Chapter 50 - 206- 216 UNLIMITED SPEED

Chapter 206 BIG GUY

"They're pretty weak," Noah muttered, dodging the five rapid stringer attacks of one of the three beasts still standing.

Slamming his right feet on the ground already filled with multiple small craters, Noah threw dust and large stone bits into the air.

Although this didn't deter the nigh-mindless creatures before him, it allowed him merely test the power in his kicks.

And the results wowed him. The ground shattered beneath his feets spreading for hundreds of feets around him.

The shattered ground only stopped the beasts from moving a for a second, which Noah used to slam his knee into one of the lizards jaws, dislocating and crushing it.

"Tch" Noah sounded, he he had expected a more powerful effect, but the materials of their body couldn't be denied.

The actual strength of the beasts stood somewhere at the peak of the lower-stsge, but they didn't possess mana-cores, just brutal strength that even he had to acknowledge.

A roar resounded behind him and he ducked, successfully dodging the monsters tail whip.

"So obvious," he pouted, but he could only deal with it. If the lizard had been created battle smart, it would be unfair for the limited cultivators.

Delivering a powerful punch to the lizards lower side before it could totally turn, Noah crushed its backside creating a hole between its tail an its body. The lizard inevitably died on the spot.

'One more,' he thought searching for the last lizard beast within the range of his unfolded consciousness.

Furrowing his brows when he found not the beast or even the corpses of the others, Noah lifted his head to perform a call, but that idea couldn't find its way out of his head.

'Wouldn't i just be making myself a beacon,' Noah thought putting into consideration the extra power his essence possessed.

'Do the creatures here even work like real magical beasts. Aren't they just randomly spawned or something,' he pondered lowering his head.

However before any more of his thought could continue; the ground suddenly experienced a violent shaking spanning miles.

The tornado's in the distance suddenly vansihed and the dark sky returned to normal.

The ground split beneath Noah's legs, and he had to result to a make-shift spell to remain on his position.

A dense platform of wind formed beneath Noah's feet and from his position he watched the terrain of that region fall into pure chaos.

Large chasms suddenly opened and the ground collapsed on itself, forming pits spanning for kilometers in size.

Elevating himself even higher, Noah felt his heart skip a beat at the sheer amount of destruction that place experienced.

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ Soon clouds of thick dust began to rise up, forcing him to move from his spot.

"How do they expect anyone to survive this without help," Noah muttered crossing kilometers of clearly shifting lands.

The little vegetation in the area had vansihed, as whole forests were buried underground.

Noah watched this scene with pure fascination, wondering how others were faring.

He was perfectly fine. Heck so far he hadn't really found it annoying, yet.

He had yet to spend a full hour there after all.

Noah eventually got bored of that scene, he needed somewhere to land.

"That's one spell down," Noah muttered gazing at the dark piy below him over 60km in radius and definitely a few hundred meters deep.

'How will all this even return to normal,' he wondered inwardly.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

Unfolding his consciousness around his figure, he prepared himself for any attacks.

He couldn't naturally sense the beasts since they weren't real to begin with, but his consciousness remained able to see them since that ability was an expression of his physical sense's, at least for now.

Now that he thought to it, he barely got curious about the abilites he had, and what meaning they had to him as a cultivator.

Maybe it was due to the events constantly surrounding him, or just his lack of concern, he didn't know. But hopefully there would be libraries in the new guild able to explain to him.

After a bit of scouting Noah eventually found a seemingly solid place to land.

Although his current spell barely took up to 5SE points, he still needed to utilize essence to move it.

Just a few meters to the ground, Noah sighted three high-speed figures moving towards him and he immediately identified the name of the beasts.

"Tailed falcons," Noah muttered preparing himself for their attacks.

He currently couldn't run around due to the large piece of lands missing literally ever five feet.

A powerful bang resounded in the area when their figures converged on him.

The creatures were termed the "Tailed falcons" mostly because if their over 8ft long tails, but that name didn't do justice to their real power. The inumberable spikes protruding out of their nigh-bony tails dripping with poison able to temporarily paralyze someone.

To the shock of the almost-mindless birds, Noah had vanished from his position before they actually reached him.

'Its such a hassle to not be able to use spells,' Noah complained appearing a few metres above their hovering figures.

Clasping his hands together, Noah brought it down on one of the falcons exposed back, in one powerful blow.

Its figure bent downwards in an unnatural way, tearing its stomach and allowing all its gut to burst out into the open. The green blooded bird died before it could voice a screech.

With his only way of being suspended gone, Noah immediately began to fall, and his direction was a large pit only 20 kilometers in radius.

The black feathered birds shot towards him at that sign of weakness. However Noah suddenly clapped his hands while facing the pit.

The sheer strength in his arms caused a strong enough wind current able to propell his figure upwards.

Furrowing his brows while shooting past the figures of the birds, Noah tried to grab one of their wings, but missed.

Reaching a height where the force had run out, Noah took a deep breath before beginning to fall.

The birds saw this and shot towards him. But they were too dumb to spread out from each other, allowing Noah smashing into them.

A series of blows carrying the entirety of his 50k strength fell on the beasts and multiple portions of their bodies exploded, leaving clean holes.

The birds died on the air, but their figures suddenly vanished like dust.

'I get nothing for killing them, Noah thought, 'I guess it would only be easier utilize it,' he thought bringing out his daggers.

'But i have to find a way to escape that big guy,' he thought glancing at the massive worm silently crawling within the pit he rapidly approached.

That region experienced powerful explosions that travelled the regions lands. Making those a bit closer to him wonder what sort of monster was in a battle.

If only they knew.

Chapter 207 207. CALAMITY

"Oof" Noah exclaimed sitting cross-legged atop a golden surface.

The fight with the horned worm had been hectic and annoying. Like how annoying snakes were the beast was even more annoying. Having the ability to dig through the rocky terrain like it was mere sand.

It proved troublesome to constantly escape its horned rampage.

'Let's never fight one again,' Noah thought replaying the fight that had taken an incredible 39 minutes to finish.

The beast held power well into the middle-stage and Noah could only make do with what he had.

His strength was Incredible, but it fell only slightly short of the beast's power.

After that long but not-so draining fight, Noah could confirm that his prowess stood at the middle-stage, but he hadn't gone far into it.

However considering his real level, he could grin at how strong he would be the more he leveled up.

Glancing at Cudgel's shiny surface, Noah could only sigh when he saw that it met the golden standards of the Divine Lightning guild.

However, that wasn't the main problem.

He worried that they were being watched, and seeing him utilize such a weird weapon would surely raise some important eyebrows.

Although he had only used it to fill the space of the over 20km pit, its enlargement would have been really obvious to anyone that was watching.

'Hopefully, they weren't watching,' Noah thought, but his words didn't even sound convincing to his ears.

A sigh escaped his mouth at that evaluation, but there wasn't much he could do. He had gotten to the stage in which holding back his punches could get him killed even with all his power.

Glancing at the stats on the armband, he saw that it still displayed his full Hp, and his condition remained "Excellent". All courtesy to his Incredible healing.

Most of his feats wouldn't have been possible if not for that simple but Incredible feature.

Standing up after feeling the rest had been enough, Noah gazed at the blue sky.

Wondering how the entire place was even possible, he continued to find how lame life on Earth had been.

"People studying for over 20 years of their lives, before working jobs for almost double that period. Only to have barely 10 years of rest before passing on," he shook his head.

"Subpar," he muttered.

Although life as a cultivator remained really hard, he got the chance to see and do stuff literally considered fiction.

'Let's become a god,' Noah thought smiling at whoever was watching from whatever screen those scenes were being broadcasted into.

Tapping Cudgel's surface, Noah watched it shrink almost instantly and he kept its pin-sized figure in his hair.

His black attire looked like a rag, as large portions of his bare body were out in the open.

"I need a permanent attire," Noah muttered in frustration. Hopefully, Muliix would one day be capable of being worn like a normal set of clothes.

"I guess that'll have to do for now," he muttered causing Muliix to wrap around the lower half of his body, which consisted of his waist down to his feet. It even acted as a shoe.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

Due to the ragged garment still being long, Cudgel's material wouldn't be sighted much by people, if he met any.

Beginning his journey towards solid ground, Noah saw himself continuously feeling at loss of what to do.

He had hidden his assets for so long that having to utilize them multiple times felt nerve-racking.

Sighing after utilizing Cudgel for the tenth time in a row, Noah punched the air in frustration, and bullets of sheer force contained in his arm traveled the space in front of him before eventually dispersing after hundreds of feet.

Unlike the hardship he expected would be annoying, the only thing felt was a mixture of worry and frustration, topped off with the annoyance of having to move around dodging pitfalls.

'This needs to change already,' Noah thought tapping his feet on the ground.

Not feeling the extra vibrations he would feel if it had an empty space beneath it, he decided to settle there.

After all, it had been an hour since he began his destination-less journey.

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ Only Carnage could be sighted for miles, and Noah felt fed up with that sight.

"This is more boring than I thought," Noah said, "Maybe because I have a few powerful tricks up my sleeve," he added waiting for something that would test him to arrive, as no beasts had even attacked him since the worm.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until around two hours had passed, did his expectation get met.

Having already left the area he had been due to boredom, Noah had finally gotten to solid ground that spanned a few tens of kilometers in size. However, at that exact moment did the whole world seem to experience another terrible tremble.

Understanding what that event meant after witnessing it only one time.

Noah got prepared for whatever that realm planned to throw at him.

A deep and powerful howling sound could soon be heard hundreds of kilometers from his position. His ears straining their selves to pick up those erratic sounds.

It wasn't until the howling had begun to feel deafening, and an incredibly powerful gust of cold wind had swept the lands, did his eyes catch sight of what was coming towards him.

Noah's expression darkened when his eyes fell on the monstrosity approaching him. His stomach trembled as he forgot how to breathe in the span of an instant.

Real fear for the first time since the beginning of that day, appeared in Noah's mind. And multiple curses escaped his mouth when he realized how quickly trapped in that situation he had become.

Deep yellow lightning crackled around his body in the uncertainty of his next action.

But was there much he could do at that juncture?

Noah continued to frantically sweep his gaze on the impending danger barreling towards his tiny figure from all sides.

Definitely, hundreds of meters to probably kilometers in height and spanning miles in size; an immense mass of shining blue water ravaged the lands with the power of its incredible size and speed.

Earth shaking reverberations traveled the empty regions. As the world around him seemed to bow to that calamity.

Even Noah felt the fear of death at the sight of a tsunami!

The water converged on Noah's cowering figure, and his hp experienced a rapid decrease to the Incredible number of 3.

Chapter 208 208. SHINY

Noah felt his mind go numb to the amount of pain his body experienced in that Instant. He felt sure he had died during the impact; which had removed the ground beneath his feet.

But thankfully he had moved essence into empowering his body, and Mullix's material which had immediately covered his body had limited the damage on his body.

But even those didn't stop his arms from turning into gory meat pastes. His legs from bending into unnatural positions, causing his bones to tear through his skin, but couldn't exit Muliix's material. And finally, his back bending on itself. Giving Noah a hunch-back.

However, his healing kicked in before he could perish in those moving waters.

Snapping sounds escaped most parts of his body, as they healed causing even more pain to Noah, but those weren't levels of pain he flinched at.

His condition quickly stabilized, but another problem soon revealed itself.

Due to the sheer amount of pressure he felt from being at the very bottom of the now monstrous ocean, Noah could barely try and oppose the water current, as he felt paralyzed.

Already switching to speed essence for breathing, Noah found himself stuck to moving with the ocean's current.

From his position, there wasn't any source of light apart from the constant tube-like mass of deep yellow essence originating from his abdomen, before stretching into his nostrils.

The violent wave of water brought wet sand into Noah's environment further making seeing a hassle.

He could immediately guess that most aspirants would have given up at the sight of the tsunami. And even he considered that option, but his ambition wouldn't let him give up that easily.

Having caused Muliix to protect his body, Noah could withstand the occasional bangs on the ground.

The power in the water made him feel like he had been thrown into a washing machine, while the dark and muddy waters reminded him of his current danger.

Noah soon found himself smashing into large pieces of uprooted trees, and their crunching sounds muffled by the watery environment echoed in the ocean giving him forboding chills.

He felt alone in the whole world, and after spending hours in that state he almost began to believe that.

Whole environments unfamiliar to his eyes zoomed past him, but thanks to the water's speed he didn't manage to drop into whatever pits that still existed in regions of that realm.

He had tried multiple times to swim upwards, but he didn't know how to. And the waters' terrifying currents wouldn't even allow that.

Not to even begin mentioning the large chunks of debris carried by the moving water. That environment was more than an obstacle course.

Noah experienced the same feeling he felt during his time inside the tornado. His environment couldn't damage him, but he almost couldn't do anything about it either.

He had also tried reducing Mullix's weight to the lowest which was around a few tens of grams. But that had barely worked. It only made it easier for any size of debris to drag him along its path in the ocean.

Although he occasionally found himself getting elevated, something always happened to stop him from reaching the very surface of the ocean.

The whole situation felt like something only individuals in tier 4 could properly handle, and he felt it unfair that such trials would be given to them, mere tier 3 experts.

Different ideas on how to escape that environment formed in his mind, but he couldn't think of any genuine action able to help him.

None of his elements could achieve anything in that environment, at least not at his current level. He couldn't freeze a whole ocean, or somehow divide a path in the water using his air affinity.

However Cudgel soon entered his mind, and he found himself wondering why humans forgot their important assets during danger.

ραпdα nᴏνa| сom 'I'm still not properly trained for events like this,' Noah thought, recalling the multiple times such had happened.

However, worry still rose in his mind about the issue. He feared the staff being carried away by the tsunami's current, but remembering how heavy it was supposed to be, he decided to trust the Divine item in his ownership.

Commanding the staff to enlarge itself after letting it go in the ocean, Noah watched it barrel out in size, but it wasn't until after half a minute had passed, did it begin to elevate him.

'I'm going to be placing too much attention on myself,' Noah thought, but he would have to choose between taking that risky action, or staying inside the water for who knew how many days.

A few difficulties appeared on his ascent, but Cudgel steadily parted the water to arrive at the very top of the ocean.

An explosion of force occurred when Cudgel's surface burst out of the now black and murky waters.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

Kneeling with his face on its golden surface, Noah coughed out the water that had been stuck inside him.

The windswept past his body, but he barely felt its chilling cold.

Laying on his weapon's golden surface, Noah affirmed how overpowered he was. And finding a situation that would make all his assets useless didn't seem possible in that world.

'Maybe when gods are in the mix, I might have trouble escaping situations,' Noah thought standing up to walk towards Cudgels' golden edge.

His staff stretched for a few kilometers in radius, and that seemed to be its limits. At least currently. But even that size remained more than enough.

Having risen around 50ft above the water's surface, Noah got able to witness the incredible sight from a relatively safe position.

The black waters entered his sight and he couldn't help but feel his heart tremble.

The ocean raged back and forth, slamming into Cudgel's metallic structure, but all its power didn't manage to do anything to it.

A strange murky scent struck his nostrils, as he smelled mud amongst the mix of scents. The others were unfamiliar to him.

The water stretched as far as his eyes could see and from his position, Noah could see floating landmasses get torn apart by the water's Incredible speed and power.

Serious pity rose in his heart for the other aspirants. He believed himself to be the only person out there since the event had been devastating to even him.

Noah sat at the edge of his safe zone casually listening to the sound of the raging water over 40ft below him.

He eventually brought out his food to eat and spent the next hour simply sea-gazing

However at some point, Cudgel's figure suddenly experienced an intense tremble, and Noah almost found himself inside the black waters but managed to hold on before such could happen.

His staff's immense figure suddenly tilted towards where he was hanging on, and the fear of entering the water filled his mind.

Even with the sounds of the water below him, Noah could still hear a muffled set of soundwaves travel up the ocean, its vibrations also being enhanced by his staff's metallic figure. Telling of how intense whatever was going on beneath him was.

Cudgel soon began to tilt opposite to where he barely hung on, but he dared not make a move, since it suddenly experienced a deep drop.

The waters around him twisted and turned at that event, but there wasn't much it could do.

Ideas on what could be going on surged in Noah's mind, while he continued to hang on. Something with the most likely possibility eventually appeared in his head.

The idea saw that the land beneath Cudgel's figure had begun to give in to its Incredible weight, coupled with the raging water constantly soaking it.

Cudgel continued to sink until Noah had begun to enter the water.

The thought of enlarging Cudgel more crossed his mind, but to what end he thought.

Heaving a sigh while feeling his torso begin to get submerged, Noah enlarged its size allowing it to stretch for a few more feet.

Climbing onto its surface when it had begun to steadily sink. He paced around its golden surface, a battle ongoing in his mind.

He could certainly find his way out of that situation, which was by simply running on the black ocean. However, the issue remained about being watched. He didn't feel ready to risk it.

But even with that issue, he had to find a way to remain in his position. Shrinking it before allowing it to grow after a few minutes of moving inside the water was an idea. But his current issue would simply continue after a few short minutes of calm.

Unknowing to Noah, during his moment of hesitation, a few Individuals had found themselves floating towards a shining landmass.

They eventually arrived at it and began their climb towards its top. Thankfully Cudgel's enlarged figure gave space for multiple sections able to allow them up.

The sound of multiple grunts pulled Noah out of his thoughts, and he slowly turned himself to lay eyes on a group of a few familiar individuals, and Ariana happened to be one of them.

Chapter 209 209. LIE

Noah felt his environment slow down immensely, as ideas on what to do next flowed into his mind. Although he remained relatively far from Cudgel's edge he could still be seen by his sudden visitors.

A series of ideas rushed into his mind, as he couldn't suddenly shrink Cudgel's structure to escape. Or rather he didn't want to do so. And needed an alternative.

'I guess a few lies won't hurt,' Noah thought still perceiving his surroundings in slow motion.

That great skill happened to come in handy more frequently than before.

In the span of an instant, Noah had formulated a series of explanations that even he found convincing. However, that didn't stop worry from piling up in his mind.

Pretending to not notice their multiple figures. Noah felt the need to act a bit out of character at least to his standards.

The group of six climbed onto the staff's golden surface to arrive at the scene of a seemingly unconscious Noah.

Surprisingly, Ariana dashed towards him, only to suddenly stop in front of his figure, wondering what she wanted to do.

The others witnessed this scene but were too busy trying to balance themselves since the golden landmass had experienced a violent tremble.

Fear built up in their already tense mind when they confirmed that sooner or later that place would be underwater.

Noah suddenly sprung up at that point, his face pale but he looked alright.

''What are you guys doing here?''Noah voiced a question, sitting up.

At this point, his story had been finalized inside his mind. All that remained was for it to be dished out.

''We should ask you the same,'' one of the three men presents spoke walking towards Noah's figure menacingly.

'He's trying to act tough,' Noah giggled inwardly, but his answer remained as close to the truth as possible.

''I found this place while being washed away by the water beneath us,'' he explained not flinching at the man's sudden closeness to his face.

Honestly, he only felt slightly annoyed by the whole charade.

Realization dawned on the mid¬thirties looking man, and he quickly backed away when Ariana's glare pierced his back to remind him of who the leader of that impromptu group was.

From the amount of power each individual in that team seemed to hold, Ariana radiated almost double.

Which was why Noah only had confidence in pinning her down for a few short seconds.

''There's no point in questioning each other, I'm sure we all arrived here due to the same circumstance,'' Ariana declared, wearing a face that radiated sternness.

''All we have to do is figure out a safe way out of here,'' she added crouching a bit to gain her balance on the sinking landmass.

Noah could only feel relieved at those words, but he expected as much.

There wasn't any need to ask about the origin of the golden landmass, they were in a realm almost similar to Cregar, but the things it featured weren't like their home planet. Meaning such weird sights had to be considered.

''I've only been here for around thirty minutes at best, but it had started sinking only after the first ten minutes or so,'' Noah lied through his teeth remaining cross¬legged while the whole place tilted left and right.

Worry appeared on the faces of the still tense experts, but there wasn't much they could do in that situation.

Silence reigned amid the now seven experts. Most wondered what would happen next or wished that particular environmental hazard would switch to something milder.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

While the others wondered how a mere lower-stage could survive a situation they watched tens of their mates quit in front. Or outright got disqualified due to their low health points.

''We'll eventually need to move,'' Noah stated the obvious. In truth, he felt insecure about their presence on his weapon. He could easily remove it from their feet, but even he would suffer from that action.

Noah's words met no response, but that didn't change the fact that they all agreed with him. They simply weren't confident enough to return to the water.

Cudgel continued to sink, but no one put too much attention to that since worry wouldn't change their situation.

"I guess we'll have to utilize the method we used before getting here," Ariana sighed sitting on the golden ground.

"What method?" Noah promptly asked casually allowing his body to get healthier right in front of the dumbfounded experts.

Ariana saw this but limited herself to staring while she opened her mouth to explain.

"Well, we created a bubble of sorts using our water affinity. This allowed us to float about mostly safe," she explained. "Mostly."

"Due to the water's annoying current, materials were usually thrown our way. But the others don't have anything that's useful underwater, and wouldn't compromise our bubble. Don't forget our limit to only five skills. Most have already reached that mark," she explained Inspecting Noah's figure.

She had never seen a human heal themselves that quickly.

Although she knew it remained possible since there were rumors about Deviants with such abilities, the sight remained fascinating nonetheless since the person before her didn't seem to be one.

Noah found Ariana's gaze as one of the serious versions of her.

"So in short, you were able to ride the wave relatively safely, but were still at the mercy of the water current," Noah stated casually walking towards Cudgel's edge.

"Are we going to take him?" The same person that tried to act big before Noah, complained.

"Yes," Ariana stated, shaking her head at the experts she found herself surrounded with.

"Won't he be additional weight," the man added shooting a glare at Noah's smiling face.

"I doubt he'd be as heavy as you think. And there are two of us don't forget," Ariana calmly explained without bothering to look at the said man.

The expert couldn't do much at that point, but that didn't stop him from directing a question at Noah.

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ "What will you contribute to the group," the man asked, managing to get Ariana's attention and the others.

Noah watched this scene with mild amusement. He found witnessing the envy of the stronger experts interesting and satisfying, and his next word managed to satisfy him even more.

"I'm a Lightning affinity holder. I can create an array to protect us from the outside world. Lightning is very flexible, and it still retains its power even inside water," Noah announced.

Needless to say, his words placed everyone in a state of shock. Not even Ariana's seemingly calm demeanor could withstand the shock Noah's words brought.

Understanding soon dawned on their minds as to why he was there.

'He's a frigging rare affinity holder,' most of the experts thought Inwardly. Their respective minds being soiled by their now overflowing envy.

However, all that Noah managed to make out on their faces was shock.

Being seasoned experts, they had long learned how to sever their erratic emotions from their expressions.

Chapter 210 210. SKY SHATTERING

A few seconds of silence passed before any words were spoken. The experts didn't have the leisure time to remain in their shock for too long.

"Well that's a relief," Ariana spoke walking towards Noah before suddenly delivering a punch to his right arm.

Having gazed at the punches' arrival for what felt like minutes, Noah felt totally confident in taking it.

Her fist struck his figure, but it only managed to ruffle his clothes.

However, Noah's senses weren't able to pick up the minute wave of energy that washed over his body, being more concentrated in his right arm.

"Nice. But you should have dodged it," Ariana smiled; when Noah suddenly felt the liquid blood coursing through that arm halt their movements for an instant, then blood suddenly gushed out of his nostrils and mouth.

Simply standing still in surprise, Noah glanced at the pool of blood that had quickly formed beneath his feet.

Due to his incredible stamina, he felt almost nothing from losing that much blood, but the sight remained dumbfounding nonetheless.

Shooting a query-filled gaze at Ariana's smiling face, Noah felt ready to talk, but she spoke before he could.

"I practice a special Martial art that has a few effects on people. That's just one of them. Thanks to my water affinity which also allowed me to be proficient in it. That technique was meant to halt every liquid movement in your body before it then exploded out of every hole in your body. But it seems that was all I could achieve," she explained expressing her displeasure.

Noah felt a wave of calm sweep his mind at those words, but that didn't stop him from re-evaluating her danger level.

ραпdα nᴏνa| сom Multiple strikes from her would be enough to place even him in a pitiful state.

However, amid that growing respect for the lady, was excitement.

'It seems I might not have to wait for gods, before a real challenge arrives,' Noah thought while he regained his color.

Her mention of a martial art forced Noah's remembrance of his.

'I might have to begin to practice the more complex ones,' Noah thought wiping the blood that had accumulated on his nose and chest area.

"There are two earth affinity holders, but their skills are unusable In our situation. There's one fire affinity and one air, but there's almost no difference between them," Ariana started, gathering them around.

"That leaves you, and the two of us. A lightning affinity holder and we water," she explained.

"Without further ado, let's get to our plan," she declared, and a series of discussions immediately commenced.

Their discussion was mostly based on their inability to disobey the ocean currents, which caused them to drift towards places they had mostly avoided, like the northern and southern regions.

The matter soon branched into what steps would be taken if they were attacked by beasts since apparently, their group had lost two people to such incidents.

Thankfully, Noah's affinity allowed for most of those issues to be solved.

He would create an array of dense electrical energy around their bubble, which he would be able to manipulate into whatever offensive techniques

he desired.

Although he hadn't done such before, he felt confident in his ability to do so. And his large essence pool further boosted his confidence.

The two water mages would handle keeping the bubble together, while he protected it. The remaining cultivators on the other hand were almost considered dead-weight.

Their affinities had a chance of working underwater, but that probability remained slim.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

Fire could well compromise their protection, and there was also a chance of it getting quenched before actually doing anything.

Earth was even worse, there literally weren't any signs of land for kilometers below or around them, and the metallic island couldn't be weirder at that realization.

The air affinity holder could help the water mages but only in situations that would require his skills.

However, Ariana surprisingly didn't seem to mind their inability to assist.

Noah felt unsure of her true personality since all he had witnessed could have been her really good acting. But he appreciated her kindness nonetheless.

"I believe that's all," Ariana announced nodding her head with satisfaction.

At this point, Cudgel remained only a few feet from being submerged, which caused the experts wary worry.

The cultivators nodded at her words, and they quickly gathered around a radius of 30 meters.

Small streams of the black water around them immediately emerged out of the ocean, to begin to form a spherical structure.

Hundreds of such streams converged around them as both mages worked together to create that structure.

Not even a minute passed before the sight of a large ball of water casually swirling around a fixed point on the kilometers wide island appeared.

The black water glistened in the light of that realm and a low liquid swirling sound spread out in the environment.

Noah glanced at the structure all around him in mild fascination, it felt surreal how they were practically underwater, but not a single drop of liquid had touched him.

Due to the blackness of the water, their eyes couldn't see much, but their unfolded consciousness remained more than enough.

With their feet still on Cudgel's golden surface, the water mages figured they would wait for the mysterious island to completely get submerged, before creating a semi-solid liquid ground.

However, Noah couldn't wait for them to leave his weapon any longer. So he slowly but gradually began to reduce Cudgel's height.

This event startled the cultivators but before much time could pass cold water had started touching their feet.

Seeing the water mages immediately begin to create a solid floor, Noah caused Cudgel to rapidly shrink beneath them.

The ball of tight liquid landed on the water's surface at that point, and the water mages didn't waste time in letting their bubble proceed underwater.

That event remained spectacular, but most had their focus on the shrinking landmass.

Incredible shock and fascination spread on their faces at that sight, as Noah allowed them to witness at least that.

Soon Cudgel's golden surface vanished beneath the black and murky ocean.

He couldn't bring it to himself since the focused experts would surely notice the needle-sized object speeding towards his figure.

With that realization, Noah immediately sent it towards the sky. However before he could recall that he wasn't on Creagar, Cudgels pin-sized figure had struck the artificial sky of that realm and proceeded to create large crack's in it.

Due to its status being ''Divine'', Cudgel succeeded in exiting that realm, but not without shattering a large portion of its sky first.

Chapter 211 211. BLUENESS

Within an almost completely dark room, around a large table of sorts, were Individuals over twenty in number.

Their eyes intently gazed at the illusory landmass spanning almost the full length of the over 30 meters perfectly square table.

The golden table featured seemingly thousands of runic symbols and words, all glowing a red shade.

The symbols looked to project the landmass which had a significant portion of its expanse get covered by a black-colored liquid,

Above the illusory landmass were hundreds of thin red beams of light present in random places, which signaled the positions of the aspirants.

Also above the landmass was a flat surface seemingly transparent. It created its light looking down upon the landmass, perfectly covering everything.

A series of discussions were going on amongst the individuals, but no words could be heard since they utilized their minds.

These Individuals were the ones designated to spectate the tier 3's in their trials, and they had been doing so for less than three minutes.

However, although they spectated the illusory landmass, they were only able to see the names of the red lights that disappeared or remained.

Only the creators of the realm had access to what the different aspirants were doing.

At some point during their various conversation, a loud sound suddenly pulled their full attention toward the illusory landmass.

And to their astonishment, a crack had spread in the sky, and soon a large portion of it suddenly disappeared.

Due to the island being a mere projection, they didn't see Cudgel's passage there. No, the experts managing the stabilizing of the realm were the ones to fully experience Cudgel's might.

Now inside an incredibly bright yellow lighted room, almost like a lab room on earth. A series of black attired experts could be seen scrambling up and down the ash-painted room.

Multiple orders were thrown at different Individuals as everyone moved to find a quick solution to stabilize the hole that had appeared on the purple spherical ball of sorts tens of feet in circumference, hovering at the center of the room.

The dimly glowing purple ball featured multiple red rifts extremely tiny in size floating around it.

A dense amount of mana poured out of the hole as the experts prepared to eject the aspirants since more cracks had spread apart from the hole. But they couldn't make a move until told to.

Further adding to their problems, was the news of an object directly digging through the multiple defenses placed around and inside the room.

Cudgel traveled towards the sky unhindered by the defenses able to stop even peak tier 4 experts in their tracks.

Its pin-sized figure eventually burst out of the building at maddening speeds, now free to reside in the clouds.

However thick black ones surrounded its environment.

"What just happened!?" A male voice boomed inside the lab not managing to deter the experts from their various activities.

"We fail to completely understand, but please not now," A middle-aged man replied to the voice while hundreds of tier 4 magical circles expanded and crumbled before him.

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ The magical circles, however, first landed on the purple ball before crumbling. Not able to properly accomplish its goal.

Seven other experts did the same as their power felt well into the realm of tier 4.

"Do you have a solution?" The male voice sounded again, but this time his tone was calmer.

"Yes, but we never dreamed that such would happen. The immediate repair of the different space will require really valuable materials. Are we permitted to utilize them?" The middle-aged man explained without removing his focus from trying to stabilize the realm.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

"Or do we eject them and move on," the expert quickly added.

A silence that had lasted for only two seconds occurred, but they felt like days to the multiple centuries-old cultivators.

"You are permitted to eject the remaining aspirants. They'll simply continue to the next stage of their trials," the voice answered solemnly.

The middle-aged man gritted his teeth at those words, his mouth uttering a few curses.

He felt betrayed that his and his colleagues' hard work would be abandoned to save resources.

However, he could only voice a helpless sigh when he listed the multiple materials needed to fix the mere sky, as none were below the middle-stage of tier 4 in terms of quality.

If the issue had occurred with the terrain of the realm, it would have been better. But the sky remained something very sensitive.

Its damage would severely impact the realm's condition, and the whole thing could eventually crumble.

They didn't know what existed outside their dimension, as even that realm was simply a large piece of land gathered from all over their continent.

It existed Inside the expanded space before them, and its boundaries were the layer of light and air pressure around it.

If left to the force of nature, they suspected it would simply collapse on itself, killing whatever was contained inside it.

Of course, that explanation was only the most basic words capable of describing the realm, since multiple other things were utilized.

"Get ready to eject the aspirants within the different space!" The middle-aged man announced, his words further saddening the experts who had heard the foreign male voice speaking to the expert.

"Are we allowed to get at least Mana stones? We have a chance of repairing the damage but it might take a few decades," the middle-aged man added as a series of calculations appeared within his old and experienced mind.

"Yes. The Divine Lightning guild would greatly appreciate it if you could," the voice replied, and a sense of calm appeared inside the over one hundred listening experts.

The other seven experts stabilizing the realm all nodded at each other as they prepared themselves for a large amount of Mana about to be utilized to forcefully teleport the aspirants.

"We are ready for the ejection!" A female expert at the peak of tier 3 announced, speaking to the eight experts.

The whole room experienced a violent shaking at that point, as the tier 3 experts in the room felt the Mana density in the room experience a sharp drop.

Although high-quality Mana stones were also at play, they couldn't stop that event from occurring.

A bright blue mass of Mana capable of fueling multiple experts into tier 4 converged below the realm.

A few seconds passed as the room continued to see rivers of blue essence rush towards the spherical mass of already Incredible portions of Mana.

A series of green magical circles and funnels of converging inscriptions appeared above the mass of energy.

The eight experts nodded at that point and pushed the heavy mass of mana into the funnels, fueling the teleportation spell.

strong BOOOOOM!! /strong

The room experienced an explosion of blueness as some directly went blind in front of the intense light.

Another rumble shook the whole building and everything went dark, the only illumination being the rapidly spinning purple sphere.

Chapter 212 212. ROARS

Having spent multiple hours within the realm after sending Cudgel to the sky.

Noah recalled to have regretted his actions, but it seemed things worked out.

However, he couldn't deny the sheer amount of trouble his action had caused, after all, there was now a huge hole in the sky.

Cudgel's exit had resulted in probably the most powerful explosion he had ever experienced, and they had already gone a few hundred meters below the ocean's surface!

The impact had literally shattered even the water below the sky, as multiple sections of the black ocean suddenly went empty.

That event resulted in the scene that lay before Noah and his impromptu group.

Everyone sat on a large rock a few ten hundred meters in radius. The chunk of solid earth reminded him of the tall rocks found in canyons, only that this one was wet.

The expert's expressions being stern, they would occasionally glance at the ever-expanding hole of seeming doom above them.

Large cracks, probably kilometers in length spread out in every direction from a blackish-purple hole that could be seen from anywhere in that realm.

The horrendous sounds each crack released always forced them into clasping their ears with their hands.

Noah couldn't count how many times he had gone deaf during those extremely long hours even if it had only been two hours so far.

Heavy silence remained amid the experts, as everyone prepared for whatever the realm wanted to throw at them.

Possible ideas about the terrifying hole in the sky spread in their minds, only Noah knowing what exactly had caused it.

Some wondered if it was the realm falling apart, or something else; like an environmental hazard.

However, no one had ever heard of the sky falling apart in their multiple decades of life, leaving them at a great loss.

The piece of rock on which they sat, featured a series of worrying cracks, but there wasn't much the experts could do, after all the ground below them remained crawling with tens of horned worms!

It seemed they had arrived at a spawning point of sorts since every few minutes, around five horned worms would materialize.

Thankfully most weren't as large as the one Noah fought.

Only most.

Surprisingly the artificial beast had the same ability as a real magical beast, which was the ability to feast on anything that contained energy and become stronger due to it.

This simple and currently annoying feature allowed for three large worms probably twice the size Noah fought to be present below them.

The massive worms occasionally feasted on the new spawns; only allowing them to feast on each other when they needed more substantial nutrients.

The three were like the lords of that region since no other beast smaller in size approached them.

This of course favored the cultivators who weren't in the right state of mind to properly fight, but it also trapped them up there.

From the looks of things, the spawning rate had drastically increased which meant traveling the lands would most likely lead to death.

Thankfully the worms weren't smart enough to crawl up the over 500 meters tall stone, even if their sheer length could comfortably allow them fit its size inside their mouths.

'They are pretty dumb,' Noah concluded after watching their relationship with the world around them.

The beasts simply lazed around, not bothering to kill each other, only opting to eat the newly spawned beasts.

Although they featured something that real magical beasts possessed. The power of the worms wasn't increasing all that much.

Their power looked to have passed the halfway point of the middle-stage of tier 3.

Ariana alone seemed to hold that much power, not to talk of Noah who felt able to pummel them if he tried hard enough.

You might currently wonder why the experts felt threatened by the presence of the worms if they seemed to have the advantage in power.

That would be none other than because every newly spawned worm held almost that much power, the only difference being in their various size.

And unfortunately for them, there were already over fifty scouring down there.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

The experts would be wiped out if they engaged In combat.

The fauna of that realm thrived in that chaos, so naturally, the experts were outnumbered.

pαndα,noνɐ1,сoМ The large piece of stone they sat on, occasionally trembled as a result of the movements of the worms, causing more cracks to spread.

Heaving a helpless sigh, Noah swept his gaze on the sitting experts and his eyes eventually fell on Ariana.

Her hair fluttered in the winds of that realm, and her blank eyes hinted at the worry hidden behind them.

Noah sat next to her, not minding the equally blank glances of the surrounding experts. He remained silent for a few seconds before eventually speaking.

"Do you feel pressure for being the leader of sorts?" Noah's words seemed to hit the spot since her expression clearly flickered at them.

"You don't have to worry, all of us here are capable of taking care of ourselves," Noah continued, gazing at the mesmerizing color of the expanding hole.

"Why even worry about a bunch of people who are only ready to save their skin," he paused, hearing her heave a sigh.

"I know, I know. But...." Her words faded.

"You still feel responsible for the group," Noah completed her words feeling a sense of disgust well up from deep inside him.

Her slight nod further heightened that feeling, but it wasn't directed at her. Rather Noah felt disgusted by himself.

Memories of his earlier life on Cregar played themselves, and he could immediately understand how naive and dumb he had been.

That state didn't seem natural to him now, but he couldn't lay his fingers on its cause.

"Where I come from I've always been at the forefront of a group. And my years as a tier-one and two cultivator weren't pleasant," she suddenly started, pulling Noah's attention.

"I've had friends get killed due to my wrong decisions and their deaths still haunt me till today," she spoke, her face radiating a tinge of sadness.

"Although most times the events were seemingly unavoidable, it still begged the question--"

"What would have happened if you hadn't taken those decisions," Noah completed her words, feeling his mood plummet.

The conversation reminded him mostly of James. 'What if I had declined that day,' Noah thought, feeling guilt trying to find its way into his mainstream mind.

Lifting her eyes to glance at Noah due to how well he seemed to understand her. Ariana felt surprised to find that a sad expression had appeared on his breath-taking face, and she unconsciously lost her breath at the scene.

Another few seconds of silence passed, the world seemingly fading into the background around them. The duo felt to be the only ones in the world at that moment as multiple thoughts flowed through their minds.

"I'm such a mood killer. I'm sorry for bothering you with my personal issues," Ariana apologized feeling genuinely guilty.

A smile bloomed on Noah's face at those words, and he couldn't help but conclude on the kind nature the lady before him, possessed.

"Why are you smiling!" Ariana exclaimed embarrassed, her loud voice catching the attention of the others.

"No reason in particular," Noah replied wondering how he could feel that free with her.

Ariana pouted in embarrassment, her former worry slowly beginning to vanish at Noah's company.

Whether it was due to his ever-confident aura, or his good looks. Or some hidden but unique attributes, Ariana felt drawn to the young man before her, even if she still felt unsure of him.

Their conversation continued for a while, Noah managing to surprise himself at how good he was at mundane topics.

Due to their chatty mode, the mood of the others couldn't help but lighten, and they too, soon engaged in a few dialogues.

Needless to say, something eventually changed at some point.

Three powerful roars suddenly spread throughout the region, followed by the appearance of three massive figures as large as the snake's beneath them.

Behind the overly large beasts were tens of the same species and all three packs moved towards the positions of the three worms, which in effect meant Noah's.

Chapter 213 213. EXCEPTION

'Why are they so damn big!' Noah frowned, getting up.

Just like him, the others were also on alert. As stern expressions appeared on their faces.

Exchanging meaningful glances with themselves, each one of them prepared for a battle, one that could prove to be very tough if things weren't handled efficiently.

Inspecting the oversized beasts by listening to his Instincts. Noah felt mildly astonished to find that the beasts were also in the middle-stage, albeit seemingly at their peak.

This of course would prove troublesome since none of them held such power.

"What do you think we should do?" Noah voiced a question to a serious Ariana.

Her gaze landed on him and she immediately went into deep thought.

However, her experienced mind quickly provided her with multiple ideas and her mouth immediately opened to voice them.

"From the looks of things the whole region would probably experience a battle. We can utilize that commotion to find somewhere safe. But we'll have to remain close to each other," she explained, her words receiving nods.

"What about that," the other water mage pointed at the hole in the sky, "It's getting bigger, and it might become a problem at some point."

"There's really nothing we can do about it; except hope, it gets fixed or something," Ariana shrugged.

"I guess we'll need to head that way if we want to have a chance at safety" Noah suddenly announced gazing at the lands behind them.

There remained a small forest, although most of it was gone, it would provide some type of shelter since its distance from their position was a bit lengthy.

"That should do for now, but we'll have to be fast," Ariana nodded a sword appearing in her grip. "Don't forget to stick together, there are surely going to be packs of roaming beasts still out for our skin," she added seeing her group prepare themselves.

A series of weapons appeared in the hands of the cultivators, as they all got ready to escape the soon-to-be battlefield.

A pair of black daggers shimmering with a dark-purplish color at its sharp edges appeared in Noah's hands. And its sight couldn't help but catch the attention of the others.

However, no one said anything. Only limiting themselves to stare at it before focusing their gaze on the task ahead.

The height of the piece of rock they stood on remained around 500 meters, but its base was crawling with the worms and was also wrapped by the long length of one of the massive horned worms.

The worms were mostly golden-brown but featured patches of dark brown skin.

From the distance, they would almost completely blend with that terrain since it had been a desert of some sort, but the water had dealt with that issue.

The over 70m long horns held the ability to stir up dirt and rocks, hence giving them some sort of affinity. They were the only beasts in that realm to hold such an ability.

Electrical currents crackled around Noah's figure as strands of his white hair floated due to that event. His body immediately began to emit a soft yellow glow, and the earth beneath his feet soon turned black.

He poured around 50SE into empowering his body, and that was the mildest effect he could reach.

Noah felt ready to take off but needed to wait for the others to prepare whatever technique they wanted.

'Do movement techniques count as spells,' Noah thought seeing different colored techniques light-up their almost dark environment.

"That's some pretty cool stuff," Ariana spoke, while tendrils of azure glowing liquid exited her legs to clad them in a boot of sorts.

Her expression went cold at that point, as the others were also ready. Lifting her right hand, she quickly brought it down signaling their movements.

The top of that vertically erected rock crumbled; as a loud bang carrying the force of multiple tier 3's, ravaged its structural integrity.

Seven different colored streaks appeared to speed past the sky, only to form an arc heading towards the ground.

Although the realm was currently in a mess, the various creatures present still held their primary goal within them, which caused over thirty creatures of different species to begin their wild dash towards the seven.

Feeling his feet touch solid ground again; Noah watched as his surroundings experienced terrible cracks at the arrival of the experts.

Although they looked weak beside monsters like tier 4's, tier 3 experts remained capable of dealing significant damage to their environment by simply moving about with their power on full display.

Rapidly sweeping his gaze on the six Individuals around him, Noah saw Ariana nod, and they all dashed towards the forest a few ten kilometers up ahead.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

Noah quickly turned out to be the fastest, but he didn't let himself stray away too much.

He could probably take care of himself just fine, but since he currently was present in a group, he had to stick with them.

Not even ten seconds after their landing; roars and explosions rose from various positions around them.

They weren't totally out of the range of the worms but were far enough to not be caught in the explosion that occurred at the clash of the overly-large beasts.

The ground resonated with the sheer amount of power those beasts were capable of unleashing, and Noah couldn't help but marvel at that event.

It seemed their buffed-up size allowed them more power even if their true strength was supposed to be in the middle-stage.  The damage they dealt seemed to belong to a far higher realm of power.

With a battle ongoing behind them, and one about to unfold before them, Noah and his group couldn't help but get riled up.

Their situation although dangerous, felt like a hunt or a game to be exact.

Suddenly everyone wanted to outdo each other, so they immediately brought their best to the fight.

Twirling his daggers in his fingers with expert proficiency, Noah utilized his dexterity to its maximum, as ideas on how to best utilize his daggers formed in his mind.

A wave of surprise swept his mind at how powerful his mind had become after the transformation, and the results inevitably wowed both he and his group.

Cutting down the wild beasts with such ease that it felt unfair, Noah barely utilized 30% of his full strength.

The ideas his mind provided him felt like proper techniques on their own, as the main objective was to maintain an all-around defense while minimizing his movements.

Flicking his wrists literally over fifty times in an Instant, Noah slashed at a two-tailed lizard almost twice the size he fought earlier that day.

ραпdα nᴏνa| сom Before the beast could swing its grotesque tail, Noah had dissected it into tens of fleshy chunks.

Pain ravaged the beast's mind but Noah wasn't paying attention to its agony-filled roars. He rapidly flicked his lethal wrists, cleanly separating the beast's head from the rest of its body.

Performing a side-step successfully dodging a teethed bite, Noah grabbed the head of the wolf-like beast before him, before proceeding to embed one of his two daggers in its bony jaw.

The wolf died on the spot but there were already three other beasts about to converge on him.

However, they all suddenly stopped moving after an azure light flashed behind them, soon revealing their bisected mid-sections.

Noah glanced at Ariana swiftly moving across the battlefield, slashing anything that wasn't human.

Her technique allowed her to control the pace of the battle going on around her while inflicting deadly wounds on the monsters.

'Will she ever drop that sword and utilize her martial arts,' Noah wondered, stabbing a tailed falcon trying to tear his head off his neck.

A screech escaped the large beast's beaks, but the daggers effect turned it to dust almost instantly.

The group continued to move towards the forest while killing the beasts that tried to stop them.

Things looked bright from how easy that task had, even though some received multiple non-fatal Injuries.

However, another event quickly sprang up to disrupt that smooth trend.

The sky suddenly lit up with a blinding blue light. So intense, that Noah felt himself go partially blind instantly.

With the blue light quickly came a wave of Mana. The immense amount of Mana swept the lands of that realm startling every living creature.

Noah felt shocked to find that the density of the Mana that swept the land was so off the charts that he could sense it!

Before anyone could make a move, a series of magical circles lit up the sky once again, and everyone vanished from their spots.

Everyone except Noah.

Chapter 214 214. FAR HARDER

Shock couldn't be more evident on Noah's face at that turn of events.

His surroundings continued to be flooded by the intense wave of blue dense essence; which was mana at an unholy concentration.

However, Noah felt astonished to feel his very being oppose the overwhelming energy around him.

His figure lit up with a deep-yellow light almost golden, as speed essence rushed out of his core without his permission.

Noah could sense and hear the energy that currently made him who he was, protest at the fact that mana wanted to take hold of him.

'It's never done this. Why now?' he wondered feeling scared of being left behind.

Noah quickly found himself in what looked like a cocoon of speed essence.

He felt able to hear the communication between those two energies. A strange and very unsettling experience it was.

However, he couldn't focus on that since he began to protest himself. Without the spell currently present around him, he would remain stuck there, and nothing would be able to get him out, since the speed essence wouldn't allow it.

'I really can't stay here. Just this once; allow it to take control of me,' Noah thought communicating with the speed forces' energy around him.

He really didn't know what he was doing, but something within him saw that as one way to fix that situation.

In the reality, outside of Noah's calm mind, his body was trembling and rolling on the solid, nigh-golden cocoon around him.

Noah looked possessed by some kind of spirit, and truly his situation wasn't far from it.

Hours seemed to go by in Noah's mind even if only an instant had passed.

His mind perceived things in what he considered the peak of his slow-motion abilities.

Eventually, what felt like days went by, the battle between mana and speed essence raging forth, while Noah protested in the background.

However, something suddenly clicked in his reasoning, and Noah felt his body return to calm, while the cocoon of speed essence suddenly saw a large crack spreading on its structure.

That concentrated energy soon burst, but instead of dissipating, it flowed back into Noah's core, allowing the spell still around him to function on his body.

Needless to say, Noah immediately vanished when the sea of blue light washed over him.

He had done one thing to acquire that result. But it felt like something he couldn't properly harness yet. Something he would only be capable of doing when his comprehension of the speed force. Yet he did it anyway, and that incident vanished from his memories. A specialty of his new race.

Finding himself in a completely different environment than he was before, Noah felt his figure get flung backward, but he landed on fleshy cushions.

Quickly picking himself up, Noah frantically swept his gaze on his surroundings.

Finding that he was back inside the room where they had walked into a rift, he heaved a sigh of relief.

However, something soon caught his eye.

'Why are they still soon many,' Noah thought laying eyes on a group of grunting humans no less than a thousand in number.

Straightening his position, he ignored his current dirty look and proceeded to scan the room for familiar faces.

Of course, he found a few but didn't bother to walk towards them, after all, lady Edna's voice rang out before he could do anything.

"Welcome back young aspirants," her captivating voice quickly gained the attention of many.

"Once again I apologize for the great inconvenience. The realm had experienced a bit of trouble earlier, prompting your ejection," she performed a slight bow.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

'Bit of trouble?' Noah thought, 'There was a hole in the sky!'

"It seems you younglings are both unlucky and lucky," she giggled lightening the mood.

"Due to the impromptu end of the first test, you'll all be allowed to take a thirty-minute break before the second test for today starts," she quickly went straight to the point.

"I'll give a few short words on that after the break. For now, chill," she said immediately, vanishing.

Shaking his head at that turn of events, Noah felt almost numb to the annoyance it brought.

They had literally just exited a battle, only to have thirty minutes of rest before another trial.

Almost everyone within that room followed her instructions, as they sat on the ground to recuperate.

Some had been close to being disqualified before the timely teleportation, while some were safely hidden somewhere during the chaos the realm had experienced, but all needed rest, whether physically or mentally.

A series of low lights shone inside that room, as almost every individual cultivated to refill their cores, or undergoing healing.

Sitting on the ground with nothing to do since his condition remained perfect. Noah felt odd amongst the numbers of experts cultivating.

A few gazes landed on his back during that period, as most wondered how he, a lower-stage cultivator remained totally fine.

'He must have hidden behind stronger experts,' most thought when they saw Ariana suddenly sitting next to him, and her power felt higher.

The duo said no word to each other since Ariana cultivated because her body featured Injuries, though most were superficial.

However, it remained nice to have someone by his side.

'It seems the stage wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be for others,' Noah found himself thinking.

The experts that remained were many, meaning the next stage would just be as competitive as the first.

'Hopefully, I don't mess things up again,' he laughed inwardly but silently felt bad.

The thirty minutes soon elapsed and, Lady Edna returned with her flaming fairy. A still weird sight.

"The second test for today would see you all diving into a pool," she began seeing everyone place their attention on her stunning figure.

"Within this pool, you'll have only one objective: to go as deep as you can, until you cannot withstand the pressure your environment throws at you."

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ "In there you won't have to fight anything but the pressure. However, you'll have to go past the seventh depth stage," she paused to qualify.

"But this pool features a twist that isn't popular. Rather than the pressure crunching down on you, it's pushing against you. In other words, It'll be like trying to fly, except far harder."

_______________________________________

*Authors note*

I apologize for my inconsistent schedule lately. A lot happened this week. I wrote an important exam, something happened that I had to go for an X-ray(Hopefully nothing important is broken) and I also came down with a cough.

However, these are not excuses, just annoying distractions. Updates will begin normally this coming week.

A big thanks for all your support, they manage to revitalize me single every time. Thank you

Chapter 215 215. DISQUALIFIED

Furrowed brows appeared on the faces of many experts within that room, Noah included.

''Flying but harder,'' Noah muttered failing to properly simulate such an environment, even if it sounded easy.

"I understand your confusion about the matter; even I felt astounded by the outrageousness of such an environment. But it's actually been existing for a century or more at this point," Lady Edna explained.

"However, it remains something that cannot easily be replicated due to the vast changes needed to be made, and the immense amount of energy required to accomplish that goal."

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ "I wish they hadn't given you this as a test, but only the really high-ranking experts of our guild call the shots," she said, hinting at a probable political structure in the guild.

However, those who managed to grab the hidden meaning behind her words felt themselves get submerged in confusion. "If she isn't one of the really high-ranking experts, then who are?" They asked themselves in awe and perplexion.

"Without further ado, let's get going," lady Edna's voice rang out again, pulling those in deep thought out of their contemplation. Noah was also included.

A series of green magical circles expanded beneath their feet, proceeding to replicate themselves to enclose the aspirants within their multiple bright rings.

Noah watched that spectacular scene play out when his environment suddenly turned into a mess of green, black and white lights.

Space seemed to stretch around the experts, and an incredible pressure smashed into their soul realms. While some felt the need to empty their gut, through their mouths.

Some individuals felt shocked to experience intense pain during those short moments, as surprisingly, cracks had spread on their islands, forcing them to pass out.

Noah himself felt the entirety of his soul realm tremble before the might of his rapidly changing environment. However, his improved soul realm kept itself together, but a headache sprang up in return.

The rapidly stretching and changing environment eventually came to a stop, and the tier 3 experts accompanied by Lady Edna arrived at the edge of a still pond a few hundred kilometers in radius.

The liquid water of the pond shimmered with both a blue and purplish glow, however, the water itself remained green in color. Making for a great contrast.

That strange-looking pond was surrounded by a series of green hills tightly positioned beside each other in other not to allow any view of the world around. If there was any.

The sky above them remained blue, but Noah felt something strange about that sight. Of course, he could only realize this after he had recovered from his headache.

Upon arrival, the symptoms of the teleportation of sorts had shot through the roof, causing many to either puke or faint. Only a few remained standing.

Only after a few minutes had passed did the experts recover and get to take in that weirdly magical sight of the pond before them.

"This will be the site of the second test, as you all can see," lady Edna's voice suddenly rang out from above them.

"You'll all take turns in diving into it to begin. But do remember that it'll take far more force to actually dive in," she explained slowly waving her hand.

Her wave seemed to cause a reaction on the pond, since that large body of water, slowly began to spin, and soon a water vortex of sorts formed.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

However to the shock of the watching experts the green water of that lake rose in a swirling mass, instead of sinking.

'An opposite water vortex,' Noah thought at that sight. It seemed gravity worked differently within the bounds of the pond since the linear vortex didn't go past a certain height.

Excitement couldn't help but wash into Noah's mind when they were given a go-ahead to dive in.

"An addition. You'll notice the change in scenery at every new depth, and each proceeding depth is far longer than the former," she explained while the experts slowly began their walk towards the grassy shore of the pond.

"Although there isn't any real need; going past the seventh depth stage will allow you to gain more recognition amongst the spectating higher-ups," she explained still casually floating. Most individuals didn't have their full attention on her due to the sight before them, and she didn't like it.

"There's also a prize at the bottom of the tenth stage," she spoke, her words sounding like an explosion in the ears of the various experts, successfully halting almost everyone's steps. As they raised their heads to gaze at her.

"To allow us to see the best amongst you all, we have planted a special reward at the bottom of the second to the last stage. Five actually," she continued a boisterous smile on her face.

"However, do note that this doesn't guarantee your entry into our guild, only something extra to force the best out of you," she carefully explained.

'A reward from one of the three great guilds. It has to be something worth my time,' Noah thought, getting serious.

"The time within the pond has also been tweaked, but even the five days of sorts available won't be enough to cover the distance required. Meaning you'll also have to be fast," lady Edna explained.

"Is there a limit to the mobility spells we are allowed to utilize!" A male expert amongst the more than a thousand five hundred Individuals voiced out. Utilizing the power he held to allow his voice to reach the insanely powerful lady above them.

"Fortunately there isn't a limit. However, I'm sure you all understand how you'll be unable to cultivate. Your reserves will be shared between keeping yourselves moving while also powering the suits you'll be given upon entry," she explained.

An eyebrow rose on Noah's face at her words, and he couldn't help but curiously glance at the roaring water behind their large numbers.

"That's all you'll need to know. We expect you to figure out the rest by yourselves," lady Edna spoke nodding her head at them.

Some cultivators immediately drank Mana potions at that go-ahead, as stern expressions appeared on their faces.

Soon each expert began jumping into the lake. However, none actually sunk! The gravity-defying feature of the pond leaving them afloat.

Instead, immediately their skins touched the pond, the armbands still present on their bodies shone with a golden radiance, and each expert found that a black skin-tight latex garment featuring a transparent helmet appeared on their figures, before the pond's weird vortex began to pull them towards its incredible mass.

Struggle immediately appeared on the faces of the experts, who found it hard to go against that force both pulling them towards the vortex, while also threatening to spit them out of the pond.

Some found themselves unlucky enough to get sucked into the vortex and were almost instantly flung out of the raging pond.

"DISQUALIFIED!" A mechanical voice androgynous in nature boomed out from their environment, and fear immediately appeared Inside their minds. They hadn't been told of such consequences.

Chapter 216 216. PURGE

Noah felt his focus on the world outside the pond vanish immediately over sixteen experts were disqualified after barely ten seconds inside the pond.

Struggle appeared on his face, partially masked by the transparent helmet. But he didn't bother to focus on the fact that he couldn't even power the suit, rather he placed all his attention on trying to muster enough sheer force to dig through the surface of the pond.

Sensing danger all around him as a result of his steady closeness to the now whirlpool of doom, Noah felt forced to activate Muliix's weight manipulation features when he had gotten dangerously close to the vortex.

Increasing his weight to allow himself to sink, Noah felt both terrified and astonished to find himself approaching the vortex faster than before.

Realization dawned on him at that point, and he immediately reduced Muliix's weight to merely a few hundred grams.

Although he slowly continued to move towards the vortex, he felt his waist for the first time in like a minute go below the Waters surface.

He had simply been sliding on the surface of that pond, before then. While the ripples brought him closer to the upside-down whirlpool.

Essence roiled out of Noah's figure when he understood how to properly sink.

Placing his finger on the spinning water below him. Noah dug into the pond's water, and he immediately felt himself get submerged.

Of course, he had to burn essence to accomplish this seemingly simple task.

Merely 20SE points vanished when Noah shot below the pond's surface. His entry caused violent ripples to spread through the water above him and below him.

However, not only he had succeeded in diving into the pond.

The same mechanical sound boomed through the water every once in a while, but those within the pond didn't have time to bother themselves about losers, since at their distance from the whirlpool thing's weren't safe yet.

Arriving inside a brightly lit environment, Noah felt the pushing force of the water drastically reduce, however, the vortex's power continued to ravage that area, forcing him to dive deeper.

Hundreds of torpedo-like objects shot downwards, with no particular destination in mind, only wanting to escape the vortex.

Noah wrapped speed-essence around his figure to allow his body to fend off the water's push, while more essence slowly seeped into his lungs to allow him to breathe.

Not until a few hundred meters had passed did the troubled water disappear.

With danger out of the way, Noah began his journey toward the bottom of that pond.

The lower he went the stronger the push of the water. But at this depth, he felt almost nothing. The real struggle had been at the pond's surface.

Ignoring the experts spread out around him, Noah focused on minimizing the amount of essence he utilized while trying his best to maintain a certain speed.

Of course, this speed remained above the speed of sound.

Noah's brightly lit underwater environment zoomed past him, as he crossed shocking distances in short amounts of time.

At this point, he had left the other experts in the streak of deep yellow electrical energy he shockingly still emitted.

The liquid around him bubbled at his passage causing such areas to experience unstable and violent waves.

For the first time in a while, Noah felt it unnecessary to hide his speed. He could term it a movement technique if he were ever questioned about that show of ability.

A few minutes passed and his armband buzzed, signifying his arrival into another depth stage.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

The push of the pond, suddenly experienced a drastic increment, as Noah almost halted his rapid movements in shock.

He felt like he had smashed through a wall, meaning he had to burn more essence to remain at Mach 3.

Thankfully his amazing 65k energy pool stood capable before that new requirement.

'This is easy,' Noah thought streaking through the now red-lighted environment unlike the green one of the first depth stage.

He had been swimming in that environment for more than ten minutes, but there seemed to be no end to it.

At this point, the push of the pond had experienced a large hike and continued to increase, but his speed barely decreased.

Studying the interiors of the underwater suit he had on, Noah found a space at the lower abdomen spot, where his core was.

A series of minuscule inscriptions golden in color also rotated around that spot. From lady Edna's words, he understood that; his energy was supposed to enter flow into it, fueling the suit's oxygen-producing function.

However, his different energy couldn't power it. Heck, he risked damaging the suit with his liquid-like essence.

Although that issue remained small currently, it would prove to become something bigger and more frustrating later on, since the devices of that world weren't created to suit his different energy.

'I'll have to learn to build my stuff, or at least how to make changes,' Noah thought casually speeding through the pond, which tried its best to oppose his movement.

'It'll probably take them hours or even a day to arrive at this point,' Noah thought after shooting into a different colored environment. This one shining red.

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ The water here activity tried to push him out, and Noah could feel the annoying amount of power in that push.

The third depth stage felt like a different environment from the second or first. And it was. After all, Noah could sight whirlpools from his position. Tens of them. His surroundings had also expanded making for a larger space around him than in the second depth stage.

Not only that, but his Instincts could also sense something strange about the walls around him.

They were heavily inscribed, and very bright, but something else. They felt dangerous.

Curiosity forced Noah towards them, but he did so cautiously.

With his consciousness unfolded around him, and his spells at the tip of his mind, Noah swam closer to the almost blinding walls of the pond.

The dangerous sensation shot through the roof when he remained only a few meters from it. Then something happened.

The whole pond abruptly began to tremble violently, and a deep rumble, almost like a roar, struck Noah's ears.

Something was coming, but he felt unable to sense what it was, even if he confirmed that whatever it was didn't have life.

A few seconds passed, and he felt shocked to suddenly find that the waters a few kilometers below him had turned cloudy.

Then it arrived.

A violent wave of rushing water suddenly barreled over Noah's environment, purging it of all its whirlpool and pushing him backward.

So much so that he arrived back inside the second depth stage, which was over a kilometer above him, and continued to ascend.