Chapter 40 - Heart Shield Pendant
Despite knowing what was coming, I didn't hurry to purchase that warrior. In fact he wasn't that pricey at all, only costing one hundred stat points. f𝔯ee𝘸𝘦𝚋𝒏oѵ𝐞l.c𝒐𝓂
But I feared that if I took it out now, others would notice and get a clue about that race. After all, the presence of such a race wasn't expected.
"I say that we kill him first," the dragon pointed at me while two short halpreds appeared in both hands.
Even if they were short in his hands, compared to me they were enough to be equal to my length.
"No, I want him to be my slave," the succubus smiled in lewd way while curving her body. She seemed not startled at all by the presence of the other two intimidating beings nearby.
"I won't allow you to do that," the Selvator stuck to his rules, "no matter what we shall compete fairly."
"Then we shall wait for the last person to come," the dragon smirked, "what if no one came?"
"We have half an hour to wait," the dragon said, "so it won't harm us if we have less competitors. Anyway that class will fall into my hands eventually."
The famous self confidence that might exceed the threshold of arrogance appeared clearly now. The Selvators were so trusting in their abilities and the scary thing was… That wasn't an overestimation of their abilities at all.
"Humph! This is the first time for me to see someone boasting in front of a dragon race," the dragon youth scoffed before he started to walk towards me with ill intentions, "then show me how you are going to stop me, Selvator."
"Keep your feet away!" the Selvator's sound suddenly thundered all over the arena before his body started to shine more than before.
The sudden light that shone from the Selvator stopped the dragon while his face showed a frowned expression. As for myself, I started to run back towards the edge of the arena, putting that big wall on my back and I summoned three shields to cover me from the three remaining sides.
Then I started to ferventically scream in pure panic:
"I'm going to die… I'm going to die… I'm going to die…"
I was joking! I knew what was really going on here. Despite being arrogant and boastful, that dragon youth wasn't stupid. He provoked the Selvator to force him to unleash his power.
Such a way would expose not only the Selvator's level of strength, but also the others as well. So I faked the appearance of being a walking and ran as far away from the Selvator to shield myself from them.
This was the famous silver light pulse skill, an innate skill every prominent Selvator was born with. That meant the one here wasn't a mere Selvator, but was a genius.
Just as the light grew to its maximum intensity, it expanded fast covering everything around. It was like a bomb was detonated, and everyone around was caught in the middle of that explosion.
'Damn! Even with all my high stats this aura is still so domineering!'
I felt like my whole body was smashed by a giant hand from all directions. If not for the fact that I had my back covered already, I would have sustained damage without doubt.
It was one of the absolute attacks of that mighty race. But it wasn't without a price to pay. Such a strong skill had limited attempts per day. And that was one of the benefits we all got by that dragon youth's trick.
But that wasn't all. I moved my eyes slowly while sustaining the pressure exerted by that Selvator. The succubus girl who looked weak managed to sustain the pressure from such close distance using a skill of her own.
She only was pushed down on one knee, exposing the perfect skin and the amazing contour of her thigh.
As for the dragon youth, he simply met this attack with many of his own. He waved his two halpreds and launched many arcs of golden light that collided with the bright silvery light of the Selvator.
Yet in the end he was pushed a few steps backwards. I even saw a thin line of faint golden blood emerging from a corner of his mouth.
"Not bad," the dragon youth wiped the blood away as he stabilized himself. In fact I knew he also sensed the strength difference between himself and that Selvator, just like I sensed it as well.
That Selvator wasn't much stronger than me, than anyone else here. That meant we all shared the same full stats. In addition to forty points in each stat, the three of them were slightly stronger than me thanks to their innate skills and their unique body constitution.
They must have cultivation bases already. Having a class or not was questionable, but I doubted any had such a thing yet.
I moved myself up while faking being so weak and much affected by this attack.
"Hahaha, at least you know now you can't face the monsters here," the succubus girl laughed in amusement so much that even her body shook. Special parts of hers kept bouncing, adding more beauty and attraction to her.
"You should accept getting under my wing, human boy. I won't mistreat you, I promise you that," she winked again and even sent a soft kiss in the air. She looked adorable. She was deadly, but sexy and adorable in my eyes.
Damn! I had to exert more control over her innate seduction abilities.
I shifted my eyes towards the other two, ignoring her offer. The dragon youth held his eyes only over the Salvatore. He had all the right to do so. After all dragons were famous for being domineering and very strong.
So he finally met someone who could be called his equal match. How could he not see anyone else in the world but that Selvator?
But when my eyes fell on the Selvator boy, I was surprised to see a tinge of wariness inside his eyes. He was ignoring the other two around and only focused on me like I was his only opponent.
Did he see through my actions just now? That was impossible, right?
*Woosh!*
Just as I was thinking what shall I do to make this Selvator avoid me, a light from a pillar came down from the sky. Strangely enough it didn't carry any color as if it was translucent.
If not for the loud bang caused by the force carried by the pillar when it hit the ground, no one here would have noticed it. I narrowed my eyes while watching that pillar.
"Hahaha, no one came from there, hahaha," the dragon youth misunderstood this, "so it's only the four of us… Oh sorry, between the two of us."
He pointed one of his halpreds towards the Selvator, in a way that made the succubus girl furrowed her eyebrows. She turned to him and crossed her arms around her big voluptuous chest and said in cold tone:
"You need to get your eyes checked. I'm still here."
"As if you can handle one hit from me or him," the dragon boy snorted, however just as I looked at the Selvator, I was inwardly shaken that he was still gazing up at me.
And this time his eyes flickered in silver light, like he found his own match or something. Sh*t! This looked bad!
"We'll see," the succubus then moved to one side while her face didn't regain her normal state of calmness for long minutes. As for the dragon boy, he simply harrumphed and moved to another direction.
I looked at the Selvator and simply retreated towards the place I used to face his attack before. However I didn't give him my back and simply retreated while facing him. It was weird, but I wouldn't give my back to such an enemy, an enemy who was wary of me.
"Don't worry human boy," just as my back hit the edge of the arena, the succubus girl regained her usual sense of playfulness, "no one can touch you here. Oh, except for that arrogant stupid kid with scales over there."
She was already on bad terms with the dragon boy. I knew that Selvators were famous for their fairness, but what would that help me if that youth, who was still glaring at me without moving an inch, decided to kill me?
'C'mon, you shouldn't be worried about me. We have a higher class predator hiding here. You shall be concerned about him,' I thought while looking directly at his eyes. If he already made up his mind to make me his deadly enemy, then why shouldn't I do the same?
I knew there were only two ways for this competition to end. One by death, and the other was by submission.
Looking at those three, in addition to the one hiding here, I had to kill them all. I moved my eyes towards the three paths branching from this arena and pondered about this layout.
I once read in a record about this labyrinth. It was simple. We would be randomly scattered between the three paths. Given our number, we would have two paths with two of us and one with only one. ƒ𝔯𝗲𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧oѵℯl.𝒄𝑜m
That might seem good at first, but it wasn't. The two who might end together would propose an alliance together, a temporary alliance to get others out.
After all, it was a labyrinth. It was designed so the three paths would intersect together multiple times.
So the team without that hidden race had a great chance in forming an alliance together. The team who would have that hidden race youth would end up with that youth killing his opponent.
Just like I did with the traitors, that hidden race youth would have a chance to get fifty percent of everything his opponent had, including the blessing points.
Looking at it from all angles, the only one who ended up in that third path would be the most disadvantageous one. In addition to that, as he started with a head start advantage, he was destined to cross roads fast with the other two paths before the two paths would come together.
That meant he would have to face the other teams even before the other teams would face each other. More disadvantage indeed. If it was up to me, then I would choose not to be that lone wolf.
If I had to choose a team member, then I wouldn't choose that dangerous Selvator or that arrogant dragon. I would select that sexy girl over the two boys.
It wasn't fun, but my chances in forming an alliance with her were much higher than others.
Having that hidden race kid with me wasn't also that bad. I was ready for him, to face him head one and not die. As for killing him, this would depend on the circumstances of our fight.
Thinking about these things wouldn't help. After all, I doubted we would have the chance to select our opponents inside these paths. So Instead of wasting the time on this, I started to consider my strategy against each of them.
``I have to sell some of my gears then,'' as I lacked coins for now, I started selling the big pile of base gears I had inside the market.
'To face her seductive innate skill I'll need this pendant,' I bought a simple looking pendant, but it was the cheapest and most suitable one out there to counter that annoying seduction skill.
[Heart shield pendant: grade silver. Cost: Ten thousand coins. Effect: Protecting one's heart from any outside disturbances as long as the grade of the skill used doesn't exceed the silver grade]
Well, this might work against her. If she grew her skill to a grade higher than silver grade then I would be doomed. But it was unlikely.
Without being inside an ongoing apocalypse, raising one's skills and talents would take forever. The benefits of the apocalypse were so rich that these races would have big fights against each other to enter one apocalypse from the start.
With the system support, anyone here could raise his own strength and cultivation by leaps and pounds. It wasn't just the gifts of the system, the stats, but it was mainly thanks to the blessing.
And that also meant they couldn't bring any blessing points from their homeland. No matter how talented they were, it was simply impossible to have a god supporting you without being in an ongoing apocalypse.
So the risk of them having blessing points to best my big stat points was nearly impossible.
Yet I had to take precautions against each of them, so my expenditure was, without doubt, much more than each of them.
And that was my disadvantage compared to them.