’Okay, now this has really got worried...’
Instead of feeling glee at his remarkably fast speed, Nick felt slightly worried.
Was sothing wrong with him?
That was his first thought, but it didn’t seem likely. Although, once an idea like this sprouted in one’s mind, it spread like a cancer. Thoughts like this were extrely hard to get rid of, unless he could find the real reason for his remarkably fast speed.
There had to be a catch to it, like that saying.
There’s no such thing as free lunch in this universe...
Shaking these worriso thoughts from his head, Nick focused his concentration on simply reaching the exit and moving onto the second level of the speed test.
The rocky canyon.
After just another 30 seconds of constant running, jumping, ducking and manoeuvring through the dense jungle environnt, he finally saw the doorway.
He didn’t even take a mont to admire the beautiful environnt forming on the other side, forming into what looked like an almost perfect replica of the Grand Canyong on Earth!
’Nice! With this environnt I can actually go all out with testing my speed, forget saving my Sabertooth Wolf Beast Armant as well, if I don’t use it here, I won’t get the chance to use it at all in this test!’
Nick was ecstatic after seeing the type of environnt that had ford in front of his still rapidly moving body.
The environnts for each speed test change every ti soone starts them, procedurally generating a different environnt each ti, making it so that there would never be the sa environnt used twice.
This was put in place to prevent Altered just studying preset environnts and finding the most optimal route through all of them, as this was as far from a real scenario as it could get.
It wasn’t like you could do that when out in the wilderness of the Beast Domain in the heat of an intense chase, whether chasing a beast or being chased by one!
With the canyon fully ford around him now, Nick looked up through the two narrow, dark walls on either side of himself and got a sense of just how small humans were in the grand sche of things.
Both of those walls were at least over a kilotre tall, letting very little amounts of the artificial sunlight reach the bottom, where Nick was situated.
His goal for this stage was simple, and arguable the most simple of all the environnts; run along the canyon floor to reach the other side, while dodging all sorts of falling rocks and obstacles on the way.
But considering that at least 75% of the level was an entire straight line, it ant that he could go all out with his speed!
The jungle stage had been too cramped, filled with twisting turns, tangled roots and constant elevation changes.
A true test of his agility and reflexes, but not raw speed.
This test however, was going to be a test of both of the previous elents, but with the main focus on simply seeing just how fast he could go!
Without further adiu, he activated the beast armant while still in mid sprint.
His muscle fibres in his legs twisted tighter, becoming more dense as his whole body beca lighter and sharper.
SNAP!
Even though he was still moving at an incredible pace, he exploded forward like a bullet, with each step of his covering several tres at a ti!
The canyon surrounding him howled in response to his sudden increase in speed, with all the displaced air caused by his rapid acceleration rocking against the canyon walls, causing huge echoes and howls to reverberate for miles.
Of course, it was still all simulated.
Soon enough, the first obstacles ca into view. Boulders the size of cars plumted from hidden hatches in the walls, landing with deafening crashes ahead of him that far dwarfed any sounds his extre speed had caused.
So fell in slow, spiralling arcs, while others burst down like teorites, giving Nick no ti to try and predict their landing zone.
Within seconds he was within the danger zone, with the chances of a falling boulder hitting him increasing by every mont he spent there.
Whoosh!
’Woah, fuck!’
He barely dodged the first one, a long, oblong slab that nearly clipped his right shoulder.
He was lucky that it was relatively small in comparison to the bigger boulders he’d spotted earlier.
But from that point on, he found his rhythm.
In fact, he no longer even needed to dodge, as his speed carried him forwards and he managed to stay ahead of the falling boulders, with loud crashes constantly echoing directly behind him the whole ti.
This level was nowhere near as easy as the previous jungle level, but at the sa ti, Nick still felt it was manageable.
That weird feeling kept creeping back into his mind when he realised he could direct so of his attention away from the falling boulders, since he was simply too fast for them to catch him.
Just where had his speed co from? And was it just his speed that was so freakishly beyond what it should be for other Altered around his level?
Or was he just overthinking everything from the beginning, and this was how the speed test was for everyone that attempted it?
The only way to find out was to complete it and see what ti he ca out with at the end.
After another minute passed, he finally caught sight of a change in direction of the canyon, signifying he had completed 75% of the level already.
And honestly, now the level started to feel just as lackluster as the previous jungle level.
Aside from the first close call when entering the falling boulder zone, it was a breeze from there.
And not even a few seconds after turning the corner, he caught sight of the doorway that led to the other zone.
Nick was already starting to get a little bored, wanting to just get the test over and done with and see what his final score was.
He suspected that all the incoming levels were just going to be repeats of the first two, after seeing how he perford in the two different scenarios.
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