The road to the golden city is paved with lava

Auditory Atmosphere Supplement Activated. Now Playing: Styles of Beyond – Nine Thou (Superstars Remix)

In a matter of seconds, John’s nostrils were filled with the heavy smell of sulfur and burning rock. Taking a single glance behind himself, he could see lava erupting out of every crevice in the road, blowing up chunks of rock and raining down burning bits.

The heat immediately grew into the uncomfortable range, making him sweat soon enough. The plants and trees around him were less than pleased about the sudden change in temperature as well, violently hissing as any fluid bubbled to the surface. Soon there was a slight mist enveloping the jungle, making it just a bit harder to see in addition to the rising smoke of the burning plants already enveloped by the molten rock.

John decided that it was a really bad idea to be in last place now, so taking his time and picking apart the competition wasn’t an option anymore. Accelerating as much as he could, he quickly caught up with the remaining warriors on his trail. Worryingly, the lava behind John seemingly accelerated with him, keeping him just out of the range of the burning inferno behind him.

In front of him were two warriors: one was sitting inside a vertical stone ring that acted like a singular tire while the other one was riding on a low flying winged serpent. The two of them apparently weren’t fighting and were just trying to survive. As the one on the serpent saw John, the warrior shouted something John couldn’t understand and turned around as the serpent kept its course. John quickly tried to take out that warrior with some Mana Daggers, but the rider blocked the Daggers in the air with some well-aimed stones. The grounded warrior meanwhile slowed down a bit and rammed most of his vehicle into John’s bike, trying to blast him off the road.

Thankfully, the enchantments on John’s bike took most of the hit there, enveloping the bike in a purple hue for a moment. Unfortunately, John’s leg was also caught in the attack.

-75 HP (Crushing)

You are now Crippled!

That status effect didn’t mean much as long as he was just driving, but getting his leg crushed hurt like a motherfucker! He could hear the bones in his leg snapping. If it weren’t for Gamer’s Body which soon would correct his leg back into a functioning state, he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to walk for a long time…

While the warrior in the stone ring kept pushing into John and his bike, the airborne one started to throw stones with a sling. John was barely able to dodge the stones as he was pinned on the left by the warrior and had barely any space left both behind and to the right of himself.

Considering his options, John primed his spear to the side and used Flurry Strike to take out the warrior pinning him. Seeing as how the warrior had no way to dodge the attack, all the hits of the attack struck their target.

35 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)
29 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)
30 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)
29 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)
38 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)
24 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire)

Total Damage: 305 DMG

While those were some good attacks, it was nothing near where John wanted them to be. Not only did each attack only do some damage, but thanks to the fact that he repeatedly attacked for two seconds straight, he was hit in the head by one of the stones from the flying warrior.

-30 HP

Shortly ignoring the throbbing pain of his head (and the small cut on his head bleeding), John created another two Mana Daggers and rammed them into the heavily bleeding warrior who tried to disengage with the last remains of his power.

53 DMG
53 DMG

That was enough to kill the Aztec, making him drop from his vehicle and on to the ground.

There was no explosion, just the sizzling sound of a body burning. Very much to John’s relief, there was no smell of burning flesh, either because these warriors still technically were created through his Barrier, therefore not really human, or because it was just overruled by the other smells in the air.

’Maybe what burnt there wasn’t the body but my loot? SHIT!’

Rider eliminated!

John was reminded that usually the corpses of the enemies in his Barrier were dropping loot as they died. But seeing as how he had no ability to collect that loot at this speed, he had to take what he could… at least he would get half as much loot as he had killed enemies… Hopefully the ones that he had ‘eliminated’ but not directly killed would count towards that as well…

As another rock was sailing inches away from his face, John was thinking about how he could take down the warrior above himself…

While he could certainly just speed up and run past him, it kinda felt like a waste…

Also, the guy had already hit him once, so there was that small grudge John was holding.

Quickly casting a Magic Rope, John tied that around the butt of his spear, making sure that it was nicely secured.

He was sure that he wouldn’t get to the warrior, or the serpent, with his Mana Daggers simply because they had too little weight and could easily be knocked away with the stones from the sling. A spear, however, especially one that was charged with Mana, should be able to take down that oversized lizard. He had used this combo once before, although not to throw the spear but to swing it in a wide arc. Now he would try to see how good he was at throwing that spear.

After Mana Charging for five seconds, he threw the spear towards one of the wings of the snake. He made sure that the Magic Rope traveled the same way as the spear did so that it didn’t weigh it down. Surprisingly, the spear flew a lot faster and straighter than John had expected… was that a hidden feature of Mana Charge? Even the stone impacting against the tip simply was cleaved in half as the spear traveled on.

The spear pierced directly through the left wing of the serpent, cleanly going through and flying on.

33 DMG + 15 DMG (Light) + 5 DMG (Fire) + 33 DMG (Magic)

The tendons in the joint connecting the wing to the body of the serpent were separated as the snake lost control of its flight and fell towards the ground. Retracting his spear, John ripped the entire wing off the serpent while his spear was once again securely in his hand.

Rider eliminated!

Dodging the explosion, John was astounded by the combination of his spear and the rope. Maybe this could be a new move for him? He would have to try and see if he could combine that with his Vault and Charge combo.

Now that his way was free again, John sped up, trying to find four more enemies.

Soon, the roads that had split up before were all connecting to one big road once again, and John saw a battlefield in front of himself.

Of the remaining 16 (?) opponents, at least eight were bashing it out in front of him, trying to throw each other off their vehicles. None of them had a flying creature, but the menagerie of animated magic constructs and big beasts pretty much built a small platform on which they were fighting.

They are so clustered…. Maybe this is my chance to take them all out!

Making sure that he had enough distance to the lava behind himself, John looked at the Essences he had with him… Could he make a functioning grenade with them? There were two Essences that he assumed would make an effective grenade.

Essential Alchemy

Please select at least two essences to create something:
Essence 1: Meager Essence of Element (Lightning)
Essence 2: Meager Essence of Energy

Now this grenade didn’t need to be killing them all in a single hit, it just needed to create enough chaos and **** to bring a couple of them tumbling down.

Results: Small Plasma Bomb, Lv.1, Qty.: 2:
Upon impact will create a superheated expansion of energy and electricity.
Deals 400 DMG (Energy) in the direct blast zone, decreasing extremely the further from the center. Weak Knockback.
100% Chance to ignite enemy for 10 seconds. Chance decreasing with reduced damage.
33% Chance to stun enemy for 5 seconds.
Radius: 3 Meters

You have found a powerful recipe!

Achievement unlocked: Now we’re cooking with gas!
Discover your first powerful recipe in any Crafting skill. Time you actually used your brain and thought of synergies!
+1 Skill Level in all Crafting Skills
+2 INT
+2 WIS
+150 XP

’…Holy shit.’

That bomb was absolutely insane… compared to the bomb he had created the last time, this one had thirty times the damage!

Taking one of the bombs out of his inventory, he could already feel the power inside it . His hand felt tingly, like the feeling you get after charging your body on a particularly heavy carpet.

Not wasting another second, and wanting to keep his element of surprise, John lobbed the bomb into the cluster of warriors, hitting one on the far corner of the group. The grenade had traveled a lot further than he had expected, not having considered the **** light weight of the bomb and the hot air flowing from behind John, letting the orb travel farther away from its intended target, the most center warrior.

The bomb hit the Aztec on the head, and within seconds the head and most of the body of that warrior were simply melted away.

Critical Strike! 2x Damage!
800 DMG (Energy)

Rider eliminated!

The two warriors next to him didn’t have much more luck, as half their bodies were burnt in a matter of seconds while the other half lit up in flames.

350 DMG (Energy)
Enemy Ignited!

Rider eliminated!

350 DMG (Energy)
Enemy Ignited!

Rider eliminated

The remaining warriors were hit with varying intensity of the bomb.

234 DMG (Energy)
Enemy Ignited!
Enemy Stunned!

Rider eliminated!

296 DMG (Energy)
Enemy Ignited!

Rider eliminated!

134 DMG (Energy)

76 DMG (Energy)
Enemy Stunned
Enemy Ignited!

7 DMG (Energy)
Enemy Stunned!

Even if the last warrior was only hit by a small portion of the superheated energy, it was still enough to either shock his nerves for a second or to fry his arcane stone vehicle because the warrior soon crashed into the ground with the usual explosion.

Rider eliminated!

John knew that these warriors weren’t real, they technically weren’t alive. He remembered Wotan’s words about it when they were clearing the wasteland fortress. They were just ‘manifestations’ of his power…

Yet it still felt weird to see them die in such an obviously horrendous way… He knew that some of his abilities were powerful, but this bomb had just taken out half a dozen enemies that were somewhat of a threat to him before…

Only two of the eight remained at that point.

Rider eliminated!

Another rider fell to the effects of his bomb, this time by burning to ****.

And now those were seven killed with a single attack… was it that his powers grew that much more dangerous or was he just that much more efficient in using them?

The last warrior was too shocked by everything that happened around himself, so he just drove to the side as much as he could so that John wouldn’t kill him as well.

John was sunken into that last thought, reminiscing about his growth in the last couple of days, so he just drove past the enemy. By now he had his side objective anyway, so he could probably ignore the last one.

The road took a couple more winds and dipped down steep at some point, and then in front of John stood a golden, glowing city shining in the setting sun on the horizon. Up until now it had been completely hidden by the large trees around it. He could see that the city was sitting inside a steep valley, almost like a crater. Noticing that the road in front of him would take him to the gates, he saw some of the remaining warriors just entering.

Position: 8/9

Out of the 27 starting riders, only nine remained. He felt weird about that… out of those 18 that had been eliminated, he had killed 15. But why did he even think about those numbers this weirdly now? They were just constructs of his Barriers! Like any of the other enemies he had met in the Barriers! Like Aloy!

And then it hit him.

These warriors were just like Aloy. They were human, they weren’t transformed into something beyond human. None of them even had shown any actual magic abilities… They were just fighting for their ‘god’ according to the Observe sheet.

Sure, they had attacked him first, but only the first two. He was the aggressor with the other ones. And he especially was the aggressor with that bomb…

Would he be just as ruthless with actual humans? He certainly was ready to kill James just a day ago… He was ready to properly kill an actual human being, or rather humanoid.

When this race was over, he wanted to talk with someone about this…

A memory rang through his mind at that thought.

At some point, it hit me how little I felt about all those people that died because of me. That's when I made the cut, took the money I had and the little power I had at that point and went into deep cover.

It was a flash of his conversation with Mariana. She had told him how desensitized she had become to the killing… Maybe she could help him? Maybe she could assure him that it wasn’t as bad as it felt to him right now?

He also still needed to talk to Aloy about her… condition.

For now, he would finish this race though.

There were markings like for a finish line at the entrance of the city. As John passed them, he could feel how he was quickly slowed down to a halt at the edge of the first buildings. Now that he was inside the city, he could see that the buildings weren’t actually entirely out of gold, they were just heavily decorated with gold.

The warriors in front of John had either disappeared or they had left to some unknown destination. For John, this was the end apparently though.

Race completed!
Position: 8/9

Finished in the last 20%
Reward:
+250 XP
+100 $
+2 Essence Chest (Common)
Enemies Killed: 15
+1500 XP
+8 Random Loot Drops from basic enemies
Side Objective cleared!
Take out 10 Enemies [15/10]
+500 XP
+150 $
+1 Upgrade Token (Weapon)
Total Rewards:
+2250 XP
+250 $
+2 Gold Alloy
+4 Mystic Feather
+2 Essence of Spirit
+1 Warrior’s Medallion
+1 Feather of Quetzcoatl

Progression:
Dodge, Lv. 4
Driving, Lv. 5 (6)
Gamer’s Luck, Lv. Max
Mana Dagger, Lv. 8
Throwing Weapons, Lv. 7

Humming Scorpion, Lv. 8

’So, if I hadn’t killed most of my competition and would have just stayed ahead, I would have had a better reward for finishing the race… Great, now I feel even worse about killing those warriors… should have just killed as many as necessary and then moved on… Also I think I took the wrong perk…’

Looking at the numbers, he felt bad that he didn’t take the Explorer of Worlds perk. He had been blinded by the possibility of more loot and had foregone any rationality… If he had taken more XP, he could have taken another Perk sooner…

Oh well, too late for that…

At least he got the legendary drop from those warriors, whatever that was…

Feather of Quetzlcoatl
Rainbow colored feather of the Aztec god of wind, art, knowledge and crafts. Fabled to have mythic powers when given to a warrior that is acknowledged to be both powerful and wise.

So… He held another item from a god in his hands. Another god of knowledge for that matter.

Well, at least he didn’t meet that god this time.