Ruler of the Inferno, Remus 1st
Princess Caladenia, The Radiance Court 2nd
Son of Gaia 3rd
Still 4th
Eminence 5th
Nigel The Redeemer 6th
As the bright light of the leaderboard finally showed itself, Seth felt like a primal beast, soaking in the beautiful rays like a full moon on a clear night. Not only did he feel like a beast , but he also looked like one, his eyes as red as blood and his clothes completely soiled. Even his gait had become that of animal, as he was leaned forward precariously and had to use his hands every now and then to keep balance.
FINALLY! He screamed mentally.
It was the first coherent thought he had in what felt like weeks. He had long stopped trying to calculate the time after he had counted to thirty hours without halt. Luckily, being a tier three had come with its own benefits, as Seth was almost certain that he would have died from dehydration or starvation multiple times now. There was also a large chance that he had only survived so long because his augmented body could sustain itself just off of dimensional energy alone.
It’s not like any of that mattered to him now though. Seth’s thoughts had already been consumed by one thing: finishing the race. That’s why he hadn’t even glanced at the other lanes, as his main objective was the only thing ruling his actions. Before long, Seth caught a glimpse of something in the distance. A spark of hope erupted inside him, fueling his legs and pushing himself farther.
That hope was instantly crushed the second it arrived, as Seth finally approached the thing only to find it was another one of Ty’s walls. It seemed he had blocked every lane other than his own, creating a cruel obstacle for the already bone weary racers. Even after sighting the obstacle, Seth did not slow. Instead, the hope that had been extinguished quickly burned hotter, turning into a raging bonfire of pure anger.
With a guttural cry, Seth threw his fist into the earth, using the combined force of his momentum along with the explosive power of his constitution to blow through the barrier like a cannon. Only then did he realize that there was more than one wall. It seemed his first punch had been enough to blow through three of them, but Seth was horribly frustrated to find that there were even more beyond that.
Even though he was aware that climbing over them was a possibility, he also knew that doing so would most likely take just as much time as breaking through them. But as it stood, Seth was still overcome with a fit of rage, so even if he couldn’t break through them with one punch like last time, he didn’t care and began barraging each new wall with a flurry of blows. Nothing could have been more satisfying for Seth than when he finally broke through the tenth wall, revealing the path ahead as well as a small glint in the distance.
Now with a small bit of his sanity restored after having something to take his rage out on, Seth realized that Ty must’ve put up the walls upon sighting whatever was in the distance. In spite of his recent expenditure of energy, Seth roused himself once more to reach the new destination. His relief was visible, and his body shared the feeling as it gradually gave out on him.
Even his eyelids couldn’t keep themselves open, so when he eventually collapsed to the ground, the smooth, cool glass on his cheek was the only thing that signaled he had arrived. His consciousness tried to slip away too, but Seth wouldn’t allow it. After a brief battle of wills, his eyelids crept open enough to recognize a new screen.
-Welcome to the Bonus Challenge checkpoint. The lane to the finish will open in (00:01:42:05)
Seth very nearly began crying in relief. So far, he had only been taking five minute breaks, so almost two hours was a god send. He didn’t dismiss the screen immediately, and instead fought himself to stay awake while he stared at the timer.
I knew it! He tiredly bragged.
After watching the timer for multiple minutes while counting himself, he discovered that only a few seconds on the timer had expired for each minute. That meant, based off his very tired mental math, one second on the timer equated to around eighteen to nineteen real time seconds. Because of this fact, he could now estimate roughly how long he had been running beforehand:
Seventeen days.
After another quick calculation, Seth determined that in reality, he had a little over a day before the lane opened up. This time, he did cry in relief, although no tears emerged from his eyes due to his sore lack of water.
Using some of his recovered energy, he shakily pushed himself into a sitting position, with his back against the glass. Seth sat there with his entire body slackened, allowing his reserves to be replenished while also showing him the other lanes and boxes. His eyes rolled over the scene of other participants, all waiting in identical glass cubes. Eminence and Nigel were no where to be found, leaving Seth, Ty, Remus, and the princess as the only present racers.
As he looked upon the others, his face quickly screwed into an expression of jealousy. Seth thought the race up to this point had been completely exhausting, and even now he was still ravenous with hunger. But looking at the others, he couldn’t help but notice how healthy they all looked. All of them were sitting in a variety of meditative poses, appearing remarkably content and calm despite the circumstances.
To make matters even worse, Ty, in the booth next to him, looked larger and even more muscular than normal. Seth guessed he would’ve been one or two feet taller than before, had he been standing. Also, him and the others were clean and well kept too.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
What, is there a goddamn spa around here or something?!
His eyes raked across the transparent glass surface of his box, searching for any sign of a button or lever that would magically activate a shower. That’s when it dawned on him. Trying to hold back any smidgen of hope, Seth mentally called for his cache. And to his immense surprise and delight, a glowing screen full of his belongings sparked into being. Any energy that he had recovered by sitting down was instantly expended as Seth began ripped large quantities of food and water from the cache, afraid that any second the cache would be closed off from him again.
Minutes later, Seth leaned back with a satisfied groan, having devoured multiple pounds of random monster meat that had been stacking up in his storage. His old teardrop vial provided by Origin sat in the corner of his mouth, providing a slow but constant stream of refreshing hydration. Finally sated, he pushed all of the remains of the food back into his cache before retrieving another one of his favorite belongings from the dimensional space.
The Cleanse-O-Matic softly whirred to life, causing a stream of pink light to engulf Seth. All of the dried blood and sweat built up over the course of the race was scrubbed away, causing Seth to moan loudly and without shame. Even his clothes were cleaned, leaving him feeling like a new man.
“Would you mind refraining from pleasing yourself so loudly? Some of us are trying to cultivate or utilize our transcripts.” A smooth, feminine voice cut through his euphoria.
Seth’s attention instantly snapped to the voice, unaware that the boxes were not soundproof. A slight wave of embarrassment overtook him, but then faded as quickly as it had arrived. He had to twist around Ty a little bit, but it didn’t take long before his eyes met with the grinning woman a handful of boxes away. Her stormy gray eyes danced with humor as she tied her silver hair up into a ponytail.
“I’m honestly surprised you’re even here. I would’ve expected your little friend with the golden fire if anything. I guess he must’ve not wanted it enough.”
Seth stared blankly back at the slightly older woman. “Cultivating? Is that a slang term for meditating?” He asked, letting the insult roll off his back.
The princess’s grin turned into a smirk and her eyebrows scrunched into a show of pity.
“Perhaps they call it something else where you are from? Cultivating, concept growing, truth seeking, what else could I be referring to? I’m nurturing my moons, as I’m sure the others are in preparation for the final stretch. What else would you use this convenient break for?”
Did she just say ‘moons,’ as in plural? Wait, I’m the only one who hasn’t started their concept system?
In a different situation, Seth might have played off the woman’s claim that she and the others had concept moons. But after not sleeping one time in the last two and a half weeks, Seth was mentally checked out, and could only manage a blank disbelieving stare in response to her claim. The princess saw this, and her eyes narrowed for a moment before her expression changed, and she started laughing aloud.
“Oh my! Could you seriously have made it this far without even one epiphany?”
She broke into another fit of laughter, tears beginning to brim on the edges of her almond shaped eyes.
“Perhaps my efforts had been a bit too thorough! I didn’t think anyone like you would have claimed the last spot. You really wormed yourself in there, huh?” She joked between laughs.
As he watched her break down in hilarity, Seth contemplated the situation with a cold feeling of clarity.
“There’s a good chance that when these doors open up, the finish line will be in view. Everyone that’s here has at least one concept moon. They all also have Umbral Blessings. What can I do to win?” He mumbled.
His sleep deprived mind combed through the circumstances, searching for any possible way to catch up to the others. Finally, he came to the conclusion that there was only one option. Perhaps if Seth had a couple more hours of rest, he might have been able to think of something else, but right now, he was in no condition do to so. So with barely more than a thought, he reached into his cache, and pulled out the four items he had bought from the challenge store.
As he readied himself for what he was about to do, the laughter that had been coming from the princess’s box stopped abruptly.
“What are you mumbling about? Hey, what are you doing? What is that?” She investigated with a hint of interest.
Then, as Seth began infusing energy into all the items, her tone seemed to change.
“Are you crazy? You’re doing that right here?”
Lastly, Seth retrieved the small vial holding the Essence of the Unending Soul.
“What the-” A gasp sounded as it seemed the woman recognized what he was holding.
It made Seth hesitate for a split second, causing him to glance towards her. He was no longer in the position to see her though, so instead, he glanced up to find Ty watching him from the corner of his eye. It seemed the commotion between him and the princess had interrupted his cultivating session. After seeing Ty looking at him, Seth broke away from his hesitation and knocked back the contents of the vial.
Immediately, he fully connected his energy with all of the laid out items, causing multiple streams of foreign energy to enter his system. As he felt his mind begin to slip away, he gave the streams one last pull, manipulating the cocktail of foreign energy towards his head. The moment after they began to enter his brain, everything went black.
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The young girl woke up from her spot on the dark green grass.
She gently raised herself from the ground, rubbing her drowsy eyes with slightly dirt-caked fingers.
As she looked around, the girl noticed how serene the bright forest was. With a small, innocent smile, the girl began to trot through the woods, her bare feet unbothered by the thick moss-covered floor.
The deeper she got into the wilderness, the more the trees became identical, and the surroundings repetitive. The little girl was unfazed by the labyrinth of timber, and her pace never slowed as she made her way through the woods on impulse alone.
She was aware that she didn’t belong in the grand forest, but it was also the only thing she had ever known.
Despite this, the girl was never sad.
Every night she was able to find a comfortable spot to sleep, just like everyday she had no problem finding fresh water and delicious fruit to eat at her leisure.
When she needed to bathe, there was always a stream or spring nearby, and when she was bored, there was always something new to busy herself with. So when she finally noticed a tear in her light blue skirt, the girl did not fret, and instead continued her way through the forest, humming a soft tune.
Before long, she emerged into a beautiful meadow, full of all kinds of exotic and colorful flowers.
With a big smile, she ran into the field of flowers, delighted with the presence of fat honeybees and the smell of pollen. Gathering the prettiest ones, the little girl built herself an exquisite boutique of all colors. Eventually, she had gathered so much that they stopped fitting into her arrangement, so the little girl used the extra ones for her hair.
Crouching onto a soft bed of dandelions, the young girl began weaving lilies into her auburn hair, removing the ones she had found just the day before. When she finally finished her long, colorful braid, the girl got up and dusted herself off.
As she patted off her legs, a sight caught her eye from across the meadow. With a renewed sense of wonder, she dashed through the flowers, curious to see what it was.
After she arrived, the little girl jumped with joy as she discovered an adorable pink dress hanging from a tall sunflower. She immediately switched her current dress out for the new one without a care.
It fit perfectly.
She gave herself a little twirl, gleefully giggling at the dazzling pink dress. After she calmed down, the young girl gave the meadow a little wave before skipping back into the woods, looking for a new adventure.