Novel Full Chapter 1593: Breaking Barriers: The First Trial (3)
Chapter 1593: Breaking Barriers: The First Trial (3)
“It’s quite surprising that you’ve already gotten a good grasp of the trial’s mechanics.”
As he watched Ataraxia calmly choose his cards in preparation for the next race, Aeramis could not help but comment on how quick the young man had adapted to the trial.
From what he saw, the young man was still wrapping his head around the whole thing during his preparations for the first entity.
However, by the time he was choosing cards in preparation for the second entity, Aeramis felt as if he were looking at a different person entirely.
After all, unlike the safe choices the young man made during the first 10 turns, Ataraxia began to take a few more risks during the second round, making choices that greatly synergized with the choices that came before them.
By the time the young man got to the fifth entity, the man watched the young man choose cards as if he’d experienced a similar mechanic multiple times before.
In a way, the young man’s choices even led him to believe that Ataraxia was actually an expert that had spent at least a few years drilling the intricacies of the trial’s mechanics.
Then again, since he knew that the same person in front of him previously struggled with his choices during the first round of card sets, that brief illusion eventually disappeared in his mind.
Continuing to keep an eye on the young man’s card choices for his seventh race in a row, Aeramis decided to continue where his train of thought left off. “As a small tidbit of information, I’ve spent 10 years polishing the mechanics of the first trial to what it is today.”
“Is that so?” Briefly glancing at the man in response, Ataraxia gave him a faint nod of acknowledgment before returning his attention back to the set of cards in front of him.
Taking the young man’s nod as a sign of wanting to learn more about it, the man did not hesitate to share more information on the struggles he had to face while creating the trial’s current mechanics.
Of course, after confirming that the mechanics of the first trial were awfully similar to some of the rogue-like games he had played in the past, the young man only paid a bit of attention to the man’s ramblings.
After all, it was better for him to pay more attention towards the cards in front of him, considering that he was still a fair distance away from reaching the minimum requirements needed to proceed to the second trial.
However, just as he planned on dismissing the man’s explanation on the trial’s mechanics entirely, Aeramis soon revealed a small tidbit of information that immediately changed the way Ataraxia looked at the cards that had been dealt to him.
’If he knew how much of a difference that piece of information changed my understanding of the three card types, he probably wouldn’t have shared that information in the first place,’ thought the young man to himself after that, only to wonder if he should make use of that information during the next race soon after.
In the end, he decided not to make use of the information this time around. After all, even if he were to fail this time around using his current strategy, he still had two more attempts to clear the first trial.
’In any case, the fact that the effects of the third card type stack multiplicatively and only takes effect once used is definitely going to change how I approach the cards in my next attempt.’
Not wanting to alert the man that he actually told him a crucial piece of information in his explanation, Ataraxia continued to feign an indifferent expression on the outside as he continued to accumulate greater maximum speed and acceleration over the coming turns.
Surprisingly, utilizing the slightly riskier strategy he had adopted after defeating the first entity, the young man was eventually able to reach the 10th entity of the trial, only to then defeat it with a respectable lead over its stats.
…
“To defeat the 10th entity in a race on your first try…”
“I’ve got to say… you’re quite the talented fellow.”
After watching Ataraxia win against his 10th opponent in a row fair and square, Aeramis could not help but look at the young man in a new light.
After all, the man only knew a handful of people in his head that would be able to do what the former did.
“I was just lucky,” said Ataraxia with a slight chuckle, fanning his hands as he looked at the man with humility. “I’m certain the next entity I’ll face will pose an even greater challenge.”
“Though there is truth in your words, the fact still stands that you’ve reached the minimum threshold on your first try,” replied Aeramis after that, giving him a calm smile. “At the very least, you should feel proud of your achievement.”
Returning the man’s words with a faint smile of his own, the young man looked back at the race he had just gone through, his expression inwardly turning solemn as he thought about how the stats of the entities he fought greatly increased with each defeat.
Although the increase in stats from the seventh to eighth entity was a decent chunk of stats, Ataraxia was still able to cope with the difference, mostly thanks to the fact that the cards gave more stats the further he got into the trial.
However, once he proceeded onto the ninth entity, the increase in stats reached an absurd level to the point where he even began to wonder whether it was possible to bridge such a gap.
Then again, such an increase still paled in comparison to the difference between the ninth entity and the tenth entity, briefly leaving him at an utter loss for words.
Although there was no direct reference between the two, the maximum speed stat roughly dictated how fast he and his opponent moved while racing against one another.
During his fight with the first entity, the maximum speed both of them attained was at the level of an average person running with all their might.
On the other hand, by the time he fought against the fifth entity, the two of them moved at speeds equivalent to the top speed of a normal car.
By the time he was up against the ninth entity, the two of them moved through the running tracks at absurd speeds, causing Ataraxia to feel like their running speed was already a match for the top speed of a commercial airplane.
Because of the rough correlation he formed in his mind, his race against the tenth entity was undoubtedly imprinted in his mind.
After all, with the great stat difference between the ninth entity and the tenth entity, the two of them had already begun to move at a speed that neared the sound barrier.
Though, by the time he and the entity reached the end of the running track, Ataraxia understood… that they had broken through the sound barrier, even if just for a brief moment.
’If I could achieve such speed even before utilizing a movement skill, I wonder how long it would take me to go from Algerie Kingdom to Meltierre Empire?’
Inwardly asking this question to himself, the young man went ahead and began to select his cards for his 11th opponent on the trial…
Only to be utterly defeated by it the moment the 10 turns were up.