Chapter 414: Further Incentive

The crowds of individuals rushed forward, like a tide of water breaking out of a dam, they raced towards the stairs, rushing to climb to glory.

Every being here was well aware of what was at stake, aside from Seth, everyone else had heard first-hand from their ancestors what the last sin incarnate had been capable of.

And as heirs of their various heritages, of course they would pour all their might into getting this power...

They scampered forward, clawing at the wind, mustering all they could to get to the stairs before another.

The system had made them overly conscious, this was a contest of greed, they needed to use every opportunity provided to showcase their greed.

Fighting was prohibited so while they struggled no one got physical, and finally the first being made his first step upon the grand stairway, the entire platform lighting up with a brilliant, ancient bronze sheen, the light engulfing the evolver.

[Gilt: 1]

He wasn’t the only one, every other figure placing their feet on the step after him saw the same change, their balance rising from zero to one, that wasn’t the only thing, their gait shifted, noticeably so.

Their limbs going stiff as though they were under some kind of pressure...

’Hmm, so is it a gravity change? No, it has to be more than that...’ Seth muttered, observing the changes in the evolvers that took their first step, while he stayed behind.

Unlike everyone else he saw no need to rush, being greedy didn’t necessarily mean one had to be blinded by it...

He glanced to his side, taking a peek at the others who like him decided to wait behind and observe the rest, scrutinizing them all... in his eyes these would be the true obstacles to him claiming the Greed mantle.

His gaze settled on a figure... to be more precise a bloodborn, the only race here he could identify by name...

Feeling the terrifying strength brewing in their mass, Seth could only thank his luck that this wouldn’t be a battle of strength...

Focusing his gaze back to the stairs, he geared up, rolling his joints as he took brisk steps forward...

Various gazes shifted his way from behind... "The human..." the immortal race candidate growled, his hair sleek and dark as night, his frame bearing an astoundingly similar likeness to the humans, almost too much so even.

While other races had clear distinguishing factors, like the Avians who had bird heads, the mermen having obvious gills running down their necks, the immortal race members bore none of these obvious distinctions...

From their hair formation to their skin tone, everything bore an intense similarity to the humans from the east, the only thing one could use to tell them apart was the slight crease running vertically down their foreheads.

The legendary spirit eye of the immortal race... a mystical innate organ that allowed the immortal race to wield powers unlike any ever seen.

They could bend the will of reality, affect causality and divine the heavens.

Yet merely casting a glance at a human, the immortal race candidate could already feel his spirit eye begin to sting...

He scowled, he knew well he hadn’t activated it yet it was already reacting to this guy’s existence, it could only mean one thing... ’This human, I have to keep an eye on him...’

His race had borne the full brunt of the might of the last sin incarnate, and they almost went extinct!

One could say an anomaly like Seth participating in the trial for the mantle of greed didn’t come across as pleasing to the immortal race prodigy.

Snorting, the immortal race member also got moving, walking towards the grand stairway with his shoulders squared.

Aside from him, while the candidates from the mermen and the bloodborn did spare Seth a bit of their attention, they didn’t take him as a priority focus the moment the trial rules forbade battle.

Since they couldn’t crush the bug, they could only ignore it...

Seth arrived before the grand stairs, ignoring the feeling of being observed, he raised his foot, confidently taking his first step while also bracing for the strain the system warned about...

The stairs gleamed, registering his actions, the Gilt bar ticking upwards to 1, while his being was suddenly weighed down.

Seth’s muscles tensed, catching his own weight as the pressure settled... though the pressure was there, it wasn’t actually by much, despite his weakened state he found that he could still bear it...

Not only that, somehow this pressure didn’t just exert strain on the body but also affected the mind, he didn’t know how to explain it, but he could clearly feel his mental processing speed drop, a funny feeling almost as though he was being assaulted by brain fog.

’Okay, confirmed, this is definitely something more complex than gravity...’ he groaned inwardly, raising his gaze to take in the sight of the seemingly endless flight of stairs.

Then shifting his sight to scan the overactive, exceedingly able contestants around him, he could clearly see the odds were against him, beating these guys on this trial wouldn’t be easy,

Just one glance at the rules and one could tell that the win condition definitely had something to do with endurance.

Probably only the last man standing would win the mantle...

If this truly was the win condition, it really wasn’t in Seth’s favour, after all competing with both a weakened body and a weakened mind, stripped of access to will, definitely put the others at an upper hand from the start.

"Fuck it, let’s just see how long I will last..." he hissed beneath his breath, taking a second step up the stairs, shrugging off the strain exerted by the atmosphere.

And the moment his feet landed on the second step, his frame dipped, the pressure not only increasing but doubling just like his supposed reward.

Before he could fully even register the level of strain exerted on his being, his vision flared as a brilliant banner unraveled before his eyes...

[Congratulations on taking the second step! You have gained access to the Function Shop!]

A dark smile tugged at Seth’s lips as he stared at the banner, ’It wouldn’t be much of a greed trial without an incentive to ignite one’s greed now, would it?’