Child of Destiny

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shin’s figure was flashing and shuttling through the dark space while a series of attacks was constantly chasing after him. He was always subjected to a barrage of attacks that were coming from every direction, always putting him under constant pressure.

Clank! Clank!

He had to always exhaust his means just to survive one round of attack from these shadowy figures that seemed to always come out of nowhere.

He was always under high pressure, forcing him to be always alert. Even the slightest slip-up with his concentration was more than enough to cause death.

Even though dying in this place could not have such an impact as losing levels or dropping any equipment, his progress always reset whenever he died.

Shu!

Shin was suddenly struck by a shadow dagger, which pierced through his back and straight to his heart.

Right after, all the succeeding attacks that were about to strike him suddenly disappeared at the same time, signifying the end of his round.

*Ding*

Immediately after, the system notification informed him that he had twenty minutes of rest before the next round.

“Four hours and ten minutes this time, huh?” he mumbled after glancing at the notification and the digital timer, which signified the time that he had survived from the series of attacks.

He had been under continuous assault ever since the start of the trial and never stopped aside from the interval between each round.

At this moment, he only averaged between three hours and forty-five minutes and a little over four hours.

The current time was not his highest record, but it was still around there.

The difficulty of this trail was indeed quite great, but it also gave him quite a lot during the entire process.

His overall improvement was secondary; the true gain that he had gotten from this trial was the integration of all his techniques and abilities along with his fighting style.

Due to the constant pressure coming from the series of attacks that were constantly improving and continuously becoming difficult to deal with, his utilization of techniques started to rise and began to fully integrate with his battle style.

Particularly his ‘Phantom Series’, which was steadily becoming part of the true battle style.

However, his progress was not limited only to this. His other techniques and abilities were also starting to improve at an incredibly fast pace.

Due to this trial constantly exposing the weakness of his techniques, Shin was able to find ways to fix them, further honing his skills and steadily perfecting his techniques.

Sometimes, he even purposely lets these ‘mistakes’ happen to lure the opposing side, which would also create an opportunity to land a clean counter against them.

This principle fell into the category of focal points that he had learned from Professor Plum, which was also something needed to establish a ‘False Territory’ or ‘False Domain’.

Along with his other skills and abilities within the game, such as the ‘Sensing Circle,’ he was able to reconstruct his other techniques and erase their flaws during the process.

The ‘Zone’ territory technique was one of them, which was something that he already had before.

It was also based on the technique that he had in the real world, where he combined the ‘False Territory’ from his Martial Arts and the ‘Spiritual Sense’ from his Mentalism Techniques.

The combination of these two techniques had created a powerful zone that could tell Shin all of the movements from anything that trespassed it.

He had always been using it, which was why it was extremely hard for his opponents to hit him, especially when he had the ‘Ultra Instinct’ innate talent.

However, the overwhelming pressure within this place, which was constantly growing stronger in every passing second during his battle, greatly put a lot of strain on his body and mind.

This condition made these techniques and abilities prone to failure under intense pressure.

However, due to this very pressure, his already monstrous willpower was further tempered and became even stronger.

Not only this, but his will had also become firmer under such constant pressure. The longer he stayed under this pressure, the stronger he became.

With such an unbendable will, he was able to do much stronger and more complicated things.

With all these together, Shin felt that his overall strength and power had become even more comprehensive.

Everything under his ‘Myriad Transformation Swordsmanship’ had undergone an immense transformation.

The sword movements, quick draw techniques, and other offensive techniques under the ‘Jade Kirin Scripture’ and ‘Four Symbol Scripture’ were further polished and strengthened.

They were now much deadlier and harder to defend.

On the other hand, the movement, defensive, and auxiliary techniques under the ‘Four Symbol Scripture’ and ‘Phantom Series’ also underwent some changes as well.

They were much more complex and had a lot of variations, especially the latter, which was steadily integrating into his overall battle style.

Even if he could not fully utilize the full capabilities of the ‘Four Symbol Scripture’ within this place due to the lack of access to any kind of elemental powers, he was still able to showcase most of their might and true essence whenever he executed them.

When all these were together, Shin’s overall strength had undergone a complete metamorphosis.

The qualitative change and comprehensive improvement had reached a whole other level.

For this trial, it seemed to be better to limit his abilities and techniques to the fewest number possible since he would have a much easier time predicting what kind of attacks would come after him.

However, Shin took the initiative to increase the number of cards he had, further complicating the trial and making it harder for himself.

After all, he immediately recognized how beneficial it was to him and his overall fighting style.

Even if he would suffer greatly under such continuous attacks, the benefits that he would get during the process would outweigh the suffering.

What he just gained right now was the proof of it.

…

“I am still quite far from reaching the minimum requirement for passing the trial, but it is much better compared to the first time I stepped into this floor,” he mumbled while furrowing his brow.

“However, given all the gains that I can gain from this, it seems like it is better to stay here for as long as I can.”

“Not only can I improve my skills and techniques repeatedly due to the constant exposure of my flaws throughout the trial, but I can also steadily forge my will through the powerful pressure that is constantly getting stronger the longer I stay here.”

“This will be my last floor for the time being anyway, so let’s get as much as I can from it.”

Shin thought for a moment, thinking that he should stay here for as long as possible, so long as he found the trial helpful to his growth.

He could also squeeze more of his potential through this, which would not only help him inside the game but in the real world as well.

After a while, he sat on the floor and started reassessing his overall performance just now while also reviewing the mistakes that he had committed and the flaws that the ‘system’ had found during the round.

This lasted until the system notified him that the next round was about to start.

…

A week later (real-world time).

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shin dodged all the incoming attacks with ease, not letting even a single shadow dagger graze his armor.

There was a noticeable change in his footwork, which seemed to barely move whenever he was dodging.

He was using minimal movements whenever he was moving, only dodging at the most final moments to maximize the time and space around him.

Clang! Clang!

Whenever he found some sneaky attacks that would fly at him from an unknown location, Shin would raise the sheathed sword that he was holding with his left hand, using it to either block or deflect the incoming attacks.

Whoosh!

His simple and seemingly slow movements were dodging all the high-speed attacks flying at him.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

There seemed to be nothing special about his movements at first glance. However, upon closer look, those with discerning eyes could see a lot of essence in these simple actions.

Those with sharper eyes could even see the vague and faint flickers all over his body, which made him look like a ghost.

This was the new form of his ‘Phantom Shroud’, which did not show much trace during his movements. It was as if the phantoms had fully fused with him and integrated with his body rather than just stacking together.

The Phantom’s overlapping images appeared from time to time, following his actions, but they were much more subtle and less complicated compared to when he first created this technique.

Simple movements turn to complexity before returning to simplicity once again.

This was the essence that Shin was showcasing when he was doing all these movements.

These past few days, Shin had never unsheathed his sword whenever he was facing these attacks.

Aside from bursting out with a series of techniques at the very beginning to make the succeeding attacks more complicated and more challenging to deal with, he had never used any other techniques to deal with them.

Ever since the breakthrough that he made a couple of days earlier, Shin found it easier to avoid these attacks, no longer finding any trouble even after unexpected changes occurred.

Moreover, the invisible pressure that the trial ground was giving him was no longer affecting his mind, much less giving him any trouble.

Shin felt that he could continue like this for as long as he could, no longer bound by trial of this floor.

*Ding*

Not long after, a notification from the system suddenly rang in his ears while all the incoming attacks immediately ceased in an instant.

“I see. So, there is indeed a limit for this trial,” he mumbled before looking at the digital timer at the corner of his eye.

“Twelve hours, huh? Not bad.”

…