New Teammates
"Shut up!" Ariel gritted her teeth.
Bruce stood up from the bed and got close to Ariel. He looked at her beautiful green eyes and smiled.
"Why are you offended when someone compliments you?"
"I don't need compliments from anyone, especially from you!" Ariel looked at Bruce coldly.
Seeing that the beautiful angel has yet to warm up to him, Bruce shook his head and asked her some questions.
"I just woke up from the previous match. What team are you talking about?"
Ariel no longer sensed the casual tone in his voice. She walked away as she explained the situation to Bruce.
"In the Eastern Faction, Divine Emperors are split into teams"
"I am heading a team of my own and I want you to be one of its members"
Bruce hastily followed the angel and then realized that she had broken through Divine Emperor. He couldn't help but be amazed by her talents once again.
"Amazing, you broke through Divine Emperor after our fight"
For some reason, Ariel didn't feel disgusted by Bruce's comment.
"I gained quite a bit from our fight and managed to break through to Divine Emperor" Ariel lightly nodded.
"We should have a rematch when I reach Divine Emperor" Bruce smiled.
"The result won't change" Ariel shook her head.
"If it did, what would you do?" Bruce smirked.
Ariel turned around and faced Bruce. She looked into his eyes and found that he was completely serious about defeating her.
"I would do nothing but get stronger. In life, victory and defeat are natural"
"Those who are obsessed with victories are doomed to fall"
Ariel continued to walk back to the team's meeting room without saying another word to Bruce.
'So, you must have been defeated for you to be sent to the Nether Realm' Bruce was glad he learned something more about Ariel.
The two arrived at a large room capable of holding 50 people. Ariel opened a door and Bruce was greeted with stares from three people. A middle-aged lady with horns on her head and two men with white wings on their backs. It appeared that demons and angels can work together in the Nether Realm.
Interestingly enough, all three of them were at Late Stage Divine Emperor. Ariel managed to convince the three to join her team with her Early Stage Divine Emperor cultivation.
"Team Leader, why did you pick this weakling?" One of the men asked.
"Are you questioning my judgement?" Ariel stared coldly at the man.
"I'm just curious, that's all" The man softened his voice when he met a deadly stare from Ariel.
"He has great potential and will be an asset to the team"
Ariel moved past everyone and headed toward the front of the table.
Bruce was happy that Ariel recognized his talent and sat in one of the seats. The other three members didn't seem to accept him, but they didn't want to anger Ariel either. So, they chose to sit down without raising any complaints.
Ariel began to discuss the objective of the meeting.
"I have taken a mission on behalf of the team today"
"We will leave tomorrow to a cliff located in the southern region of The Abyss"
"The goal of the mission is to obtain the corpse of the thunder-winged tiger"
Everyone but Bruce gasped when they heard the details of the mission.
"Team Leader, what is the difficulty of this mission?" The horned lady asked.
"The mission is rated S in difficulty" Ariel replied with no hesitation.
"I'm not sure if we'll be able to complete this mission with our current powers" The man glanced at Bruce.
Bruce was quite ticked off that the damned bird kept insulting him. However, he knew that he could not defeat the stupid bird until he reaches at least Late Stage Divine King so he kept his mouth shut.
A wise man once said that it's never too late to have your revenge.
"I suggest that we recruit more people to the team before taking this mission"
"No, that won't be necessary" Ariel immediately shut down the idea.
"The rewards will be split between the contributing members"
"The more people in the mission, the fewer rewards everyone gets"
"The reward for this mission will be 5000 profound energy cubes!"
The three Divine Emperors gasped when Ariel announced the reward
"Team Leader, are you serious?" The angel man trembled.
"This mission is important to the Eastern Faction and the rewards will be high"
"I have already confirmed the rewards with the Faction Leader"
"As a matter of fact, I told him about my intention of taking the Divine King over there to the mission"
"Since he didn't oppose the idea, I don't see why you three should have any concerns" Ariel slammed the table.
It was crucial for everyone on the team to trust one another. She predicted that the three members will not be welcoming to Bruce because they thought that he would drag everyone down. However, only she knew the extent of Bruce's combat prowess.
Once he reaches the Divine Emperor realm, he would be a terrifying cultivator. She wanted to snatch him before anyone else could.
The three Divine Emperor members finally accepted Bruce since both the Team Leader and the Faction Leader had recommended him to the team.
"The meeting is now over. We will meet here tomorrow and begin the mission" Ariel left the room leaving Bruce with the other three members.
Bruce coughed lightly indicating the awkwardness in the atmosphere.
"Number 4, you better not drag us down in this mission" The horned lady said.
"Even though we are obligated by the faction rules to not attack a fellow member, don't think that we will save you if you get yourself into deadly situations" The angel man coldly stated.
Bruce ignored all the threats as he was focused on his new name, Number 4.
"Why are you calling me Number 4?" Bruce asked.
"People die in Nether Realm every day like flies. Knowing someone's name here is bothersome since he or she could die at any moment" The other angel man explained.
"I'm Number 1"
"She's Number 2"
"He's Number 3"
"So that's why I'm number 4" Bruce nodded.
"We will certainly face off against other Late Stage Divine Emperors in the mission"
"If you know what's good for you, then drop out of the team" Number 3 said before leaving the room.
'Yeah, what's good for me is knocking your stupid ass out' Bruce was quite pissed at his new teammates, but he knew that if he were in their shoes, he would be skeptical as well.
Death is everywhere in the Nether Realm. No one wants to decrease their chances of surviving by having a weak teammate.
Bruce left the room and went to his designated new home. A small house located in a corner of the Eastern Faction. One can obtain a bigger house and better living environments by buying a house with faction points.
As a starting grunt in the Eastern Faction, Bruce only had 1000 faction points to his name. As the second rank in the recruit assessment, he automatically obtains 5000 faction points every month as long as he completes a mission once in a while.
He would need around 50,000 faction points to purchase a Divine Emperor equipment. For profound energy cubes, he would need 100 points to exchange for one.
When Bonta gave him the profound energy cube to look at, he felt its immense energy. By his estimate, he would need 1000 profound energy cubes to break through to High Stage Divine King.
With his measly faction points, he would have to complete intermediate missions for a couple of years before he could rank up. He couldn't help but be thankful for the Monarch. It would be much more difficult for him to breakthrough in his world due to lack of resources and battle experiences.
Bruce exchanged all 1000 points for a rune magic theory textbook. He found the textbook to contain much more in-depth explanations about rune magic than the literature in his world. Regarding runes magic, he was currently at the novice level. He had spent much of his time on cultivation and martial arts.
After seeing what the Monarch did to bring him to this realm, Bruce realized that runes magic is way more important than most people realized. It is probably due to a lack of powerful runemasters on the continent that cause people to ignore runes magic.
He was confident that the Monarch could easily destroy the entire world using runes alone. Even bending the laws of the universe was within his capacity through the use of runes magic.
That night, Bruce began to read through the textbook to gain a more in-depth knowledge of runes magic. His goal was to reach the Master level before leaving the Nether Realm.