D.I.O

vel up. 

“Ugh, to think I’ve already failed four times.
I knew it would be more challenging as I gained levels, but I didn’t think it would be this difficult.”

Adol mumbled and walked up to a door.
However, the door he walked up to wasn’t any of the twenty doors.
Instead, he’d approached the twenty-first door, [Joint Warfare].

“Well, just in case….”

The Joint Warfare was a trial that existed outside of the twenty tests, and it allowed users to work together to defeat monsters that were several levels than their own.
Of course, there were always bound to be users who didn’t pull their weight or who shouldn’t have been able to overcome such monsters.
As such, choosing this option could be seen as taking the easy route, as one could depend on the strength of others to pass.
However, defeating the monsters in the Joint Warfare area didn’t mean that a user passed the test.
Since the Joint Warfare door was not part of the existing four chapters and its twenty tests, a user would not be able to pass the eighth-level test.
This was why the Joint Warfare door was called the twenty-first door.

The Joint Warfare door existed to provide a space where users could learn to work together, utilizing their individual areas of expertise to fight a common enemy.
Thus, if a group of users were successful in defeating a monster several levels above them, the experience they’d gain would be ten times greater than normal.
In other words, this experience was more than enough to level up once.
Furthermore…

“Even if I choose to give up midway, I won’t be kicked out of this testing area.
Anyway, it’s not like I plan to fail again….”

Adol chuckled as he entered the door.
Of course, Adol never thought that he’d fail in each of his previous four attempts.
He wasn’t the type that liked to challenge something if he felt like there was a high likelihood of losing.
Yet, this time around, he was full of confidence.
Although it sounded like something out of a fantasy novel, Adol had grown to understand something right before this fifth attempt.

“Hahaha.
I never expected to obtain the third rank of mastery.”

Like an epiphany, Adol had suddenly come to a realization.
When he was surrounded by tens of monsters and trying to fight an uphill battle, he had experienced a completely different dimension, a new, distinct rank of mastery.
A while back, he had stopped training to focus on hunting since he wanted to gain more experience and funds, and so this sudden realization was utterly unexpected.

“With this advancement, I’m probably in the top echelon amongst DIO users.
How many could there be above me? Is there even a single person?”

The reality was that there weren’t too many users who possessed the fifth rank of mastery.
Of course, Adol knew that all the users in this closed beta were all experts with excellent skills and abilities.
However, he’d never come across anyone with the third rank of mastery.
Even though he heard that some existed, he was sure that their numbers were few.

Creak.

Once he opened the door, Adol saw a large waiting room.
In the room, there was a muscular man who was waving his hand at Adol.

“Hey, Adol!”

“Hey, it’s been a long time, Hanma.
What’s going on? Where did all these people come from?”

Despite Adol’s surprise at the number of users in the room, it was just two more people outside of himself and Hanma.
Yet, this alone was surprising, as there weren’t many users who’d passed the seventh-level test.
Actually, it would be more precise to say that there were very few.
 

The users who could be seen walking around in the towns were mostly those who were in the third or fourth level.
Starting from the fifth level, the number of users dramatically dropped in number.
This was because there was a natural ‘barrier.’ DIO was a game that demanded high levels of skill and ability.
One would have to either spend a lengthy amount of time training or have an innate ability to lean on.
DIO wasn’t a game where one could increase their level just by investing some time.

Psh.
Psh.

A torch was burning in one corner of the waiting room.
In front of the torch was a female martial artist in her twenties.
She wore an entirely black martial arts outfit and had gloves with flame motifs on them.
Since her clothing was tight, Adol could easily make out that the woman currently absentmindedly staring at the torch was a physical martial artist.
However, other than that, he couldn’t sense anything else.
It was almost as if she were a common newbie, or at best, a second-level user.

‘But that can’t be the case.’

They were in the eighth-level testing area.
This meant that she must be a seventh-level user.
And so, there were two possibilities: her level of power was far greater than his or, like Hanma, her physical strength was hard to determine by sight alone.

“Oh, are you a member of the Zoroastrians?”

Adol tried to make small talk, but the woman continued to stare blankly at the torch without responding.
With lifeless eyes, the woman continued to stare at the flickering fire.
As Adol continued to look at the woman, he soon realized that she was a foreign, Western woman.
She had blue eyes, pale skin, and blonde hair.
She was also very tall.
Adol could tell that she was a Slavic woman and a beauty at that.
It was highly likely that she was Russian.

Whoosh!

The flame that she had been staring at abruptly flared up.
The previous calm and quiet environment suddenly turned loud and chaotic as the fiery flame quickly consumed the wooden parts of the torch, converting it all into ash.
Once the flame flashed its final light, a spark rose into the air and turned into a red ruby. 

“It would be nicer if it were polished….”

The woman mumbled to herself as she put the ruby away.
Instantly, Adol understood what skillset the woman specialized in.

“I see; it’s fire chakra.
In addition, you possess the advanced skill of changing the state and quality of an object.”

“Don’t talk as if it’s such a grand thing.
I’ve only reached the third rank of mastery.”

There were all kinds of stats in DIO, but the one that was applicable in nearly every area, as well as being the most difficult to advance, was spiritual power.
There were seven different types of spiritual power based on their respective qualities: internal energy, magic power, chakra, divine/sacred power, pure spiritual power, aura, and life force.

As defined and stated in many fantasy genres, internal energy arises from gathering nature’s powers within oneself and converting that energy into motion.
Magic power originated from one’s connection with the world and its laws, as one would be able to slightly alter and utilize the existing principles of the world to create the desired effect.
Aura was a type of innate ability that allowed a user to momentarily overcome and transcend one’s limits to achieve something.
Divine power was power derived from a god.
Pure spiritual power came from the spiritual power within oneself; practitioners of this area would constantly refine their spiritual power and increase their spiritual power capacity.
These users would often form contracts with otherworldly beings or spirits and gain strength through that contractual relationship.
Life force, as the name suggests, would focus on increasing one’s physical power and changing or evolving one’s existence.
As for chakra…

“I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit.
I haven’t seen another user who’s been able to reach the third rank of mastery in chakra.”

“That’s because chakra isn’t very popular in the first place.”

As with every other type of spiritual power, chakra seemed foreign and drastically different from the others.
Notably, the most difficult aspect of chakra was that it could not be carried within or on one’s body.
Chakra did not originate from within, like internal energy or magic power.
Rather than communicate with something outside oneself and utilize exterior forces to create or do something, the users who specialized in chakra had no special powers.
The only thing required of chakra users was mental power and the ‘knowledge’ of the ‘properties’ of an object.

“Ugh, so loud.”

At that moment, a man who had been meditating in the other corner of the waiting room opened his eyes and spoke.
His black hair was slicked back, he had black eyes, and he wore a plum-colored robe.
His appearance and clothing were immediately identifiable as Asian.
Furthermore, unlike the difficult to read woman, this man’s power and level were like an open book for Adol.

Plumpcat's Thoughts

That's all for sneak peak! And if you haven't realized, we have also added images to previous chapters.