A flying knife split open wind and punctured a walking corpse. I follow it up with a kick as I shove a firebolt inside its mouth. Three arrows flying past me, hitting the undead right on its chest. It’s Minty. She follows them up with a dagger in hand. She jumps and stab the undead’s head.
*Burst*
Dried black blood squirt when she pulls it out.
* [1x] Magic Core / Rare / Contains the souls of a lesser ranked creature
[Minty]: “Not that one either?”
[Siola]: “No.”
Panting as I look behind us, hundreds of undead now truly dead. After cracking some bubbles in my neck, we march onward to the third floor. Because of the poor drop rates, I even put some points into Luck myself just to get a higher chance of what we need to drop.
Surprisingly however, once we reach the third floor. There are no enemies, and the path to the next floor is opened. However, in this floor, there are a couple of different colored gems floating above. Red, blue, yellow, green, and black.
[Minty]: “So, the mechanic is very simple. If we try to take any of these gems, it’ll spawn an enemy. Blue is the easiest one, and then green and yellow, red and black. If we manage to kill an undead, it’ll have a chance to drop an item.”
[Siola]: “Hunh, guess we’ll take the black one then.”
[Minty]: “No wait!”
Upon grabbing it, chills running down my spine as the path to the fourth floor is clouded. Black mist gathers and there I can see a shadow forming into being. It has everything… of me.
My weapons, my clothes, my face.
“Minty, explain this to me.”
“…”
“Minty?”
I can feel my eyes widened at the sight of Minty staying in place. But not only that, her entire body is shifting in gray color, almost like her texture is being pulled aside.
! {Quest Updated}
* Path of Psion / Requirement 3: Cast [Malevolent Shadow]
* Path of Psion / Requirement 3: Defeat your shadow
Looking back, my instinct pulled my head back as a dagger flies. A sting on my forehead. When I rub it, my fingers are coated in blood.
There I can feel it, veins popped.
The thing awkwardly tries so hard to make a smiley face with my fucking face!
Rapidly casting firebolt as she dashes towards me, just like what I would’ve done had I don’t feel this fucking rage in my head!
Punch, punch, hook, and a kick. Pushing each other’s back, the shadow copied my every move but I’m not stopping. Martial arts of the Mithra family, I never thought I would use it as it has been years now, and yet, it’s like I’ve never stopped.
But the shadow never failed a move. Even when I tried to gouge its eyes, crack open its knees or holding its body. It always escaped and returned it to me.
Blood in my mouth.
It smiles.
Seeing that grin snaps something inside me.
My heart races.
! {Warning: User’s instability has been detected}
~ {Please stay—
As I dashes and threw a kick, I can see the world slowing down, I can see myself, my shadow following what I would’ve done but it’s different WHEN I CAN SEE IT!
A kick down to its forehead.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
! {Requirement has been met}
“Wall of Stone!”
Raising wall at an angle and cracks the fragile body of my shadow. A crushing blow to its neck by an elbow, and kick to its gut. Crushing to the wall I raised, I quickly step over and smashes its head to ground. My beautiful face, my fucking face!
Grabbing its hair, I don’t see her smiling anymore. I drag her to the wall of stone, grabs my dagger and mess its face up!
“Grraaaaaaaaaghrrrrrrugh!”
“You have a voice, huh?! My fucking VOICE too!”
Stuffing its mouth with a dagger, I grind its tongue and let the blood gushes when I pulled it out but it all soon turns to ashes. Black, like a dirty smoke.
“Siola?”
! {Requirement has been met}
Tasting the blood in my mouth as I see her, Minty. I’m glad she returned to normal, but most importantly, I’m glad the fucking thing died already.
* Overcome your body limitation without failing once
! {New Skill has been unlocked}
* Limit Break (Passive) / Level 1 / When the state of your soul reaches beyond limit, applies [Overdrive]. Increases all Primary Attributes by 600 + 300%, Strength by 150 + 50%, Endurance by 150 + 50%, Dexterity by 150 + 50%, Agility by 150 + 50%
“Oh my god, you’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine. Just, give me a little heads-up next time.”
“Well, I can’t if you already snatch it.”
“Heheh.”
Giving me a bottle of potion even though she knows I already have it in my inventory. Well, I appreciate the gesture regardless.
“Look, Siola, the loot.”
* Tome of Malevolent Shadow / Legendary / Contains [Malevolent Shadow], [Dark Current], [Death Reach] / Requirement: 130 Intelligence, 20 Faith, 30 Faith
* [1x] Black Magic Core / Legendary / Contains a dark soul
“Oh, my, God! Jeez, Siola, I couldn’t even react properly, look. We got a Legendary item!”
Nodding to her excitement.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Potion didn’t heal you enough?”
“No, it’s…” sighing, “Fighting myself took a little toll on me. Right, the magic core. It got out of my inventory, maybe that’s the one.”
“It must be, yeah. But look, a legendary tome! If we have enough of these requirements, we can learn what’s in it and can you just imagine it?! I haven’t even heard of [Malevolent Shadow] and [Death Reach] before, and the [Dark Current] is used only by that one mage from the dark guild.”
“Fitting, heheh. Alright, tuck that in, and let’s do the proper magic item this time.”
“Wait, no. You tuck it in, it’s yours.”
Chuckles at how easily she’s willing to let it go despite how excited she was. Once I put it in the inventory, we moved towards the gems with me at the green and she’s at yellow.
“So, we’re only going to be doing these two, and it’s very simple. All we have to do is take it, but not putting it in our inventory. Instead, we’re just going to drop it somewhere, that way, the enemy will keep respawning when it dies. We won’t have to wait until the respawn window which will take a while.”
“You’ve done this before?”
“Many times. Though, I don’t really have much drops from this place, at least valuable ones. It’s like gambling, you know. You win some, and you lose a LOT.”
Chuckles.
We yank the gems out of their holders and we dropped it further behind. Two heavily armored skeletons appeared on the other end. One of them carries a staff and the other a sword.
My mind wonders.
“Okay, Siola, first we’re going to— Siola? Hey!”
*Bwoosh*
“Siola!”
“GET AWAY!”
Eyes widened as power courses through me.
! {Limit Break}
Skeleton swinging its sword, a straight to its head, a *CRASH*. Bones scattered as I jab its ribs three times before kicking it away.
*Boom*
Dashing towards the mage skeleton and sees it aiming its staff. Grabbing it a shove straight to its chest, the spell it cast hits itself. A [Magic Blast], an arcane version of fireball. It pushes the undead back to the wall and before it hits the ground, I deliver a straight to its head, destroying it.
*Boom*
- [2x] Magic Core / Rare / Contains the souls of a lesser ranked creature
“Huff, huff, Siola! Are you okay?!”
Before I could even respond, they’re already respawning. But before they can even stand, I deliver kick to their heads. Crushing and stomping. I don’t know when the Limit Break effect is will stop but while it’s there, I’ll make the most of it.
Hours passed.
*Pant *Pant
! {Requirement has been met}
* Maintain Limit Break for 60 seconds: 14.482/60
! {Skill has been upgraded}
* Limit Break / Level 2 / When the state of your soul reaches beyond limit, applies [Overdrive]. Increases all Primary Attributes by 1200 + 500%, Strength by 200 + 100%, Endurance by 200 + 100%, Dexterity by 200 + 100%, Agility by 200 + 100%
* Limit Break / Level 3 (Max) / When the state of your soul reaches beyond limit, applies [Overdrive]. Increases all Primary Attributes by 4500 + 1000%, Strength by 600 + 200%, Endurance by 600 + 200%, Dexterity by 600 + 200%, Agility by 600 + 200%,
! {Skill has been evolved}
* Pantheon Drive (Passive) / Level 1 (Max) / When the state of your soul reaches beyond limit, you take a Transcendental form of your Class. Increasing all Primary Attributes by 9000 + 1000% and all Secondary Attributes related to your Class by 1000 + 300%
My vision became blurry as I stumble to sit, but Minty quickly took me and lay me down. My chest pumping hard, and every beat hurts like hell.
! {Logout function has been locked}
~ {Please remain still}
~ {If you are not recovering within 60 seconds, emergency care will be alerted}
“Urgh.”
My head spinning, but soon, I feel a slight warmth and it’s wrapping my entire body. It took a moment but I finally calmed down. As it turns out, I’m in her embrace.
“Minty.”
“Hm?”
“Did we get it?”
It took a moment for her to smile, “Yep.”
“Heheh. See that? Just how much progress we make, just the two of us.”
Biting her lips as she tries to smile. I caress her cheek. I know it deep in my heart and only if she uses a better capsule, I would’ve seen it. Her tears.