Kayla asked. "How did he get so much stronger?"
"I know why he might draw in a fight with you. But I don't know how he became capable of such a feat. It is all in skills. The battle sages are a divine race well renowned on the ancient battlefield because of their mastery of weapons. The most iconic members of our race are the sages. They used their skills to bring down larger and much stronger foes. They created the pathway of weapon mastery that allowed mana entities to mimic the powers of titans and Sovereigns. There are other pathways of weapon mastery but the battle sage are the best at it. They were so good at it that the sages killed dragons."
She wasn't done yet. "I know what you're going through. You have an advantage to rely on and yet, your divine ability only gets you a draw. But you have to face kids like Soverick while your agemates with bloodlines have gone far ahead of you. Still, you have to continue. It is not a race. Being fast doesn't mean they will finish fast, they might die faster than you. You will get there. as long as you persist."
The platform returned to silence as both physical and mental transmissions stopped. They rode the platform across the plane until they reached the location of the divine dungeon. They were noticed as soon as they entered a 10km radius of the dungeon. A sovereign's Powerful divine sense enveloped them.
"Stop right there." The Sovereign commanded.
The world congealed around them with the command. It would take a single thought from the Sovereign to turn the world against them. Thankfully there was no need for that. Mihila stopped and Soverick raised his identification token. It was a card engraved with encrypted runes.
"Wait a moment." The Sovereign said.
Then a wave of energy swept their location. When it met the token, it caused the token to glow.
"Confirmed. You are granted passage."
Then the divine sense was gone and the world returned to normal. They continued on and saw more patrols consisting of transcendents.
"This thing is more serious than I thought. They even have a sovereign scanning the premises." Kayla said.
"Of course it's serious. It will determine the fate of the plane. It is also dangerous." Mihila said to Kayla but everyone knew she was talking to Soverick. Soverick chose to ignore her.
"It is very dangerous. The little I heard about it on the web said that people are dying in there. Talent and potential doesn't mean strength."
She continued to say more discouraging things to change Soverick's mind. Soverick continued to ignore her. That went on until they reached the Leviathan Battle Star.
"Wow, so big. So cool." Kayla gushed when she saw the Titanic floating structure. It was levitating just about 100m above the ground. It was like a giant floating ship.
'Country bumpkin.' Soverick thought to himself.
It is people like Kayla that the racial council are stopping from entering the divine dungeon. They can be easily impressed. The offer of God king is highly likely to convince someone like Kayla who is only aiming for transcendence. Those with royal bloodlines won't be convinced easily because they are aware of a greater power.
Someone reached out to them and directed them to where to get off. It was a transcendent. Most of the workforce on the Leviathan Battle Star were transcendents and golems. A golem received them and brought them to a large towering building. Soverick performed registration and they were further directed to a large hall within the building.
"There is a meeting going on right now that you must attend. Here is the latest information we know."
The golem passed him a memory crystal on their way to the meeting. It contained detailed information about the dungeon, their attempts at clearing it, and their progress.
'Hmm. So this is what a divine dungeon is.'
He knew what a dungeon is. He had been given some information about the divine dungeon before he came here but it was mainly about why it was created and for what reason. He didn't know the inner workings and mechanism. That aside, they hadn't made any progress yet. The first step is always the hardest but this divine dungeon made it very difficult.
The first step required the forces of the plane to make a steady starting point on the first level of the dungeon. But the host of angels there will throw everything they have at the first person to enter the dungeon. They always killed that person before reinforcements arrive. It's like smashing eggs on a rock. The defending Angels were the rock and the attackers were the eggs.
The report stated that the angels might be more than a million in number. They can't all attack at once but a hundred at a time is very feasible. The youths of the families were having problems withstanding a barrage of attacks like that. These youths are the best that the plane can offer. They all have awakened bloodlines of high purity. Things would have been different if they were mana entities. They would gain access to instant spell casting and their divine abilities. Divine abilities can make a lot of difference.
The memory crystal crumbled when he was done with it. It was a single-use device.
"Aww, I wanted to read that," Kayla complained.
The golem explained. "It contains highly restricted information that only authorized individuals can read. You are not authorized."
Kayla turned to Soverick. "What does it say?"
The golem chimed. "You are not authorized to share restricted information with unauthorized individuals."
Soverick answered. "That they are not making any progress."
The golem didn't react because he didn't share the important stuff.
"That can't be all. Tell me more." Kayla complained again.
Soverick told her. "Sorry. But you are not authorized."
Kayla sulked all the way to the hall. She almost threw a tantrum when they were refused access to the hall. Mihila claimed that she was Soverick's mother, so they made her sign a contract and allowed her to view the meeting from above. She wasn't allowed to interfere in the meeting. Kayla sighed the contract too.
They agreed not to leak any information they acquire to anyone and anything, through anything. They also wouldn't interfere with the process in any way, beneficial or detrimental, voluntarily or involuntarily, unknowingly or knowingly. The contract was very thorough and binding.
Soverick entered the hall and he saw a sea of vitality core stage youths. It was a big hall, probably a kilometer long and wide.
"Of course, the space is enchanted. But how can the ship carry this many people?" He wondered.
There were hundreds of thousands of youths from various families here. The hall was demarcated into sections based on families. He followed the blinking direction in the token to trace the section for the Ghastorix family. Their section had about a thousand youths.
"This is all we can offer? Impressive."
A big family like the Ghastorix family has only a small proportion of their population belonging to the young ones. It's what happens when people don't die and fertility reduces with Strength.
It becomes even rarer to have more youths when the requirement for having kids in the family is becoming a transcendent. Being a transcendent parent will increase the chance of passing on the bloodline with high purity. But not all transcendents are allowed to give birth. Only those that have performed feats and have proven themselves are allowed. This will ensure only talented or hardworking people get to be parents.
People can have kids outside the family, but unless the kids are special or have high bloodline purity, they will not be accepted by the family. The kids won't have easy access to the academic facilities and the facilities of the family. That can change if the kids grow up and prove themselves worthy.
So it was impressive that the Ghastorix family could field a thousand high-quality youths. These youths came from all the cities that belonged to the family in the plane and on the ancient battlefield.
Soverick's presence drew attention. His golden fur and multicolored eyes always drew attention to him.
They assessed him as he walked by. The way he walked didn't make sense and the fact that he was here implied that he wasn't a pushover. No family will send a weakling to this event and risk embarrassing themselves.
He sat on the first seat he reached and paid attention to the argument going in on the dais at the center of the hall. There was a large screen within each section with audio that informed everyone of what was going on.
There isn't a single adult in this hall. Only youths and none of them have reached the mana entity stage. The adults left the decision-making to the kids. These kids from various families must make plans and decide how to clear the dungeon all on their own. That's why the hall is so chaotic.
The first problem they are facing is the problem of leadership. While most of these youths are content with sitting and waiting for orders, some youths believe they should have a say in giving out those orders. Imagine young battle sage monkeys, heavily influenced by their bloodline, proud and sure of themselves because of their ancestors, packed into a room without supervision. Then you tell them to choose a leader. The violent argument going on at the dais is just a mild reaction.