Chapter 1069. The Race

“You can freely change your level?” the room exclaimed in shock. Even Leana seemed surprised. This had much further implications than just smurfing in the competitions. What if someone used to infiltrate

“I wouldn't say freely... It comes with a loss in power and skill proficiency and it's not like I can get it back in a short amount of time. <Warrior's Challenge> comes with a lot of restrictions.” she tried to explain, facing the upset room.

“Warrior's Challenge?” Leana asked interested. The Lyca said it, it sounded like a skill, but she had never heard of it.

“It is one of the blessings of Ares. There is nothing to gain when fighting a weaker opponent with overwhelming strength. <Warrior's Challenge allows us to adapt to the surrounding power level, so we may learn more in competing in skill, not brawn,” she preached.

This explanation had all of them heave a sigh of relief. To do it one needed the blessing of Hades to begin with and it truly suppressed the power, not just hid it. Seth had no reason to doubt the Amazon's words for now. This meant there was nothing unfair about her participation, but he still felt like this added and new worry for them

What if there were other, less fair, skills they didn't know of, that allowed people to hide their true level from appraisal skills? There could already be people who infiltrated the cities... On the other hand, such skills couldn't be very common. On the other hand, the system was usually fair, at least superficially. Like Lyca's, such skills had to come at a price.

But it wasn't wrong to be prepared for the possibility of someone sabotaging them from the inside.

...

“Welcome to the sixth day of our great Pythian games!” Umi Kaldrops excitedly called out to the audience. She stood on a platform on a dome, that covered the center of the stadium.

“As you can see, our arena is empty today, because we will be holding the great obstacle race over the next two days!” She waved her hand and a magical holograph appeared on the dome. It showed a model of the landscape southwest of Little Gamma.

“The race is being held outside of Little Gamma and leads our over 3000 participants through a prepared route across the mountains of Minas Mar. During their journey, the whole race will be recorded by golem drones for everyone here to watch,” she explained, as the model showed the simplified route of the race.

If there was anything comparable to the cultivators standing on their swords, it was probably many of the wizards and mages, sitting on their staff or a broom. Compared to mounts and vehicles these probably had more maneuverability.

However, not all of them chose their weapon as a foothold, there were various designs of flying vehicles, that resembled what some of the players had, too. Some really extraordinary people still found a way to stand out by riding other objects like clouds or flags.

Once all of them had gotten into their starting positions decided by lottery, a traffic light counted down to the beginning, before a massive fireball was cast by Jess, who was at the location. At the signal, the field of people rushed forward and immediately began dispersing.

While the runners on the ground stayed a more or less coherent crowd until the left the plateau and entered the mountains, those on flying mounts separated from them as just after the starting line, taking to the sky.

Wyverns, eagles, various exotic, giant birds and winged monsters, brooms, swords, flying carriages, immortal shuttles, levitating discs, and clouds competed for the top spots in the sky. Early on, the flying swords and brooms, as well as the occasional disc, instantly accelerated to the head of the crowd.

Right from the start, the audience was given a great show, as nobody waited long to start fighting and sabotaging each other. After all, the rules only stated that killing was forbidden. Slinging spells and swinging swords, it was the leading positions hampering each other's process.

While people, blood, and severed limbs fell from the sky, the crowd on the ground wasn't better. Traveling at incredible speed, the viewers were able to witness high-speed battles that only lasted seconds.

Only half of the people participating even managed to leave the plateau on their own two legs. The rest dispersed into the mountains, where various routes of various levels of danger would allow them to reach the goal of the first stage.

Depending on what path they choose, they might see the winner of stage one as early as three hours later. Wrong choices could very well leave them in need of a high-ranked healer or potion. After all, Mina and the others had spent the last weeks to prepare the obstacle race.

Not only had they worked hard to herd powerful, high-ranking, or difficult monsters of the mountain range onto this small stretch they used as the race track, but they had also set various traps all across the snow, caves, forests, and skies.

Knowing what was to come, nobody in Minas Mar's booth was worried about the people flying in the skies. If anything, they had made the worst choice...