As he stepped toward the parkour challenge, two messages from the system appeared in front of him.
[You are entering a zone with a stat restriction.]
[All of your stats are being limited to one.]
Instantly after receiving those two messages, strength seemed to leave Aiden's body; he was back to how he had first started, which was a weird feeling.
All the power he had accumulated didn't seem like much, but when it left his body, he could feel the difference pretty well, so he started moving his arms and feet to get used to that feeling.
"How does it feel?" Maelis asked, seeing Aiden move his arms and legs.
She knew it was quite weird to experience having your stats restricted the first time since she, too, acted similarly the first time her stats were suppressed.
"It's strange. How did you limit my stats? Is that some type of item from the Otherworld?"
"Yes, it's an item that can be obtained in the rewards of the 10th trial, but you have to be quite lucky to get it. It's rare and costs a fortune to buy. I think we bought this stat limiter for 350 000 credits, but even then, it's on the lower end, and this one can be considered cheap."
"350 000 Credits?" Aiden repeated, not believing what he had just heard if he continued completing his trials in the same fashion as the first one, then it wouldn't take long for him to have a fortune.
"Yes, it's quite expensive, but it's great for training, which is why most families use it. So, are you used to having your stats restricted now?" Maelis asked, wanting to see Aiden perform.
"I think so," Aiden answered as he was doing quick jumps, trying to make sure he was used to it before starting the challenge.
After confirming that he was ready, Aiden advanced toward the starting line. Close to it, a big chronometer was on his right and would show the time he would take to complete the challenge in real time.
The system also had its own chronometer that only appeared for Aiden, which indicated at the moment 00:00.
Now that Aiden was close to the platforms, he could see all sorts of obstacles in his way that would make it difficult for him. And just like he had seen from far away, little spikes could be seen under the platforms, which was probably used to motivate the members to give them all so they didn't fall on them and hurt themselves.
Five platforms were there too, but on them were different types of obstacles. He could see bullets being shot consistently on a platform, on the other one, there was lava in some spots, another had two big walls and no ground, the other was plain with nothing on it, which was weird.
The parkour he would have to do looked a bit like what he did in his previous life. But the one with his mentor was even more dangerous, which technically gave Aiden the advantage of finishing first because he already had a bit of experience.
It was now time for Aiden to beat the fastest time that the members of the Everheart family had achieved and show Maelis just how strong he actually was when giving his all.
He had adjusted himself to the stats he now had and was ready to do the impossible and beat the record on his first try without any practice whatsoever.
In an instant, he started running on the first platform, which didn't contain any traps, and quickly approached the second one.
The second looked exactly like the first one. There was nothing on it, which Aiden found weird.
'Is this a running challenge or what?' thought Aiden, but he knew the other platforms had traps as he had seen them even before starting the challenge.
But suddenly, as he was running on the second platform, he felt something under his feet open wide, and sensing it, he quickly jumped up to dodge whatever was happening.
As he was in the air because of his jump, he saw that right under him was a hole in the platform, but Aiden was sure that there wasn't one before. It seemed like the trap on this platform was the ground, which could open and make him fall toward the little spikes.
But this trap wasn't really dangerous for Aiden, and he quickly jumped whenever he felt a platform open.
'All I need to do is jump when I feel the ground is going to open. This is way too easy," thought Aiden, not knowing that what he was doing was actually really hard or even impossible for others.
On the other hand, Maelis was shocked to see Aiden jumping around.
'How the hell is he able to jump in reaction to the ground opening? Emma learned the pattern and where they would open, but she's not able to do whatever he is doing right now. Just who are you, Aiden?' She thought, watching him continue to dodge the trap as if it were nothing.
He quickly arrived at the end of the second platform by executing the same jumps over and over again. To reach the next platform, which was the one with rock and lava surrounding it, he only needed to make one last jump.
And his jump landed. He was now on the third platform, with little rocks in front of him. Not wasting any time, he jumped on the rocks without even doubting that he would lose his balance and fall into the lava.
The heart of Aiden was calm while doing those actions because he had performed far worse with his past mentor. He knew that he was able to jump from one rock to another without any problem, and the most important thing to note was that while jumping, he wasn't making any noises. He was completely silent. If someone was close to him, he would not even be able to hear him move.
The fact that he was silent while doing all of this was unknown to Maelis, but that was already enough to impress her. Imagine if she knew about this ability of his. She had already noticed how silent he was while walking, but that was only while walking normally. How could she know that he was able to do so in every situation possible?
After crossing the third platform, only two of them were left, which were the two hardest, and even Aiden would have to be careful with them.
The time on the chronometer shown by the system was 00:47, if he wanted to beat Emma Everheart, he would need to complete the rest of the challenge in under 45 seconds, it would be a close one.