Chapter 232 - First Contact The crowd ahead dispersed, and everyone started running down the stairs again. ’What an amazing bloodline. So convenient... this would be the perfect place for doing that,’ Gustav could already guess that the boy he had just seen phase through the ground must have been responsible for stopping the battle. "Did you think you could be faster than me?" Gustav heard a thin, feminine voice behind him. The small-sized girl had caught up, but just as she was about to reach Gustav’s left... [Dash has been activated] Swoooosshhh! Gustav bolted forward with a higher speed than hers leaving a gap of plenty stairs between them in a manner of seconds. "Huh?" The girl voiced out with shock, but in the next second, she also increased her movement speed. "I will not let these weaklings throw me off course!" She voiced out while surpassing a good number of participants also in a few seconds. ’Why does this person remind me so much of someone?’ Gustav questioned internally with an expression of annoyance. The image of a spiky-haired orange kid came to his mind. "Hmph!" Gustav dashed forward faster also and started surpassing the participants in front. -"Hey! Get back!" -"Damn, he over took me!" -"Who the hell is that?" Swoosh! In about thirty seconds, Gustav had even surpassed some of the participants in a brawl earlier. He was already closing in on the last three ahead who were behind the dark-skinned boy sporting an afro. Zwoooshh! One of them swung his left arm towards Gustav, who was approaching from the side. Twhii! Twhii! Twhii! Glowing, small spikes flew out of his arm towards Gustav, who was only two feet away. At that close proximity, it would be impossible to dodge. However, to his surprise, Gustav leaped upwards and landed fifty stairs ahead. The spikes ended up piercing into two participants behind who missed it because of its size and speed. Boom! Boom! It exploded in their bodies, causing larger holes to appear in spots pierced with blood oozing out. "You..." The participant shouted out while pointing at Gustav, but to his surprise, he saw Gustav pass the remaining two with just as much ease. Even though they also tried to attack him, he was able to dodge all their attacks. Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Gustav ran across the wall on the left for several feet. Trruppp! Trruupp! Trruup! Truupp! The energy blasts being shot towards him slammed into the wall behind him repeatedly. Bam! He landed in front and dashed forward again. At this point, only the kid with bushy afro hair was in front of him. Also, the structure of the underground ruins was being revealed to them since they were close to reaching the end of the stairs. Gustav could see rough-looking walls and a lot of rocks protruding from the ceiling area. Some of them had big holes. Even though there were lights placed on the walls, the place still looked kind of dim. The boy with afro hair phased into the ground once more and arrived at the bottom of the stairs. He looked around and quickly turned towards the left. Zwoooshh! Gustav also dashed downwards with immense speed, and in about five seconds, he also reached the bottom of the stairs. Gustav could see that these walls separated the routes. There were many routes that led to where no one knows. Even behind them, towards the left and right, some routes led to different places. Pointy yellowish rocks were almost everywhere, protruding from the walls, grounds, and even the ceiling, which was thousands of feet high. Gustav felt strange energy around the place the instant he got to the bottom of the stairs. ’This must be it... Even though there are no more energy crystals here, it’s still very potent,’ Gustav remembered something mentioned in the aircraft. Underground ruins like this were where energy crystals were mined. These crystals emitted a certain kind of energy that is harmful to normal people, except they were mixedbloods or powerful beings. His birth father was also an energy miner, so Gustav already knew about it. Still, he had never been to an underground energy mining facility before, so he had no idea powerful the energy was. Now that he was sensing it, he realized that he wouldn’t withstand this harmful energy if he wasn’t a Zulu-ranked Mixedblood. He now understood the reason for the MBO Zulu ranked requirement for participating in the test. Gustav also realised something, ’This must be the reason why even though a person is a brilliant scientist, they would still need to have a good bloodline,’ His reason for thinking this way was that experimentation of different kinds was done with energy crystals in this age. Breakthroughs in different research areas also came from using the crystals. If a person wanted to experiment with an energy crystal without being at least a Zulu ranked Mixedblood would be harmed upon coming into close proximity to the crystal. This was why Gustav couldn’t even become a scientist, even if he wanted to back then when his bloodline was still weak. Grrhhhhrrhhhh! Gghhhttruhhh! Two loud roars brought Gustav out of his reverie. The other participants closing in behind on the stairs also heard that and paused their footsteps abruptly. ’Hmm?’ Gustav turned towards the right. He noticed the silhouette of a large creature on fours walking out of the third passageways. The second roar came from the left, so Gustav turned to look at that side too and noticed the afro-haired kid several hundred feet away standing in front of a creature on fours. ’Looks like they already sensed our presence,’ Gustav said internally as he braced himself for a fight, ’Only mixedbreeds that are level seven and beyond can sense the presence of living things... These mixedbreeds are more powerful than a step one serial ranked,’ Gustav analyzed this information with speed. ’Hmm, the one on the right or the one on the left,’ Gustav contemplated. ’The one on the left is farther, and since there’s someone standing before it, it would still take some time for it to get here. The one on the right is not being delayed by anyone, so it will get here soon, and the participants will have to engage it... If I fight with others, I can’t get what I want, but if it’s just with him...’ In less than a second, Gustav had already thought about this. He made his decision almost instantly and dashed towards the left. Zwoooshh! When the mixedbreeds coming from the right saw him running, it also dashed forward. Gustav had already gone several hundred feet away from his initial position in a few seconds, so when the mixedbreed arrived at where he was previously, it noticed the participants coming down from the stairs. Grrhhhhrrhhhh! It growled again, causing furious winds to blow across the place. The participants stared at the creature. It was a thirteen-foot-tall fox-looking mixedbreed with green fur and a massive black horn on its forehead. Its claws were golden in color and looked so sharp that the participants started imagining how it would easily slice through flesh. As the mixedbreed noticed them, it raised its body up and stood on its two hind legs while widening its mouth and running towards them. The participants knowing that they had no choice but to face it, braced themselves and also dashed forward while activating their bloodlines. Gustav arrived before the afro-haired kid and the mixedbreed who had already started engaging each other. It was a black scaled mammoth-looking mixedbreed with four heads and eight tusks. It was even larger than the mixedbreeds the participants behind were currently facing. Its heads were positioned so that they formed a circle with a hole in the middle. Surprisingly this type of mixedbreed mammoth had a neck. Swweeii! The boy dodged a wave-like attack by phasing through the ground and coming out of the wall on the right. [Sprint has been activated] Zwoooshh! Gustav’s speed increased exponentially as he dashed head-on into the mixedbreed and threw out his fist towards the side of its belly. Bang! Gustav landed a clean hit on the mixedbreed, which was distracted due to the other kid. Swooooo! Bammm! The creature was catapulted from its position by the force of the punch and slammed into the wall on the left about fifty feet away. One of its tusks brushed against the wall intensely due to this and cracked at the tip. Grrhhhhrrhhhh! The creature roared with anger as it picked itself up like it was unaffected and dashed towards Gustav with animosity.