Chapter 32 – Leveling With Ease

Yone descended the dimly lit staircase with cautious steps. Moss clung to the stone walls, and the air grew colder with each meter he went down.

‘So far so good, and it aligns with what they said, next step should be the traps into the boss if I’m not mistaken?’ He thought as the creepy silence didn’t bother him in the slightest.

Ding! You have entered: Assassin’s Trial – Forgotten Path

Solo-only. Danger Level: High.

Objective: Pass the trial to prove yourself worthy of the lost teachings.

Warning: Death will result in a 30% EXP loss and forced ejection.

As soon as he stepped into the trial’s first chamber, the entrance was sealed behind him with a loud boom.

Yone’s eyes darted around. He was in a narrow corridor, just wide enough for one person to walk in. On the floor ahead, subtle etchings glowed faintly. Yone guessed at a glance that those were the traps the assassins spoke of.

Without warning, a click sound echoed!

A volley of poison-tipped darts launched from the wall with insane speed. But Yone managed to react in time and slid low, tumbled forward, and used a sidewall as a springboard to vault over a tripwire.

‘Reflex-based. This trial is made for Assassins for sure.’ He chuckled as he thanked god that he placed more free stat points into agility, although he already got the passive he wanted.

After bypassing another corridor filled with moving blade traps and hidden pressure plates, he finally entered a circular chamber.

‘Holy, no wonder those assassins spoke about how many times they went through the corridor doing their best not to die as they quickly fled for several times before managing to go through the traps,’ Yone was confident that if his reflexes weren’t conditioned by the movement technique he got from that NPC for his tier 3 promotion, he would never go through these traps without at least level 11 or so.

Phew!

He was truly glad that one’s experience could be brought once reincarnated, or else he would have suffered a lot in a lot of these fights, whether it be the goblin warrior or these traps.

Standing at its center of the circular chamber was a tall, skinny, dark silhouette clad in tattered black robes, a blindfold wrapped around his head.

Ding! Mini-Boss: Forgotten Guardian (Normal Elite, Assassin Class)

Level: 9

HP: 2200

‘This is a Normal Elite? Then what’s a rare Elite for this assassin trial dungeon or whatever this is,’ Yone cursed the AI that developed all of this world’s lore single-handedly, but didn’t flee as he was prepared for this beforehand.

“Only those who betray their own habits can survive their own shadow.”

System Message: This enemy mirrors your attack pattern, movement, and fighting style. Adapt or die.

As soon as the message faded, the Guardian split into a dark phantom, forming a spectral clone that moved with the exact same rhythm and timing as Yone; it was an exact copy of the player Requiem that acted the same as him.

‘Tch. Of course, it’s a mirror boss.’

Yone darted left, and the clone followed. He feinted right, it did the same. Every skill he used was instantly read and countered. Yone was like an open book for the mini boss, and nothing he did was out of the Guardian’s expectations.

Every jab, every dodge… it was like fighting a better version of himself.

‘This isn’t going to work. I’m faster… but he’s perfect.’

Yone took a deep breath.

From the system message, Yone could figure out the test behind this mini-boss wasn’t to defeat him or inflict damage on him, but just to break the player’s own habits and land a few hits on him.

Such a test was nigh-impossible for regular humans, much less for any player that played the game for seven years straight and had the same habits since forever without ever considering changing them cause they were part of him.

‘Such a test, how the hell does one break his own habits in a single fight? This is impossible!’ Yone was about to give up. Then remembered the Hazy World Potion in his bag, and the sole reason he bought it was the assassin’s words of how they defeated the boss.

Hazy World Potion:

Temporarily distorts motor control and reaction timing.

For 1 minute, movements become “drunken”, randomized micro-shifts in speed, angle, and footwork.

-20% Accuracy

+30% Evasion

Cannot use advanced directional skills during this time.

‘This isn’t meant to help me fight better as I initially thought, but it’s meant to screw up mirror opponents!’

Yone didn’t take long before he gulped the potion without hesitation.

Instantly, his world shifted; he felt that his mind was buzzing and his eyes distorted.

His body felt off-balance, his steps staggered slightly, and his hands didn’t align with his vision. It was like moving through foggy water where he didn’t even know his right from left and left from right.

But the Guardian?

It was reacting even worse than Yone at this moment.

It staggered.

Its parries missed.

It twitched and shifted aimlessly, trying to match a movement style that wasn’t even consistent to begin with, that Requiem had never used before in his life.

‘He’s trying to copy what even I can’t predict anymore.’ Yone grinned and knew that with this potion, beating the mini-boss would be but a walk in the park.

He used his dagger in rapid succession, and the strikes came out bent, delayed, and strangely angled… but they landed perfectly on the Guardian’s body.

He ducked in a half-roll, stumbled sideways, and slashed again. Missed the first slash. But hit him twice.

The Guardian’s movements fell apart. Its rhythm was lost as the player he was copying was moving randomly without any pattern or habits involved; it was as if the player himself had no idea what he was doing, much less the mini-boss.

And before it could re-sync and try to figure out a solution to this issue and adjust to the player’s movements and body language, Yone’s blade dug into its core.

The Forgotten Guardian let out a hiss, its form shuddering and breaking into black mist.

Ding! Boss Defeated: Forgotten Guardian…

Rewards: +3200 EXP + Skill Book: Shadow Veil (Uncommon Active Skill): Grants 4 seconds of perfect invisibility with a 40-second cooldown.

Hidden Reputation: +20 with Assassin’s Path faction (undiscovered).

You may now receive hidden tasks from Shadow Factions.

/// I have been offered a contract by Webnovel, so expect this novel to go premium soon. Thanks for the support so far, for the few readers who are sending Power Stones my way. I don’t think without your support, I would have gotten the contract///

/// I’ll be working as hard as possible from now on to write Chapters and not disappoint the readers who will unlock my Chapters. Thanks again for the support///

///Also, I’ll be writing my thoughts on Author’s Thoughts from now on, just did it here cause I noticed not many read Author’s Thoughts at the end of the Chapter so check it from this day onwards. This didn’t affect the word count as it’s as usual more than 1k so don’t worry <3///

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