These worrying thoughts were further extinguished when Carly used her [Range] spell for the first time. Virtually none of the creatures Carly fought in her hundreds of laps around the loop had anything more than a modicum of arcane resistance. It made her arcane spells very effective. The [Range] spell had relatively good penetration despite the late stage she acquired it. It seemed like ages since the first day, and her developer benefactor steered her towards these obscured spells. It was worrying that she had not had any messages. Still, she could only focus on the task at hand, taking out the next mob.

The [Range] spell still significantly benefited from her days of effort since it leveraged off [Mana Construct Imagery]. Using the spell under the Spell Guidance System, Carly focused on condensing the mana into as tight a ball as she could without wasting excessive amounts of time with the process. Once Carly formed a mana ball the size of a marble, she finished the spell. It propelled forward at high speed to a target within her line of sight less than 20-meters away. The spell was very effective, punching through the skins low resistance and forcing its way deep into soft tissue before it dissipated. The arcane projectile could not be compared to a bullet. Where a bullet could deflect off a bone and tear apart, the mana ball maintained its form until it consumed all its fuel. That was a negative in terms of raw damage. Yet, where a bullet could lodge in a critical spot and block bleeding, extending life despite the damage it wrought, the mana ball vanished. In the end, Carly evaluated the mana ball as about half as effective as a bullet, while it traveled fast, it was far from a bullet's velocity, and that made all the difference.

With the first lap after her sleep was almost finished, Carly took her time dodging the initial spine attack and remaining evasive to the Jägerhounds claws and teeth. Fortunately, the spine shot is projected like a blow dart from a hollow bone structure under its jaw was a single-use attack. Carly assumed it must take a while for the creature to generate a new one, rather useless to it in this particular case since it would be long dead. The creature lunged, and Carly was able to step left, sliding away. While doing this, she deflected its head away and up creating the opening she was looking for. With perfect accuracy, she sent a straight right at the beast. The blade pierced deep into the jägerhounds throat before she ripped down and out severing jugular in a spray of blood. She spun, stradling and locking her legs on its body just before its hind legs. Carly wrapped her arms around its forelegs, giving it no chance to continue trying to attack. After half a minute in this hold, Carly then punched with her left hand into its rib cage to speed up the jägerhounds demise.

Activating the [Perfect Fit] rune, Carly took off her blade gauntlets. They were great for beating the crap out of stuff but awkward for everything else. Using her mana blade, Carly then cut and skun the hound's thighs while leaving the rest of the carcass on the floor of the loop. It would vanish by the time she got back to the same spot on the next lap. Taking gauntlets and thighs into the safe room, she started a cooking fire big enough to do both legs at the same time. Once everything was set to her satisfaction, Carly returned to the loop. On return from the completion of the lap, more wood was added to the fire. The meat was turned over before she went back out into the loop for another lap, returning for some breakfast. By this stage, the jägerhound thighs had been slowly cooking for around 90-minutes. Slicing a piece off and blowing on it for a few seconds before trying it, Carly was dissatisfied with the sinewy, dry meat. What could she expect though, the jägerhound were lithe with plenty of lean muscle and barely any fat. She chewed away mechanically, the meat would provide sustenance, and that was all that mattered. After having her fill, Carly decided it was time to check out how things were looking for her, starting with [Loop Data].

Loop Data   [Lap] 641 [Boundary Timer] 1,054:17 [Last Lap Time] 44:43 [Lap Position] 1 [Boundary Position] 37 [Remaining Competitors] 174

'Things are going along very nicely,' Carly thought. 'I have completed the most laps compared to everyone remaining despite resting for 4-hours. That is a damn fine lead I have over everyone else. I am obviously completing laps much faster than everyone else. Despite this, I am behind thirty-six other competitors in relation to the loop boundary. Though with 1,054-minutes up my sleeve and everything I want in terms of items, I feel plenty confident right now. Especially since I just got up after resting and only six people overtook me in those 4-hours.'

With a confident smile, she then checked her [Personal Status].

Carly Berkstead UIN: MT17347 Race: Human Variant: (-)

Personal Growth: Xxx: (-) DP: 89 Exp: 14,473

Dimensions: Height: 1682mm - (841 DP) Weight: 64150g - (1283 DP)

Vitals Pools: Regeneration per (min): Health: 2782 Health: 66 Endurance: 5200 Endurance: 520 Mana: 2450 Mana: 163

Vital Stats: Health [100] Vitality [100] Endurance [100] Stamina [200] Mana [300] Potential [300]

Physical Stats: Frame [160] Constitution [800] Strength [200] Speed [150] Agility [150] Dexterity [150] Reaction [150]

Magic Stats: Attunement [250] Control [250] Focus [250] Wisdom [250]

Utility Stats: Aptitude [100] Memory [100] xxxxx [x] xxxxx [x]

Survival Stats: Thirst [100] Hunger [100] Fatigue [98]

Resistances: Crush [50] Chop [50] Slash [50] Pierce [50] Caustic [60] Enzyme [40] Poison [60] Bacteria [35] Disease [30] Sound [50]

Personal Status Options: [General Settings] [System Notifications] [Vitals and Survival Bars] [Status Layout]

Carly could only shake her head in wonder. 'Imagine being like this in the real world. You could be the Olympic champion of everything.'

Carly did not add much to her [Strength]. She didn't need to with her rune empowered boots and blade gauntlets. Their damage was more than sufficient to get the job done. What mattered most to Carly stat-wise was always the minimising her downtime. Carly did that through four methods, her high [Constitution] stat, her now starting to become high [Agility] stat, her higher material gear, and her resistance to various damage types. The one damage type that could have mattered so far that she did not upgrade was venom. This was because she did not come across any more venomous creatures.

'It was too bad there were not more snakes or spiders along the way that I could milk for venom and speed up my leveling,' Carly thought. Indeed this exact fact was the reason why Carly had not come across more venomous creature types. Carly had not been alone in coming up with the idea of using the venom on a weapon. While it was only a couple of hundred competitors that did this, the boost was massive. The new team Shrodastower assigned to fix the issue had to scramble. Fortunately, there were only three, so it was not much trouble to replace them with something else.

Carly did come across some very annoying mob types over this event. Plants being some of the worst, not because the effects were strong, but due to the length of time, the effects lasted. Most of the annoying plants she came across had wide-area effect abilities, releasing pollen into the air that was unavoidable. Once afflicted, most of these effects lasted for a full day. Having a runny nose, slight dizziness, and a 5-percent chance to sneeze every minute wound up becoming extremely tedious.

Carrion lizard type creatures also proved troublesome. With [Bacteria], and [Disease] both having long effects that also proved most annoying. Still, with some points into the appropriate resistance, these long-term effects were trivialised.

The grossest mob so far were these small monkeys that range attacked by throwing their shit. It seemed every fourth or fifth one had bowel troubles and flung a wet one. Impossible to dodge the splatter when your in a tunnel with no cover. The disgusting attack came with a caustic, bacterial, and disease effect, and caused the elimination of almost a thousand competitors over the course of their 10-laps. None of the effects were particularly bad. Nonetheless, with all three effects active and the monkey's small stature and high [Agility], they proved devastatingly effective at wearing competitors down.

There were other mobs, insects only so far, that projectile vomited their stomach acids at the competitors. These also proved to be difficult to avoid as they came out in a cone-like spray.

Fortunately for Carly, always maintaining some DP in reserve proved to be incredibly useful. She was giving herself the flexibility of being able to adapt to these more unique mob attacks by increasing her resistance to their damage types. She had to thank Mal-Chin for this strategy, without it Carly shuddered to think how much more difficult her progress could have been.

Lastly, Carly brought up her [Personal Skills List] and browsed its status.

Personal Skill List:

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All activated and available skills, both general and combat oriented.

[Customise] DP Activated Skills: [(Uncommon) Combined Unarmed Martial Forte]

Requires a combination of three unarmed martial forte. The activated forte combination includes [Boxing Forte], [Kickboxing Forte], and [Muai Thai Forte]. The techniques from each have merged into a single cohesive martial form. [40] [0 (+)] [Boxing Forte]

Is a martial forte focused on striking only with the fists. It requires five activated fist striking skills. [25] [0 (+)] [Kickboxing Forte]

Is a martial forte focused on striking with fists, and feet. It requires at least three activated fist, and three activated foot striking skills. [30] [0 (+)] [Muai Thai Forte]

Is a martial forte focused on striking with fists, elbows, feet, shins, and knees. It requires at least two fist, three kick, two elbow, and two knee striking skills activated. [35] [10 (+)] [Back Elbow]

A mid-range technique using the humerus side of the elbow to strike. [5] [0 (+)] [Back Kick]

A long-range technique using rotational torque to increase the power of a side kick. [5] [10 (+)] [Cross]

A long-range straight punch from the trailing hand. [5] [30 (+)] [Downward Elbow]

A mid-range technique going from a high to low trajectory and strike with the elbow tip. [5] [0 (+)] [Front Kick]

A long-range straight kick impacting with the balls of the foot. [5] [0 (+)] [Hook]

A long-range curved yet mostly horizontal strike of the fist. [5] [15 (+)] [Jab]

A long-range straight punch from the leading fist. [5] [40 (+)] [Overhand]

A mid-range rounded trajectory punch coming from high to a lower point of impact. [5] [0 (+)] [Roundhouse Kick]

A long-range horizontally rotating kick that strikes using the top of the foot or shin. [5] [20 (+)] [Side Knee]

A mid-range rounded shaped knee strike impacting horizontally. [5] [0 (+)] [Side Kick]

A long-range straight kick striking with the heel of the foot. [5] [15 (+)] [Spinning Backfist]

A long-range spinning strike impacting with the back of the hand. [5] [0 (+)] [Straight Knee]

A mid-range technique going from a low to high trajectory for impact. [5] [0 (+)] [Uppercut]

A mid-range vertical punch coming from a low to high trajector for impact. [5] [10 (+)] [(Uncommon) Evasive Movement Forte]

A ground-based movement forte focused on speed and evasive traversal while within the aggravation radius of enemies. Requires [Basic Movement Forte] activated along with an advanced movement forte. The activated forte is [Parkour Forte]. [30] [6 (+)] [Basic Movement Forte]

A ground-based movement forte that requires five or more basic movement skills to be activated. [15] [30 (+)] [Parkour Forte]

A ground-based movement forte that requires three or more parkour classified movement skills to be activated. [25] [10 (+)] [Back Handspring]

A gymnastics skill which is broken down into a two-footed backward leap into a handspring before landing upright. [10] [0 (+)] [Backstep]

Is an evasive movement of a single step backward. [5] [0 (+)] [Dive Roll]

A gymnastics skill that includes a high momentum forward dive into a forward or dive role. [5] [0 (+)] [Forward Roll]

A gymnastics skill that reduces the impact of a landing and maintains some forward momentum. [5] [0 (+)] [Horizontal Wall Run]

A parkour movement skill that takes several steps along a wall at running speed. [5] [0 (+)] [Jog]

A forward movement skill with moderate traversal speed and average endurance expenditure. [5] [30 (+)] [Shoulder Roll]

A parkour jump landing skill that reduces the impact of a landing and maintains forward momentum. Considered safer than a [Forward Roll]. [5] [0 (+)] [Sidestep]

Is an evasive step movement to the side. [5] [0 (+)] [Sprint]

A forward movement skill with the highest traversal speed and very high endurance expenditure. [5] [10 (+)] [Tick Tack]

A parkour jump off the side of a wall. [10] [0 (+)] [Run]

A forward movement skill with high traversal speed and endurance expenditure. [5] [15 (+)] [Walk]

A forward movement skill with the slowest traversal speed with the lowest endurance expenditure. [5] [0 (+)] [Mental Construct Imagery]

Construct simple shapes with mana with the mind [20] [36 (+)] Available Skills: [Evaluate] Understand the intrinsic value held within specific information. [10] [Mathematics] Perform basic arithmetic [5] [Numeracy] Read and understand numbers and their metric value [5] [Plan] Deciding a course of action to achieve a goal before taking action [10] [Read] A skill of reading text [5] [Reading Comprehension] Processing text and understanding its meaning [5] [Stomp] Slam your foot down on a small or prone enemy [5] ↓  ↓  ↓  

It was an impressive list of skills Carly had activated, though perhaps it was an artificial indication of her capability and power. Mainly because, apart from spending her DP on the activation cost, very few of the skills had been upgraded further. In truth, the vast majority of her DP had been spent on boosting her raw stats, resistances, and spells. Other than those, Carly had infrequently upgraded some general skills and forte. There were, of course, several skills that were Carly's go to combat moves. These, when she had the available DP, also received an upgrade.

Carly set out on her fourth lap for day thirteen, based on the start time of the event. Which meant, it was probably somewhere around 12 pm on Sunday, December 8, 2120. Heading back out into the loop, Carly continued her methodical progression, biding her time in each fight, avoiding injury and crushing the mob whenever an opportunity presented. Her approach contained minimal flash. Though, if she did manage to get into trouble, she was not conservative in using all of her considerable fighting prowess to create a satisfactory solution. If the international dignitaries deemed to watch Carly, they would most likely switch to view another competitor. Her fights were predictable and boring. Though evidence from the [Loop Data] clearly showed Carly's approach was utterly effective.

Finishing off another mob, Carly looked towards the next and drew upon her [Ranged] spell, creating a mana ball about 10-millimeters in diameter. Fired of at maximum speed it reached the target jägerhound in just under a quarter of a second. The mana ball piercing deeply, the creature let out a squeal of pain from the attack. Jogging steadily at speed surpassing Olympic sprinters, Carly closed in towards melee range. The creatures throat puffed up and a moment later Carly dodged to the left, perfectly timing her move as the Jägerhound released its bone spike, missing widely.

Now in melee range, Carly sidestepped the creatures as it attempted to bite her. Spinning, she bunted its head away with her gauntlet doing minimal damage while opening space. She executed a [Side Kick], the impact was bone-shaking, knocking the mob to the side. Unfortunately, the runes in her right boot did not trigger. The attack still caused satisfying damage, even making the hole from her ranged attack bleed more.

The hound wheeled, bearing its teeth with a deep low growl, it lunged at Carly again, but she dodged then stepped back avoiding its claws as it attempted to swipe at her. Biting once more, Carly evaded right, deflected and countered with an attack of her own, punching into its left front shoulder with the blade of the gauntlet, poisoning the creature. Sliding past it to the rear Carly struck with a quick right and left jabs into the rear left leg, hampering its movements and create more attack opportunities.

It kicked out with the leg, but Carly had already moved, stepping back and right to be well out of range of the powerful rear kicks this mob could sometimes do. The jägerhound lept, using the power of its right side legs perform a mid air 180-degree turn. It managing to land despite its damaged left legs to face Carly again.

At the same time, Carly moved in the opposite direction to the creatures turn, bringing her to its right side. She pounced, taking a shot at its front right shoulder but the creature dropped lower, evading the attack. Turning, the jägerhound aimed to bite Carly's exposed upper arm, but Carly was always careful not to over-commit. Maintaining a low center of gravity and solid grounding with her feet, Carly twisted grabbing its lower jaw with her metal gauntlet. It could not inflict any damage to the gauntlet and Carly took advantage with an uppercut with the blade easily penetrating its neck.

The mob released a forlorn whimper, but it could not eke out any sympathy from Carly. Instead, she slid once more to its right and attacked its front shoulder. It jumped back this time before lunging again at Carly in the hopes of scoring damage and weakening its tormentor. Instead, Carly lent and jabbed another blade strike into its snout this time, puncturing through jowls, teeth, gum, and finally into the bone a small amount.

With the blade well and truly embedded in such an opportunistic position, Carly's eyes lit up at the opportunity. Carly pulled down viciously while coming in over the top. The heavy blow was spiked squarely on the centre of the creature's skull.

The creature staggered with a noncomprehending glaze to its eyes as Carly ripped out both sets of blades from the beasts head. Again she strafed to its side and unloaded a volley of lefts and rights bumping up the damage and the poison stacks. Soon after the creature dropped at her feet dead, Carly had taken no damage during the 8-seconds of melee combat.

Carly took a couple of steps away from the jägerhound along the loop. She looked at the next one, accessing her [Range] spell, and prepared to repeat the process. There was always more of the same during this event.

Her combat could only be described as beautiful, artistic, free-flowing, and frighteningly effective. However, after watching it for an hour or two, it became incredibly boring. She didn't take risks, she didn't get injured, and she quickly disposed of the mob before her. The international dignitaries didn't want to watch someone win all the time, flawlessly. They wanted to see mishaps, the competitors spilling their blood across the floor. They wanted to see panic and struggle, that was entertaining.

Steadily Carly progressed, it took 13-hours, but she took back the six positions one by one from the competitors that overtook her while she rested. After lapping for 40-hours, having just completed lap-696, it was time for rest once more. Carly overtook another eight of her competitors placing her in position twenty-three in time accumulated ahead of the loop boundary. Of course, her lap position was still first.