Speed Is King

The red Civic turned ethereal the moment it hit its maximum velocity, thereby making it impervious to anything that Elliot could cast.

It was an extremely shrewd move, and one that would have guaranteed his victory… IF Elliot wasn't such a broken player with a truckload of skills.

"Damn it! What should I do? I don't want to lose my very first Hidden Dungeon Challenge!" Elliot thought desperately as he quickly ran through his skills mentally.

"Hmm? Summon Beast Totem? Nothing to lose! SUMMON BEAST TOTEM!!" Elliot immediately shouted.

A terrifyingly fearsome totem appeared and unleashed a massive greenish aura that instantly covered both cars.

"Please be a beast, please be a beast, please be a beast" Elliot prayed frantically to any and all the gods of the universe.

The gods answered, or maybe Elliot's insane luck held.

Either way, the alien driver turned out to be a beast in its original form!

The green aura caused a massive spike of fear to suddenly course through the alien's entire body, causing him to lose his concentration for a moment as he struggled to bring his fear under control.

And because his concentration was broken, the alien lost control of its ethereal spell for a brief second and his red Civic turned corporeal once more.

Very fortunately for Elliot, the alien's red Civic was drawing level with his car right at that perfect moment.

"CHANCE!" Elliot shouted and immediately swerved to his right to crash his car into the red Civic!

CRASH!!

The red Civic was thrown violently to the right and Elliot's white Civic blew past the finish line ahead of it by the barest of margins!

[Elliot Musk Victory.]

[Congratulations on winning the first ever Hidden Dungeon Challenge!]

[Double Reward initiated.]

[Limited Edition Modular Honda Civic Type R Generation 50 gifted.]

[Diamond Grade Nitro Booster Packaged gifted.]

[Diamond Grade Long Distance Automobile Weapons Package gifted.]

[Diamond Grade Automobile Armor Package gifted.]

[Bonus first Hidden Dungeon Challenge Reward initiated.]

[5-car Mini Dimensional Garage gifted.]

Elliot's jaw almost dropped at the generosity of the gifts, especially at the insane Dimensional Garage!!

"I can bring all my cars along with me now!?" Elliot's euphoria at winning the race was sent soaring even higher by the generous rewards.

One of the most difficult aspects of the Monthly Races was the pre-race massacre and struggle that would usually occur.

Tens of thousands of cars would be dropped all over the place, and the pre-race battles to reach the assigned track were extremely bloody, vicious and deadly.

(Inspired by the movie Need for Speed. Watch it if you haven't!)

Many times, Elliot had been forced to leave his car behind to escape with his life. He had been forced to steal or rob other players to get his hands on a car, and one that was usually not as good as the first car he had.

If he could travel with his precious cars stored safely in his dimensional garage, then his participation in the monthly races would be guaranteed!

Providing he could reach the race track alive, of course.

[Dimensional Storage detected. Gifts would be stored within the Dimensional Storage.]

[Exiting Hidden Dungeon in 3… 2… 1.]

Elliot's surroundings shimmered lightly and he appeared at the spot where he disappeared earlier.

Whoosh! He suddenly found himself free falling in the air!

"Whoa!" Elliot shouted in shock.

He immediately initiated his White Dragon Beast Transformation and caught himself before he hit the ground.

"Boss! You're back!" Red shouted with relief in his public mindspace.

"Master, what happened?" Wu Kong asked worriedly.

"Yes, where did you go? I couldn't sense you for a few minutes just now." Brock asked.

"Don't worry guys, I merely triggered a Hidden Dungeon Challenge. I won it, got a bunch of prizes and came back out." Elliot explained before all his tamed beasts could swamp him with concerned questions.

"Oh, you won something? What do I get? As a prestigious Wind Apostle, I get to receive a portion of your winnings right?" Red asked greedily. "I'll give you a discount, don't worry. Just give me 50% of your win-"

"Red? Say another word and I'll give you a present that you'll never, ever forget. In a bad way." Elliot sighed and threatened him.

"Well done." Winter mumbled. "I almost died out of noise pollution listening to him blabber on about everything while you were gone."

Elliot chuckled. If even Winter complained about him, Red must have literally talked non-stop in the few minutes that Elliot was caught in the dungeon!

He glided gracefully across the sky and basked in the satisfaction of his victory.

"It's only the second day of the apocalypse, and I already have three Beast Apostles, powerful tamed and summoned beasts, a Dimensional Garage and a Modular Honda Civic Type R with various packages. I'm way ahead of the previous iteration. If I remember correctly, I was still desperately looking for Jessica and Jennifer on the second day of the apocalypse previously." Elliot thought contentedly to himself.

"However, this time, the Shadow Parasites are on their way here en-masse. And considering their objectives, they would probably come here in deep stealth to avoid getting the planet nuked before they could produce their Queen and reinforce the planet with anti-nuke systems.

So in the meantime, the threat of the Shadow Parasites openly invading Earth, and thus the threat of the aliens nuking Earth is pretty low.

I will have to try and prevent the Shadow Parasites from succeeding in acquiring whatever they need to produce their queen in addition to basic survival and trying to save Jennifer from Rak'Tharos." Elliot thought as he tidied up his thoughts and clarified his goals.

"Red. How do I find out what the Parasites are looking for?" Elliot asked the bird in his public mind space.

"Huh? You're a Beast Master, why are you asking such an obvious question?" Red asked.

Elliot smacked his forehead as realization dawned upon him.

"That's right! All I have to do now is to catch a Shadow Parasite and force him to be my tamed beast"

"Wait.." A metallic voice sounded from behind Elliot.