Xiao Hua had already equipped his gear and consumed a health potion when he saw the mirror image. Seeing the ghostly speed of the mirror image, he instinctively retreated, planning to exit the room first.
But before he could take two steps, the mirror image had already caught up and slashed at his back three times, draining over a thousand HP!
"How monstrous the attributes are!" Xiao Hua was terrified. He was still a few steps away from the door, and with the mirror image's speed, he would suffer at least two or three more attacks before escaping the room!
Illusion! Stealth!
Xiao Hua still wanted to use an illusion to resist and escape via stealth. As the illusion emerged, it rushed forward under Xiao Hua's command, but the mirror image seemed to recognize that the illusion wasn't Xiao Hua himself. It ignored the illusion and lunged towards Xiao Hua's stealth position!
"Great! I'm wrong, trying to escape isn't possible either! Demonic Transformation!"
Xiao Hua thought tearfully, what kind of setting is this? Not wearing gear, he encountered an opponent stronger than when he was equipped. Clearly, the hate mechanism of the mirror image was flawed, and even stealth couldn't remove the hate. Even if the mirror image couldn't see him, with its speed, it could easily catch up and slash him twice, making escape impossible.
With no choice, Xiao Hua used the Demonic Transformation skill, increasing his attributes by 20%, and immediately drank a potion that instantly restored 2000 HP, giving him a better chance of escaping! Instant recovery potions were something he had stocked up on before coming to Black Mist City, bringing several for the Assassin Badge test. Now, to save his life, he used one without hesitation.
After Demonic Transformation, Xiao Hua's speed and health increased significantly. Although he was slashed several times by the mirror image's relentless pursuit, his health dropped drastically, but he managed to escape the room safely.
"This guy is impossible to beat." Back in the hall, Xiao Hua felt frustrated. Usually, his reliance in combat was Stealth, Illusion, high movement speed, high evasion, and poison damage that ignores defense. But against a mirror image with attributes nearly 1.5 times his own, Stealth had special hate locking, Illusion was ineffective, speed was slower, evasion was useless, and poison damage was hard to apply!
The greatest enemy is oneself. Xiao Hua now understood this saying. In the past, when challenging his mirror image in games, he didn't find it too difficult, but facing a mirror image that could counter him everywhere, he felt helpless!
With over eight minutes remaining in the Demonic Transformation state, if he didn't defeat the mirror image before it ended, he would have no chance in his weakened state.
"What is this?" Anxious and helpless, Xiao Hua paced around the hall, looking for solutions. Suddenly, when he reached the center of the hall, he noticed the black aura from Demonic Transformation changed direction and sank downwards instead of floating upwards!
Looking down, Xiao Hua clearly saw the black aura flowing from his feet into the grayish-white stone floor. To his surprise, the black aura penetrated the floor as if it didn't exist, or rather, the stone slab was absorbing the black aura.
Instantly, the flow of black aura increased rapidly, and Xiao Hua was shocked to see the remaining time of his Demonic Transformation state rapidly decreasing!
To retreat or not to retreat?
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Before this strange transformation was complete, Xiao Hua still had time to decide. He thought that if he left the center of the hall, everything would stop. But recalling Lady Hassan's words, he decided this might be the trigger to solve the curse. No matter what, he had to investigate!
Making up his mind, Xiao Hua stood still, letting the black aura flow downwards. Soon, his Demonic Transformation state ended earlier than usual, nearly eight minutes ahead of schedule. When the transformation ended, the black aura stopped flowing, and a few steps ahead, a black teleportation portal appeared in the hall's center!
It was actually a teleportation portal?
After a brief hesitation, Xiao Hua stepped forward boldly. In his current state, entering the portal and encountering monsters would likely mean death, but the portal wouldn't last long. Unless he didn't want to enter, there was no difference between going in early or late. He could only pray that there wouldn't be immediate danger inside, giving him time to recover from the weakened state.
Stepping into the black teleportation portal, Xiao Hua's figure instantly disappeared from the hall. The hall became quiet again, with only the portal occasionally flickering with black light.
At the same time the portal appeared in the hall, Lady Hassan sat quietly at her wooden table, sipping tea elegantly.
Suddenly, a magical screen appeared in front of her, displaying an elderly man in a black robe.
"Elder Mu, what's the urgent matter?" Lady Hassan put down her teacup and respectfully addressed the elder on the screen.
"Head to the underground storage room immediately. The teleportation portal we fixed seems to have been activated!"
"What? Understood, I'll go right away!" Lady Hassan was startled. She had almost given up on this matter, but this new recruit, who didn't seem particularly powerful, managed to activate the portal.
"Make sure to protect him and don't let him die. We don't know what's on the other side of the portal. Bring back anything useful or suspicious, but more importantly, don't delay the mission. Use threats or inducements to make him accept the mission!" the elder instructed worriedly.
"Yes!" Lady Hassan confirmed, standing up and vanishing from the hall as a black shadow, losing her gentle demeanor.
Where is this?
On the other side, Xiao Hua's vision blurred, and he appeared in a larger stone-carved hall.
It was a spacious rectangular hall, completely enclosed, with walls and ceilings made of seemingly hard grayish-white rocks. Xiao Hua appeared in the lower-left corner of the hall.
Looking down, he saw a circular pattern with a radius of over a meter. The pattern was familiar—it was a magic array, though inactive, with no magic crystals placed in the grooves.
Sweeping his gaze across the spacious hall, he noticed numerous magic lamps providing ample light, allowing him to see clearly even at the far end. His attention quickly shifted to a strange triangular metal pillar in the center of the hall. The pillar stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and if not for its odd shape and occasional flashes of cold light, he would have thought it was merely a supporting column. Xiao Hua also noticed that the light emanating from the pillar disappeared into the ceiling, a bizarre sight.
Looking down the triangular metal pillar, he saw it was embedded in a functioning magic array. Unlike any array he had seen before, the floor was filled with countless glowing white magic crystals encircling the pillar, reminiscent of stars surrounding the moon. Closer inspection revealed that fine energy beams flowed from the crystals through black magic runes into the pillar.
The triangular metal pillar was like a circuit board, covered in regular metallic lines, channeling energy from the crystals to the ceiling and walls, disappearing from sight.
These magic crystals were undoubtedly a great fortune, but Xiao Hua dared not touch them recklessly, as the array was active. Moving without understanding it could be fatal.
Xiao Hua planned to search the room for anything portable before dealing with the array. Circling the array, his expression changed as he saw a thick, black-skinned bicephalic snake ahead!
From a distance, he saw nothing, but now he noticed the snake with a cold metallic sheen. Both heads had long tongues protruding from flat mouths, quivering as if sensing someone in the hall. The bicephalic snake began slithering, patrolling the hall.
Since the bicephalic snake guarded the room, it was likely as strong as the outside monsters. In his current state, Xiao Hua had no chance of handling it!
Without hesitation, he summoned an illusion and retreated via stealth. If he moved far enough away, the snake might not detect him during its patrol. Meanwhile, he planned to control the illusion to explore the area and pick up any loot!
The bicephalic snake slowly slithered forward, patrolling the ground. Xiao Hua controlled the illusion to move cautiously from a distance.
Suddenly, the snake's huge body stopped, both heads raised, looking towards the illusion's location!