Birth Of The Crafts-God

Chapter 246 One Month Later

After successfully getting past the core area and the entire region known as the Monotone Lake, Callus continued onwards with the other racers. There were still five more danger zones to go through and each one could take as long as half an hour to get by even when driving at 200km/hr, which was considered slow in drift racing. What's more, the entire race consisted of two laps around the Cayern Windway.

Overall, it took about twelve hours before the race was over. Callus had successfully completed the course without having to switch his racing shuttle midway, but he did stop for a little maintenance at the team's pit-stop. This didn't affect him much as all the other racers had done the same, albeit at different points in time.

With the conclusion of the race, the positions of each of the racers were displayed on the official broadcast as well as the points they earned.

First place took home thirty points, whereas second and third place left with twenty five points; a difference of five points with first place.

Fourth and fifth place scored twenty points, maintaining the same five points difference. From sixth place all the way to tenth ended with fifteen points.

Eleventh up to twentieth got ten points while from twentieth all the way to the last place has five points.

From this, one could see why every race was important. Although it was just a five points gap between each of the five sections on the board, it would be difficult to close this gap.

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To add meaning to the positions of each racer, extra points were also allocated according to the time gap between each driver. Time gaps were used to calculate the difference between drivers rather than a distance gap [1].

A time gap of under five seconds gave one additional point. From five seconds to under ten seconds gave an additional two points. Each additional five seconds gave an extra point.

Rewards were only assigned using the time gap of a racer and the closest driver behind him upon crossing the finish line. This ensured that there wouldn't be a surplus of points, but it still motivated racers to extend the gap between them and those behind.

For instance, initially, a driver within a segment —say the eleventh to twentieth place— wouldn't be too invested in taking the lead if he or she was at the bottom of mid range. Since the points allocated for those in the segment were all the same —ten points— there was technically no difference between twentieth place and eleventh place. This would make the drivers more focused on maintaining their positions rather than trying to overtake each other.

But with the introduction of the time gap reward system as well as other bonus points systems, racers were motivated to perform better. One could either aim to widen the time gap between themselves and their closest opponent behind for more points. They could also act to reduce the time gap between themselves and the person in front to eliminate the latter's opportunity of gaining more points and affecting their position on the official league table.

Whoever one it was, there was a simple solution that catered to both which was to drive faster. Whether it was for more points or to deny your opponent from gaining those, the racers were motivated to do their best.

At the end of the race, Callus had narrowly managed to seize fourteenth place, netting ten points for his final placing. However, it was a very narrow win and he recorded a less than five seconds time gap between him and fifteenth place, gaining only one point.

Regardless, Callus did manage to win some extra bonus points from his performance, which all added up to four. Together with that from the time gap and his placing, Callus gained fifteen points from the race.

"Congratulations buddy!"

"You did it!"

The team cheered Callus tight after the race was over.

Although his finishing was somewhat lackluster compared to the eleventh place he held a while ago at the core area of the Monotone Lake, it wasn't disappointing. If anything, it was a pleasant surprise to the team.

They had expected him to end between 17th to 15th, which was better compared to the 19th Callus ended the first race with. Scoring 14th was worthy of a celebration.

"Tonight, drinks on me." Angus declared while celebrating with the rest of the team.

"Hehe. Don't take those words back." One of the crew members smiled.

After a bit of cheering, they immediately left to go celebrate. As for the shuttles and their equipment, it would be sent over to the Black Star team's location by the K1 league's staff.

One might wonder why there was so much fanfare over the result even though they were all in the same segment and earned equal placing points. Apart from that fact however, the bonus points for positions differentiated the two sides. Compared to 19th or even 16th place, 14th occupied a seat in the top half of the contestants so there was a bonus point for that. There was also the fact that the public would begin to perceive Joker and the Black Star team as a quality team, leading some companies and agencies to decide to sponsor them. The reason for such an abrupt change was because the Cayern Windway track was labelled a dangerous track and not a standard one, so it was a somewhat better means of judging one's abilities.

Overall, there were so many benefits associated with performing this well which made the team happy.

"System, don't forget my reward."

Lucas smirked as he left with Melissa for the celebration.

. . .

It had been one month since the race at the Cayern Windway. During this one month, the Black Star team has appeared in four other races, two of which were in danger zones similar to the Cayern Windway.

During this one month, both major and minor changes had been made to the Juggernaut, so Joker's position began to stabilise within the top half and even occasionally performed superbly. In the last race, he had even managed to take twelfth place.

While Callus was still far from achieving promotion by ending the season in the top three, he was confident that the team could achieve this goal within two years or four seasons.

As for Lucas, he had made a lot of progress with the system's mission, having explored three relics related to magi runes.

'It still isn't enough.' Lucas sighed as he stared at the progress bar for the mission which stood at seventy percent.

When he had explored the first relics, a progress bar appeared on the mission's profile showing how much he had progressed with learning about magi runes. He didn't need anyone to explain to him that the bar would only fill up after he had mastered magi runes which would also be the moment that the mission would be completed.

'I still have a few more weeks left but there aren't many more relics related to the Sunil close by.'

The Sunil was the title the hyumankin had used to identify the civilisation related to magi runes. One of the relics belonging to them, which happened to be where Ronny found the ring, was the East Braftford relics. Besides it, there were two other Sunil nearby which Lucas had already explored. Compared to East Braftford relics, they weren't so dangerous as even first level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioners could enter and exit them safe as sound.

As for the third site, it was a relics that had been cleared for the most part and turned into a tourist site. It was quite far compared to other relics and Lucas had to take a leave from the Black Star team before travelling with Melissa to check it out.

All three sites helped boost his knowledge about the magi runes, but according to the system, Lucas had only mastered a part of it, around seventy percent.

'The only option left is the East Braftford relics.', Lucas sighed.

Truth be told, he was unwilling to go there which was obvious from the fact that despite it being the first Sunil relics he knew about, Lucas had avoided it. There was no other explanation except for the fact that it was dangerous.

According to Ronny, even fourth level stellar practitioners had a significant chance of dying in the inner regions of East Braftford relics. A fourth level stellar practitioner like Ronny had only wandered along the periphery of the relics.

'Since the ring was found there, the outer regions should be enough for me to learn something or even complete the mission. Looks like this trip is inevitable.' Lucas sighed.

Playing it safe didn't mean he was fearful of the relics. With the Stellar Circuit Battle-Armour, Lucas wss confident in handling fourth level Apertures Opening stage dangers and could even escape from fifth level attackers.

However, relics were still different from living beings or attackers.

'I'll need to make preparations.'

. . .

At the same time that Lucas had that thought, somewhere else, in a city that neighboured Trundel City, the Mertens' siblings were currently chatting with a friend. The duo had stayed in Belfargos city-state for over a month now due to a business deal that was important to their family. They had only just wrapped it up when the host offered to show them around the city-state.

"Relics are one aspect of Belfargos city-state that really stands out. In the surrounding area, one of the most impressive ones are those of the Sunil civilisation. Artefact excavated from them can be worth a lot and many pioneers try their luck here." The young man entertaining the two said.

He was the son of a top government official in the city and his father was the target of the business deal for the Mertens' siblings. After the deal was concluded, the old man had his son show them around since they were of the same generation.

"Oh, so kinda like treasure-searching?" Vergil's eyes sparkled.

"You can say so, but it involves a large amount of risk and luck." The young man smiled.

"Hey, big sis. Why don't we go try our luck?"