Chapter 226: Speedrunning the Grand Tournament

Kaelen stared at the two girls blankly. They definitely had a few nuts loose in their heads.

First, it was the blonde and loudmouth who genuinely thought she could ’mistakenly’ hurt him, and then the ding-dong-dash girl who was larping the loudmouth’s brother so hard one would think she had a secret crush on him.

Now, Kaelen wasn’t saying he genuinely believed no one could beat him to it. He knew very well there were monsters walking in flesh amongst the candidates, just like the shirt guy—Jack—who sent a Lycan flying with a single kick whilst his hands were in his pockets. Even with that level of strength, Kaelen hadn’t seen him ever since, probably because he had no intention of joining the first clear monopoly.

The same went for several others he spotted at the introduction but hadn’t seen ever since. They were definitely out there somewhere.

The problem was, the two girls had clearly seen him use thousands of dragons to clear the entire floor by burning everything down in under four minutes, including the final boss, who was still kneeling before the tree when SKD roasted him from behind. He didn’t stand a chance against the Supreme Elder Dragon.

Even at Tier 100, though Kaelen believed he could clear the Third Floor alone now, it’d still take no less than the amount of time Emir’s party took to clear it. His cheat was clearly the dragons, which he planned to use on every single one of the floors, just like he always did as a Slime.

Still, something still made him think that a person could genuinely beat the clear record it’d take a dragon to set with a single breath of its supreme flame, second in rank only to Transcendant Tier out of the 11 chains in the rank.

If that wasn’t next-level larp, Kaelen didn’t know what was.

But instead of arguing with the women who thought their big brother was omniscient, Kaelen decided to let his actions speak louder than words.

[You have arrived on the Fourth Floor]

"Rise."

Swooooooooossssssssh—!!!

The elevator had barely pried open when over a thousand dragons materialised and took to the sky above the swampy terrain.

Without wasting a second longer, they began locating the seven-foot-tall barbarians with hands wide and thick enough to rip the jaws of a mutated bear apart without a single scratch. Kaelen could already see the challenge from above, but they were no match for his dragons.

SKD made a sharp dive downwards, and just as the barbarians looked up, they were met by the black flames of the Supreme Elder Dragon, the heat from its blast leaving an aftershadow smeared across the ground where they once stood.

At the centre of the swamp forest was a heavily fortified village built to counterattack the enemy from all sides before they ever came close. This made Kaelen wonder how Lobby #001 had done it and how Emir’s party would do it.

That wasn’t a challenge for Kaelen. His dragons swept down and set the entire village on fire, burning down everything in their path, with barbarians still inside it.

The village chief stepped out of the village with a glowing shield that negated most of the flame’s damage and a broadsword that looked like it was built for slaying dragons.

SKD took it personally and obstructed his vision with its black flames before sweeping down, taking the barbarian into its maw and roughing him up until he stopped moving.

[You have cleared the Fourth Floor | Duration: 00:06:07]

The series of kill notifications and loot bundles swept in, but Kaelen swiped them right out of his vision and shadow-stepped to the elevator.

"Let’s go," he said to Elsa, who was momentarily stunned before she quickly did her job and the elevator began climbing to the Fifth Floor.

[Lobby #001 has gone live on the Fifth Floor]

[Lobby #111 has gone live on the Fifth Floor]

[Lobby #86 has gone live on the Fifth Floor]

[Lobby #219 has gone live on the Fourth Floor]

Kaelen only reacted to two out of the four notifications. He didn’t even react to seeing Lobby #001 on the Fifth Floor right after clearing the Fourth Floor. The entire Tower was probably aware of what Kaelen was trying to do by now: speedrunning two floors in one go and still ascending. Anyone previously taking a break would be gearing up for the next floor. That was the snowball effect.

He was glad to see Emir had made it out of the Fourth Floor, but to think she’d jump right into the Fifth Floor was simply outrageous. She was openly challenging him now.

As for Lobby #219, that was Lysandra’s lobby. They took a break after Melissa was traumatised, but it was good to see they were back and running again. If the girl didn’t run her mouth or bully Lysandra, then they wouldn’t have much of a problem.

Thinking about it now, all the blonde women Kaelen had come across were loudmouths. Yelena was a rare exception.

This made him wonder what the woman was up to back on Earth. There was also Black Rose, who had given him the ring that Kaelen had totally forgotten about. But in his defence, he simply hadn’t been given a reason to contact her yet.

Now that he remembered it, he might give it a try on the Ninth Floor while waiting for Lysandra.

The elevator shook once, and the angel’s gate slid open.

The first thing that came into view was the blue sky.

Apparently, they were on a small island that seemed to be floating in the sky, and in the distance were several other similar floating islands of varying sizes.

There was no immediate danger, and since the false Second Floor, there had been no rules explaining how the floor should be cleared.

There was a glowing sphere floating right in the middle of the island. Kaelen speculated that it was the steering mechanism and that the candidates were expected to approach other islands where the dangers—or rewards—awaited.

But what was the use of sailing when you had a dragon that could fly at the speed of sound?

"Rise."