Earth's Alpha Prime
Chapter 170: Overwhelming Speed.

[By forced absorption of Stage-3 Mastery memory fragments, your mind will go into a long-term Spirit paralysis state.]

[Due to your Unique Innate Talent's protection, you are invulnerable from the damage caused by forced absorption of Masteries.]

[Lv.54<Mental Pain Resistance> ➝ Lv.59<Mental Pain Resistance>]

[Lv.59<Mental Pain Resistance>: Resistance towards Mental Pain increases by 59%.]

With no surprise, his <Mental Pain Resistance> rose again by a few levels.

Shaking off the disorientation from absorbing all of Rex's knowledge and experience on <Minor Runner Mastery>, Jay took a few seconds to digest everything he needed to effectively use <RUNNER>.

Apparently, the key was to use <Slow-mo> in conjunction with <Acceleration Buff>.

He did just that, and his control over the enhanced speed improved by leaps and bounds, along with his Time-perception.

With those two in balance, Jay was no longer troubled with controlling his movements.

Only when he noticed the metal meat skewer fall off his hand did he realise how high his Time-perception and movement speed really were.

Jay stood there and watched as it slowly drifted downwards under gravity at a pace slower than a feather floating in a gentle breeze.

After what seemed like a lifetime, he gently tapped his right foot at the meat skewer's tip, which was about to hit the floor.

The force Jay used should have been just enough to propel it back to his hand, but the result far exceeded his expectations as the meat skewer shot past him with such speed that it pierced into the ceiling.

He couldn't help but take another look at the azure energy that covered his body as MJ's voice rang in his mind.

'Master, this is a pseudo version of a high-ranking Energy, Speed Energy. Due to this, you were able to produce such momentum despite little to no movement and no stat improvement whatsoever.'

{Author Note: (The sentence below is from 'Chapter 122'. Hope this would be enough to jog your memory on what differentiates a standard element, a higher element and an Energy.)

- In the first three Mastery stages (Stage-1 to Stage-3), one could only use a standard element, and upon reaching the following three stages (Stage-4 to Stage-6), respective higher elements could be accessed. Beyond those six stages lays the path of manipulating 'Energies of the Universe.}

Jay wished to try out the Pseudo-Speed Energy and test the extent of its limitations, but since it wasn't possible within the limited room space, he had MJ emulate the Pseudo-Speed Energy so that he could explore to his heart's content within 'A.I Space'.

However, the entire process needed Jay to use <Acceleration Buff> 30 times, recovering his Spirit Energ Pool twice, once with the assistance of Grade-3 Spirit Energy Fruits and the other with the skill <Spirit Energy Recharge>.

For a skill of such calibre, there should have been side effects like reduced movement speed for a certain period ensuing the skill's usage, but since the Pseudo Speed Energy was the one in play and not his stats, there was no such occurrence.

If not for that, 30 short minutes would have been far from enough for Jay to activate <Acceleration Buff> 30 times in a row.

Compared to that, the time it took for MJ to emulate the Thunder Miasma element was almost negligible.

From that alone, the superiority of Speed Energy was quite evident despite just being a Pseudo version.

Still, it was far less significant in contrast to Origin Energy, which MJ failed to emulate despite his best efforts.

Once the exhaustive process concluded, Jay ceased casting <Acceleration Buff> on himself anymore and sent his consciousness into a part of the 'A.I Space' that MJ had prepared beforehand for training purposes.

Within the A.I Space, Jay's Virtual Avatar could use the buff effect without a duration limit. So, he started testing his speed with no reservations.

It took him another half an hour to gain a good enough command over the overwhelming speed. Without any skill effect, Jay's base top speed was marked around 130 meters per second, and with the additional 54% movement speed bonus, his top speed went up to 200 meters per second.

When the <Acceleration Buff> was used on top of that, his new top speed quadrupled to an astounding 590 meters per second, long crossing the sound barrier.

{Author Note: Here, it should be => (130+70) x 4 = 800 m/s, equaling the speed of someone at Tier-5 High-Phase. But that would be too powerful of a buff, wouldn't it now? That's why I didn't include the 54% movement speed bonus (70m/s) in quadrupling his base top speed. => (130 x 4) + 70 = 590 m/s.

Speed of sound = 343 m/s or 1125 feet/sec. }

At 590 m/s, his movement speed was by no means inferior to the Tier-5 Low-Phase monsters he encountered in the 13th Monster Wave, but in terms of attack damage, he was miles apart from them.

Still, Jay's attacks under <Acceleration Buff> were on par with a Peak Tier-4 Low-Phase lifeform without the assistance of stat-boosting skills such as <Frenzy>, <Strength Boost-III>, <Agility Boost-III>, <Ice Martial Aura>.

He tried to use them on top of <Acceleration Buff>, hoping for another power boost, but any skill that could further improve his Agility Attribute failed to take effect.

{Author Note: <Lv.10 Frenzy> (Uncommon Grade): + 20% to all 5 Attributes

Lv.21 <Ice Martial Aura> (Stage-3): +15% to Strength, Agility and Endurance Attributes.

<Strength Boost-III> (Rare Grade): +25% to Strength Attribute.

<Agility Boost-III> (Rare Grade): +25% to Agility Attribute.}

Amongst them, <Strength Boost-III> was the only skill that didn't add stats to his Agility Attribute.

When he used it on top of the <Acceleration Buff>, the 25% boost in his Strength Attribute pushed his attack power to that of an initial Tier-4 Mid-Phase lifeform.

Such attack power was previously achieved when Jay used those four skills in conjunction, but with just <Acceleration Buff> and <Strength Boost-III>, he could accomplish a similar feat, not to mention the movement speed of a Tier-5 Low-Phase lifeform.

Jay wondered if his new ace move could be used during <INVERSE> mode, doubting whether he could use Pseudo-Speed Energy along with Origin Energy.

Although the latter was vastly superior to the former, Jay's mastery over it was nowhere near enough to bring out its potential, limiting to a few ways to use Origin Energy.

He didn't try to find if they could be used simultaneously since he had just a single use left before <INVERSE> mode temporarily seals away.

With an hour left before the start of Round-3, Jay pushed those thoughts to the back of his head and continued to better his hold over the improved movement speed brought by <Acceleration Buff>.