Adam's pupils dilated so much that they seemed to turn into needles and his hair rose up all over his body. His body went into hyper drive at the unexpected danger and time seemed to slow down as he moved his body slightly.
This allowed him to narrowly dodge the dagger, and then kick the attacker in the stomach, but he surprisingly remained in place and only grunted a little as he attacked once more with both his daggers. Moreover more than ten arrows came flying at him and eight more daggers were attacking him.
In a split second, Adam understood that he had been ambushed, and this level of difficulty couldn't come from the trial. The next instant, Adam used everything he had to dodge the arrows and redirect the daggers.
In the short moment he used to counter all his opponents Adam got very little time to think, but he was still able to deduce a few things. First, his opponents all were stronger and faster than him, because they had their armors on!
Secondly, there were 50 assassins, ten of them were Rangers while the rest were all Assassins. The Rangers had all been able to attack him at once because they were long ranger but the Assassins could only attack him by five, and so their were 8 daggers since each had two daggers and he had sent flying one earlier.
Thirdly, apart from being many, the assassins were very skilled. Of the 50, five of them had opened the 1st Gate, while the rest were all at Judith Level before their fight. Those were peak Iron Assassins!
To sum up the situation, Adam didn't have any equipment except for Rare Sword that only added damage, and he was going against 50 fully geared assassins who had either opened the first gate or were on the verge.
This was… catastrophic. Adam knew that the only way for him to survive was if they somehow decided to let him go or kill themselves.
Most would fall prey to despair upon finding themselves in this situation, but Adam instead revealed a grin! While they were stronger, his martial arts could be said to be unrivaled amongst those who opened the two first Gates.
Adam had to change from his usual 'smash them all' style and play with his enemies instead. He hit a few daggers and arrows coming at him with his sword, and dodged the rest. The assassins couldn't help but open their eyes wide in shock, Adam hadn't taken a single damage!
Moreover, the daggers and arrows had hit the assassins instead, and Adam himself had kicked the faces of the five assassins, using them as steps to jump out of their encirclement.
However he didn't have time to rejoice as before he could even touch the ground another volley of arrows came at him, as well as another set of ten daggers. The 5 who opened their 1st Gate looked like the team leaders, one of them was a Ranger and the rest were assassins.
The Ranger had all the other Rangers under his command, while the other four had 9 Assassins each. Adam was able to guess their tactic in a moment, they would take turns to encircle him, sending an team leader every time.
Adam was able to defend against the first assault, the second, the third… But he was rapidly getting overwhelmed. This was an experts' fight, in merely thirty seconds Adam had already fought back ten assaults, and they weren't going to let him rest.
In term of endurance, he was better than every single one of them, but they could take turns, and he couldn't. Also, while he hit them many times, they would only need one or two hit to kill him, so he couldn't get hit a single time.
This was something that both sides perfectly understood, so the assassins couldn't help but wonder why the hell Adam was grinning like a bloody demon!
Unbeknownst of them, this was exactly what Adam had been waiting for! The high sense of crisis, the constant assault, the hyper drive state he was in… It was all there, and yet he didn't open the Gate of Limit yet!
Had it been an hour ago, he would have despaired. From what he learned from Old Adam, if he hadn't opened the Gate now then he probably never would be able to. BUT! There was something new! Something that wasn't there in his past life! That is Qi!
Actually, Adam didn't know for certain whether Qi existed on this Earth or not, he didn't have any proof, but the clues came from within the game.
It all comes down to the moment Henry opened the 5th Gate, the Gate of Life, back in the Goblin Fortress. Normally, for someone who only opened the 5th Gate, the domain should have a radius of ten meters, no exception. But Adam was more than ten meters away from him, but he still felt the domain.
Back then, he hadn't really thought much about it, he just thought that because Henry was stronger he had a bigger domain, and left it at that.
But that actually implied so much more! At first, Adam thought that only a person's body would be strengthened as they level up and rank up. But if that was the case, then Henry's domain would have had a radius of ten meters, but it did not!
Then, Adam associated this information with his thoughts about his skill, [Mighty Strike]. He already confirmed that he needed an additional source of strength for him to activate the skill. This energy, had to be inner energy! Or in other words, Qi!
Of course, that wasn't enough to associate Qi with the Gates. After all, maybe Henry's physiology was simply slightly different from Old Adam's, and so his domain was slightly stronger.
But a final piece of information allowed Adam to confirm his previous theory. No, it wasn't even an information, it was a rumor he heard before coming in the Temple.
The capital span exactly 100 kilometers around the Imperial Palace, and the rumors said that the Emperor could feel everything within the capital.
Why 100 kilometers? Why exactly 100 km? He had asked, it wasn't 100 and some, it was exactly 100 kilometers. This was a weird thing to do. And assuming the rumors are true, how else than using his domain would the Emperor be capable of feeling everything in the capital?
But the domain as supposed to be only 10 meters in size, not 100 km, so Adam had taken it as a mere rumor before. But with his new hypothesis, what if Qi strengthened the domain? Then it would make sense, everything would make sense!
That means that when one ranks up, they won't only have their body strengthened, but they would also get access to inner energy, to Qi!
Now, back to his situation, if he couldn't open the Gate of Limit it was because his body hadn't truly reached the limit yet. Before, Adam couldn't understand why he couldn't advance because he had reached what he thought to be the limit, but he hadn't.
This world and Old Adam's world are different after all, and so even though his body could have been said to have reached the limit of humans, he still missed something, and that's Qi. The Qi he was unconsciously using every time he activated a skill.
That meant he already had this Qi, and that all he had to do was to learn how to master it. Going further down this road, not only he, but every one who ever got an SSS Class had to master their own usage of Qi before breaking through to Bronze rank.
And Adam only knew of one way that would allow him to do that, his skills. When his [Mighty Strike] reached Level Max, he still felt like he lacked something, the power was at its maximum, but he still missed something, and that's complete mastery of the skill.
All that thinking led Adam to a conclusion. If he wanted to open his 3rd Gate before Bronze Rank, then he didn't only need his body to reach the limit, but also to perfectly master one of his skills.
Of course, Adam couldn't be 100% sure, this was all theory, the probability of him being right was high, but there could always be a variable he didn't take into account that completely countered his theory.
But Adam didn't have time for doubt. His only hope of surviving the current calamity was by opening the 3rd Gate, so he decided to put everything he had into trying to replicate his skill despite the restriction set on him.