danger zone did not only have powerful monsters but many other natural traps which were deadly. So they were a bit worried about falling into such traps.

First, Rein and Sophia use their own plane to arrive in a city called Ciatel. This was a small city with only about 500 people living here. Then from Ciatel, they drove their supercar toward the barren.

This was not the usual supercar that Sophia and Rein used daily to go to the school. Instead it was a special model that was capable of operating in dangerous areas and even had a built in weapon system. Only such cars were able to carry a blessed through lands filled with monsters.

After driving for about 3 hours, finally Rein and Sophia were able to see a desolate land with black soil in front of them. They were still quite far away from it but they were still able to see it as this area was very empty.

There was no official landmark to indicate from where the danger zone started but when the soil started to become black in colour, it was better to consider that the danger zone had already stated.

For the Championship, the organisers had created a quite large temporary base just outside the area from where the soil started to become black. Rein and Sophia appeared in that area, parked their car there, booked a tent for themselves and then left the base to go deeper into the Ashen Barrens.

Their objectives were to check out the power of the monsters living here, see the terrain and try to find areas where more monsters would gather.

This second round was looking to be a very interesting event.