Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 38: Beasts Heirarchy

The air inside the Ironfang Dungeon was thick, a pungent smell like wet dirt, rusted iron, and burning hair lingering in the air. It was classified as a D-Rank dungeon, located on the jagged, rocky outskirts of the Solaris Kingdom. Right now, it was an abattoir.

WHOOSH!!

A maelstrom wave of roaring fire illuminated the dark cave walls.

"Is this seriously it?!" Ignis yelled, laughing wildly. He unleashed another ball of searing incandescence fire from his bare hands. "I am barely even warmed up!"

BOOM!!

A pack of six Cave Crawlers which are ugly, giant insect monsters with sharp mandibles were immediately cremated into black ash remnants. Ignis didn’t even bother to pull out his weapons. He was just casually hurling fire balls like he was playing a boring game.

A few feet away to his left, Terravarous was doing the heavy lifting. Three colossal apex wolves lunged blindly at the giant. They leaped into the air, intending to rip his throat out. Terravarous didn’t dodge. He simply folded his thick, hardened arms in front of his chest.

CLANG!!

The wolves bit down hard on his forearms, but their sharp teeth shattered against his hardened skin. Terravarous let out a guttural rasp. He reached out with his hands, grabbed two of the wolves by their necks, and viciously slammed them into the hard cavern floor.

CRACK!!

The ground rumbled with a loud thud. The stone wolves completely stopped moving. A little way back, Kairos was moving silently through the shadows. He ignored his new, shiny time powers. He didn’t need to use a god-tier skill on giant bugs and angry dogs. He was conserving his stamina and practicing his pure swordsmanship. He gracefully crouched under a leaping wolf.

SLASH!!

Asteria gleamed brightly in the dark cave. With one smooth swing, Kairos cleanly severed the beast’s head. The wolf collapsed with a loud thud, black blood spilling onto the cold rocks.

[SYSTEM ALERT: D-RANK STONE WOLF ELIMINATED. EXP GAINED: MINIMAL. SUGGESTION: FIND STRONGER ENEMIES, HOST. THIS IS GETTING BORING.]

Shut up, Blackout, Kairos thought in his mind, flicking the dark blood off his silver blade. We are just here to harvest cheap mana crystals for money. Stop complaining.

In less than twenty minutes, the entire cave was cleared. The three warriors formally gathered near the center of the dark cavern. They sat down on a massive pile of dead monster corpses. It was a normal resting spot for veteran fighters.

Terravarous pulled out a small, sharp hunting knife. He methodically began cutting into the chests of the dead wolves, popping out small, shining blue mana crystals and tossing them into a leather pouch.

"Thirty crystals," Terravarous grunted slowly, his voice echoing in the cave. "It is a decent haul for a morning raid. We will get a good price at the merchant guild."

Ignis sat on top of a dead crawler, looking annoyed, kicking the dead bug with his boot.

"It’s entirely boring," Ignis complained, running a hand through his red hair. "We are Generals now! We survived the Crystal Colosseum, and now we are back to stepping on ugly bugs for pocket change. It’s completely insulting to my pride."

Kairos wiped Asteria assiduously with a clean cloth before sheathing it smoothly back into its leather sheath.

"We still have to eat, Ignis," Kairos said simply, taking a seat on a rock, "and we definitely need to buy better armor. Unless you forgot how easily your fancy gear shattered in the arena?"

Ignis ragefully clicked his tongue. "My gear shattered because I was fighting, not because it was cheap." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Kairos chuckled softly. He looked over at the shimmering blue crystals in Terravarous’ hand. As a boy from a tiny, secluded farming village, Kairos didn’t know much about the world’s official ranking systems. He only knew what the System briefly told him, and Blackout was usually too sarcastic than to be helpful.

"Hey, Terravarous," Kairos asked, leaning forward resting his elbows on his knees, with anxious eyes. "How exactly does the monster ranking work? I always hear people throwing around letters, but I never went to a formal knight academy to learn the details."

Ignis suddenly perked up, he loves lecturing people.

"Listen closely, Kairos," Ignis interrupted confidently, folding his hands. "I will gladly educate you. The world officially classifies threats so weak adventurers don’t accidentally walk into a cave and instantly die."

Terravarous kept carving out crystals, but he nodded his head. "Let him explain, Kairos. Ignis paid attention in military school. It was the only class he didn’t sleep through."

Ignis proudly puffed out his chest. "Exactly. The ranking system is divided into two different categories. The Mortal Ranks... and the Calamity Ranks."

Kairos raised an eyebrow. "Mortal Ranks?"

"Yes," Ignis said, his eyes darting around the dungeon. "E, D, C, B, A, and S. These are the standard monsters. The normal human armies and guilds deal with it every single day."

Ignis pointed his boot at the dead bug under him.

"E-Rank and D-Rank are useless fodder. Goblins, Slimes, Cave Crawlers, and these stupid Stone Wolves. A group of normal, trained city guards can easily kill them. They are basically just angry wildlife."

"What about C and B?" Kairos asked, genuinely curious.

"Now you are talking about real monsters," Ignis replied, his eyes narrowing. "C-Rank monsters have basic magical abilities. Fire-breathing lizards, armored trolls, things like that. B-Rank is where it actually gets highly dangerous. A B-Rank beast can effortlessly slaughter an entire village if left unchecked. You need seasoned, elite knights or a certified mage to safely hunt them."

Terravarous paused his carving. "Ignis almost died to a B-Rank Armored Bear last year."

"I DIDN’T ALMOST DIE!" Ignis shouted loudly, his face turning completely red. "I tripped over a stupid tree root! It was a tactical retreat!"

Kairos smiled, enjoying the tease. "Sure it was. Keep going. What about A and S?"

Ignis cleared his throat, actively ignoring the giant’s comment. "A-Rank beasts are literal walking disasters," Ignis said seriously. "Wyverns, Giant Arachnids, Lesser Demons. If an A-Rank monster appears, the kingdom announces by ringing the warning bells. It requires a large platoon of elite soldiers, or a single, highly skilled General to kill one."

Ignis looked directly at Kairos.

"And then there is S-Rank," Ignis said softly. "An S-Rank beast is a city-killer. It has immense, crushing mana and near-human intelligence. If you see an S-Rank, you don’t fight it alone unless your name is Pyrix or Luna. You call for backup, and you pray to the gods that it doesn’t see you first."

Kairos chuckled slowly, understanding the valuable information.

"Okay," Kairos said, folding his arms. "That makes sense, but you mentioned a second category. The Calamity Ranks."

The relaxed atmosphere in the dark cave suddenly vanished. The air felt noticeably colder. Terravarous stopped harvesting the mana crystals. He slowly wiped his bloody knife on a rag and looked at Kairos with dead, serious eyes.

"The Calamity Ranks are exactly what they sound like, Kairos," Terravarous rumbled deeply. "They bring calamities. Monsters that should not exist in the mortal realm."

Ignis looked down at his hands.

"Above S-Rank is SR, and then SSR," Ignis explained, his voice stripped of its usual arrogance. "Super Rare, and Super Special Rare. The names sound stupid, but the monsters aren’t. An SR beast can completely wipe out a small country. An SSR beast can alter the geography of the world just by breathing."

Kairos felt a sudden chill run down his spine. "If an SSR beast actually wakes up," Terravarous added quietly, "The Kings of the world stop their petty wars. They form a united army. It requires tens of thousands of lives and multiple grand Generals just to defeat a SSR rank beast."

"And that’s not even the top," Ignis whispered, looking up at the dark cave ceiling.

Kairos asked with a confusing expression tracing on his face. "What is above SSR?"

"Demon-Tier," Ignis answered, "and finally... God-Tier."

Silence fell over the three boys.

"A Demon-Tier beast doesn’t just destroy things physically," Ignis explained slowly. "It corrupts reality. The very air around it becomes highly toxic. Magic completely fails in its presence. If a Demon-Tier aberration appears, it has the potential to destroy the entire continent. The rumors are heard that Algreth, the god of time is a demon-tier monster, but you managed to kill him. Until now I mocked you, but you are the strongest man alive across the kingdoms."

Ignis paused for a heartbeat and dropped a question. "How did you manage to kill that monster?"

Kairos stared at the dark rocks. His mind flashed back to the Crystal Colosseum. He vividly remembered the grey, airless world of stopped time. He remembered the crushing, suffocating presence of Algreth standing over the defeated dragons.

Demon-tier. No way, Algreth was definitely God-Tier, Kairos thought to himself, his heart beating a little faster. He could delete entire dimensions, and I killed him.

"I don’t know when he was trying to cut Pyrix, I managed to take a brutal hit on his vulnerable chest. That’s it, he was dead meat." Kairos covered up with a quiet lie.

Kairos tightly gripped the leather strap of Asteria. He suddenly realized exactly how lucky he had been. If the mysterious System hadn’t stepped in, if he hadn’t unlocked the Conqueror of Time title at the exact second, he would be dead right now.

Lucky bastard, gained name by luck. But he was not that powerful. Ignis thought to himself.

"Never, ever fight an SSR or anything above it alone, Kairos," Ignis said, looking directly into Kairos’s dark eyes. "I know you are strong, and also you are lucky. We all saw what you did in the arena. But the Calamity Ranks don’t care about swordsmanship or bravery. Luck doesn’t always lie with you. Fighting them solo is just a highly creative way to commit suicide."

Kairos looked at his two rival friends. They were genuinely worried about him. They were proud generals, but they clearly understood their own mortal limits.

"I won’t," Kairos lied smoothly, offering them a reassuring smile. "I promise. I’m just a normal guy who got lucky with a silver sword given by your dearest sister."

[SYSTEM ALERT: HOST DETECTED LYING. YOUR EGO IS CURRENTLY GROWING AT A HIGH RATE.]

Shut up, Blackout, Kairos scolded in his mind.

Terravarous loudly clapped his hands together, breaking the dark tension in the room.

"Enough scary campfire stories," Terravarous rumbled, standing up to his towering height. The pouch of glowing blue crystals jingled loudly on his belt. "The sun is up outside. We have efficiently cleared this D-Rank hole. Let’s head back to the outer district and sell this loot. I am hungry."

Ignis stood back to his feet, his spiky red hair shimmering brightly again. His arrogant grin returned to his face.

"Finally!" Ignis shouted, stretching his arms high. "I want to eat ten plates of roasted meat! And Kairos is officially paying for breakfast today since he was four minutes late!"

"Wait, what?" Kairos protested loudly, standing up from the rock. "That’s completely unfair! I barely even have any gold coins left!"

"Not my problem, boy!" Ignis laughed loudly, walking toward the exit. "The first one back to the city gets to order the most expensive food!"

Terravarous let out a laugh and walked after his arrogant brother Ignis.

Kairos just stood there for a brief moment, watching his friends walk ahead into the morning light. He smiled genuinely. The heavy burden of his secret power, the scary warnings about the Calamity beasts, and the brutal memory of the Demon God slowly faded to the back of his mind. Right now, he was just a boy hanging out with his friends.

He quickly adjusted Asteria on his back and sprinted after them.

"Hey, wait up!" Kairos yelled, his splashing through a shallow puddle. "You guys better not order the spicy dragon ribs again! I literally couldn’t feel my tongue for three days last time!"

The three young generals exited the dark, pungent smelling dungeon, walking proudly out into the bright, morning sunlight of the Solaris Kingdom. They were unaware that far across the continent, in the windy Kingdom of Zephyros, a very much darker kind of shadow was already waiting in the night.