Child of Destiny

After a while, Shin had fully mastered controlling all the phantoms along with the Phantom Apparition itself uniformly and skillfully.

He could now execute a series of martial arts and mentalism techniques with all the phantoms flawlessly.

Even if he suddenly shifted with another movement, he was still able to seamlessly transition between one move to another, despite each move coming from a different set of movements or art.

He was able to quickly and accurately shift between these arts with ease and without encountering any kind of complications with his movements.

After reaching this stage, Shin proceeded to the next phase of his plans, increasing the difficulty and complexity of his movements.

This time, he controlled each of the phantoms with different sets of movements. He was making them execute a variety of movements that were completely different from one another.

Even the Phantom Apparition itself was doing the same thing.

Shin was planning to make each of these phantoms execute a different martial movement or mentalism technique while controlling the Phantom Apparition.

The difficulty of this stage was much more complex and challenging compared to his previous actions.

It was also putting a lot of strain on his mind, swiftly consuming his concentration and draining his mental strength.

However, Shin knew that he had to continue and persevere because he was slowly reaching the most crucial point in this training.

He knew that if he stopped now, reaching the same level of concentration would become more challenging. He also could not guarantee that the sand soldiers would reach their current level if he had to start over again.

Shin repeated his earlier process, but with each phantom executing a different martial movement and mentalism swordsmanship.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

He started with the most basic movements, then moved on to fundamental techniques, followed by highly advanced ones.

Shing! Shing!

Bang!

This continued for quite a while until he reached the ideal level that he wanted, matching the current level that he had achieved within the game.

It did not take that long for each phantom to look more alive and completely independent from the others, making them appear to be more lifelike.

These phantoms seemed to become complete individual carrying a martial prowess of their own.

Unfortunately, their features remained the same. They could neither attack anyone for real nor get attacked by anyone.

Regardless, due to their realistic and extremely convincing movements, telling which of them was a phantom and the real body had become extremely challenging as well.

However, despite all these, Shin was still not satisfied. He felt that there was still something missing. Something that would be added to their essence and make them a true mirage phantom.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

After making himself slightly comfortable with all these, Shin proceeded to the final stage of what he was picturing inside his head.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

While all the phantoms were executing all their respective movements, Shin swapped places with them while continuing the last movement that they were about to throw.

Bang!

Despite destroying the sand soldier before him, his concentration was somewhat affected, throwing his form a bit off and making his attack awkward.

His concentration also almost broke in the process, making his control over the other phantoms somewhat collapse.

“Wrong! The timing is wrong, and the movements are not accurate enough,” Shin assessed his own movements, realizing that there were still some flaws that needed to be fixed.

“Haste makes waste,” he mumbled before swiftly adjusting his approach a little. “Controlling too many phantoms will only strain my concentration and put more pressure on mental strength.”

If it were just regular movements, then he would not be having a hard time doing these. After all, he had long passed that stage where he needed to link his martial arts and mentalism techniques to one another.

However, doing it while switching places when a phantom would require a different timing and other factors in the process.

He also had to consider the movements of all the other phantoms, making the swap more seamless and flawless.

“I guess I have to decrease the number and adjust it later bit by bit,” he added before quickly executing his plan almost immediately.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

This time, he was controlling a single phantom aside from the Phantom Apparition itself. As for the rest, he just left them be and moved randomly.

With a smaller number of phantoms, Shin was able to accurately control all its movements, all the way down to the tiniest detail.

With this, Shin continued to train at a slower pace to have a steady process as before.

He started by controlling the Phantom Apparition and one of the phantoms to perform two different arts, just like earlier. He would then switch places with the phantom while still in the middle of performing those arts.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang!

There were still noticeable signs when he was doing this because of the two different sets of arts that the two ‘bodies’ were performing.

His form and movements would suddenly become awkward whenever he tried to switch places, producing some delays and signs that would indicate the incoming switches.

However, Shin was still able to maintain the form of the phantom, preventing it from collapsing.

This time, Shin further slowed down his pace, only trying to switch whenever the two forms could be linked with one another.

He would only be switching if the movements of the Phantom Apparition and the phantom could be used together or linked with one another.

His movements were still slow and delayed, but it at least got rid of the little signs that would indicate the swap.

Shin continued with this process until he got the hang of it and erased all the little signals that would expose the swapping of places.

Little by little, Shin was able to get rid of the little signals and create a proper link between all his movements, even when he was swapping places with the phantom.

He gradually built a perfect system for this matter, making the forms much steadier than before, which would also make his and the phantom’s movements overlap at the right timing and without disturbing each other.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shin continued with this method until he no longer affected the form of the phantom whenever he was swapping places with it.

He further perfected this before moving to increase the number of phantoms bit by bit.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Not long after, Shin was able to perfectly control all the phantoms, flawlessly swap places with them, and seamlessly change forms and movements in the process without breaking much of a sweat.

The entire process might still be a bit complicated and quite overstaining his mental prowess, but Shin was still able to handle it well.

However, despite mastering all these, Shin felt that there was still something missing. He was still lacking a certain piece that would make him fully master this skill.

“Just what is it that I am missing?” mumbled Shin, feeling a bit confused.

He had already made all the phantoms more alive while also granting their movements enough essence.

From a third party’s perspective, the Phantom Apparition and its phantoms were no different from each other. It was as if the former had become a mere phantom or the latter looked more like the real body.

Regardless of the case, both were pointing in the same direction.

At this moment, the phantoms seemed to have become real and alive while being linked with the Phantom Apparition.

However, despite all these, Shin still felt like something was missing.

After thinking for quite a while, he could not help but mumble. “Phantom Dance.”

This was the name of the skill that he was using alongside the ‘Phantom Apparition’ and the skills under the latter’s arsenal.

“Phantom Dance,” he repeated, seemingly getting into something.

A few moments later, he started fighting the sand soldiers by relying on all the tricks that he had just learned and sharpened before suddenly increasing the pace.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang!

This time, he continuously swapped places with the phantoms while repeatedly changing the martial movements and sword techniques that he used during the process.

He first went with his steady yet swift pace before suddenly increasing the switching speed with the phantoms.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

This did not stop with this either.

Just like a ghost, Shin made the phantoms move silently despite the extreme speed at which they were moving.

They scattered across the entire battlefield without making any sounds. Shin would then suddenly swap places with them and instantly destroy a sand soldier or two in that location before proceeding to another location.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang!

It started with a regular place and continued for quite a while until his speed became so fast that Shin seemed to appear at multiple places all at once.

The Phantom Apparition and the phantoms’ movements became extremely fast yet so stealthy, utilizing their unique features to pass through the battle formations of the opposing forces completely unhindered.

A sand soldier would fall after another wherever they passed. It was as if a grim reaper had arrived to harvest their lives.

…

Shin then felt something different during the entire process, sensing that he was on the right path. He could tell that this was the right way to utilize this skill to its fullest potential.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang!

A few moments later, Shin finally got a notification from the system, which indicated that he had found the final piece that he was looking for.

*Ding*

System: Congratulations! You have fully understood the mysteries of Phantom Movements!

System: You have mastered the ‘Phantom Dance’!

……