Chapter 333: Uhtred’s Race Shard and Floating Island!

At the same time that the screen popped up in his vision, Uhtred sensed the movement of an unaccounted-for figure. Just like him, this figure sped for the Stele, taking advantage of the opening he had created.

Uhtred sensed a familiarity to that figure, and his brows raised a fraction in surprise.

Zara?!

Before he could look more closely, though, the screens took up his whole vision:

[Congratulations, Champion (Uhtred) of planet (Earth)! You have successfully made contact with a Stele!]

[Searching for your proxy registerer...]

[None found!]

[Congratulations! You have received the Scenario title: Untethered Champion! You are one of the two – three human Champions to declare participation in the competition for the Fifty Legacies of Valeria without a proxy!]

***

[Titles Gained]

[Untethered Champion: 2nd from Earth and 28th in Scenario world to declare participation in the Fifty Legacies of Valeria Champion Competition without a proxy. (+1500 Merits)]

[Current Total Merits: 110,300]

***

[Champion Declaration status, complete!]

[Total number of declared Human Champions: 7/10]

[You have gained a Race Shard!]

[You have gained a Floating Island!]

***

[Note: A Race Shard is your anchor and main key to surviving this Champion Competition. Ten different species are taking part in this trial, with ten Champions representing each species, making one hundred (100) Champions in total. However, there are only fifty (50) Legacies to be claimed. Exactly fifty Champions will claim an inheritance; the other fifty will die.]

[Your Floating Island serves as your base and the sanctuary where your Race Shard is anchored. Under normal conditions, your Race Shard is bound to your island and cannot be removed or carried on your person. To invade another Champion’s territory or wage war, you must navigate your Floating Island to their location. Only if your shard is stolen by an enemy does it unbind, allowing it to be carried freely.]

[Your Race Shard ties your personal score to the rest of the Human race. If you lose your shard to an enemy, your entire species takes an immediate hit to its total racial standing. This lowers the overall quality of the Legacies that Champions of your race can receive at the end of the trial.]

[Fortunately, losing your Race Shard doesn’t mean all is lost. So long as the competition is ongoing, you can still secure one of the fifty winning spots by stealing a Race Shard from a defeated champion of another species. However, finishing the competition without your native Race Shard will cap how good your inheritance can be.]

[The final quality of your Legacy depends on the number and quality of the shards you hold when time runs out (or when the total number of Champions left standing falls to 50). Keeping your native shard while stealing foreign shards gives you the highest reward.]

[On top of that, Race Shards are worth different amounts based on where a species sits on the System’s racial tier list. Holding the shard of a superior species can yield a better reward than holding your own native shard, provided the rank gap between the two races is wide enough.]

[Below is the official racial ranking from highest to lowest:]

Dragonkin

Half-Dragonkin / Half-Elf

Elf

Half-Elf / Half-Human

Troll

Human

Half-Troll / Half-Human

Beastkin

Faery

Goblin

[The climb up the path of ascension is hard and arduous. Wishing you the best of luck.]

[Do you want to teleport to your shard now?]

[Y/N]

***

The information packed within the System messages were so overwhelming and so eye-opening at the same time.

The implications of so many things hidden in those messages...

Uhtred didn’t have the time to think too much, however. His processing speed for reading System messages was much faster than reading regular text — this made it such that barely a few breaths had passed from when touched the Stele till now.

Still, the wardens and guardians of the Stele had already recovered from his sudden disappearance.

Several of them had locked onto his current position. They were clearly surprised at how he’d suddenly appeared at the Stele, moving past all of them faster than they could track. But at the same time, they charged toward him without wasting a single moment to ponder.

From the sky above, a terrifying presence also descended, releasing the unmistakable might of an Awakened Realm powerhouse. Their aura pressed down on Uhtred specifically, as if to force him to his knees just enough for them to descend at his position before he could leave.

But Uhtred didn’t waste any time. Just as the Awakened Realm powerhouse’s aura pressed down on him, he selected "Yes" to the System prompt.

A bright light consumed his figure immediately, relieving him of the Awakened Realm powerhouse’s oppressive aura as his body dematerialized into flecks of light and pure information, cutting through the fabric of space.

A loud, furious roar followed his exit, the Awakened Realm powerhouse descending with terrible might in his wake.

Not only Uhtred, but also the second figure — Zara — was suctioned off by the System to the location of their Floating Islands.

Uhtred felt a heavy sense of relief, but at the same time, incredulity at how easy it had been.

Okay, maybe calling it ’easy’ isn’t exactly right...

If Uhtred hadn’t possessed Slipstream Stride in his arsenal, getting past all those Nascent Realm wardens would’ve taken way more time. Then there was the quick arrival of the Awakened Realm powerhouse on top of that.

By all means, the security at the Stele was pretty decent. They just never anticipated for someone with such a mind boggling movement art like his.

Even Zara had been able to take advantage of the situation too.

Uhtred was certain the other figure was definitely Zara. He hadn’t seen her properly yet. But even now, in this current state of particle-like travel, he could sense the familiar make-up of Zara’s form also traveling alongside him.

Wait... I can actually think and sense things in this state now?!

He only just became conscious of the fact that he was having smooth, uninterrupted thoughts — even going as far as to sense Zara in this state.

It was only just some months ago that teleportation travel made him disoriented every time he came out of it. But now, he could retain sound thought even while still traveling.

I’m guessing this is because of the Space affinity I’ve gained from learning under Zara...

I can feel that we’re traveling an extremely long distance. Is this even still within the Scenario world? If it is, then this world is extremely massive!

The reality of spatial and temporal relativity, particularly when traveling through space via teleportation, wasn’t lost on him. He knew a bit of it even from pre-integration Earth, and Zara had gone further into it during their training sessions.

The travel time from his perspective was supposed to be practically instantaneous. The fact that he was still traveling simply meant they had crossed an extreme distance through space. He was sure Zara could feel the same oddity, too.

The journey continued, making Uhtred more and more confused as to where exactly they were headed. Surely, the location of their Floating Islands wasn’t outside of Valeria, right?

Realizing something was definitely off, Uhtred instinctively tried using his Gnostic Eye. But seeing as he had no physical eyes in this form, he expected it to fail.

Yet to his utmost surprise, the familiar sense of sight began to return to him, slowly allowing him to "see."

How exactly that was possible was beyond his understanding. What was immediately clear, though, was that his Gnostic Eye was definitely a Transmutation that went beyond the physical.

For the briefest of moments, Uhtred "saw."

An inexplicable world opened up before him — one that wasn’t meant to be witnessed or sensed by someone at his level.

In that glimpse, he saw reality stripped of all physical form, dissolved into streams of pure information. Space didn’t exist here as simple distance or direction. It bent, flexed, and folded around him like a living, interconnected thing.

Without a physical body, Uhtred was just a stream of information, riding along his own path through it.

It was a realm completely alien to normal senses — a place no Nascent Realm ascender could process or endure. If not for his Gnostic Eye, the flood of information alone would have melted his brain and driven him completely mad in an instant.

And even with his Gnostic Eye, the flood of information was still almost too much to handle. It was like he could see everything at once, but focusing on one thing proved extremely difficult.

Still, he was able to sense the same oddity that had driven him to activate his Gnostic Eye in the first place.

Before he could lock his attention onto it, though, the overwhelming flood of information vanished. His Gnostic Eye deactivated. The weird lag of spatial travel snapped back to normal. And the endless journey came to a sudden, abrupt halt.

Physical reality rushed back into Uhtred’s senses and his feet hit solid ground.

He blinked his eyes open, the familiar physical world revealing itself to him.

What was that? he frowned, still shaken by what he’d nearly seen. It was hard to describe, but it felt almost like he’d nearly touched on something core to this Scenario world — perhaps even the Tower directly. But before he was able to go further, he was quickly pushed out.

"Ah! Where’s Zara?!" He looked around sharply, finally taking in his surroundings.

Normally, he would’ve appreciated the grand view: a beautiful floating island spread out around him — his own personal floating island. On it, thick essence, dense to the point of forming a faint mist, swirled at ground level.

He looked to the center of the island, where a bright, pulsing shard hovered.

My Race Shard...