Chapter 57: Concerningly easy

Nick turned out to be right in his assumption, all the other three remaining environment tests turned out to be even more of a breeze than the first two.

The stage following the canyon was that of a low lighting, low ceiling, narrow corridor cave.

In this level his sprint practically slowed to a jog, as if he had one misstep he’d scrape any part of his body on the tight, narrow space surrounding him.

This stage was rather boring, as that was the only unique facet of it. It didn’t have any falling obstacles like the canyon level did, or natural environmental obstacles like the jungle level did.

However the fourth test following on from the cave turned out to be a little bit more of a challenge. It was a river crossing and swamp stage, where as he walked through the door separating level 3 and 4, the simulation opened up to rushing shallows and muddy banks all around.

This proved to be the most time consuming level of all of them, as he couldn’t even utilise a jog anymore in this place. If he were to be compared to a normal person, he’d basically be moving at a speed walker’s pace through this stage.

Water submerged all the way up to his knees, and he ran while keeping his focus highly concentrated on what lay beneath the water, as if he stepped into one wrong muddy pocket, that was his test over.

Thankfully, his Sabertooth Wolf Beast Armament was still active and helping him through the test, as now that he’d absorbed far more Soul Seeds of both Awakened rank and Mutant rank since the first time he had to use it against the Whiteclaw Snake King, he had far more time and utility to use it.

His Awakened Soul Seeds alone net him 145 seconds of use, but compared to his Mutant Soul Seeds, which allowed him to use it for an additional 490 seconds of use, this was low!

It was through Beast Armaments like this that the difference in power between levels of Soul Seeds and Soul Stars really shined.

If he were to get even 1 Radiant Soul Seed, that would equate to 100 seconds of active use…

100 whole seconds, which meant that 1 Radiant Soul Seed alone was worth as much as a hundred Awakened Soul Seeds.

With this, he could keep his speed augmentation active for over 10 minutes straight, which was already a large part of how long it’d take him to complete the whole speed test.

Nick felt confident that he would attain a very good score when he came out at the other end.

And he wouldn’t have to wait long, as while the slick mud, hidden traps of tree roots ready to latch onto his feed while they were under the thick swamp, and all other such obstacles placed by the river crossing and swampy stage tried to slow him down, he still managed to make it to the exit/entrance to the next stage on the other side in good pace.

Or well, what he assumed was good pace.

Kye’s run was the only test he had seen so far, so he didn’t really have a good reference to see what the average result was for Altered running this test, especially considering the only one he’d seen was the record!

Finally, he reached the last stage, which also proved to be the most unique and different from the rest of them.

In his final stretch, he was met with something he was expecting since he saw Kye go through the same thing in his test, but was still surprised to see when it was his turn.

Simulated collapsed walls, smoldering embers, twisted metal all over the place.

An urban city, or part of one, in ruins.

This last level was unique since while the first four were focused on handling and adapting to the different environments one might come across in the Beast Domain, this last one was actually simulating the real world.

It simulated a ruined city after an attack from the Demon race, the human race’s mortal enemy in this universe, had ravaged it.

Nick’s foot hit the cracked asphalt with a sharp thud the moment he stepped through the entrance.

Smoke curled up from every collapsed building in his sight, like whoever attacked this place didn’t want to leave any building unharmed, intentionally targeting each and every one of them.

Ahead, twisted heaps of steel that had once been cars now lay fused with the road, melted and burned beyond recognition. There was no sign of any people, or corpses, whatsoever, but Nick knew that was intentional.

Of course, if a situation like this were to occur in the real world, there would be people screaming, corpses burning and people dying all over the place, but that was the one thing the simulators couldn’t emulate.

Besides, it was still a simple test of speed anyway.

For the first time since starting the speed test, Nick actually chose to come to a complete stop for a moment, instead of continuing his run regardless of the environment and analysing the optimal route while on the move.

While it wouldn’t be as hard as the second level with the falling boulders, this place still demanded more of his attention.

This was simply because the environment was just that chaotic.

’So this is what war in the real world looks like…’

He paused for only a second to take everything in.

But that was enough for him to choose his route.

This level was both a physical test and a psychological one, as this was a reminder that this happened in the real world every day in planets unfortunately located in hot zones where conflict between the Demon race and the human race is rampant.

But Nick chose to ignore all of that.

’Fake is fake, no matter how real they try to make it seem.’

This place was just a simulation, which didn’t rouse much emotion in him.

If they did manage to emulate the whole scene with people included though…

That might have roused a reaction out of him.

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