New Game Plus

The Tournament Finale

"First 20 runners, are you ready!?" The announcer's voice resounds through the speakers surrounding the stadium. The crowd of people around me yell back, including Thoth.

"Okay then! Then, I'm going to start counting down for the death run! Three! Two! One! GO!"

Everyone surrounding me began to yell out aggressively, before sprinting down the first section of this obstacle course.

A long, rectangular platform laid out in front of me. It spanned about 100 meters, and on it, are several hundred circles both big and small. They covered the entire surface area of the platform, so there was no way we could step in between and avoid them easily. I assume that the pillars of fire and the spikes will emerge from these. The big ones lit red, before fire emerged from it, while the small ones emit a white light, before a spike bursts out.

After examining the platform and identifying the traps, I do the same thing everyone else is. I just run straight through the platform of deathtraps. Enchanting myself with a wind spell, [Zephyr Steps], allowing glide on a smooth surface as if I'm sliding on it. As spikes and fire suddenly bursts from the ground, I curve around them naturally, weaving my way through. I pass by some corpses that were unable to avoid the traps, and even surpassed some of the living runners, who began going through cautiously.

"...hi." I whisper to a certain someone as I slide by them.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play, huh!?" She yells at me as I widen the gap between us.

I feel a massive amount of mana being released behind me, and I start gliding faster. I reach the second section of the race, which was the climb to the top. A wall of ice stands in front of me, going up at a strange angle that leans towards me. Several holes were carved into it, which the racers are supposed to use to climb it. Using [Enhanced Detection], I can detect the presence of several other creatures in these holes, I mark them in my mind so that I avoid them as I climb.

I start my ascent, inserting my hand into empty holes and pulling myself upward on the acutely angled wall. After about five seconds of climbing, I hear a click as I insert my left hand in one of the holes. I instantly react by pulling it back out, and nearly lost my grip on the slippery ice, as an arrow flies out of the hole I just grabbed. Right, the announcer also said something about this, arrows and monsters are placed in these holes.

Unfortunately, there was no way for me to actually detect these arrow traps, so I can only avoid the monsters as I continue to climb. Every time I hear a click, I would pull my hand out immediately so the arrow doesn't hit my hand. Doing this slowed me down quite a bit, though. Eventually, a certain energetic monkey-like person climbs by me in a flash, moving faster than the monsters and traps can hit her. She makes it to the top before me, disappearing from my vision.

I reach the top as well after about ten seconds, climbing over the sharp edge at the top. Upon climbing over, I see a straight path to the next section, which took the form of going straight down. It looked way deeper than the ground level of the arena. Inside it, was a mayhem of bullets flying upward along with bolts of lightning. How the heck do these guys expect first years to be able to complete these? Are they stupid? Do they not have any common sense?

After my short moment of complaints, I immediately leap into the giant pitfall. Thoth was probably at the bottom by now, so I can't spend time patiently contemplating the thought process of the higher ups. I begin free falling through the storm of lightning and bullets, using bursts of wind magic to push me, allowing me to dodge some of them.

Due to the speed of these projectiles, though, I wasn't able to dodge most of them. I took some of the bolts because I couldn't see it coming, and there were far too many bullets, making it impossible to weave through without a scratch. At least, with my current agility. I eventually see the large landing net that the announcer told us about earlier, and directed myself into it by using wind magic. After landing in the net, the storm around me stops coming. It seems upon reaching the landing net it turns into a safe zone from the mayhem of projectiles.