MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith-Chapter 1457: Myriad Prodigies: The Change (1)

"…Just in the nick of time."

Subconsciously holding his breath as he looked at the magic screen, Valyr eventually let out a long sigh of relief the moment he confirmed that the second round hadn't started.

Having been pretty much awake during the past ten days within Greater Beyond, the young man was immediately hit with a wave of intense mental fatigue the moment he got out of the game.

Naturally, that meant that it did not take long for him to fall asleep, making the most out of the time he had to recover as much mental strength as possible.

Of course, before drifting off into the land of slumber, Valyr made sure that he would wake up just before the second round began.

However, rather than wake up to the alarm he had set hours ago, the young man instead made the unconscious decision to snooze it and continue sleeping.

Thankfully, the young man had a back-up plan in preparation for such a situation.

A series of alarms.

Yet, with the amount of mental fatigue he'd accumulated surprisingly being greater than he thought, Valyr snoozed and slept through most of the extra alarms, which was more or less equivalent to another half hour of extra sleep. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

In the end, the thing that finally brought him back to the waking world was his cousin's pestering, feeling somewhat annoyed at the fact that Valyr just slept through his alarms.

Taking a brief moment to bring his consciousness out from the world of slumber, the young man had a wry smile on his face as he thanked his cousin, only to then go through his usual routine before entering Greater Beyond once more.

'Honestly, I should try and find a way to get some rest while waiting for my turns to come.'

While he was pondering over the possible courses of action he could take to answer his problem, a familiar individual made his appearance once more at the amphitheater's barren center, prompting everyone to pay attention.

"I suppose everyone's enjoyed the past couple days of rest?" asked Schubert, a slight grin adorning his face.

Fortunately, a number of people from the crowd nodded in response to his question, allowing the man to segue onto the next topic he had to discuss.

"Now that everyone's gotten a proper break after the first round, let's move on to the second round, shall we?"

Whoosh!

At those words, a large group of mages appeared on the surface once more, which immediately piqued the crowd's interest.

After all, these same mages terraformed the amphitheater's center into ten distinct areas during the first round.

With the second round being a battle royale, how would the mages terraform the barren land this time?

Swoosh! Swoosh!

With the mages pooling and condensing their mana together, the entire group quickly got to work, flattening out most of the barren land as they raise a few certain spots throughout to serve as platforms.

Then, pushing their mana even further, these mages then conjured walls around these platforms, raising them to a height high enough that would make it somewhat tedious for a participant to escape while in combat.

"…Five platforms, huh." Counting the number of platforms the mages had conjured out of the barren land, Valyr briefly watched the group of mages slowly leave before shifting his attention back to the tournament's announcer.

"I'm sure everyone here still remembers what I've mentioned before about the second round." Schubert faintly smiled. "But for those that have forgotten, the second round is a series of battle royales that would whittle the number of participants down for the upcoming round."

"Or at least… it used to be that way."

"…Eh?"

Unsurprisingly, once Schubert told everyone that the second round's mechanics for something else, almost all of the participants, as well as the audience, looked at the man with confusion in their eyes.

In response to the confused gazes he received, the man let out a slight chuckle, only to then snap his fingers a few seconds later.

Whoosh!

As if responding to Schubert's snap, five individuals soon made their way to the amphitheater's surface, only for each one to then stand right beside one of the platforms of their choosing.

Swoosh!

Then, while both the audience and the participants were in the midst of figuring out what was going on, these five individuals soon unleashed a level of strength on par with what the four arbiters had shown everyone.

Condensing this might they released into an orb, these individuals then sent it flying towards their respective platforms, which eventually transformed into a being that contained that condensed might.

Grooooaarrrr!!!

Screeeeccchhhh!!!

Awoooooo!!!!

Sensing the immense might contained within these beings, both the audience and the participants remained silent, giving Schubert the opportunity to continue where his explanation left off.

"Feeling a bit of pride from the fact that there were more talented individuals than she thought among the participants that registered, the director decided to change the mechanics of the second round to increase the difficulty of the tournament."

"Unlike before, where 100 participants would fight one another until only one remained, the second round would now have these 100 participants working together…"

"To fight the beasts on one of these platforms."

Swoosh!

As if everyone had gained an intricate understanding of the second round at that very moment, almost everyone shifted their attention away from the announcer and moved it towards the five beasts that guarded each platform.

"Now, with the strength of the participants varying between Rank 3 to Rank 5, one could say that passing the second round was guaranteed if one were to be lucky," said Schubert, his tone calm.

"After all, the beasts standing before you are at the peak of Rank 5. Even a small group of peak Rank 5 individuals would be enough to defeat it."

"Now, to compensate for that, all of the participants that would fight against their respective beasts would have their strengths capped to the start of Rank 3, which would allow the beasts to continue fighting without much rest."

"At the same time, with everyone's strengths capped at this level, the judges that would be monitoring all of the participants' actions would be able to see the participants' combat strength more clearly."

"Of course, not only will one's combat strength be measured in order to check who would move onto the third and final round, a number of other factors would also be taken into consideration along the way."

"Though, if you were to ask me which would increase your chances of moving to the third round the most…"

"Then it would be forcing the beasts to go all out."