( Max's POV )
[ System Notification - Congratulations for clearing stage 5 of the dungeon. Please proceed to the rewards room to collect your reward ]
Max looked at the system notification and clenched his fists in joy.
He had finally managed to clear the fifth stage of the ice dungeon and was expecting there to be great rewards considering how difficult the stage was.
He had slept soundly for 6 hours after Dracula knocked him out and had missed the entire planetary devastation event that had taken place once Dracula fought Regus.
When he finally did wake up, he was faced between the choice of going back and seeing what Dracula was up-to, or continue with the dungeon run that opened only once every three years and might not open at all next time around if Dracula became in-charge.
Even if it did open, Max might not have the opportunity to explore it come next time, and hence he decided that since he was already inside; there was no point in bothering about what was going on in the outer world and that the best option was to continue with the dungeon run till the bitter end.
Stage one was the maze, stage two was the riddle, stage three was the hypnotic waterfall, stage four was the Titan arenas, stage five was the lair of Dracula and the secret puddle caves-
The cave that Dracula was trapped into was peculiar, not only did it have abundant vitality, every puddle inside the cave seemed to have a world of its own inside and if Max jumped into either puddle, he could end up on an entire adventure of his own.
Only one amongst the thousands of puddles was the exit towards the next stage and after over 30 wrong attempts, Max finally found the right one, defeated the guardian within and moved onto the rewards for clearing stage 5.
As Max walked into the rewards room he saw a small scroll placed in the centre of the room-
The scroll radiated unbelievable amounts of divine essence as although Max was aware about the power contained within divine essence by now he felt his skin tingle and his hair stand up the closer he got to the scroll.
[ Ultimate Levelling Pagoda ]( Divine ) - A pagoda designed and created by the celestial God Of War for a successor to quickly bridge the levels to go from tier6 to tier8 without having to resort to tyranny.
Within the scroll is a levelling pagoda with monsters on every floor.
Clearing one floor guarantees enough exp to gain one level and has a total of 500 floors within.
Whether it is to try out new domain attacks, or train combat reflexes, this pagoda is the best option for one's level up journey.
Max felt his dual-hearts beat out of his chest as he read the description on the ultimate level pagoda!
Not being able to level up enough was precisely the problem every god faced once they reached tier6.
The journey from tier6 to tier7 was a long and arduous one and unless one was a tyrant who massacred thousands of innocents, there was a genuine lack of high level beast or monster hordes that could be farmed daily to increase levels.
It was the biggest reason behind why although there were thousands of tier6 god's, there were only a few dozen tier7 powerhouses and only a dozen monarchs in total.
The Primal God Of War- had truly outdone himself with this treasure as it was truly something that Max needed the most at this juncture of his career as a god.
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( Meanwhile Rudra )
Today was the first time that Rudra had taken the kids off his home planet and towards another exo-planet outside the observable universe where there was sentient life.
The planet in itself was primitive with mostly tier1-2-3 creatures around, however, Rudra felt that letting the kids have some practical combat levelling was also an important experience so he brought them on the planet with the intention of letting them explore on their own.
Almost right-off the bat, Kartikeya began brandishing his sword to kill Ferret like long cats as he absolutely overkilled everything that moved.
Jake tried to think like him and strategize his attacks, however, seeing Kartikeya go crazy and kill everything with ease made him feel dumb as the elder brother as very soon he abandoned the cautious approach and began to fight recklessly as well.
Amy seemed to dislike gore, although like her brothers she too took part in combat and was decent at picking and finishing her targets there was an elegance to her movements when she did so.
She would not target the Ferret's in a way that any artery would be cut and blood would splatter all over, or perform manoeuvres that would ruin her dress.
She would fight at her own pace and with elegance and was not worried about how many her brother's killed compared to her.
Rudra, who watched all of his kids enjoy slaughter in a way, scratched his neck and chuckled as he was sure that kids this small were not supposed to enjoy the thrill of the hunt.
If he compared himself to the kids, this time around he would be in school wasting his time in classes learning things like basic mathematics and the history of French Revolution.
Of Course those things were also important in his wholesome development but he felt like the platform he was giving his kids was undoubtedly much better.
Their shrill laughter as they chased the wild ferrets through the landscape, their tumbles around big rocks and their frustrated cries when a prey escaped them were all sights that made Rudra's heart fill with glee.
This was childhood at its finest as within these laughter filled hunts were lessons of honing one's strength and understanding the movement of the enemy.
Initially, Rudra was not sure if he wanted to spend 18 years of his life cooped up in a small planet, however, the more time he spent with the kids the more attached he felt with them as everyday felt like a blessing.
In the short two hour session that he brought them out to another planet to play
Jake killed - 1042 ferrets
Amy killed- 457
Kartikeya killed - 630
The youngest one expended so much of his energy and had such a blast that he felt asleep in Rudra's arms as soon as he was back.
The funniest part was, the ferrets were tier1 too and this session wasn't supposed to be this easy.
However, his children were more of a beast than Rudra expected and were levelling up faster than Rudra would ever believe was possible for someone their age.
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/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the PS target, good job everyone! ///