Immediately, Sir Kieran disappeared, and all of the Fallen instantly began sprinting into the distance. The same could be said for Ryuk and Quinn.
Only now was Ryuk able to see the full speed of the other Fallen as he watched them disappear into the distance until he could only see their shadows in literally less than a minute of running!
"Fuck!" he unknowingly muttered as he raced forward, soon finding everyone fading away, with only Quinn still running by his side. But he could guess even the boy wasn't really running at full speed.
"Don't worry, you can speed on..." Ryuk said to Quinn, who nodded before, instantly, a powerful wave of air slammed onto Ryuk's face, causing him to shut his eyes.
When he opened his eyes, all he saw was Quinn's shadow rapidly fading away.
'Just how weak am I, system?' Ryuk couldn't help but ask the only person he had by his side.
[Host is indeed very weak!] the system replied as Ryuk gritted his teeth and sprinted forward.
The distance of 50 kilometers was something an adult human being, with stats points of 10, should be able to cover within seven hours if they refrained from stopping.
Ryuk had a total of 20 stat points in his agility and strength stats, meaning he had twice a normal adult's strength. He also had very high stamina, and therefore, in exactly three hours on the dot, he collapsed onto the ground, white smoke puffing out of his nose and mouth as he finally arrived before the foot of the mountain.
"Fuck!" Ryuk said out loud as he regained some of his breath and stared up at the mountain before him, his face dropping.
Right now, he could see some tiny figures far up the mountain, and he could guess those figures were none other than the Fallen geniuses. They had somehow managed to arrive before the mountain and even climb up so far.
Ryuk had thought he would take some breathing space before he decided to climb, but he had already spent three hours just on running.
There were barely four hours left for him to complete the test, and immediately, he grabbed an edge of the mountain and began pulling himself up.
Thankfully, Ryuk's grip was inhuman, and he had no problem tearing his fingers through the mountain's hard surface and pulling himself up, even though his fingers bled and blood fell on his shoulders.
Still, he was fine with it because he knew it would heal back anyway.
But Ryuk had barely climbed for ten minutes when he realized the sky-high mountain wouldn't be a walk in the park.
The first thing that shocked him speechless was when, suddenly, a blue barrier of energy appeared around the mountain, and Ryuk felt his muscles suddenly growing weaker.
Somehow, pulling himself became even harder as his muscles shook and vibrated intensely, causing him to stop every two minutes from deep exhaustion. Sweat began running down his face as the white smoke puffed even more. But after 10 minutes of battling with intense exhaustion, the energy barrier suddenly disappeared as Ryuk felt his strength return to him.
Quickly, he began climbing up with even more speed, when suddenly his face changed as something tore off with speed from the side. Ryuk automatically ducked his head to the ground.
Blood splashed out on the mountain wall as his eyes widened in shock when he felt the red liquid draining down from the smooth cut on his forehead.
Looking below him, he saw a sharp shuriken-like blade falling downwards.
'The mountain walls... It's... It's spitting out blades!?' Ryuk wondered, but he soon felt the entire mountain area around him vibrate intensely, and he didn't need to be told what to do before he quickly began pulling himself up with his fastest speed.
Not a minute later, the entire area where Ryuk was becoming a place of flying blades, as blades shot out from absolutely random places in the area.
He could barely notice them at the last second, and while he did sense them coming, avoiding them was a different thing altogether. In less than three minutes, his white shirt had become a color of red, and one of Ryuk's eyes was shut close, a long blade line slashing down it.
"Fuck!" he screamed out, this time in anger, when he felt a blade shoot out, slicing off a piece of flesh from his finger and causing him to slip a meter down the mountain before he forcefully dug his fingers in once more, clinging to the mountain and stopping his falling motion.
[Host would be advised to move faster. Time is running out.]
The system notification appeared as Ryuk roared out in reply.
"What the fuck do you think I am doing? Slowing down!?" he yelled but was shaken when another blade barely skimmed past his ear, carving another red line as Ryuk ignored the system and quickly raced up with his energy.
After exactly an hour of climbing, Ryuk finally felt his arm grab onto a flat edge, and he pulled himself up, collapsing onto the flat surface of the mountain.
"Take that, you pompous bastards!" Ryuk roared as he ignored his injuries and raised his head to look in front of him, expecting the Fallen genius. But his face changed when he saw where they were and what they were doing.
'Don't tell me! Don't tell me I'll have to do that too!?'
'That can't be part of the training, is it!?'
[It seems like Host has arrived at the second training phase: the Infernal Rope Walk Phase!]
Right now, before Ryuk's gaze was something that could only be straight out from a nightmare.
Just a few meters away from him were a total of five thick, long ropes that were burning with flames, and the Fallen geniuses could be seen walking on the ropes casually and racing into the distance on them.
When Ryuk moved closer to the edge and looked at what was beneath them, all he saw was bubbling red lava and an incredible amount of heat waves that made him automatically take a step back from fear.
"No way I am crossing that!"
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In and Out_SnowySmoos.