Infinite Realm

[[ System notification :

Wide-Scale Announcement 

Region level: Worldwide server

The first-ever dungeon has officially been unlocked in Black Rock Province, Fallen Heart Kingdom, Main Continent.

Dungeon privileges and new entries have been activated.

Rankings have been unlocked.

[Dungeon Rankings] has been unlocked.

[Golden Fingers Rankings] has been unlocked.

[One Above All Rankings] has been unlocked.

For more information, go to the [Rankings] menu.

]]

[[ Ranking Menu :

[One above All] : Let your glory be known by all who walketh the earth.

This ranking entails the list of the top 1000 highest levelled players at the moment. It covers players on all servers and displays their names on all servers. 

You can deactivate the display function and your name wouldn't be shown on the list.

_____________________________

[Golden Fingers] : He who possesses Midas' touch cannot be left unknown.

This ranking entails the list of the top 100 richest players at the moment. It covers players of all servers and displays their names on all servers.

It only calculates finances that personally belong to the said player and not a group of players.

You can deactivate the display function and your name wouldn't be shown on the list.

_____________________________

[Dungeon Rankings] : The forerunner makes his mark.

This ranking entails the leader-board for a dungeon's completion. It is specific to each region's server and contains the rankings, progress, and achievement of each team for every dungeon in the region.

Team Party leader can deactivate the display function and your name wouldn't be shown on the list.

]]

'So these are the rankings…'

With Sato's victory over the temple guardian puppet, the dungeon feature in IR was officially unveiled alongside the various ranking lists. 

Apart from satisfying one's ego and pride, the rankings acted as a form of free advertisement for various guilds and players. Guilds could show off their strength based on their dungeon performance recorded and ranked on the [Dungeon Rankings] list while players could show off their strength on the [One Above All] list.

The advantage for guilds would be that their name would be lauded in places and players would be swarming in to get a share of the glory. This meant that their recruiting speed would increase and the quality and numbers of payers in their league would rise. 

For players, especially solo players, being ranked on the [One Above All] rankings meant that they would be approached by various guilds and clubs with lucrative offers. They could easily make it to the ranks of core members without having to take any recruitment test because their achievements would be visible for all to see.

"This is where the real competition begins." Sato sighed.

With the opening of the dungeons as well as the release of the rankings, battles in IR will get more heated and guild clashes would become even more common. Dark players would be less cautious and more daring while independent players and unofficial clubs would take to the guilds more rampantly.

'I still have a shot at this. Not a lot of players have made it to level 10 so we could reap more benefit before they do.'

Sato immediately wet to his friend list and sent a message to Fudo and Xue Yan, wanting to know how much progress the others have made as well as any updates on the various guilds.

Once he had sent the messages, Sato didn't wait for a reply but set his focus once again on the dungeon in front of him.

'Now, should I check it out or not.'

Staring at the spinning black-hole in front of him, Sato began contemplating his next series of actions.

While it was true that dungeons were more of team battles, players could actually enter some of them alone in some VR games. Sato wondered whether the same could be applied here. While he wasn't OP enough to solo a dungeon, Sato believed that he could explore a part of it on his own before dying. The reward bonus was juicy and it could offset any loss from death as well as still raise his experience points up by a sizeable amount. 

In any way Sato looked at it, the gains were okay.

'It depends on the dungeon's level though. I'm guessing it should be a level 10 dungeon.'

Approaching the wide blackhole, Sato stretched an arm out to feel it when he suddenly felt as if he was barricaded by a wall.

[[ System notification :

You have to be in a party of at least 5 players, with an average level of level 12 to access this dungeon. ]]

'An average level of level 12? looks like this dungeon won't be so simple.' Sato narrowed his eyes.

If the average acceptable level was a level 12, it meant that the BOSS of the dungeon would most likely be above level 15 and might even be level 20.

'We will need a lot of preparations for this.'

Since he could no longer access the dungeon and he had already explored all the doors in the temple, Sato then exited the place through the same entrance he had arrived from, appearing once more at the cliff he previously stood before. 

'This discovery has affected my plans. Looks like I won't be able to stay here for as long as I had thought.'

Sato's original plan was to spend a week leveling up here why also mining minerals to improve on his blacksmith skills in preparation for the Apprentice blacksmith tournament. But with the discovery of this dungeon, he would have to spend less time than planned and focus more on exploring the city to reap more benefits just before more players arrive.

'There are always little surprise packages hidden all over. The first batch of players to make it here would probably be like me; heading over to resource maps to check it out. Very few would bother about exploring the town as they're all focused on their strength and this would become more so with the system announcement. This means that I still have a shot at it.'

Reaching that conclusion, Sato then knitted his brows.

'In that case, returning to town now would be the best course of action. But I just can't go back empty-handed.'

Arriving in a dilemma, Sato sighed and was just about to return to town when he heard a strange call.