Child of Destiny

…

BANG!

After a series of long exchanges, Shin finally took down the Knight Golem. It took him quite a lot of effort just to break its armor and destroy the core situated right at the center of its chest.

With the inspirations that he had gotten when creating the ‘Phantom Shroud’, he was able to create another technique. However, it focused on offense instead.

If the ‘Phantom Shroud’ increased his defense and evasion rate, then this new technique looked like a series of attacks stacked together.

With the short-distance swaps that he did when using the ‘Phantom Shroud’, Shin applied them to his offense and created a series of attacks that repeatedly struck his enemies.

Whenever he was using this technique, he would swap places with the phantom that was ‘farthest’ among the stacks. He repeatedly did this whenever his sword came in contact with the opposing side.

Naturally, he would gradually lose his momentum with each strike he made through these actions.

To compensate for the loss of momentum and power, Shin applied the principle of his ‘Mysterious Steps’ to generate more momentum for every step he took.

With the combination of these principles, Shin was able to perfect this new technique, which had a strong burst potential whenever he struck his enemies.

He called it the ‘Mirage Burst’.

“That took longer than expected,” mumbled Shin after taking down the Knight Golem.

He started at the broken set of knight armor that was scattered on the ground, along with the white smoke that was coming out of every piece.

This indicated that the ghost that was possessing the armor had been ‘exorcised’ by Shin and was unable to maintain its possession.

With this, Shin was able to take down 2 of our last 4 targets of assassination that he had for this floor.

“With these techniques, I should have enough cards to deal with that Stone Golem,” he said while thinking about his next target. “It is basically the same as this Knight Golem since both of their weaknesses come from the cores hidden within their bodies.”

“The only difference should be their sizes and raw power. The defenses of a Stone Golem should be much stronger than a Knight Golem as well, but their combat style and overall performance should be the same.”

Reaching this point, Shin paused for a moment, finding a few problems that he had to face for this one. “The weight and raw power of the Stone Golem is going to be on a whole other level, especially when each of its attacks can cover my entire body.”

“I can’t just brush it off due to the difference in size and weight class. I will only be looking for a way to die if I try to bounce off its giant fist with my ‘shabby’ technique. After all, such heavy attacks are not something that can ‘bounce’ off my ‘armor technique’.”

“If it is a regular armor technique of a knight, then withstanding heavy blows against large monsters should still be sustainable. After all, most of their skills and abilities focused more on defense.”

“Unfortunately, my class leans more on Swordsman Class, which has a slightly inferior stat when it comes to defenses.”

“Even if my strength can still withstand such attacks, my ‘Phantom Shroud’ is not as durable as a regular ‘Armor Technique’,” he mumbled, trying to consider the methods that he could use against his next opponent.

A standard Stone Golem might be more durable when compared to a Knight Golem, but it was much slower and less flexible in return.

“I guess I can only rely on ‘Ghost Evanescent’ when dealing with it. Then I can use ‘Phantasm Flush’ to chip its defense and for more distraction before using ‘Mirage Burst’ to break through its defenses.”

“Maybe, I will use my ‘Phantom Ambush’ when it is necessary for the final strike.”

Due to all the challenges that he had encountered within the Tower of Inheritance, Shin started to form the habit of relying on the new skills, abilities, and techniques that he had gotten from them to solve the predicament that he was in.

After all, most of his cards that he could use in this place were restricted anyway, so he had to find a way to fully utilize them when tackling the rest of the challenges.

Now that his ‘Phantom Series’ was taking shape, Shin could not help but feel a bit excited when he got out of this place and utilize this set of techniques alongside his ‘Shadow and Dark Elemental Powers’ later, particularly when he was under the ‘Soul Eater Possession’ and ‘Abyssal Conqueror’ that ‘Grimrace’ and ‘Blackie’ provided respectively.

This would increase the variety of attacks that he could use during the battles and make his style even more complicated and hard to read.

“No wonder it is called the Tower of Inheritance. Not only does it help me understand the powers that I currently possess, but it also provides a perfect training ground that will further increase my understanding of them.”

“I can also comprehend more about these powers and generate a whole different set of techniques to complement them before honing them in the process.”

“The First Floor is meant to ‘discover’ what the tower wants me to do, which is also closely related to the choice that I have made from the beginning. It will then lead me to gain an initial mastery of it and hone it in the process.”

“This Second Floor, on the other hand, wants me to create my own style and techniques, which are closely related to the ones that I have discovered from the First Floor. After that, I have to continuously hone these things that I have gained until I reach decently high level of mastery.”

Thinking about this, Shin could not help but pause and seemingly realized something. “In the First Floor, the Sand Soldiers can be considered as the ones that have ‘opened’ the gates for me while the Sand General ‘leads’ me towards the right path.”

“On this floor, the same ‘system’ follows. The ‘targets’ of assassination have ‘taught’ me something, particularly guys,” he continued while looking at the scattered parts of the knight armor on the ground.

He then pursed his mouth before adding. “If we follow this pattern, then the ‘Final Boss’ of this floor will be giving me another ‘present’. During the next challenge.”

He could not help but feel a bit more excited about the ‘reward’ that was waiting for him at the end of this floor challenge.

Stretching his body, Shin looked at the digital timer from the corner of his eyes and saw that he only had eight hours or so before he logged out of the game.

“It seems like I enjoyed the battle against that Knight Golem,” he mumbled before shaking his head. “Now wonder I feel a bit nauseous. It turns out I have been too immersed in fighting that guy and do not notice that we have been fighting for hours already.”

“Well, I can’t say that I have not benefited from it either. After all, I have created two more techniques to add to my ‘Phantom Series’ and even bring them to reach quite a high level,” he added while shaking his head.

Expecting that a similar experience would happen when he faced the Stone Golem later, Shin decided to rest a little. “I will rest for three hours to regain my peak state and further consolidate all my gains from the earlier battle.”

“Then I will proceed to taking down the Golem with the rest of the time that I have before logging out.”

“Tomorrow, I will face the ‘final boss’ in my strongest state,” he mumbled before proceeding with this plan.

…

When Shin went to deal with the Stone Golem, he did not attempt to create new techniques or gain any kind of enlightenment during the battle.

Instead, he focused on honing the techniques that he already had and pushed his mastery of them into an even higher level.

He made sure to explore their respective mysteries and deepen his understanding of them.

He made sure to take advantage of the overall features of the Stone Golem to test the overall performance of his techniques.

Through this, he managed to increase the efficiency of his techniques and even found a few more applications that he could use during battle.

Not only that, but he had also started utilizing the ‘Phantom Apparition’ to the fullest and worked with it to take down the Stone Golem.

He had gotten a few inspirations from working with the Phantom Apparition and its phantoms, especially about a few combination skills and techniques, but he chose to set it aside for the time being since he wanted to focus solely on the card that he ind on his hands.

After taking down the Stone Golem, Shin proceeded with his plan and logged out of the game to do his morning routine while also making sure to be at his peak form to prepare for the final challenge that was waiting for him on the Second Floor of the Tower of Inheritance.

…

Swoosh!

Right after logging back in the game, Shin immediately appeared at the edge of the territory of the floor’s ‘boss’.

He swiftly went straight to greet it since he knew that hiding from such an existence would be useless.

He was not sure about the challenge that was waiting for him this time, but he felt that he had to at least face it head-on for some reason.

When he arrived, the Drow Twilight, who seemed to be meditating on top of a flat boulder, finally opened its eyes and looked at him.

Seeing Shin, the Drow smiled and said. “You are finally here.”

……