Speed Is King

"I'm poor." Monkey King said as he sat back down on his plush and comfy couch and started to squat and draw circles in the sand in his mind.

"Don't mind her words, Wu Kong. A perfect breakthrough isn't necessary at all. Most of the current powerhouses didn't breakthrough perfectly. Most made do with a low ninety-percent breakthrough. You can easily do that with several thousand resource planets worth of medicine and pills." Jul'Taras comforted Wu Kong.

"Yes, yes. Don't be so down. In fact, my grandfather, one of the strongest Void Walkers in our known Universe, only broke through with an eighty nine percent success rate!" Jessica Sands said quickly, eager to make her friend feel better.

"Only mindlessly rich "second/third generation old money" like us are aiming for perfect breakthroughs. And as you can imagine, it comes with its own emotional baggage as well. I am feeling so much pressure and so many eyes are on me, hoping to see me succeed, and others expecting me to fail and waste all that money, that I've delayed my breakthrough for so long." Jul'Taras sighed.

"Most times I envy beings with a situation like yours, Wu Kong. No pressure, free to breakthrough to the best of your abilities, results be damned. Seventy percent? Fine! Ninety percent? Perfect!"

"I agree completely, Jules. I hate all this expectation and pressure on me. That's exactly why I've hidden most of my powers, you know. If the damned old man and all of the other old Void Walker fogeys know about the extent of my powers, I'll probably never be able to even leave my house! I'll be forced to train every day!" Jessica Sands said with a slight tinge of anger and no small amount of indignance in her voice.

"Speaking of hiding powers, just how much power have you hidden, Jess? You're currently ranked four hundred something in the Celestial Ranking right? How high do you think you can go if you unleash all of your power?" Jul'Taras asked her curiously.

"Hmmm. I am interested to find out as well. Let's start with a simple question. Can you defeat your friend right here, Jul'Taras of the Elven Mages Guild?" Monkey King asked Jessica.

"Defeat Jules? My, I've never thought of that before. Let's see, your secret skill is-"

"HUSH! That's my secret skill!" Jul'Taras shushed Jessica Sands quickly, alarmed that Jessica Sands almost spilled out the name of her trump card!

"OH RIGHT! Haha! I almost said the name out loud. Hee hee. Well, IF you used that, I can probably counter it with THAT skill. If you chain it with your other secret skill, I can counter them both immediately using my own secret skill… Let's see. Hmmmmmmm. Ten moves." Jessica Sands finally announced.

"Ten moves to do what?" Jul'Taras asked sharply.

"To lock you down, silly! I wouldn't dream of coming up with a plan to kill you, not even theoretically!" Jessica Sands giggled.

"You can defeat me in ten moves?!" Jul'Taras asked Jessica Sands incredulously. "And less if you want to kill me??"

"Uhhh, ten moves is ALOT. You know that Void Walker skills are extremely energy consuming. After 10 moves, I probably won't have enough strength left to deal with a regular King level dude!" Jessica Sands tried to comfort her friend.

Jul'Taras narrowed her eyes and glared at Jessica Sands with a stubborn and contemplative look. She was running her own simulation in her head, unwilling to accept that she could only last 10 moves against her best friend.

"Since when did she out-power me by that much?" Jul'Taras thought.

"I can't run simulations if I don't even know what skills you have!" Jul'Taras said rather crossly. "You need to at least tell me their names and brief descriptions!"

"Fine, fine, come let me tell you." Jessica Sands beckoned Jul'Taras to get closer to her and began to whisper in her ear.

"What?! That's cheating! … … WHAT?! NO WAY! THAT'S CHEATING!!" Jul'Taras shouted even as Jessica Sands continued to speak into her ear.

Monkey King bit down on his lip lightly, suppressing the curiosity that was nearly bursting out of his heart.

After a few seconds, Jul'Taras went back to her seat and slumped down weakly.

"Fine. I admit defeat. With such broken skills, ten moves are already overstating my power. I'll probably lose in seven or eight moves." Jul'Taras conceded.

Monkey King blinked and looked at Jessica Sands in surprise. She merely stuck out her tongue and gave him a peace sign.

"Interesting." He said with a smile. "If even Jules can admit defeat so thoroughly, you must have some really broken skills."

"Hehehe. I am very strong! Remember that, Monkey!" Jessica grinned at him.

Deep in Wu Kong's heart, the desire to grow stronger began to burn even brightly. First Hegara Kinstan. Now Jessica Sands.

"I must get stronger quickly! I won't accept being left so far behind by my peers!"

"Let's all make a pact then. We'll ALL break through to Emperor level within the year, alright?" Jessica Sands said brightly.

"Yeah, let's do that. I'm planning to break through this year anyway." Jul'Taras agreed. Her incredibly strong mental state had allowed her to recover from Jessica Sands' shocking revelation quickly, and she was back to her coolly confident state.

"I agree as well. And I am extremely interested to see how powerful you will be once you breakthrough. You'll probably be one of the most powerful Emperors ever!" Monkey King said.

"Oh, well I'm not too sure about that. Maybe? You beastmasters are very well known for being able to power up extremely fast, after all. Look at Elliot, he had your SSS Beast Apostle System, and he got to King Level within three days!

That's extremely fast. I'm sure you can replicate that situation in your Beast Clan and raise a huge bunch of King Level warriors really quickly. With that many King level warriors, the chances of having one with an extremely high potential would be higher too." Jessica Sands remarked.

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