It took just about a minute of searching before Remirg Kryptos finally found his answer.
"I need to take at least four more blows from this bastard before I snatch it. I need a plan.... I need to absorb the impact... It deals a significant damage in a singular blow... Unlike the beast earlier, I cannot kill this one.... Its already dead....
I have to use the best of my limbs to shield myself. There is no other goddamn choice!'
Remirg dived leftward, which was followed by the shadow humanoid's hit aimed right toward his chest. Though it was blocked by Remirg's arms, he was still knocked off a foot in the undesired direction.
"Damn! His knockback attacks are hindering my plan. I need to get rid of those frickin' knocks. Or else I'll be as good as dead....
Hoisting himself up on his feet, Remirg was in a state of frenzy. All he required was to displace a distance of two meters. But still, with the attacks the shadow inflicted upon him, he couldn't reach his victory.
But he was not someone whose resolve could be easily wavered.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his mind. He needed to think. He needed to carefully analyze the situation.
This was one of the things which Mark liked most about his protagonist. He had the patience and presence of mind to think through any dire situation. He himself didn't possess such a skill. It was something he lacked.
Remirg looked again at the shadow, eyeing it twice from head to toe.
Its figure exactly reflected his physique. He was of the exact height as Remirg, had the same broad shoulders and the same non-pointed ears. The only thing different was the outfit it was wearing.
An armor which wasn't a part of its existence. It was an external physical object which the shadow donned. As he had seen before, the shadow didn't possess mana, but his armor strangely did. It glowed the brightest green. Its intensity was even higher than the orange glow which he himself emanated.
It was strange because the armor did not show this attribute when the shadow first appeared in front of him. But now it did. And was growing brighter than ever.
Something was itching inside Remirg from the start of this scenario.
The notification he received before told him that all the halls he has encountered and will encounter, all have entities with the same skill level. There must be some reason that the shadow was classified as a Z-CLASS entity.
There was only one object in the entirety of the hall that had the ability to deal damage to the shadow, and Remirg had already recognized it.
The one question was how he was going to reach it. The only way to avoid the shadow's attacks was to not move at all.
"The shadow will not attack me if I move.... Or... It will not attack me if it is not unable to sense my presence and direction of movement!
I somehow need to confuse it so that it perceives my apparent movement in a different direction... I need to buy at least three seconds before I am able to grab that....
How can I....!"
Remirg Kryptos halted mid-thought.
A great idea had struck him. Turning his gaze down towards his own heart, he activated prana presence.
He was clearly able to observe the particles which were emanating from a point of great "light density" in his chest. At a constant rate, they exited his body and vanished into nothingness.
But apparently, some of the particles moved towards the shadow and entered the armor. The armor's prana pulsed as the particles entered it.
Observing this, Remirg came to a conclusion that the particles which were released by his body, which he dubbed "prana particles" were the source of resonance of prana between his body and the armor.
He also deduced that the shadow did not act on its own. It was just a puppet, which just acted at the will of the armor it donned. The armor was the one which was attacking him.
Somehow, he needed the prana particles to be directed away from the armor. He needed to voluntarily regulate the flow of prana particles from his body.
Recalling the reward message he had received on conquering the Sila Hall, he realized that his MP had increased by a magnitude of 5.
"MP... MP.... MP.... MP, If I have received even the tiniest bit of magical power, then I surely would be able to do something as meager as controlling his prana flow.
If I'm not instructed on how to perform magic, then I have to master it on my own. 9I need to master it now!"
The deep fire of resolve kindling in Remirg's mind amused Mark. This was the first time he was going to witness his protagonist surpass his first bottleneck in live action...
On the physical front, Remirg had closed his eyes. He had started to take slow and steady breaths, his heartbeat slowing down. Carefully producing both of his hands and joining the palms, he seemed to concentrate inside of himself.
This was one of the things which his long dead father had taught him to calm his mind in the direst of situations. When he had no other alternative left.
Surprisingly, activating prana presence with his eyes closed provided him with a greater visibility and detail of the surrounding prana. He could even feel the slightest bob of any prana particle present in the hall. He could witness the distribution of the life energy of the surrounding environment.
Concentrating at the particles which his body released, he relaxed his diaphragm.
The action had an immediate and surprising effect.
The pace of the prana particles seemed to slow down. They started to scatter in much more random directions. Lesser particles were flowing towards the armored shadow entity.
This effect resulted in the decrease in the glow of the armor. Its pace of pulsing also reduced.
Triumphing at the achievement he just made, Remirg realized what he needed to do.
Relaxing each and every voluntary muscle in his body, Remirg let himself go into a state of the lowest energy state possible.
The result was surprising.
The prana particles, instead of scattering into the environment, started encircling him, forming a spiral figure around himself.
A deep fire seemed to have emerged inside of him. A fire which lied dormant inside his heart for sixteen years. A sense of awakening filled his body. All of his injuries started healing at a rapid rate. All his fatigue vanished.
Opening his eyes, he glanced once at the shadow entity. It was still standing motionless, ready to receive the signal to strike.
But something unexpected occurred.
Remirg, with fearless eyes, started walking gracefully towards his destination.
The shadow, instead of attacking him, charged off in the very opposite direction.
Reaching the throne, Remirg looked at it once. The next moment, he was already pulling out a large sword which was adorning the top of the throne, innocently disguised as a ruby amulet.
The sword was heavy. Remirg felt his biceps strain as he swung the sword out of its scabbard of a throne.
Its blade was made of the brightest silver, hardened with a strange glowing material Remirg had never seen before.
[ITEM NAME: SWORD OF THE GREAT MONARCH MEMPHIS
CLASS: V-TIER
MAGICAL POWER RETENTION: 50
POISON RETENTION: 0
THIS ITEM BELONGED TO THE GREAT MONARCH MEMPHIS WHO RULED THE PLANET OF SYPHON IN THE SEBRAN YEAR 231. AFTER BEING DEFEATED BY OPPOSING FACTIONS, HIS SWORD WAS STOLEN AND LOST TO TIME.
THIS SWORD CAN CUT DOWN ANY UNDEAD ENTITY UNDER V-CLASS.
THE SWORD WAS BROUGHT TO THIS DUNGEON AT GREAT RISK BY AN UNKNOWN MAGE.
NOTE: THIS ITEM CAN NOT BE OBTAINED BY THE PLAYER AS A WHOLE. OUT OF ITS 100 FRAGMENTS, THE PLAYER WILL RECEIVE 1 FRAGMENT EACH WHEN HE CONQUERS EACH QUEST.]
"Quite a handy weapon this seems to be. Pity it is a one-time use for now..... Surely, I would collect this in the future when I would have completed more quests.
Brandishing the sword in his right hand, Remirg took long strides till he reached a spot just beside the shadow, which was searching frantically for its prey.
Taking a deep breath and contracting his muscles a little, he slightly deactivated the strange effect.
The shadow instantly turned around to deliver another blow to Remirg.
But this time, he was ready.
Placing the sword right in front of him, he let the great artifact absorb all of the shadow's blow.
A deep sound reverberated throughout the hall as the shock of the blow reverberated around the hall countless times.
With a triumphant smile on his face, Remirg spoke in a firm voice, "Sorry mate, but this is the end of this skirmish. I shall end you right here.
Resting the sword on his right shoulder, he held the hilt with both hands, crouching low.
Eyeing the shadow one last time which had been knocked back a few feet by its own blow, he started running, gaining more momentum with each second he accelerated.
Within a meter of the shadow's reach, Remirg leapt high in the air.
With a loud crash, he brought the heavy blade down right in the middle of where the shadow's skull was supposed to be.
The effect was inevitable.
The sword sliced through the shadow as if it were water. The high momentum the sword carried split the shadow into two perfectly equal halves.
The next moment, the shadow broke apart into a thousand fragments of light, disintegrating away in the surroundings.
Remirg Kryptos produced a wide smile of satisfaction on his face as he read the notification which had just appeared in front of him.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CLEARED THE EDEN HALL TRIAL!]