He ran forward, seeing as he had no reason to run anymore. While he ran, he saw that the lines coming from the mana bullets and the clone all changed with every single movement he made. They even shifted with the steps of the clone of himself.

He didn’t stress it, but he knew that he would have to practice the usage of this ability so that he could wield it to its maximum potential. He had to learn how to read it both stationary and on the move, and this was his training ground to learn such a thing.

He planted his right foot when he and the clone neared one another, watching the lines intently. He knew now this the clone was relying on the same ability, and he was probably way better at doing so than Amon actually was, so he felt as though the clone would primarily trust the WGI.

He had to take advantage of this. He swung his blade with his right hand, leaning into the overhead slash that was, of course, deflected. He kept his left hand tucked tight to his side until the blades clashed, then stepped into his momentum and launched his fist at the enemy’s gut, covered in a thick coating of mana so that he could use his mana cannon.

The clone was able to see the incoming attack and tried to jump back, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the punch. Well, he avoided the fist itself, but Amon had done something he never did before and intentionally let the mana fly loose with the punch since he expected it to be dodged. A wave of mana shot forth, catching the clone faster than he could dodge.

Just because he knew what would happen didn’t mean he could avoid it.

Amon didn’t take his foot off of the gas. As soon as the punch missed, he continued to charge forward, moving just behind the wave that he knew would eventually hit the clone. Most of the yellow lines he had seen had turned green, and there were even more purple ones.

He summoned as many mana bullets as he could, twelve, and sent them all out. One of them was aimed at the clone, but the others were aimed at the spaces all around it so that wherever it chose to dodge it wouldn’t be an easy feat to come out unscathed. Amon was amazed at the newfound efficiency with his mana. After he made the ring around his core, his ability to manipulate mana increased substantially.

The clone tried to keep up, but Amon was upon it again after the mana bullets cornered it. This time, the purple trail was the only one still available to Amon, so he followed the path faithfully until he found himself swinging his blade at the clone’s neck and rending its head from its shoulders.

He huffed as the clone fell to the ground, panting softly. The crowd was going absolutely bananas.

It was only then that he chose to look at Seru and Blue, both of whom had already defeated themselves. They had been watching him intently, evidently amazed by his victory.

He returned his sword to his inventory and sat down while the bodies vanished.

That’s all 7. I’m sure Jack defeated himself. So what’s next?

He saw the entrances appear on the other side of the arena, all 8 like usual. He wasn’t exactly ready to leave, since he wanted to make it to the boss room, but he felt as though he had successfully grown enough. Now he needed to train himself in a safe space, and he needed to gain way more information than he had. If he had known about his mana overflowing, he would’ve been able to reel it in much sooner.

I wish there was a wiki.

‘You are in possession of a ticket to the Void Library.’

The alert surprised him. The System was so choosy about when it would directly interact with him, so he had no idea when to expect it. He assumed it was talking about the ticket Rea had gave him, but it was supposed to be darkness.

Maybe it doesn’t mean the element of void.

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‘It is the element of void.’

Okay then. There was no reason to complain. Void was strong, it was a legendary element. Maybe Rea gave him the wrong one, or maybe she was simply mistaken about what it was, but either way he was going to take advantage of this.

Let’s go defea–

‘The Champion has been defeated!’

He was thankful for Jack. It couldn’t have been anyone else. Not only did he pull through within the time limit, but he showed Amon that whatever his summons did counted towards his mission objectives regardless of whether or not they were on the same team within the rules of the world they were in. That meant he could summon Jack often and allow him to go off on his own more often.

You both did amazingly. Let’s go home.

He chose the exit and found himself back at the entrance, outside of the structure. Jack was there too, as was Nykal and all of his companions. They were all surrounding the white haired man, with Nykal standing at the forefront of the circle with his blade drawn.

“Pick something else! The Blood Oath is my reward and I need to bring its power back to my family. It’s been gone for too long and I’ve trained my entire life to receive it, you can’t just come and take it. You’re not even of the lineage!”

What’s going on? He asked Jack.

“He’s mad because he barely managed to defeat the champion and earn the right to inherit his primary skill. I beat him much more elegantly and got more points, so I had the choice to steal it from him, which I did. It’s the strongest skill.”

Nykal turned to see who Jack was talking to and his face twisted in a rather inhuman way once he saw the cloaked figure of Amon standing before him. Amon kept his face straight, but he was happy to know that he bothered Nykal so deeply.

Nykal took a deep breath before he spoke and approached Amon with a shocking calmness in his voice. “I take it that he is your companion. I understand that we didn’t get off on the best foot, and I apologize for anything that happened between us. I am pleading, for the sake of my family, please ask him to allow me to have the skill. This is the difference between progress and absolute ruin for my family.”

Not only did Nykal lower his head as he spoke, but he even went as far as to drop to his knees, which produced multiple strong reactions from his party. Clearly, this was a huge deal for Nykal. It took a lot of humility to do such a thing.

Amon looked down at Nykal, relishing the power he had over the situation. Whatever the skill was, it had to have been powerful if this was happening. His summon was going to inherit the skill? That would make his forces that much stronger. The ramifications of Nykal’s family falling into ruin was something that he couldn’t hope to fully understand. But, he did understand that his only real loyalty was to himself and his family. The next closest thing was his relationship with Rea, who had clearly chosen him over Nykal, so maybe their destruction wouldn’t matter much to her. Maybe it would even help her.

Amon saw the list of rewards he was able to take, as well as the rankings. His party was in dead last, third of three, but he had barely gotten fewer points than Nykal. If he had done another room, he could’ve won. Jack had more than the two of them combined though, which only made Amon respect the man even more.

He had the opportunity to choose any of the foes he had defeated as a summon, and he could also choose from a rather lengthy list of skills. The only summon he didn’t recognize was a slime, but he was smart enough to reason that that was how he had fought his own clown.

Can you choose the champion as a summon, Jack?

He shook his head no.

Amon’s silence apparently made Nykal nervous, because he filled the empty space with his voice. “I will reward you handsomely if you do me this favor. You’ll be an ally of my family and I’ll do everything I can to support your growth. We’ll all be indebted to you, and my family’s reach is quite farstretched.”

Amon mulled over it. If this one skill would make or break them, were they even that powerful?

He chose his reward from the list and added it to his list of units he could summon once he had enough DP.

“When your bloodline breathes its last breath, I want you to understand that it was your inability to control your hubris that doomed everyone you love.”

‘Hidden objective completed!’

Nykal looked up at him, a mix of strong emotions fighting for control of his expression. Amon gave him a blank stare, looking down at him. He watched closely as Nykal festered, then cracked the slightest smile.

After that, he walked off.

It was a good choice to follow him.