Ambition

But this just made life much easier for Dante and much harder for the rest of the clan.

Dante couldn't get lost in his thoughts he was still in a fight after all and although his passives granted him high resistance to certain elemental attacks that didn't mean physical attacks wouldn't hurt him.

Breaking out of his thoughts Dante looked towards the young man who was still in shock that he had not been touched by such a fierce explosion at such close proximity.

"How… how are you not even touched by such an attack at close range" asked the young man in amazement

But all he received was a plain smile from Dante as he burst into a dazzling silver light

"Lunar Sword technique, crescent moon!"

As he said those words Dante swung his sword in a circular motion releasing a curved blade of pure moonlight energy towards the young man.

"Boom!"

Sensing the approaching attack the young man dived out the way avoiding the terrifying blast.

But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard a sound that made his heart sink.

"Crescent Moon!"

Before he could react two shining crescent blades of energy started hurtling towards the young man

"Boom! Boom!"

This time it was unfortunately too late for the young man to dodge this time as he was sent flying and hurtling across the ground.

Seeing that his opponent was completely defeated Dante was about to call out his next challenge but before he could he was stopped.

"Clap! Clap! Clap!"

Turning towards the origin of the sound Dante saw that Gawain, the strongest member of the younger generation, had approached him while clapping

"You really are talented Dante, to so easily defeat somebody in the 7th layer, two small realms above you, only shows how skilled you are. But if you think that's enough to claim the title of the strongest your surely mistaken"

"You took so long to defeat only one 7th layer cultivator, if you keep fighting everybody one by one it will only be a matter of time before your run out of energy."

After saying this he gradually approached Dante and spoke in a lower tone so the crowd wouldn't be able to hear.

"I'd hate to break it to you but It's a trap Dante, there was no chance of you winning right from the very start"

"How about this Dante? If you can defeat any of us in the top four you can still get resources from the clan but the amount you will get will be greatly reduced. But don't worry it's still better than the nothing you would get from being slowly worn down and defeated"

"You can't blame me, Dante, the resources you get have to come from somewhere meaning less for us you can't blame us for working against you?"

Dante was in a tough spot.

He had thought he was in complete control and could easily use this challenge to gather the support of the clan but instead, he seemed to have simply walked into the trap of Grand elder Harrison.

But instead of feeling despair or panic he had expected to feel, Dante felt something else. Ambition!

Instead of seeing a hopeless loss, Dante saw a different way to establish himself as the undisputed strongest.

Instead of fighting 1 by 1, why not just fight everyone at once!

Dante didn't know if it may be due to his Dragon Souls or maybe due to the fact he felt like he could be something more in this life, but Dante felt a burning desire grow inside of him.

This desire made him want to change himself, a desire to be a ruler, a desire to completely control his own fate.

He wasn't the same person he used to be in his old life, slaving away as a seamless member of society blandly living out his monotonous process of work, eat, sleep, repeat. instead in this life, he had the talent to truly be somebody and the backing of his family to support.

If he really wanted to be something, he would have to take it with his own hands.

The only thing stopping his ambition was the lack of action from himself.

After thinking this, there was a new ambition inside of Dante, and with that renewed ambition he turned towards Gawain and gave his own proposal

"How about we do it like this? Why not just let me fight all of you at once, that way it won't be possible for you to slowly drain me of energy"

Hearing his proposal Gawain's face turned into an unpleasant smile

"Fight all 30 of us at once! Dante, I don't know if your too arrogant or just look down on us that much but it's not possible for you to fight us all at once !"

Hearing Gawain's displeased shout the crowd of spectators burst into an uproar

"Fight a 30 v 1 I don't care talented he is, his pride caused him to underestimate his opponents"

"I told you, he's just too arrogant. he really needs to be humbled before his pride gets out of control"

But before the discussions could continue the patriarch spoke out

"If Dante wants to fight all of you at once, he has every right to do so"

"since he was the one who started the challenge in the first place, he can choose who he fights and what he wants to do"