Section two of the Academy’s Newbie Survival Event began with the end of the third day and the beginning of the fourth.
It was more like a second round of the event.
As it began, the participants were encased in a barrier while the whole event dimension transitioned into a land of war and flames.
In front of Almond, Malin, and Meliora, the lake and the entire oasis turned into an area with ruins of a city, and the desert turned into a barren land.
Many things in the ruins were burning, simply lit up in flames without actually consuming those things, staying aflame and providing light in the night.
[From now on, all participants must find and encounter Demon Imps of Bronze, Silver, and Gold ranks. The Imps will provide a challenge with difficulty depending on their ranks. Completing the challenge successfully will provide points.]
Almond found an Imp of silver rank shortly after expanding his domain as it was covered under a burning wooden hut.
“Are you ready for the challenge?” the Imp said with a creepy smile, pointing its demonic trident at Almond.
“Yeah.”
“Then kill two Hellfire Wyverns coming this way or get devoured by them.”
*Roar*
A distant roar echoed towards them from the northeast direction.
“Hope they aren’t too powerful,” Malin muttered.
The two dragons closed in quickly and were just a kilometer away from them when they opened their mouths and released high-speed Firebolts at their location.
Almond’s eyes flickered as he teleported Malin, Meliora, and himself behind the dragons.
[Hellfire Wyvern]
-Lifeform Rank: Mortal
-Ability Power: S+
-Prana Sea: 110
-Soul Sea: 102
-Stats:
— Body Constitution: 135
— Mental Constitution: 115
— Soul Constitution: 102
— Arcane Constitution: 85
“Master, here.”
Meliora had a potion in her hand, which she crushed above Almond as its liquid turned into glowing red-green mixed energy and entered his body, buffing Almond’s physical strength.
“Thanks,” Almond nodded and conjured his Piercing Doom Bow.
The dragons abruptly halted and turned around before opening their mouths. However, instead of unleashing their attacks, each was struck by an arrow from Almond, creating a clean hole through their bodies before causing a skewer of blades to bloom from inside.
[You have completed a Silver Imp challenge. +1400 Points.]
“Give me Prana,” Almond said before turning to the northeast. “We’ll continue hunting until we are out of energy. Make sure you refill whenever you get a chance and leave the fighting to me.”
“Roger, boss.”
…
The area of the event dimension seemed to have shrunk because Almond’s group encountered three people in the next 24 hours.
But Almond needed to catch up to others, and for that, he needed to speed up his killing. Unlike the top powerhouses of this event, who all had 100,000+ Prana Sea and Soul Sea capacity, Almond only had 10k capacity in both.
As such, Almond gave two options to the three people. 1. Become his Prana batteries and survive. 2. Get killed.
Two of those people chose to stay alive and become his Prana battery, while the third one he encountered near the end of the fourth day was rejected and killed by Almond, though Almond suspected that he had the means to revive, which explained his arrogant reply.
“Don’t worry, boss. I’ll try to convince the next ones,” Malin thumped his chest.
The other two Prana batteries, a vampire girl with blue twin tails and a dwarf, nodded with vehemence.
These two were convinced by Malin’s words and Almond’s combat power.
As newbies, Malin roped them in with sweet words of Almond making an official faction with him as the president, and these two newbies decided to join him, hence staying as Prana batteries despite having the option to surrender and leave this event.
Almond’s rank reached 6th, but even he needed sleep, so when the 5th day began, Almond found a good spot to sleep while Maliora stayed guard.
Malin and the other two also snored and had a good sleep for six hours.
Almond slept for seven hours before waking up and continued the hunt.
His rank only went down by one as he dropped to the 7th spot, but he reached 4th rank by the end of the 6th day and got one more Prana battery while killing three participants who refused.
As the seventh day began, the total number of participants was barely above one thousand.
At the same time, the challenges became tougher, and points acquisition became higher.
But there was no stopping Almond’s points and his growing fanbase in the audience.
Twelve hours later, Almond reached 3rd rank.
“Three days left, and he needs to climb to the first rank in three days to make me rich.”
“Mad Nut Almond will get the first rank! The odds are high, the risk is high, but we know he will reach there. I am going all-in!”
“Bro got four Prana batteries now, and he is getting points crazily fast!”
“More, more, more!”
In the VIP area, Madam Ruby in her VIP booth sensed someone coming and said, “Master, you’ve returned? Look, Almond is in the top 10 now, haha. He has elevated all of his abilities’ ability power at S-rank and above and also broke through his Light elemental mastery to C-rank by chance. With this pace, he’ll hit rank 1 before the event’s end.”
Big D had just arrived and saw how Almond just used a bunch of one-time-use spirit items to deal with a horde of monsters from a gold-ranked Imp’s challenge.
“Well, he is doing better than I expected, so I am good,” Big D laughed. “Things are going to be interesting once he enters the academy and comes into light.”
“But that aside, I was finding solutions, and found one.”
Madam Ruby turned to Big D and blinked, “What did you find?”
“I am going to use an Ability in a native of his world,” Big D’s eyes glinted. “Animated Birth. I knew there was a kind of ability that could birth a body with pre-established consciousness. The caveat is that due to not having a natural soul in a natural body, it only lives for ten years before the soul dies, but that’s enough.”
“Animated Birth…” Madam Ruby raised her eyebrows. “First time hearing about this. So, what do we have to do?”
“I am going to use this ability on a random egg or pregnant beast on Earth so that my new limited avatar can be born there. I’ll at least have enough time to use this ability with my Avatar before the avatar gets caught.”
“Interesting. Yeah, I’ll do it, too. Even if we are in the bestial avatar, we can help,” Madam Ruby nodded.
“Indeed. We are doing that right now, here, so let’s start. From what the external overseer told me, Hollowstar’s people were on their way to Earth and were supposed to reach there by tomorrow. This batch is a suicide batch. Their sole goal is to weaken Earth by eliminating their top powerhouses.”
Madam Ruby’s eyes glinted. “We can make an appearance to save them and become new allies. Master, does this Animated Birth also allow for our bloodline to be manifested?”
“Indeed, which is why we’ll be at a match even if they send their strongest people of the first layer,” Big D smiled before his eyes glinted and a symbol manifested between him and Madam Ruby.
“Learn it quickly. I’ll help. We have roughly a day before they arrive at Earth, so we’ll have to be there before they make moves.”
…
The ninth day began with Almond’s group encountering another group, led by the former second ranker.
A girl with silky dark violet hair and orange eyes. She wore a fancy embroidered robe and appeared to be in her early twenties.
Behind her was a group of nine people, all men ranging from late teens to twenties.
“I suppose you are the guy who stole my spot.” The girl narrowed her eyes at Almond as she tried to scan him but failed.
“Elisha Tielao?” Almond raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised by the group. He had encountered groups before, but not this big, and this didn’t seem like a normal type of group.
Instead, it appeared to be the same type of group as his. One leader and the rest of the people worked with zero points, and their only role was to support and elevate the leader’s points.
The girl suddenly smiled, and her eyes sparkled with a glint of dreamy pink. The starry irises in her eyes glowed, and Almond suddenly seemed attractive to her.
“Almond, right? You rose very fast and look promising.”
She licked her lips and caressed the lower lip with her finger before gesturing for Almond to come to her, “Come to me, handsome. Be with me, and let’s have fun together.”
The audience outside was hyperactive and anxious.
“Get him! Get this bastard under you, Fairy Licia!”
“Oh my god, imagine if Fairy Licia gets Almond under her….fuck, she will overtake and take the first rank!”
“Fuck! This can’t be happening.”
“No! Don’t lose against her ability, Almond!”
“He is Mad Nut Almond. Ain’t no way he will get seduced by her!”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
…
Almond felt something, but it wasn’t something that could affect him without his will.
Narrowing his eyes, Almond flatly said, “You have two options. First, become my underling and keep these men behind you so you all can provide me with Prana.”
Licia was shocked. “You…aren’t you affected?”
‘How can he resist this?! As far as I know, only Karven and Logan can resist my ability among the newbies…’
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“Second option,” Almond continued as he ignored her words. “Get killed by me…with torture.”
Almond added ‘torture’ because he wanted her to resist, comply, and fight, and then when she loses against him, she agrees to the first option because she and the army of men behind her could provide him with a lot of Prana!