I open my eyes.
I see the chalice in the middle of the room and three oversized doors behind it.
The ex-skeleton angel is nowhere to be found.
...
Sigh.
Not again.
I sit on the ground as I frown at the word 'endurance' above that door.
The trial of endurance...
First wave is a bunch of archers.
They are easily dealt with by using dark magic.
The second wave is an armored beast.
That thing is even easier to kill.
The third wave is a flock of white birds.
I used to wipe them off with hell serenade, but now I know that a simple dark blast is enough.
A few of them sometimes survive after that, but those are not a problem at all.
Now, the fourth wave...
It's just three angels.
One of them is an armored warrior who is hard to kill and blocks me from attacking the other two.
The second one is a magician who mostly just supports the other two.
Even his name is 'SUPPORT'.
And the last one...is an archer.
A very swift and accurate archer.
When I first got to this wave, I was about to intercept the armored one who started charging me.
But somehow, the archer managed to hit my stomach with an arrow.
His arrows were so quick, I couldn't even react in any way.
Obviously, I marked him down as the first one I need to bring down next time.
But that wasn't simple.
Whenever I tried to attack him, the armored guy intercepted it.
And even if I did get some damage on the archer, the magician would heal him up right away.
I sigh again as I close my eyes.
Twenty-one.
That's how many times I have died to them already.
It really reminds me of the dungeon.
Lately, I have been encountering enemies I can overcome in just few tries.
And I got used to that way too much.
Unlike the dungeon, I'm not actually trapped here.
I can just exit this temple and walk away.
But unlike the dungeon, now I know...
I know that there is some kind of god, who is watching me.
He is watching...for fun.
He wants me to give him a good show.
He doesn't care about anything else.
If I just walk away, he surely won't permit that.
That's why...I just have to do this.
I need to concentrate all of my focus on the things in front of me.
I've gotten too soft.
But I can't be messing around anymore.
Once again, I stand up and head to the door.
Armed with my renewed determination.
Determination, to beat this nonsense and be free.
|= ??? =|
The fourth wave...
What an annoyance.
Hell serenade or hell glare gets completely blocked by that armored guy.
And phantom annihilation just makes small cracks in his shield.
But still, this wave is not a threat, just an annoyance.
Why is that?
It's because...
They are susceptible to illusions.
I can just create several illusions of myself while concealing the real me.
These angels will keep attacking the illusions and I can easily dispose of them.
But...it's really strange.
All of the enemies I fought before never fell for illusions.
They could sense my mana and could tell an illusion from the real me.
But not these guys.
In fact...
None of the enemies in this trial can see through my illusions.
It's...way too strange.
What even are these angels and monsters?
They are quite strong, but they can't handle illusions?
As I thought about it more, I realized something.
The monsters in the dungeon, the dragons in dragon's jaw, all the animals in the cursed forest...
All of them felt like real living things.
They needed to eat, they felt fear, and most importantly...
They didn't appear or disappear just for the sake of some 'trial'.
The enemies here however, they seem like their only purpose is to fight me.
They don't feel any fear even with phantom presence.
They just appear out of thin air and disappear when defeated.
It's odd, too odd.
...
And why is fourth wave an annoyance?
It's because of the armored guy.
Even if he is dazed by the illusions, it's really hard to kill him.
Why is his armor so durable?
It's almost like the walls in the dungeon.
|= The next run =|
...
I tried to look what is outside the area.
While the armored monster in the second wave was busy going after my illusions, I jumped on top of the walls.
But then, I found out there was nothing.
Or rather...
There is only the arena on this island.
Yes...island.
When I landed on the wall and looked down, I saw clouds.
This arena was a big hole on an island high up in the sky all this time.
Just where is this place?
I planned to sacrifice a life by jumping down and looking around.
But there was a barrier around the island.
It was similar to the one near the chalice.
All I could do was look through the clouds and try to guess what I'm seeing down below.
But I just couldn't see a clear indication of above what I could be.
I only saw some spots, that looked like towns or cities.
Do those who live down there even know there is a floating island high up in the sky?
|= ??? =|
Wave five.
Just a single angel named 'Menace'.
He had a really huge pair of wings and a big hammer.
I'm sure he would have been a threat.
But again, illusions worked on him without a problem.
Wave six.
There were these strange small creatures with six legs and one big eye.
With an eye of that size, I feared they might see through the illusions.
But no luck for them.
And then...it was wave seven.
This one was a little different.
It was like a giant white slime, except it wasn't transparent.
It's species was 'Pacio slime', so it was still a slime apparently.
But unlike all the enemies, this one didn't get confused by the illusions at all.
It was initially slow and only attacked with light magic.
However, that was just to let my guard down.
Because when I dealt what should have been the final blow, it didn't die.
According to its status, it regained all of its health and changed species to 'Litera slime'.
At that point, it gained an incredible amount of speed as it pursued me.
It caught me off guard and I failed to dodge it.
At that point there was nothing I could do.
The slime slowly devoured me and I died.
...
How stupid can I be?
I told myself to take this seriously.
But once I discovered I can just use illusions, I went back to being careless again.
Just what's wrong with me?
I would still be stuck in that dungeon with an attitude like this.
|= ??? =|
Wave seven.
That weird slime.
I just kill the initial form and then use fire magic for when it changes.
I found dark magic to not be very effective, but fire was much better.
But even if I know its weakness, it's still not a simple fight.
If I don't act immediately, the slime starts quickly moving around and is hard to hit.
But after several tries, I finally defeated it.
Wave eight.
Another annoying wave.
It's some big rocky monster called 'Granite golem'.
Illusions worked just fine on it, but it was resistant to fire and dark magic and cutting it with my sword didn't do much either.
I had to resort to blowing a lot of my mana on using phantom annihilation.
It's kind of a waste, but I didn't have much choice.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Wave nine.
It was a group of flying snakes called 'Soaring anaconda'.
Once again, illusions were the way to go.
I imagine they would cause a ton of problems since they make themselves hard to hit with their movements.
But thanks to illusions, they were easy.
Their skin wasn't too tough either, so I just had to slice them up.
Wave ten.
Just a single angel with huge wings again.
His name was 'Destruction' and he carried an axe.
I could see him being a real problem.
Even though he got tricked by my illusions, he showed a significant combat proficiency.
But in the end, it doesn't matter how good you are if you can't utilize your skills.
And so, after a little while, I defeated him.
Wave eleven.
This one was a serious pain.
The enemies were invisible.
I had to sense their mana to find out their locations.
But even though they were invisible, they were susceptible to illusions as well.
...
After stabbing the last one of them, I gaze at the arena's center and wait for the next wave.
The ground shines and changes to '12/15'.
A few moments later, the middle starts shining again.
What emerges is a large winged beast.
It's some kind of...white dragon?
Type: Monster
Name: ASE-020
Gender: Female
Race: Light dragon
Status: Calm
Level: 2000
Health: 100000/100000
Mana: 130000/130000
This one seems to have the strange name again.
Does that mean anything...?
As always, I wait a bit for the monster's reaction to my illusions.
And as always, the dragon looks around at my illusions, confused.
However, unlike the other enemies, this one doesn't attack right away.
Instead, it jumps up and starts flapping its wings while looking downward.
The beast opens its mouth and light mana starts gathering in front of it.
Realizing its trying to blow away everything to hit me, I quickly start preparing a counter attack.
[Blazing dart]
My spell clashes with the dragon's and creates a blinding explosion.
I cover my eyes and jump back.
And then, shortly after it subsides and I open my eyes, I spot the dragon's claw speeding toward me.
Reacting to it, I throw myself to the side.
The air pressure from the claw whizzing by me launches me further than I anticipated, but I still manage to land on both feet.
The dragon's assault isn't over though.
As soon as I look forward, I see another blast of light shot at me.
[Phantom force]
I try to deflect the attack at the last moment, but it explodes instead.
The explosion launches me further to the side.
When I land on my back and open my eyes, I see its leg above me before it lowers down and...
...
...
...
I open my eyes.
...and then close them again.
That dragon...
It was more intelligent than all the other enemies.
Everyone else just blindly attacked my illusions at random.
And they didn't stop when their attacks phased through either.
But the dragon actually formulated a strategy.
This will be tricky...
I might have to waste a chunk of mana to finish it in one shot.
|= ??? =|
This dragon...
I've already concluded I can't fight her normally...
I need to finish her off in one shot.
But she is just too quick.
Just like the dragons back in dragon's jaw, she can dodge phantom annihilation.
Except that she doesn't need me to be distracted to dodge it.
It's almost like she can predict my movements.
But how...?
This thing can't see through my illusions, so she can't sense mana.
So how can she tell when and how I'm going to release the spell?
I need to figure it out...
|= ??? =|
I did it...
Sort of.
My phantom annihilation finally managed to hit her.
It only clipped her wing, but it's something.
Of course, she killed me right after that.
But I'm finally starting to learn her movements.
Or more like, I'm starting to learn how to not give away my next move.
It seems like she was able to dodge it because she watched how I was lifting my sword.
But I'm now starting to learn how to trick her.
...
Just how long have I been at this?
I think I was counting my deaths at the beginning.
But I stopped at some point.
...
But it doesn't matter.
I just have to keep trying.
And one of those times, I will succeed.
There is no other possible outcome.
|= ??? =|
[Phantom annihilation]
Screeching sound echoes in the arena as the dragon's wing is sliced right off.
The dragon roars in pain before lunging at me again.
[Phantom annihilation]
This time, I manage to hit her head and it slices the top of her head off.
With that, the white dragon's lifeless body lands on the ground and stops moving.
I land back on the ground and look at the dragon without lowering my guard.
...
It's not moving...
...
I...did it...?
...I did it...
Finally...
I fall down on my behind as I let out a sigh of relief.
Then, I start tending to my wounds.
[Heal]
This dragon has to be the strongest thing I encountered since the dungeon.
Maybe the levels are significant after all?
But then again, that giant dragon back in dragon's jaw was also around two thousand...
In my opinion, that one was a lot stronger than this one...
And then there's also me...
Status screen: open.
Name: Reiza
Gender: Female
Race: Shadow wolfman
Status: Relieved
Level: 4999
Health: 24789/45942
Mana: 8756/109423
Vitality: 300 (max)
Strength: 350 (max)
Intelligence: 900 (max)
Stamina: 300 (max)
Speed: 500 (max)
I used up almost all my mana...
If there are any other waves where the enemies can overcome my illusions, I'm done for.
Also, my level is almost at five thousand...not that it matters.
Now then...
As the arena shines and changes to '13/15', the dragon's corpse disappears.
I get up and create a few illusions.
[Mirror image]
I breathe out and then in again to prepare for the next wave.
And then, the arena's middle shines yet again...
----------------------------------------
Bonus:
Oh, hi.
Haven't seen you in a while.
Well, obviously...
Something like that wouldn't be simple.
Even if some gods decide to give humans a spell for summoning others from different worlds.
Tell me about it.
...by the way.
You are still that mysterious character.
But people probably don't even know what to imagine you as.
What KIND of character are you?
Right...
So you are...