The four alliances

The tiny red bottles went up for sale one after another and each time, different monsters would react to the blood they contained. In the end, it was time for the 100th item, the final item provided by the system.

Five was excited, he was only able to see the information of each tenth item as they were monsters but this time was different. The monster that came up was actually an egg. The shell was blue and red; giving it an alien-like appearance.

Contrary to FIve's expectations, this time, the system treated the egg like any other items. It blurred all the relevant information about it.

"Such a stingy system. The host could have at least given a small description," commented Five. He chose to ignore the egg despite the excitement that appeared on the dungeon masters' face.

A few minutes later, the egg was sold for an unprecedented bid of 28 billion. Five gasped as he thought about how many floors he could build with that much DP.

"The first part of our auction has come to an end. I hope that you enjoyed it. Please do not hesitate to leave us your feedback. We shall now proceed into the second part of the auction which will involve the items your colleagues wanted to auction."

Amour waved his hand as a purple monster made its way to the platform. Five could once again see the information of the monster but he did not bother to look at the monster. He was mentally exhausted. There was no point in looking at things he could not buy. He could already obtain all the information he needed about the monsters in the dungeon shop interface.

The auction has already been going on for almost four hours. There had been no breaks between the items. A few items were sold in a lot which hastened the process but the whole auction still took a lot of time.

Five knew he would not be able to purchase anything today. He was already having a headache from having watched the hologram's constantly changing number for hours. He just wished that the auction would be over soon and that tomorrow's auction would not take that long.

The entire first auction had been completely pointless to Five. The game was not as forgiving as he thought; without DP, he would not be able to achieve much. The other players were not very different; they also considered the first auction a waste of time but at least, they obtained the opportunity to meet their mentors again.

The auction came to an end and without asking for anything else, Five quickly got up and walked out of the room.

"Wait a minute. My master would like to talk to you."

Before Five could leave, a silhouette stepped in front of him, blocking the way. It was the Dryad, one of Kroff's monsters.

"Not interested. There is nothing to say between us. I won't join the Cyclone Alliance."

Five stepped to the side, avoiding the Dryad. She looked like a child as she raised her hands trying to block him.

"Really? Are you not making a hasty decision? You do not even know the terms and conditions of joining the Cyclone Alliance."

Another voice sounded behind Five but it was not the one he expected. It was not the monotonous elderly voice of Kroff. The speaker sounded younger and more naive.

"Who are you?" Five looked toward the speaker.

A short teenager was standing there accompanied by 5 other dungeon masters, including Kroff. He was the youngest out of the group. The teenager was quite handsome; his most attractive feature was definitely his blazing red hair.

"My name is Shercliff. If you don't mind, shall we move to a more private area to speak?" said the red-haired man. He innocently smiled, looking completely unfazed by the strange stares he was receiving.

'Shercliff? I've heard of this name before...' Five rummaged through his brain until he recalled where he had heard of this name. Shercliff was the name of the leader of the Cyclone Alliance. He was the dungeon master who mingled with the humans and earned the title of Duke in the Millenium Empire.

'How can a shorty like that be a duke? D*mn...' thought Five. He briefly looked at Shercliff and answered, "If you have something to say, just say it here. I won't go anywhere out of sight with you where I'll be at risk."

At Five's side, Angela uncomfortably bit her lips. She could feel the stares of the dungeon masters and their monsters. All the monsters were strong intimidating; she would not stand a chance against them. Furthermore, as they noticed the commotion, all the neighboring dungeon masters also started to look in their direction. Shercliff's red hair stood out of the crowd; everybody was curious why the leader of the Cyclone Alliance was interested in a newbie.

"Haha. But if we speak here, nothing will stop my competitors from making competitive offers. Since you started with Kroff, I will give you a chance to join the Cyclone Alliance again. Look at your performance until now, and look at my disciple here," said Shercliff and at the same time, he signaled a man to stepped forward.

The man had a nerdy look. His face was covered with acne. He was quite short and chubby but Five did not find him very menacing. The dungeon masters were all supposed to be criminals, but Five simply could not associate any form of crime with that man.

"This is Clark. Clark, show him your bracelet," said Duke Shercliff.

The nerdy man immediately obeyed. Five was taken by surprise when he saw that this man was so confident that he did not bother to hide his appearance. Five did not bother to look at this seat number but he did briefly check the amount of DP he had. It would be useful to compare how he was doing with someone who had joined an alliance.

"1.7 million. He did not get as much as I expected. It's a little above what I had before but he should have obtained quite a bit of help. Since he is the student of the leader of the alliance, I should expect that he is the one who received the most resources," said Five to himself.

Duke Shercliff smiled, "As you can see, Clark is quite successful. I won't reveal the details of his dungeon but he has been growing at a decent rate. He already has more than 10 floors! If you join us, we can at least double the current traffic at your dungeon. All we ask for you is that you swear loyalty to the Alliance and that you respond to our calls for arms in case of war or special operations."

Five frowned. Having 10 floors was quite impressive but his profit was not very high. Five only had 5 floors current generating DP but he was producing almost as much DP as Clark.

Before he could answer, another voice sounded from the side, "Tssk, Shortcliff! You are trying to scam youngsters into your Cyclone Alliance? Kid, I don't know about your situation with them but since you refused to join their alliance when you were Kroff's apprentice, I can see that something went wrong. Why don't you forget about them and join us instead? We are the Storm Alliance and we will offer better terms than Shortcliff."

"Did I not say to not call me Shortcliff? Abaran, you should stick to your own students. Stop poaching from others!" exclaimed Duke Shercliff. He stared at the newcomer with a firm expression.

"How is that poaching? You are the one who failed to recruit him. Look at Kroff, it is his student but it does not look like he is in favor of recruiting him. Kid, he is just trying to trick you. If you are not from the Dominion or Millenium Empire, don't bother to join them."

Five felt a headache as he watched the two dungeon masters argue in front of him. "Thanks for the offers but I won't join any alliances for now." He quickly walked away before the dungeon masters could say anything.

"Hmmp! That guy, how ignorant! We are giving him a lifeline but he did not even consider it. Such a waste!"

'This auction is quickly turning into a recruitment event... And it looks like I am not the only one. Several other dungeon masters refused to join the alliances and are now being invited again,' thought Five. As he walked through the hall toward the exit, Five could see several other players being stopped by dungeon masters. Even after rejecting Shercliff's offer, as he was walking, other dungeon masters also stepped forward to invite him.

'Do they think I am stupid? I can read between the lines. To have to answer their call for arms for each war... Isn't that the equivalent of asking me to act as cannon fodder?'

There was a total of four alliances. According to Harriet, the four leaders all originated from the Howling Abyss in the shadow realm. The Alliances were named after the divisions the demons belonged to before coming to zero: Cyclone, Tempest, Storm, and Hurricane.

All the alliances were powerful and existed throughout Zero but they all focused on particular empires. The Cyclone Empire focused on the Dominion Empire and the Millenium Empire. As for the Sylvester Empire where Five's dungeon was located, the prominent alliance there was the Tempest Alliance.

Five stepped out of the auction room and asked the devils for the directions to the beach. His head was heavy; all Five wanted right now was to relax and not have to think about anything. The best place to do that was the beach, away from all the dungeon masters.

"Sir, will you be interested in attending the friendly competition this evening? We are inviting all the dungeon masters staying at our hotel to compare their monsters in a spar at the arena," said the winged devil.

"Thank you for the invite, but I will pass on this one."

"As you wish." The winged devil quickly bowed and left.

Five lazily made his way to the beach followed by Angela. The silver-haired harpy remained quiet for the most part but Five did not blame her. Even he could feel the pressure exerted by the dungeon masters; they had clear hostile intentions. Five was well aware of Angela's shy character and her weaknesses.

The harpy was not fit for combat both physically and mentally. It would be useless to bring her to the arena this evening as it was almost certain she would be defeated. Furthermore, compared to the other monsters Five had seen, Angela was one of the weakest.

"This is the beach! One day, our dungeon will also have one."

Angela's eyes sparkled as she caught sight of the yellow sand beach. The waves constantly crashed against the shores. The beach was deserted and peaceful. In the distance, the sun was slowly setting, painting the sky and sea in orange.

Five nonchalantly stepped on the sand and walked toward the sea. On the other hand, Angela hesitantly stopped on the rock path. She tentatively touched the sand with her hands before following behind Five.

"It's so pretty. I wish my sisters could see this..."

Five nodded but did not answer. Instead, he lay down as the breeze was blowing against his face and closed his eyes. He did not want to think about anything for now. He just wanted a peaceful environment to rest for a while; the auction had been long and draining. Furthermore, there was nothing special with this beach; sure it was pretty, but it was very similar to any beaches of the real world.

While Five was unfazed by the beauty of the scenery, Angela was excited. She brightly smiled as she deployed her wings and started to fly around. She flew above the water, forming a trail behind her. It was the first time she was seeing the sea; to her, it was a unique experience.

...

"Kimmy! We are finally alone!"

As soon as they entered their room, a succubus excitedly swung her tail as she pounced on her cloaked mistress. She was still wearing the red cloak and the clown mask provided by the system.

The succubus playfully pushed the woman on one of the beds before she could remove the items. "The auction went on for so long! I thought it would never end. Tell me, did you find the person you are looking for?"

"Venus. I told you to stop doing that," answered the woman. She took out the red cloak and her mask and tossed them on the other bed.

"Stop rubbing me with your tail. The venue was just too big. I did not have the opportunity to look at everyone. Furthermore, if he is here, it is very likely that he was wearing the red cloak and the mask."

Venus smiled and hugged the woman, "It is fine. You have me. You don't need that Christopher."

The woman lightly laughed but her expression remained firm. "I thought I would get to see him if I came here but maybe it was just wishful thinking... I wonder where he is... If he is still alive."

"Stop thinking about this. Rest for a bit. Then, let's go and check out the competition with the other dungeon masters! I can beat those guys to the ground. If you want, I can even suck them dry afterward. We might get a few DP from this. Why not take advantage of the event?"