UNLIMITED SPEED

A smile bloomed on Noah's face when he saw that his beacon was noticed.

Although he figured they couldn't see him due to their environment, he still cursed when he noticed that they weren't slowing down.

'Who the heck is steering that thing!' he thought frantically sweeping his gaze on his surroundings.

No matter how fast his natural speed was, he remained unable to see any real way out of that situation. Utilizing his speed would also defeat the purpose of saving energy since he would need to move faster than the serpent to escape.

The giant serpent almost immediately arrived in front of Noah who could only trust Muillix to protect him now.

With its incredible momentum, the around 1.5 to 2-kilometer-long serpent arrived before Noah curving its slender figure to almost immediately stop its movement.

Needless to say, Noah got swept away by the intense wave of water and the force it was packing.

Thankfully they hadn't smashed into his figure; as that would have meant death. If they were even allowed to die inside that environment.

Travelling an annoyingly long distance due to the wave of water pushing him. Noah had to create a low-cost barrier of electrical energy.

This managed to stop the water from smashing into him, but he had to shoot forward after he had been swept around 700m from the serpent.

A bit more than 40SE vanished to allow him to arrive in front of the serpent almost instantly.

Being closer to the magical phenomenon allowed Noah to see in clearer detail what the serpent was made of.

The slim body of the serpent looked to me made clearly from electrical energy, which hinted at the presence of lightning affinity wielders.

However, the serpent's six legs were made solely from blue-shining water. The liquid looked dense enough to not almost look solid.

The serpent's tail looked made of flames, also tightly packed to create something able to boil the water around it. Now that Noah thought about it, his surroundings felt warm.

The detailed serpentine face of that magical wonder featured several whiskers of light and had solid earth fitted in places like its forehead outer jaws, and mouth.

Areas like its side belly had rocks fitted in, almost like armor except they looked like scales.

The serpent's back also featured scales made from flames. What exactly the flames did apart from giving it a dramatic look, remained unknown to Noah.

He honestly felt the serpent's design to be other-worldly since most snakes weren't that way on Earth.

Having spent barely a second inspecting the magical wonder, Noah spotted details that he simply kept at the back of his mind, since their importance was nigh-insignificant.

'Should I knock?' Noah wondered staring at the serpent's menacing face. It didn't appear to breathe, but Noah could sense nothing less than a thousand consciousness oozing on his face. The situation felt uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Is anyone in there!" Noah eventually yelled after a full minute had passed.

Surely enough, a voice answered him, and it happened to be that of a male.

"How did you get here?" The individual asked, rather surprised.

"I'll answer only after seeing who I'm talking to," Noah replied, not fearing the individual's power which stood at a level higher than Ariana's, even if only by a small margin.

Silence followed Noah's words, but the serpent's mouth soon opened wide to reveal its insides.

However, before Noah could move forward, a man clad in the latex bodysuit which was what everyone wore, floated toward him. Of course, Noah had already sent Muillix back into his body.

A glance at the person's helmet was all Noah needed to notice that the individual looked middle-aged; had brown hair and a stern-looking face.

Maybe it was because of the black scar that ran from the left side of his jaw to his nose bridge, or his experienced aura that caused that sternness, he didn't know.

Noah felt his curiosity get piqued by that sight. It had been a long time he'd seen anyone with a scar, not to talk of one as hideous as that. And more surprisingly at the man's level of power.

'Wonders never end in this world,' Noah shook his head inwardly, while his face remained expressionless.

''I'm Nathaniel sixth son of the Uril noble family," the man started in a polite tone, immediately disgusting Noah. Who suddenly had the urge to fight him. However since the man hadn't done anything provoking, he kept his cool.

'Who goes around announcing their title in a test to attain membership of a great guild,' Noah thought, annoyed.

"I'm Aiden," he replied blankly, trying to catch glances of the inside while taking note of the man's lightning affinity since he experienced a sense of similarity being close to him.

Nathaniel noticed Noah's lack of interest but decided not to put much thought into it, after all, he continued to wonder how the young man in front of him looked okay under the push the pond at that depth stage generated, and where his group was.

''Do you wish to join us on our journey to the seventh depth stage,'' Nathaniel asked after a few seconds of silence.

''Definitely,'' Noah quickly replied, properly focusing on the man before him.

He felt unsurprised by the look of curiosity Nathaniel had. After all, he had done something the expert needed a bit over a thousand other experts to accomplish.

The duo immediately floated into the serpents crackling mouth, but the electrical strands touching their skin left them unaffected.

Gaining full entry into that illusory beast which also didn't let light pass through it, allowed Noah fully understand how that large group was able to get there so fast.

''Damn," Noah muttered laying eyes on two long lines of humans numbering a bit over a thousand.

He immediately guessed that the other over five hundred experts were either disqualified or had been left behind.

The insides of the serpent unlike the outside were without water, which meant the serpent took the brunt of the pond's upward pressure.

Within the snake were two lines of standing experts who all had a series of shining lines designed in the shape of tubes attached to the hole in their latex suits. Mana poured into the tubes fueling the design of that orange serpent.

There were a few individuals who were outside of the rows. These experts appeared to float but were actually sitting on elemental platforms.

The cultivators who numbered over fifty were in deep meditation. And it didn't take much for Noah to understand that they were the ones holding the serpent's form together, while the others fueled it.

'Efficient,' Noah thought. 'With just that many people fueling the design they'd be able to do anything. I assume the only reason they arrived here after I was because of my initial take-off. The journey must have been smooth,' Noah concluded.

That short evaluation boosted his reason to stay. However a problem arose in his mind, one he'd rather not face.

Having all eyes on his figure didn't faze Noah, his looks had put him in the spotlight most of the time, but this time things were different.

"How did you get here?" Nathaniel's voice resounded behind Noah. "Sorry, let me rephrase my words. Where is your group? I'm certain you arrived here with one."

A frown appeared on Noah's face at those words. He hated the fact that the man already doubted his ability, but he still couldn't blame him. After all that feat should remain impossible for someone of his level.

'I arrived here all by myself, of course," Noah announced with an uncaring shrug. And the audible gasps the close listeners voiced, which were the over one thousand experts, made his head swell with Intense pride.