“I still can’t believe he made it to the bonus challenge.” Blair claimed from her perch on a long, soft leather couch.
“I can. We already went through his old matches, you know how hard he worked for this.” Drake affirmed from his similar couch across from her.
“I would have to agree with Drake. I know it’s kind of crazy, but he did some insane legwork outside of our normal matches. It might have been weird seeing him act so different in the solo fights, but he definitely is a lot stronger than when we met him at the beginning of all this.” Licht hummed from nearby, still scrolling through some of Seth’s more recent matches.
After the bonus challenge had begun, the three of them had been surprised and delighted to find themselves in some sort of VIP viewing suite. All of the participants had been moved there after the notification detailing the end of the group challenge. For days now, they had been kicking back and relaxing in a large viewing booth full of all kinds of premium amenities.
Currently, the three were chilling inside one of the private rooms that were equipped with multiple consoles and large monitors to watch the race. Matches were completely unavailable, leaving the participants with an impressive amount of time to do nothing but observe the race and enjoy themselves.
Originally, the three had been satisfied with the free time to cultivate in a luxury environment, but now, they couldn’t help but feel somewhat bad for the racers. After they had realized the twenty-four hour race was actually under the influence of a time stretching effect, Blair had come up with the idea to investigate the circumstances under which Seth had been able to reach the top six.
Drake had been especially shaken after watching a specific match in which Seth had strangled a humanoid monster to the ground, using it later as a guinea pig for a series of experimental attacks. Licht had been more interested in the use of the illusionary ability Seth seemed to have, while Blair hadn’t been as effected, having seen his last duel firsthand.
There was much to talk about afterwards, where the three attempted to speculate over their so called friend’s actions. Theories were passed around, but the general consensus was a mild distrust in Seth.
How could they really say they knew the boy after seeing all of the wild an unorthodox behavior that was displayed in his matches? It was truly like watching a whole different person.
Despite their discoveries, they had slowly begun to understand more about Seth as the days elapsed.
Drake turned his attention back to the large monitor, showing Seth taking a short break. The boy’s body looked completely wracked with exhaustion, his lips cracked and bleeding while his eyes were glazed over and red. By all definitions, Seth was the picture of pitiful.
Drake’s red irises slightly became hidden as his eyes narrowed. He watched with growing interest and slight discomfort as Seth’s fingernails trailed over his scalp repetitively. His dry mouth opened and closed continuously in different shapes, telling Drake the boy was talking to himself even with the severe lack of breath.
“I never knew he was like this. I feel like such a failure for not noticing after fighting alongside him for weeks.” Drake murmured, more to himself than the others.
More than anything, Drake finally saw the pure resolve and determination that Seth had buried underneath layers of acting and jokes. At this point, over two weeks had expired in the race, yet Seth had not stopped for longer than a few minutes at a time. Drake knew by watching the other racers that no tier three could make it through this race on physical strength alone. Even right now, the other racers were using a variety of abilities to continue the tireless race.
But not Seth.
The Mundane had not been a Shaper for even a year now, so not only was he lacking in resources, but also a full array of abilities. Most, if not all of the other participants in The Incubator had all of their aligned abilities and at least two different branch abilities for each aligned one. But Drake was fairly sure that Seth didn’t even have half of that.
He had only seen him use a handful of abilities, such as his glaive, illusions, and whatever buff ability gave him his unbelievable speed. He had also acquired a devastating ranged ability during his time in the group challenge, and Blair had apparently seen him using a type of stealth skill as well. Outside of those though, Drake had not seen a single other significant power.
That meant that Seth was running on nothing but the stamina in his body, as well as some sort of concept, as Drake was aware Seth seemed to recover too fast for any normal tier three, and the other racers were utilizing concepts as well.
Still, there is no way that should be enough.
Finally, Drake and the others could now see what Seth had been hiding. At his core, he was a Mundane, someone that had been thrown into the world of shaping without any choice. Seth was no more than a survivor. Having to absorb and adapt to his environment constantly had made Seth a creature of pure caution. It was no wonder that he didn’t show this type of behavior and resolve before. He hadn’t trusted any of them from the very beginning!
It was such an obvious fact that Drake felt like a complete idiot for not seeing it beforehand. Seth had told them a little about his past, but he had put on such a cool face afterwards that Drake hadn’t even thought about how that might affect him now.
“Seth, I promise that I will be a better friend from now on.” Drake whispered.
He glanced around for a moment, noticing Blair staring at him, her crimson eyes softer than normal. His cheeks colored slightly as he realized she had heard him, but luckily, she didn’t speak up.
“Hey, check it out!” Licht suddenly spoke up.
The siblings both turned back to the screen, showing Seth finally emerging from the lone straight. There was visible relief on the boy’s haggard face as the other lanes finally conjoined again. A few of the other racers had already reached this point, so the three cringed as they realized what was coming up for their friend.
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Seth’s slightly relaxed expression quickly turned sour as he spotted the tall obstacles sitting in his way. With an angry shout, the boy went to work, constantly throwing his tired fists into the solid dirt of Ty’s walls.
“To be honest, I might’ve just quit right then and there.” Licht confessed.
“It was just cruel to put those up right before the checkpoint, after two weeks of running, it’s like an insult.”
Blair shrugged at his confession.
“If they’re racing for a fate artifact, I would say anything is fair game.” She countered.
Licht gave her an annoyed look.
“You’re just saying that because you aren’t competing. I bet you would’ve stopped running after barely a week.” He said.
She glared at him with a huff, but didn’t disagree.
After that, they stayed silent for a while, just watching how each participant progressed. Eminence was slower than the rest of the participants, but his vehicle didn’t need breaks, so his trek was a constant, sure burn. Remus and Caladenia had arrived at the checkpoint almost a full day ahead of Seth, while Ty had erected the barriers and reached the same just a matter of hours behind them.
Nigel didn’t seem to be making any progress, as he had stopped cold only a few days into the race. Still, weeks after that event, the younger boy hadn’t moved a muscle. He was completely enveloped in a silver looking film, as if inside of a cocoon. It was summarily agreed that even with the remaining timeline, there was no way Nigel would reach the checkpoint.
Outside of that, the participants that weren’t involved in the race were currently in a unregulated challenge of their own. Large scale bets were being passed around, as it seemed gambling had become the main focus for all the viewers. Challenge points were no longer on the table, so real life currency was being put on the line for the sake of entertainment. Drake, Blair, and Licht had decided not to participate, but they still found interest in the activities. Most humorous of all was when Nigel had stopped racing completely, leaving an uproar amongst all those who bet on him.
“Well it looks like just about everyone is at the checkpoint. The last stretch won’t be open for another day, so do you guys want to take a break for now?” Drake asked the other two as he got up and straightened out his shirt.
Blair nodded, also rising from her spot. Licht gave a him a thumbs up but didn’t move from the console he was sitting at.
“I’m going to watch a few more recordings, then I’ll meet up with you all later.” He stated.
“Suit yourself.” Blair said before leaving the booth.
“We’ll be over in the cultivating area.” Drake said, hanging back for a moment before following his sister.
Licht threw a wave over his shoulder without looking up from the console. He continued to watch the videos before him, showing six different matches, one for each of the racers.
“If I had to guess, Remus has the Concept of Ignition, and some sort of fire related concept. Princess Caladenia has at least two as well, but most of them are combat oriented I think. Son of Gaia er-, Ty rather, has one of the rare umbrella concepts. It’s unmistakably the Concept of Terra.” Licht rubbed his earlobe between two fingers.
“I’m confident Eminence will reach the checkpoint too, and I think he has the shade and shadow concepts.”
He focused back onto the main screen where Seth was nearing the line of glass boxes. Licht used every bit of knowledge and experience over shaping theory to analyze the blond boy, but he truly couldn’t identify what type of concept he had.
“I thought it was a physical manifestation type, but I haven’t seen any evidence to support that. Hmmm… Maybe a recovery-based concept? No, I’ve seen him using empowered attacks in his previous matches, and his concept couldn’t be developed enough to use offensively and defensively just yet.” He muttered.
Licht would have thought Seth had multiple concepts because of the seemingly dual edged body modifications, but he knew that wasn’t possible. During their time fighting with him, Seth hadn’t exuded any specific feeling or hint that was common of concept infused actions. Licht had also factored out any actual abilities, as no expenditure of energy occurred when Seth released a maxed out punch. Also, Seth would constantly be drained if it was an ability, as it seemed that his enhanced recovery was active at all times.
“Man, I just can’t figure it out. I know higher tiers allow a Shaper to temper some attributes with certain properties, but that’s impossible for someone at his level.” Licht grumbled as he continued to run through and discard every possible option.
What else could a tier three get their hands on? He wondered.
Suddenly, Licht heard a murmur of voices coming from the main screen. With an eyebrow raised, he went to turn up the volume in order to hear the conversation.
Are they talking trash or something?
“Oh my! Could you seriously have made it this far without even one epiphany?”
The princess was currently laughing at a lost looking Seth.
“What are you mumbling about? Hey, what are you doing? What is that?”
“Are you crazy? You’re doing that right here?”
Licht shot up from his chair, eyes wide and unbelieving as Seth started to forcefully kickstart an epiphany right in the middle of the bonus challenge.
The livestream didn’t show Licht everything that the boy was pulling out, but he could blatantly see Seth down a vial full of clear liquid. Licht didn’t have any special visual abilities like Blair, but he was able to make up for that fault with a powerful artifact that acted like contacts, sitting on the surface of his eyes. With this artifact, Licht was able to clearly see the monstrous amount of ethereal haze wafting from the vial that was certainly some manner of concept treasure. It wasn’t dimensional energy, nor was it any type of specific energy that sometimes radiated from natural treasures.
“Where the hell did he get such a pure concept treasure from?!” Licht yelled in astonishment.
Previously, Licht had been certain Seth had some sort of concept, but based on what Caladenia just said and his current actions, it had been all but confirmed that he had been running the entire race without any such asset.
Furthermore, it was common knowledge that concept treasures were a rarity, as they allowed Shapers to achieve forced epiphanies. A Class C treasure would be enough to grant a concept, even if the user didn’t have any actual headway on the concept themselves. Of course, there was a limit to this, as everyone’s Concept System was constrained in certain ways. So in cases where Shapers already had all of their concepts, the treasure would just open the avenue for higher understanding rather than new epiphanies.
Licht only had a moment to observe the power of the concept treasure Seth used, but he was almost certain it was at least Class B. Translating to the normal ranking system of other treasures, a Class B Concept Treasure would be equivalent to a Class A artifact.
“Null’s Sake, I have to go get Blair, she knows more about this stuff!” He claimed before dashing out of the room.
Minutes later, Drake, Blair and Licht were back inside the booth. In the livestream, Seth was now passed out on the glass floor of his box, unresponsive. Crossing over to the console controlling the main screen, Licht pulled up the recording from when Seth arrived at the checkpoint.
“See! Watch this and tell me what you think.” He commanded to Blair.
She gave him an annoyed look but said nothing and instead began watching the screen. Drake sat down beside her, also watching with a note of curiosity.
After the recording was finished, Licht enjoyed the flabbergasted look on both of the siblings faces. Eventually though, his curiosity overwhelmed him, so he sat forward to get their attention.
“So Blair, I would say you’re the expert when it comes to concepts. What exactly happened right there? Were you able to tell what kind of concept treasure that was?” He questioned.
Blair’s face was still in an expression of disbelief, but she attempted to focus on Licht’s question.
“I couldn’t tell you what type of concept treasure that was. But I am sure of one thing: That vial was Class A easily, meaning he just downed a Class S artifact right before the finish.”
As Drake and Licht’s mouths sat open in shock, Blair also let the ramifications of what she saw settle in.
“If he can get a handle on whatever concept comes from that thing, I think there is a legitimate chance of him winning this thing.” She murmured, surprising even herself.