The number of participants remained at 132 on the last day of the event.
Only two hours were left until the end of the Academy’s Newbie Survival Event.
On a grassy plain with a thin forest, Almond had been sleeping for the past six hours and just woke up before checking the leaderboard.
[Leaderboard]
-Rank 1: Almond Crowshade—107,404 points.
-Rank 2: Karven Lok Oheylo — 98,105 points.
-Rank 3: Felima Elya — 91,399 points.
-Rank 4: Logan…
…
‘Nice. I still got a big lead.’
“Meliora, wake up everyone.” Enjoy more content from My Virtual Library Empire
“Yes, Master.”
Meliora waved her hand and conjured a mini-potion vial beside everyone who was sleeping.
*BOOM!*
The vials exploded into a mist that invaded everyone, causing their eyes to open abruptly while drawing a sharp breath.
“Hurry up, we only have two hours, and I want to make sure no one can pass me in points.”
“Boss, please stop using this waking method. It’s giving me panic attacks.”
“Two hours left? Boss, don’t you want to fight Karven and see who is stronger?”
“I am curious.”
“Curious? You mean you think Boss Almond could lose?”
“N-No, I am not saying.”
“Stop bullying the newbie, Hanni.”
*Snap*
“Enough. It’s time to get back to work.”
Everyone heard a finger snap, and they vanished as Almond teleported the group.
…
Almond was eager to fight the people because fighting them was making him stronger as he observed them and their powers, and he learned with his All-Seeing Eyes and thirst for knowledge because knowledge directly equaled power here as long as one knew how to use it.
Every time he encountered other participants, he always fought with them alone without letting any of his Prana Battery make a move.
He actually lost a bout once as well, against none other than his first friend here, Zek. Of course, Almond took revenge as well by winning, but he let Zek go on his own.
Zek was currently ranked 5th with a small gap between him and Logan.
As time passed and when barely twenty minutes were left until the event’s end, someone in Almond’s group found Karven, the 2nd ranker.
Karven had fiery orange mane-like hairs and the same colored hairs on his cheeks and beard. He appeared to be a man in his thirties with a wild yet refined aura in a getup robe with blazing red and black designs like flames.
The moment Almond saw him after teleporting near him with his group, a thought popped into his mind—This guy was more powerful than him.
And that thought excited Almond.
“So you are Almond, I suppose?” Karven spoke as he blinked, appearing half-curious, half-careless as he crossed his arms. “So many of you against me… well, if you are going to start, do it.”
One of the prana batteries, an elf girl with dark green wavy hair, laughed and said, “What? You think you can win against all of us?”
“That would be a bit stretch, I suppose. But I can take out more than half of you with me, including the leader.” Karven smiled as he kept his eyes on Almond, not bothering to glance at the elf.
“Consider yourself lucky because boss Almond always fights alone,” Malin sneered.
“Haha,” Karven laughed, his eyes on Almond still. “Strange, you don’t seem much.”
Almond clapped as all thirty-two people, or rather, Prana batteries, vanished and appeared two hundred meters away while a string from all of them attached to Almond’s back on a single point.
“So that’s how you keep up your reserve of Prana? Indeed, a good idea.” Karven smiled as he released his cross-hands as fiery mirages of various weapons began flashing in his hands.
Bow, sword, spear, hammer, glaive, chakrams, and all kinds of weapons.
Shortly, the randomization stopped, and a knife appeared in his left hand while a hammer appeared in his right hand.
“Well, I guess this is what I am using for this fight,” Karven said with a wry smile as he stood in a weird stance while holding a fiery knife and a medium-sized hammer with a strange shining fiery design and crystal patterns.
Suddenly, a suction force also emerged from him that absorbed wild prana into his body.
“Come on, make your move,” Karven grinned as his weapons lit up with sparkling mixed flame of orange and red.
“This is going to be fun,” Almond said with a smile as he stretched his hand forward. ‘Materlize. Shattering Sky Sword, Solvituris.’
A small translucent sword materialized with barbed and chaotic blades upon its structure, and a hazy and thin storm of colorful sparks whirled around it.
Within its structure, one could see streams of colorful and sleek lights refracting off micro-crystals as designed and formatted by Almond.
This was his masterpiece of a spirit item, specifically made with the new Spirit Forge Factory by himself, using not only the power of spirits but also adding his own and designing it specifically for his improving combat style.
“You can create items? That’s a bit like my ability tree, haha. Nice,” Karven said as his eyes glinted with a blazing star pattern. “Come on, hit me with your best shot.”
Almond held his sword and stood in stance before activating his Espada Ad Grimveil.
One of the Prana batteries got a mild shock via the thread connecting to Almond—a signal from Almond to provide him with 10,000 Prana.
Almond used up all of his Prana to create five Arbitrary Vipers right before that person gave 10,000 Prana to him.
Filled up again, Almond consumed it all and launched himself with his deadliest attack—Unfettered Blade Mayhem’s first stage: Spiraling Execution Blade.
Time almost stopped as Almond arrived before Karven, his sword at his neck.
The five Arbitrary Vipers were also onto him from different directions, and it felt like he was going to slice him into pieces.
But it was then that Almond saw Karven blurring like a mirage while a burst of intense heat enveloped him.
‘Shit…that’s the same thing Zek did.’
Almond’s veins burst, and his eyes turned bloody as he executed poured the new 10,000 Prana that just arrived, thanks to his second signal before he consumed Prana all in his Weapon Art.
He immediately used his strongest defensive-type skill—Devouring Veil, but an improved version as instead of a transparent black veil, a storm of a sparkling stream surrounded Almond as a barrier.
Behind him, Kraven’s knife stabbed forward as he twisted his wrist, creating a drilling vortex with the stab before striking his hammer.
Almond’s barrier shattered as Karven’s attack tore through it, but Almond had layered space formation as part of the barrier, a powerful asset he created to constantly replace space using Prana to delay the attack.
But Karven’s attack was stupidly powerful, powerful enough that it was only delayed by 0.21 seconds, and that fortunately allowed Almond to blink away as he appeared fifty meters above Karven while signaling a Prana Battery.
‘Deadly… his 168 Arcane Constitution isn’t for show, and his Ability power is higher than mine. It’s above SSS-rank for sure.’ Almond’s eyes flickered. ‘More powerful than my Voidblade Catastrophe…’
‘But higher Ability Power didn’t necessarily mean it had higher offensive power. That move of his just felt superior, but not in an offensive power way.’
“Woah, I missed that?” Karven was dumbfounded, his grip tightening and his eyes gleaming. “But will you be able to dodge next time? You know a single spark of my attack on you, and your body will turn into ash, right?
Indeed. Almond’s body was the weakest out of all participants, which was why he focused on speed for evasion and had also completed his defense arsenal two days ago.
However, it was clear that this person in front of him had something more to him, just like Zek, and it was none other than the utilization of Prana to the maximum with one’s body, soul, and mind to enter Hyper Plane.
Zek could enter that plane briefly once every few hours since entering Hyper Plane would put a heavy strain on them.
Zek also told him some others could also enter this Hyper Plane, but only like him.
“You are saying you can enter Hyper Plane again?” Almond raised his eyebrows and steadied himself, pulling back his hand and pointing his sword at him as golden light flickered in his eyes.
Karven grinned and stood in a random stance, “Make your move and find out.”
Almond’s eyes moved. ‘Why am I still feeling that I’d lose this bout too?’
‘Can he really enter Hyper Plane again?’
Hyper Plane, a unique dimension for beings who could physically reach a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second or higher. One could only enter that plane for one second or one instant. However, that one second was like 11 seconds for Zek’s mind, allowing him to use the full eleven seconds to make his move that could be enacted in the next moment.
Almond didn’t know how many seconds Karven could get in the Hyper Plane as that depended on the individual’s stats and mastery of Prana, but entering the Hyper Plane meant a clear advantage.
Only someone like Almond could react because of his arsenal of activated abilities, mainly his Espada Ad Grimveil in which he had added a multitude of assets to improve the domain’s power by giving it various functions, one of which was Trigger Teleportation that reacted based on the signal he produced from his sense of danger.
That was the sole reason he managed to teleport within that short delay. Otherwise, he would’ve been turned into ash because he was simply too weak to even endure direct shockwaves of the level of attack Karven threw at him.
“Fine, let’s find out,” Almond said as he vanished and executed Spiraling Execution Blade again, but with a different pattern this time.
However, Kraven’s figure still blurred away like a mirage before a fiery attack drilled at him from the side.
But this time, Almond teleported away instantly because he expected himself to fail and didn’t have to exert force to cancel his attacks like the previous time, as he had already planned to cancel them.
“Tsk,” Karven clicked his tongue. “I swear I broke my speed record, but your defense still gives you enough time to teleport. It’s the first time someone survived two of my attacks. Well, but you know now that I can enter Hyper Plane again.”
Karven grinned and gestured to Almond, “Maybe I won’t be able to enter the third time.”
“Attacks? Hyper Plane? Haha,” Almond laughed.
Karven raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”
“Your lies are funny. You aren’t entering Hyper Plane, and you aren’t attacking me. It’s more like a counter-attack. “Almond narrowed his eyes, and a smile formed on his face, a nasty yet excited smile.
Karven’s expression changed upon hearing Almond’s words, shock clear in his eyes.
‘What? How did he figure that out? No way in hell he saw through my ability, right?’
“Is that why you are letting me have the first move?” Almond gripped his sword tightly. “Well, let’s see if you defeat me first or if I figure out a way to defeat you.”
Almond’s eyes changed and whirled with the power of his All-Seeing Eyes, his domain helping with transparency as he was unveiling Karven.
“Come at me,” Almond grinned. “Make your move because the next move I make will be the last one.”
Karven burst into flames before he shot at Almond like a laser beam.
An instant of multitude clashes and a blazing kick to Almond, who blocked with his sword’s handle, but despite his perpetual barrier reducing and absorbing damage, the power of impact still forcefully flung him away as he destroyed several trees and boulders before stopping.
But Karven didn’t pause and flung his knife upward before spinning instantly and striking it with his hammer.
The attack was even faster than his Artbirary Viper!
However, Almond was focusing only on evasion and defense as he had no plan to attack Karven.
He wanted to observe his abilities and dissect them with his eyes, learn everything, and then make a move!