[MA] 80. Risk and Opportunity (Patreon)

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[A/N: I changed a couple things on very old chapters. Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/61977418]

Shen had been born and raised in the Eternal Empire. He had seen cultivators so old that the old lady beside him would be a fetus by comparison. Some old monsters chose to look like children, others liked looking ancient, and there were all manners of appearances in-between. So Shen was used to old and powerful people.

Yet, his arrogance and prejudice got to him once again. He had thought of the mortal lady as just that: a mortal lady. How could a random mortal grandma ever kick a cultivator? That meant no sense to him at all. He had utterly discarded her as a threat.

It made even less sense because they weren't competitors!

The second to last system message, the one asking him to pick a stat, had stated that one person of each age group would complete the tutorial for each stat. They weren't in the same age group; his group had only sixteen-year-olds. What could she possibly gain by making his life harder?

Then it dawned on him: she might have a relative of his age—or close enough to confound them—on the tutorial and was assisting them.

Shen had been a fool to disregard her!

The kick was so unexpected—despite him knowing to always be aware of his surroundings thanks to the Concept of War—that it connected.

It lacked strength and merely made him lose balance. It seemed that was all the lady wanted because she didn't try to finish the job; she just smiled like a naughty kid and jumped away.

Shen shook his head. He could only blame himself for that. This was a competition, and the system message had told them to win by any means necessary. She had played by the rules.

Which didn't mean he couldn't pay her back for it—yet he wouldn't. She had given him a valuable lesson at the cost of a couple of seconds that wouldn't matter in the end.

Indeed, he was sure it wouldn't matter, for he had something that likely no one else there did: a D+ movement Skill.

He jumped to the next island, the largest around. It was packed with people, and more kept hopping in. Some newcomers had waited to improve their agility like him. Others had already fallen and been teleported to the beginning.

Shen couldn't use his qi in this stage, but he didn't need to. He drew from the Concepts of Boundlessness and Zephyr to make his movements better without the need for any energy expenditure. Qi would have given him an extra boost, but the Concepts alone helped a little.

He started running.

Shen's E agility made him faster than at least eighty percent of those around; they hadn't upgraded their stat. His Concepts made him faster than half the remaining twenty percent and as fast as the other half.

They all had chosen to be in this agility competition; it wasn't a surprise that ten percent of those around had been enlightened to Concepts that could improve their speed. If anything, the surprising factor was that Shen could keep to their pace with his Concepts, none of which focused on speed. It spoke well for their synergy and his understanding of them.

And then his Elusive Gale Footwork made him faster than everyone.

He repurposed his All-Encompassing Pursuit to pursue the finishing line rather than an enemy and kept his Whispering Transformation going to avoid stumbling on anyone. Like an elusive wind, he moved ahead in between tens of thousands of people without ever touching any of them. His Concept of War helped him to analyze obstacles and determine the best path.

He passed the old lady less than ten seconds after jumping on the big island. He wasted a few instants to look at her face, and the shock was totally worth it. Then he focused only on the path ahead.

There was a lot of pushing around, but he avoided every attempt against him. He only returned the pushes when it wouldn't make him lose any momentum, which was about one time for every twenty attempt pushes. The goal was to reach the finish line, and he would rather not waste time doing anything else.

After the first large island came another larger one shaped like a funnel. It had enormous length and was wide enough at the beginning, but the end was so narrow that Shen could see both ends, if barely. People were getting much more packed there, especially at the end.

Shen flowed through them and kept going.

The following islands were smaller and also acted like funnels. They got narrower and narrower until the islands became only wide enough for a dozen people to stand side by side. Then they started getting shorter too. Some were hundreds of yards long, but others were barely long enough for a dozen people to occupy the island at all.

That's when Shen found the first real obstacle.

There was some magic going on, for Shen could see the following islands slightly from above despite feeling as if he was on the same level as them. Ahead, he saw five people in their mid-twenties blocking the passage on a small island, pushing anyone who tried to get to them. They had picked an island that they could defend alone.

To make things worse, hundreds of people had piled up on the end of the island leading to them; the same island Shen was at. The competitors were afraid to jump and made it impossible for him to continue running. The few who braved bridging the gap were mercilessly pushed off the edge by the five assholes.

It made sense that this stage wouldn't be just about agility. It gave an advantage to those with better abilities. Shen had an agility-based ability, and whoever was friends with those guys and convinced them to sacrifice themselves had a social ability instead.

Shen was forced to a halt, then started pushing the people in front of him. "Step aside!" he yelled, annoyed at not being able to use his Lion's Roar due to lack of qi. "I'll deal with them! Give way! I'll defeat those guys!"

It was annoying that his strength was only at F- and he couldn't just push them all away. There were enough people that, with so little strength, it would take him longer to defeat them than slowly ask for passage.

Some people gave way; others pretended to be deaf. There was a kind of passive-aggressive pushing going on at the front rows, where people drove into others but pretended not to be an accident.

It was pretty stupid, really.

Eventually, he got to the front edge and was about to jump when a middle-aged guy tried to kick him.

If it wasn't for the lady, the kick might've connected. Unfortunately for the man, Shen was ready. He grabbed his leg, twisted his body, and threw the asshole out of the edge.

"Anyone else?" he yelled, annoyed. Yelling was unbecoming for a cultivator, but sometimes there was no alternative.

No one said anything.

Three of the five young people on the island blocked the border, and the other two stayed behind for support if needed. Shen had seen them kick anyone who got to them. Whoever managed to grab their legs was punched and kicked by the others until they gave up.

The competitors had been stupid to stop at the previous island. If everyone kept jumping, it would've been impossible to stop them all.

Shen jumped headfirst.

Two of them tried to kick him, one of them was so quick he had to have E agility. Shen barely took his own head out of the way and grabbed the other guy's leg.

The one who got grabbed stepped back and was held by the two behind. The three at the front proceeded to try to kick the shit out of Shen.

Unfortunately for them, Shen had already quickly climbed the man he had grabbed. The guy tried to hug Shen, who pulled with both arms for impulse and somersaulted above them all.

He reached the middle of the island, then twisted his body twice for extra momentum and roundhouse-kicked the guy closest to him.

That was enough for them all to stumble ahead. One of them almost fell but managed to grab the one Shen had climbed on. That might've saved them if it wasn't for the elementary fact that Shen hadn't stopped.

He kicked and pushed with his body, and soon enough, four people fell off the edge. They tried to grab the last one, but he dodged them.

The last young man looked a bit scared and very furious. He raised his fists to fight, but Shen just turned back and rushed to the next island.

He had punished them because they had made his life harder, but he wouldn't allow them to distract him from the goal. If the people behind wanted, they could deal with the asshole themselves.

He sprinted ahead.

= - = - =

Alicia was very annoyed.

Proving her willpower at the fifth stage hadn't been enough. She had to prove it again at the seventh stage because willpower was part of the magic stat.

So she found herself alone on the same island as the first stage, besides countless others. The system, aided by a B-rank, kept pushing hot mana against her, and she had to resist using her willpower. If she failed, she would take damage. Everyone's HP had been set to 50, and the last 10% to die would emerge victorious.

Alicia clenched her hand, letting her hatred fuel her will.

She resisted.

= - = - =

The islands sometimes became mere steps, proving it wasn't exclusively speed that was tested in this stage. Still, there were many more long islands where speed triumphed over any other agility characteristic.

Other people tried to block his way, and Shen dealt with them all. The more he progressed, the fewer competitors he saw.

He was sure many hours must have passed though he couldn't tell with the time perception dilation.

Suddenly, his speed was significantly decreased, and he got a message.

=

Tutorial - 7th Stage - Middle Boss

You've reached the stage's middle point.

Higher agility makes you faster, but making the most out of a stat is sometimes more important than reaching higher tiers.

Until the end of the stage, your agility will be limited to your lowest unmastered tier.

For instance, if you have mastered all tiers up to F+, your agility will be limited to E-.

If you master the tier you're being limited to, your agility will increase to the next tier up to your purchased agility tier.

The tier you're being limited to will be displayed on the top side of your vision.

=

Shen saw an "F" appear in his vision and was astonished. He could swear he could fully utilize all his stats up to F+, maybe even E-.

He found himself actually grateful for the limit placed on him. The Pioneer Tutorial was often very un-tutorial-like, but Shen couldn't deny he was learning a lot there. Now, he was being told his stat control sucked and given a chance to improve. Moreover, there was so much on the line that he could only do his very best or fail.

He did just that. He kept running but focused on understanding how he could extract the most agility from his muscles. Boundlessness, Zephyr, and Combat helped a lot in that, and soon enough, the F turned into an F+.

Soon, the system gave even more incentive to improve. The islands started moving around, rising or lowering, and shaking violently at random. He had to use his agility to the utmost, which helped him understand the stat better.

He saw people fall, but he also saw others suddenly walk more stable, his understanding of agility reaching the next tier.

There was risk and opportunity in equal measures there.

Shen kept running and jumping, doing his best to improve.

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