Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

"Leonidas, your stuff really came in handy. I love it. I owe you one."

Orion made his acknowledgment to Leonidas in the Champions Alliance channel, immediately scoring points with everyone. As for Arthas—given their relationship, Orion figured it would be better to chat privately if anything needed clearing up.

Leonidas: "Hahaha… I like your style, unlike some boney old coot who's been lurking around for god knows how many years."

Arthas: "Hey, buddy, that kind of insinuation is a nasty habit."

While Leonidas and Arthas were sniping at each other, Orion was accepting trades from Deputy Commander Edward, Alexander, and Kraken.

Deputy Commander Edward sent Orion a magic scroll with a word of caution:

"This thing was difficult to craft. Don't use it lightly."

Orion thanked him and examined the scroll. A glance was all it took to make Orion's hands tremble: the magic scroll contained a large-scale forbidden spell.

"Deputy Commander's not messing around," Orion muttered.

Nor was it just Edward—Alexander and Kraken both sent over gifts, too. Alexander gave him a gold token. Orion studied it for a moment, unable to figure out its use. Still, since it was a gift, he thanked Alexander politely and put the token away.

"I'm not as loaded as the other top dogs in the alliance," Alexander wrote. "Hope you find this useful anyway."

Finally it was Kraken's turn. He sent Orion ten thousand sets of finely crafted armor. As Orion inspected the armor—matching style, well-made—his eyes half-closed in satisfaction.

To be honest, Orion had opened plenty of normal Survivor's Chests, which yielded loads of gear, but the designs and quality were all over the place. This one consistent shipment of top-grade armor from Kraken would fill the Horde's gap in producing high-tier plate.

Not only could Orion equip his ranks right away, he could also hand some sets over to the Bureau of Weapons so the artisans could study the craftsmanship and upgrade the Horde's own production. Of course, to do that, he'd have to push them to track down all the mineral resources in the territory and start mining ASAP.

"These are awesome—I really appreciate it," wrote Orion.

"No sweat," Kraken replied. "It's the rule in Champions Alliance. Every older member has to give a gift to a newcomer."

Hearing "Champions Alliance" and "rules," Orion fell silent.

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Unknown Realm, somewhere on the high seas.

A colossal primeval octopus lurked in the deep, nestled inside a natural undersea cave. The creature's tentacles sprawled out in all directions, sensing its surroundings. It opened its eyes with an uncanny rasping sound.

"Good thing I just knocked over that fleet. Otherwise, I'd have nothing to hand over as a welcome gift. Another ally in the group, recommended by Arthas, apparently with a ton of potential. Maybe in a while I can reach out—see if I can get my feelers on stuff to help build my underwater world. Finally, I'm not the weakest link in the team now!"

This massive octopus was none other than Kraken from the Champions Alliance. Born into the race of giant octopi, he'd been borderline lucky—just hitting adulthood pushed him straight to Alpha-level.

"And now another clueless band of pirates is sailing into my territory… wonder if there's anything valuable on board."

Muttering to himself, Kraken shrank his body and slipped away toward the direction of the pirate fleet, silent as the deep.

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Back in Blackstone City, the Champions Alliance channel soon returned to calm. The verbal sparring between Arthas and Leonidas eventually fizzled out. Leonidas also gave Orion a special present, something clearly valuable.

"Bro," Leonidas said, "I've heard all about you from that damn skeleton for ages. We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other better."

Orion already felt good about Leonidas, not least because of the items that Arthas had acquired from him earlier.

"I appreciate your help when that beast horde was attacking our city," Orion told him.

Leonidas immediately caught on and looked pleased that his gift had been worth it. The two then chatted a while longer, easing into each other's orbits. When they finished, a message finally popped up from Arthas:

"I bet you've got tons of questions. Before I give you my 'welcome' gift, go ahead and ask."

This was exactly what Orion had been waiting for:

"Bro, what is the Champions Alliance, exactly? Now that I've joined, are there specific obligations?"

Arthas promptly sent a reply, explaining the alliance's origins:
Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

"The Champions Alliance is basically a loose coalition. The people and connections in here—use them or don't. No one's going to hassle you. But remember one thing: if you do partner up with folks in the group, you're not allowed to screw your allies over. Otherwise, you'll end up on the alliance's hit list."

He paused, presumably deciding how much inside info to share, then continued:

"It was founded by our commander, Thresh—a demigod. He's probably in some deep slumber right now, so you won't be meeting him. But keep him in mind if you ever think about betraying us or breaking alliance rules. In this age where gods can't manifest in person, demigods are basically the top powers around."

Orion was stunned. So the Champions Alliance commander was a demigod—the absolute strongest beneath the gods themselves.

"One more heads-up," Arthas wrote. "Aside from you and Kraken, who are both lords at the Legendary level, the rest are arch lords. Some might even be borderline demigods."

Orion couldn't help but suck in a breath, suddenly feeling as if his worldview just got another major expansion.

Arthas was basically telling him that beyond Orion himself, plus Kraken, and of course Arthas too, the others—like Deputy Commander Edward, Leonidas, Alexander—were all arch lords, maybe even nearly demigods.

"Thanks," Orion wrote back, pouring all his shock, relief, and excitement into that single word. For him, it was a profound stroke of luck to join such a lofty circle.

"No worries," Arthas told him. "In my world, everything's a two-way street. I could invite you in because there's something about you I find useful—and something you might be able to do for me."

He went quiet for another beat before sending another message:

"So, Hulk… mind if I ask something straight out? How come the transcendent power you used just now isn't blood-attribute?"

Sure enough, Arthas had picked up on some of Orion's secrets.

Orion mulled it over, then decided to come clean.

"In truth, I ran into a stroke of luck before I reached Legendary level. I managed to kill a lord and got my hands on a Lord's Stone."

He wasn't lying; there was no reason to hide it. Arthas, for his part, didn't act suspicious at all. It seemed that wasn't what he really cared about—he had an ulterior motive.

"So," Arthas asked, "you've already started building your territory, right?"

Orion let out a small sigh.

"Yeah, the Lord's Stone I used to build my territory is the one I bought from you."

As soon as he sent that reply, a certain weight lifted off Orion's chest.

"Hahaha, Hulk, my friend, now I have some real hope for you!"

Arthas's message came in alongside a new trade request. The items transferred to Orion were three miniature buildings—two arrow towers and one tavern.

"I bet you need these real bad," Arthas commented.

Orion already understood arrow towers; he'd merged all his existing ones into his territory core earlier. He hadn't expected Arthas to be so generous as to give him two more. The tavern, though, left him puzzled.

"Bro, what's the tavern for?"

If he didn't know, he'd better ask—no sense in stumbling around.

"For you, it's a way to attract outsiders," Arthas explained. "To the rangers or drifters in your world, a tavern might be the perfect sanctuary. Put simply, once you build a tavern in your territory, it'll draw some powerful free agents. But whether you can actually recruit them—I can't help you there. You'll just have to see how good you are at winning them over."

Hearing all that, Orion's heart started hammering. A tavern was basically a magnet for adventurers. He was well aware of how vital that could be.

"This is pretty uncommon," Arthas went on, "but every territory can only host a single tavern. For me, it's basically just another fancy bargaining chip; for you, though, it's priceless. What do you say? Worth owing me a favor?"

Reading that, Orion couldn't help a wry smile. He'd been on the verge of asking why Arthas didn't just use it himself, but before he could speak up, Arthas guessed his thoughts and offered an explanation.

Through that, Orion gained a deeper understanding of this undead ally—and their bond grew stronger.

"Bro," Orion said, "you're joking, right? Of course I'll remember this favor."

"Hahaha, a favor's a favor. But we're buddies, and I'd rather see good stuff go to someone I actually like."

"Thank you."

How many times had Orion said "thanks" today? Each time he genuinely meant it. He could sense that since he joined the Champions Alliance, Arthas had grown way more open and friendly—like he'd taken the initiative to sprint toward Orion.

That was pretty different from his old self: in the past, Arthas never would've gone out of his way to help Orion deal with problems. But now he was just casually teaching Orion all kinds of stuff, like a real friend.

"Alexander gave you a gold token, right?"

After a brief pause, Arthas sent another message.

"Yeah. I'm not sure what it does, though."

"Well, now that you can build your territory—when you decide you're ready to bring in an outside faction, have a chat with Alexander."

"Understood."

From that, Orion more or less figured out the gold token's purpose. At the moment, though, he didn't plan to open his territory up to outsiders. Better to hunker down and get stronger first—that was Orion's most honest impulse. And no matter how friendly Alexander seemed as an arch lord, Orion couldn't just shelve all caution.

He took the initiative to end his chat with Arthas, having gotten more than enough rewards and intel for one day. He needed time to process it all.

––––––––––––––––––––––––

Necro Realm, the Bone Throne.

Arthas pulled out a crystal core, popped it into his mouth, and crunched it to pieces. Whenever he felt emotionally stirred, he had a weird habit of chewing on crystal cores or other tough minerals. After finishing one entire core, he was calm and stone-faced again.

"An Alpha-level killing a Legendary lord—just some random lucky break? Sure. Only an idiot would buy that."

"Still, never saw it coming that Hulk would truly become Lord and kick off territory construction so quickly. His world must be loaded with resources…"

Arthas was in a good mood. A genuine ally he'd been eyeing and assisting had finally found his footing, instead of getting wiped out halfway like so many other upstart survivors.

Yes, these survivors all had the Survivor's Platform, but other forces in this massive world had their own natural edges.

Getting from zero to Legendary level was a brutal grind, requiring them to risk their lives repeatedly. Arthas and everyone else in the Champions Alliance had gone through that kind of mortal struggle to reach their current status.

Sometimes, you had to stake both your life and future on the line to seize any real chance at tomorrow.