Chapter 634 - The Quiet Before The Storm.
Without warning, most primogenitors teleported to the empty seats next to Lady Sphinx, making her get encircled by them.
"Easy there guys." Lady Sphinx said, smiling.
"Easy my ass! This is huuuge!!" Erebus's shadow form began to flicker, expressing his agitation or excitement?
"Your intelligence truly keeps astonishing me with each groundbreaking successful research you release." Cherufe complemented with a heartful laugh, spewing bits of magma everywhere.
Most primogenitors nodded their heads in agreement, feeling too hyped up about Lady Sphinx's research.
When they saw Felix use a limited manipulation, they were astonished but they weren't interested that much in getting it since all their champions had one as well.
But two? That's a different story!
Imagining their champions capable of manipulating two elements was a massive bonus to their strength!
"I know what you guys are thinking and I suggest that you drop it." Lady Sphinx shook her head as she burst their bubble, "I won't divulge my method to anyone no matter what price you pay."
Just as the primogenitors were about to get displeased by her firm rejection, she added, "However, I can promise you that my method works only on humans since they are a neutral race without any bloodline affiliation to us."
The primogenitors' displeased expressions eased up at the sound of that.
They could see that Lady Sphinx was honest in her response.
This was what made them slightly disappointed since they believed that Lady Sphinx had managed to solve this dilemma that existed for eons.
The fact that primogenitors' descendants or anyone related to them couldn't inherit two manipulations at the same time wasn't a lie.
Since she claimed that her method could be used only on humans due to their neutrality, it made total sense in their minds.
'So this human was her experiment all along with Jörmungandr and Thor?' Manananggal pondered as he listened from afar, 'But why didn't she give him limited sand manipulation as well? I believe the kid has shown that he has a high affinity to it.'
Manananggal wasn't the only one who spotted this peculiar hole in her explanation.
'Do you think that there is some requirement?' Wendigo suggested telepathically.
'Or maybe Jörmungandr and Thor have approached Lady Sphinx with their student first and were the ones to propose the feasibility of a human having two limited manipulations?' Saurous shared his point of view.
'Yes, that's highly likely what happened.' Manananggal nodded his head slightly as he added, 'This also explains why the kid obtained poison and lightning manipulations before sand manipulation.'
'Those are all just a bunch of speculation, with Lady Sphinx's weird antics, anything could be possible.'
Wendigo said as he eyed Lady Sphinx fending off other primogenitors' questions smoothly with a charming smile.
In a few minutes, the primogenitors returned to their seats somewhat satisfied with her answers.
Sure, she seemed hellbent on not making her research paper public, but this was also a good thing for them since she would be the only one knowing the method.
This meant, only her champions would possess multiple manipulations. Knowing that they had to be humans had put their minds at ease.
That's because no matter how many elemental manipulations a human could own, his physical body would remain limited.
The strength that Felix was demonstrating was already on the verge of reaching that limit. When he hit it, he would never be able to climb past the diamond rank.
They weren't interested in nurturing champions with such an embarrassing limitation.
'We are in the clear for now.' Thor sighed in relief mentally after seeing them refocus on the games.
'Indeed, no one seemed to have thought about Felix owning perfect manipulations.' Jörmungandr agreed.
Hiding this fact was a priority for all of them if they wanted to keep helping Felix grow secretly.
The instant this news gets out, the Darkin Faction members would be the first to personally move out and hunt him down since they would know that both Thor and Jörmungandr were powerless!
It would be extremely difficult for Lady Sphinx to protect him from those three plus other interested primogenitors.
In a sense, it was good that Felix had chosen to give up on another manipulation for void element to hatch Nimo.
This would help him lay low for a while until the primogenitors lose interest in this matter.
....
"The game has been going for one hour now and most players are about to reach the center." Letomar reminded the viewers of the current state of the game with a bored expression.
He was acting this way since there weren't any battles happening for a long time now.
That's because most of the players had already allied with one or two, making it risker for them to engage in battles.
They knew that no one would benefit from their fight except other players since they would be wasting their energy, bombs, and might even get heavily injured.
This situation happened to Felix and Pengfu as well in the past half an hour.
Every time they spot two players entering their sensory zone, they peacefully head in different directions or wait until one party left before following them.
If a single player entered, they didn't hesitate to give him the scare of his life by chasing after him.
Still, they didn't remain passive throughout this period and focused mostly on bolstering their inventory with new bombs.
The way they split the loot was by each getting half of it if it was even.
If there was an additional bomb or something, they play rock, paper, scissors for it.
"Are we close?"
Pengfu inquired as he looked at Felix's serious expression in front of a three-way intersection.
"I believe so." Thoughtful, Felix replied while tapping his finger on his chin.
This intersection was the last thing that Asna had memorized in that short duration.
This meant that Felix needed to think carefully about choosing a path, lest they end up getting sent back a couple of kilometers.
'I just need to stick to the general direction since most players will do the same.' Felix decided to not overthink it or guess randomly.
In his opinion, it was much better to follow the general direction since it meant that other players would be on it, making it easier to save on bombs as they follow in their footsteps.
In other words, the paths would be already cleared out of boxes for them.
Felix knew that it would hinder their treasure hunt greatly since only empty boxes would be left behind.
Nevertheless, Felix didn't give a crap anymore about the chests but simply gett to the center as fast as possible.
Their inventory was already packed and he had already found the bomb that would help him blow the black box in case he reached there first.
Boom Booom!
Upon hearing an explosion occurring nearby the center of the maze, Felix stopped dilly-dallying and sprinted in the path leading east.
'Hopefully, there will be a deadlock between parties when they reach the center.' Felix wished with a stern expression.
He didn't want them to start the fight before he reached there since someone could blow the black box and sneak inside the exit within the chaos.
Just like he asked for, the first players to arrive at the center didn't make any rash moves.
"WowefxNero, The Traitor, Murkseeker, Toxinfang, The Putrid Corpse, and Bloodlust are the first to reach the center of the maze!" Letomar highlighted a picture of each one of them on the screen before adding excitedly, "It seems like our boredom will be sated with one final battle royal!"
The viewers all exploded into a cheering frenzy after realizing this fact as well.
They could see that the remaining players would reach the center in a few minutes max unless they were stupid enough to change their directions.
Since there were still 20 players left in the game, the center of the maze was going to be turned into a warzone!
It was a good thing the center of the maze was immensely wide and connected with tens of narrow paths.
The only thing that stood out in it was the giant black cubic box.
As for the arrived players?
They were all hiding in the shadows.
No one dared to make a move.
It was clear that whoever was bold enough to sprint towards the black box, would get ganged up badly by all parties!
'Bro, I think we can handle their abilities if we rushed to the center and planted our five superior bombs.' Wowef suggested telepathically as he eyed the black box.
'We shouldn't risk it.' Nero said with a serious tone, 'We don't know if Landlord is hiding somewhere, waiting for us to do so.'
'Hehe, I don't want to sound mean, but how can he even hurt us with those weak abilities of his?' Wowef asked with a chuckle.
'Did you forget that he opened a f*cking legendary chest?' Nero headbutted Wowef to wake some sense into him, 'There is a high chance of him possessing a nuclear bomb. If we reached the black box and he threw it at it amidst the chaos, I don't know if our defenses will hold against it.'
Nero was smart enough to feel threatened by the nuke.
That's because it was written in the rules that anyone who got caught in its explosion zone would die instantly...Literally!
He wasn't planning on testing his monstrous defenses against it!