Chapter 144 - The 2nd Shuffle!
"Let's see what Landlord is up to now."
After Zoe saw that Mastermania wasn't making any moves. But merely walking towards a specific direction inside the maze, she removed the camera on him, planning to check on Landlord's position and condition after that battle.
'Peep!' 'Peep!'...
However, just as she tried to swipe her finger, the maze's shuffle alarm resounded in her ears, forcing her to lift her chin and gaze at the automatic reverse countdown on the large screen.,
30 minutes had already gone by since the first shuffle!
"It seems that I lost track of time." She smiled sheepishly at such a rookie mistake and highlighted the current ranking of the wager to attract their attention away, so she could avoid getting bad-mouthed.
//
Rank 1) Landlord, GP: 5300
Rank 2) Birds Call, GP: 3400
Rank 3) Sprite Visage, GP: 2100
Rank 4) Solar Mist, GP: 2000
Rank 5) Hound Stench, GP: 1900.
Rank 6) Pure Muscle, GP: 1850
Rank 7) Charming Sky, GP: 1450
Rank 8) Mastermania, GP: 1300
Rank 9) Feeling Good, GP: 950
Rank 10) Blades' Hail GP: 950//
As expected, Charming Sky fell straight to the bottom after her attempt to slay the serpent failed miserably, as she used the majority of her energy without any returns. thus, her disqualification from the wager was normal.
Meanwhile, Mastermania fell from rank 7 to 8 and probably would continue falling just like Charming Sky. After all, he had many things on his mind currently than focusing on a lost wager. He knew and probably everyone else knew as well that there was simply no way to catch up to Felix after he bypassed the 5k GP mark.
Even Princess Bird, who had the highest hope of doing so, was currently sitting on the chest she opened and watching a recorded movie in her bracelet.
What else could she do?
If Charming Sky had 20% energy remaining, then Princess Bird was literally broke with only 2% or 3% in her tank. Thus, she decided to chill in her position until the game end.
Peep!
Immediately after hearing the last alert's warning, Zoe removed the ranking list and switched the camera to Felix, hoping that he was entangled in something worthy to be viewed.
Too bad her hopes were dashed after seeing him standing all alone within a 500-meter diameter. There was absolutely no one near him. Not even a beast!
She wasn't the only one disappointed at this, as even Felix was sighing at the desolate view he was seeing after the walls opened up in order to shuffle.
'Whatever, might as well sprint towards the chest. There is not much time before the game ends.'
That was indeed the best current decision to make at this moment, as to reach the chest Felix needed to run at least for half an hour continuously without pausing to engage in side-fights. However, this was an esteemed based on the current path he was on. After the wall reshuffle again, the path might get longer or shorter. It depends on his luck.
Plus, his energy was probably not going to support him having side-fights anyway after he wasted 40% just to deal with that troublemaker serpent.
Thus, Felix had to ignore everything in his path and focus only on reaching the legendary chest.
After a while, the walls finished rearranging themselves, leaving the players who were in close proximity to the exit, scratch their heads in confusion about where to go.
If it wasn't for those shuffles, the game would have ended in the first 30 minutes, leaving Felix and the rest in the wager no tears to cry after throwing the championship for no benefits at all.
Thankfully, after this shuffle, the game should last for a while. But only if a player didn't luck out on an ability as Felix found inside the hidden compartment, or teleport near the exit.
Who knows, this game might end just in a couple of minutes after this shuffle. Everything was possible in a puzzle type game.
'I hope the path shortened or at least remained the same.' Felix withdrew the scroll from his bracelet and unrolled it before him.
'Lucky bastard!'
'Thank god!'
Totally ignoring Asna's remark, he sighed in relief after seeing that the path towards the chest shortened substantially, removing a quite large amount of twists to make it in a somewhat straight line.
He didn't know how long it would take now to reach the chest, but he was pretty sure that it wouldn't exceed 20 minutes.
'I memorized it, you can go now.'
Without further delay, he retrieved the scroll after hearing Asna's confirmation. He then stretched his legs a bit and sprinted forward like there was no tomorrow. 15 to 20 minutes of running was quite a hefty duration to sprint in it. But, Felix was quite confident in his stamina to pull it off.
After Zoe saw that he planned to run directly towards the chest, she switched the camera to a more interesting happening near the exit of the maze.
Confused and muddled, Her head couldn't help but tilt a bit at the weird ongoing situation that she was watching.
The spectators also had no idea what the hell was wrong with the players to act in that strange manner. However, after hearing what one of them said, they couldn't help but drew a deep gasp at such a terrifying scheme, aiming at Felix!
Suddenly, a barrage of boos and insults were thrown towards the players responsible for that scheme. The spectators all had flushed cheeks from anger, as they kept cursing at the top of their voice.
They clearly didn't like what they saw or heard one bit.
.....
Meanwhile, Felix uncaring about anything, continued his sprint with ragged breaths and somewhat of a shaky form.
He was paying attention to only one thing, and that was Asna's voice, as she kept guiding him through the paths.
'Are we close yet?' He asked while wiping his sweaty forehead.
He already bypassed the 15 minutes mark, and the chest was still nowhere to be seen. Nonetheless, he did meet with a few beasts on the way.
For the common and uncommon beasts, he completely ignored them, while for the rare beasts, he only targeted them if he found that he could slay them without being a drag.
On the other hand, he never bothered with the players he met on the way. He simply bypassed them without giving a single glance in their direction.
The players were quite cooperative with him, as they didn't dare to let a fart in his presence. They merely buried their heads in their chest and submerged themselves with the walls akin to chameleons.
They were not acting cowardly or anything, but merely showing Felix his due respect after establishing his dominance inside the maze.
The two fireworks were still fresh in their mind. Thus, it was better to not provoke him and continue playing their own game peacefully.
'Yep! just a couple few turns and we will reach the X mark.' Asna nodded her head and said, 'Turn left, right, right and continue in a straight line. The X mark is at the very end of that line.'
'Alright, thank you.'
After receiving a positive confirmation, Felix slowed his pace gradually until he began jogging in a relaxed manner. His pace switch was a smart move to do since his body desperately needed recovery after his continuous sprint.
Felix wasn't stupid to fight a legendary beast while being dead tired. He wasn't even confident in his ability to slay the beast when he was at his peak. Don't even mention doing it in this condition.
Legendary beasts were on an entirely different league than epic beasts. If it wasn't for so, the bloodlines of legendary beasts would not have a 10 times market price than epic bloodlines.
Felix who struggled to win against even an epic tier 2 beast, was expecting the upcoming fight to only increase in difficulty, and by a quite large margin.
Thus, he was taking his preparation in a serious manner. To the point, he was planning to give up battling the beast if its type was unfavorable against his abilities, such as the mental type!
If mental abilities users gave him trouble, then a mental legendary beast could flat out turn his brain into mush instantly.
It wasn't even a fair fight. Felix understood that clearly as well.
One should always fight based on his strengths and weaknesses, and Felix's bloodline still wasn't strong enough to cover everything, even though it belonged to a primogenitor.
The last thing he wanted was to be c.o.c.ky due to his overpowered bloodline and get himself killed.
After a while, Felix reached the end of the path, where the beast was supposed to be. However, his infrared vision only fed him an image of a medium-sized chest, glowing brightly like a mini sun. As for the beast that was supposed to guard it? it was nowhere to be seen.
A bit spooked, he took a step back and pushed his vision to the limit, hoping to spot the beast. He looked to his left and right, nothing! He looked underneath the ground, still nothing! He raised his head and glanced above him.
'Holy shit!!' Awestruck and somewhat excited? Felix gaped at the monstrous sight above him.