I take it that your trips were successful?” Sam asked.
“I found a path that agreed with me, and began to follow it,” Jacob said, a smile on his face. “In my readjustment of my Dao and path, I have found that there are more avenues than simply fighting to prove my Supremacy.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that you’ve changed. The Overlord has gone, and Jacob Atlas has returned.”
“Pretty much,” the other man said. “I might still go by the Overlord when I have to deal with others though. It helps a bit with Dao cultivation.”
“What about you then?” Sam asked Glakassa. “What exactly are those plates? Did you enchant them?”
“I did. I picked up the Profession at a young age, but I purposefully left it weaker than it could have been in preparation for this event. Otherwise it would have been impossible to complete.”
“Yeah, that was a pretty devious theme for the event. It punished you for both having too much mastery and too little talent.”
“There is a reason that most challengers don’t even reach the fiftieth floor. Apart from the obvious reason, the System likes to play tricks.”
“I wonder what the next event will be. There’s still two more left.”
Sam and the others idly conversed, and he actively tried to break down the walls between Jacob and Glakassa. It worked, albeit only a small amount. The former of the two still found himself opposed to anyone not of Earth.
The next event started shortly, and this time, Sam didn’t bother to read over the description. It would be more fun for him that way.
He appeared alongside the other challengers, standing in a vast line in front of a seemingly never ending track. There was a clear wall of force standing between them and the track before them. It became quite clear to him what this was. It was a race. He felt space lock down around him, preventing teleportation. Any advantage that he gleaned here would have to be one of stats, and not of trickery.
In the sky, a vast countdown started, beginning at three. As it hit zero,the pillar of force vanished, and the race started. Sam pushed off with all of his might, and quickly left many of the other challengers behind. Jacob managed to keep up, his Dao energy flaring as he did so. The ground beneath them exploded as they ran, crossing miles in a matter of seconds. Sam spared a glance behind him, but Glakassa was nowhere to be seen. This was a competition of raw strength and speed, not of magic.
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The track curved subtly as it went, and soon the other challengers were out of view, leaving only Sam and his father to compete. The two men were neck and neck. Their physical stats were pretty much even. However, Sam started to layer his buffs upon himself, and the other man did the same. Their speed increased to immense levels, and the vista around them faded away into oblivion as they raced, not a care in the word for anything beyond their feet hammering upon the ground.
Sam’s body could not feel fatigue anymore, but there was still a phantom sensation, telling him that he should have been on the ground by now, panting his life away. It was an unwelcome remnant of his time as a mortal, but he served him no purpose here. Sam simply focused on running.
Soon, the track began to change, turning from a vast expanse of sand into a more perilous terrain. Rocks jutted out from an uneven surface of cracked stone and chasms, testing the challengers’ agility as well as raw speed. Sam was forced to slow down somewhat as he went, and his companion did the same, both men still staying in sync. Had Sam focused a bit more on his body, he would be pulling ahead right now, but as it was, his talents were more widely spread. In most cases, there was nobody that could stand against him, whether in a competition of physical might or of the more magical variety, but Jacob Atlas was one such man.
“How long does this damn thing go on for?” Sam asked. “It’s already been hundreds of miles at the very least.”
“It will go for as long as I need to defeat you,” Jacob replied, a grin on his face.
“I think you’ve forgotten something,” Sam said. Before the other man could reply, he sent off a blast of elemental power that struck Jacob in the head, knocking him off his feet. Sam took the brief moment of respite to widen the gap, crossing a few miles in the blink of an eye. He skidded around the pillars of stone like a pinball, each step breaking apart the rock beneath his feet.
Behind him, a roar of anger erupted from Jacob, and the man exploded with Dao energy, a pillar of red light erupting into the sky. Sam used that additional opportunity to create even more distance between them.
Unexpectedly, a new challenger joined the front lines of the race a few moments later. A thin and reedy man from some serpentine race streaked in from the horizon, his feet growing faster and faster the further he went. A strange Dao propelled his movements, exponentially increasing his speed the further he went. At this rate, his speed would eclipse even Sam’s before long. Unfortunately for him, Sam was more than just a paragon of speed.
A wave of pure Dao energy cascaded down the track, impacting the newcomer like a freight train. His Dao shuddered beneath the impact, and all of the power that was contained within him ruptured, sending shards of crystalline power everywhere. With his momentum gone, the fighter was now helpless.
Sam continued on his way, a slight smile on his face. Behind him, the sound of supersonic footsteps echoed across the track as the Overlord built up speed. The man was enraged, and Sam could feel it from the Dao emanations pulsing off his body. A spear of scarlet light shot past him, searing through a nearby hillock of rock. Sam started to weave and dodge, making it impossible for the man to follow him with his projectiles.