Speed Is King

"You are influencing more and more of the energies of nature. Of course they will get heavier." Gilgamar said in an as-a-matter-of-fact voice. "Your problem is your lack of personal energy."

"I see. I do only have a small amount of Fire Dragon Energy." Elliot nodded.

With only a small human arm's worth of Fire Dragon Energy, Elliot truly was lacking in that particular department.

"Yes, using that small amount of energy to wield the energies of nature required to power the seventeenth movement is like a toddler wielding a heavy spear. It is already half a miracle that you could complete the seventeenth movement. You… Did well." Gilgamar finally eked out a tiny amount of praise for Elliot.

Elliot smiled as a powerful feeling of accomplishment bloomed within his heart.

After seventeen long movements of silence, he finally got that damned sword to praise him!

"So in order to master the higher stages, I need correspondingly higher amounts of personal energy? Just how high are the requirements of the twenty fifth thousand movement??" Elliot didn't waste time basking in the moment and continued to ask his questions.

"Very high." Gilgamar replied very simply. "Tyrius developed the final five thousand movements after he reached Hegemon level. You don't have to worry about them now."

"I see. Good. In that case I will focus on mastering the first stage as fast as possible. Thank you for your training session today, Gilgamar. I will try to absorb the Red Dragon Blood Essence now to increase my personal energy level." Elliot said as he closed his eyes to focus on absorbing the Red Dragon Blood Essence.

"Don't mention it." Gilgamar replied in his usual voice. However, he was actually paying attention to Elliot.

"Could he really continue training after that hellish session? Not even Tyrius could do what he just did with that meager amount of personal energy!" Gilgamar thought to himself. His impression of Elliot was beginning to skyrocket.

However, that skyrocketing suddenly came to an abrupt halt.

A few seconds after Elliot closed his eyes, he fell asleep and began to snore loudly.

His energy was completely spent.

"As I expected." Gilgamar chuckled to himself. His impression of Elliot stopped rising beyond the already high level that it was at. But it didn't fall any lower either.

Elliot truly outdid himself during his first training session!

"Guard him." Winter said softly to Brock as they noticed him falling asleep. "Rex, you too."

Both of them nodded and immediately made their way to their master. It had been an extremely long day for him. Nothing shall disturb his well-deserved rest.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Ten hours earlier, unbeknownst to Elliot who was completely immersed in his training, Kara was actually in a life-and-death race within a Hidden Dungeon!

After returning with the resource boxes, Kara had decided to explore the area with Winter. She ventured out of the ten-kilometer radius which denoted the area of the previous Battle-Royale and plunged deep into the sparse forests beyond.

She had fashioned a simple hunting back around winter and had hunted several common beasts and collected several herbs so that she could make a tasty meal for her comrades later that night.

But as she was aiming to kill her second deer…

[Hidden Dungeon Challenge triggered. A-Grade Automobile Race against Rimett Garison initiated.]

A wordless message appeared in her mind.

Her vision turned dark for a moment and then when she opened her eyes once more, she was standing in front of a beautiful Bugatti Chiron Classic III.

It had a perfect combination of blue and red coat, with an electrifying bright yellow trim all around it. It looked absolutely smashing.

[Welcome to a Hidden Dungeon Challenge. You will be racing against nine other players, as well as two special guests. Place first or second in a five-lap race in this circuit for fabulous rewards! A standard reward will be granted for third place. There will be no rewards for fourth to twelfth place.]

[There will be no weapons allowed in this cars-only race. Breaking the rule will result in instant disqualification. You have thirty minutes to practice. Good luck.]

As a semi-trained soldier, Kara's shock lasted a mere second before she sprang into survival mode. She inspected the beautiful car and found that there were no apparent damages on it.

She checked her front and rear bumpers, and found them to be made of strong but lightweight materials which were directly connected to the chassis.

"Interesting, It's like they're expecting us to drive dirty." Kara thought grimly.

"And a Bugatti Chiron Classic III, huh. Never heard of it before. But as with all Bugatti's cars… it will probably be a heck of a race. I will have to avoid killing myself in addition to avoid getting killed by the damned aliens." Kara muttered as she got into the driver's seat.

"I should have no problems getting third. Statistically, the odds of finding a trained driver like me in a special event like this should be astronomically low. The only problem is navigating past their car wrecks when they eventually crash. I need to be very careful." She thought to herself.

Kara looked around the interior, and quickly found the Chiron's stat sheet.

"Let's see. Two thousand one hundred horsepower. Quad turbo engine, with a perfectly linear power output from one thousand RPM to seven thousand? What the heck did the aliens do to this car? This stat sheet is incredible!" Kara said in excited surprise.

"Braking distance… 120kph to zero in twenty meters? What the heck? Won't I need an anti-gravity suit to survive the insane G force this would create? Oh. Anti high G cabin. Hohoho. Good job alien engineer."

After checking out the Bugatti Chiron Classic III's other critical stats on stat sheet, it was time to put it to the test.

Kara eased the car out of the pitstop and drove around the track at a reasonable speed once through.

The track had seven low speed corners as well as five high speed corners with three major straightways.

It took her a respectable six minutes and seven seconds to clear it on her first try.

"Interesting track. Pretty straight forward. The aliens track designers truly lack killing intent when designing this particular track. No bumps, no change in track material, nothing out of the ordinary." Kara noted.

"I guess it's safe to push the speed limit a little now!"

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