Chapter 183: Shadow Dojo (8)

Like how the shadow had opened a new authority, Yeon-woo had opened the 2nd step authority after learning the concepts of Domainization.

His understanding of Holy Fire increased, and he was able to reach a higher level of the 2nd authority than the shadow.

Yeon-woo swung Vigrid around again. This time, he was planning on really defeating the shadow.

The shadow flew up to the sky with Sky Wings and exploded his Wave of Light. Tens of lightning bolts came down to fight his fire.

***

The ground rumbled. Like a natural disaster, lightning stormed down.

Dust repeatedly flew up.

Boom!

Then, something flew out of the explosion. The shadow fell powerlessly to the ground with his broken Sky Wings.

And above, Yeon-woo pressed down on him. Vigrid pierced through his right shoulder into the ground.

"Haa...Haa...."

Yeon-woo and the shadow were so close to each other that they could hear each other's breath. It had been such an intense battle that it wouldn't be weird for either of them to have fainted any moment.

But eventually, victory was Yeon-woo's. The reason was simple.

The shadow was more talented and had more skills, but Yeon-woo was more proficient in his skills.

And the person that was advantageous in the explosion was Yeon-woo, who trained his Mugong. Also, Yeon-woo had the Neidan of the Four Legendary Beasts.

As Yeon-woo's control increased throughout the battle, he was able to freely use Swe to get used to his skill.

[You have successfully passed the trial of the 30th section.]

[Through this trial, you have received inspiration and different accomplishments. You have achieved something unbelievable. Additional karma and rewards are being given.]

[You have earned 5,000 Karma.]

[You have earned an additional 3,000 Karma.]

[You have earned the Unique skill 'Wave of Fire.']

[The skill 'Fire Rain' and 'Wave of Fire' have been bound to each other. The skill proficiency of 'Wave of Fire' has increased. 3.2%]

[Your wings of fire have turned into 'Fire Wings.']

The Wave of Fire was inspired by the Wave of Light, and it could burn continuously.

He still needed to practice it a bit, but it was still more powerful than the Wave of Light.

It was because it was combined with other skills that Yeon-woo had. He was just barely able to win.

It was a close battle. However, Yeon-woo thought this was a present that his younger brother gave him So he wouldn't embarrassingly be beat up.

While the messages that he cleared the stage popped up, the instant dungeon started to settle down. And his brother's shadow also started to fade away.

Yeon-woo wanted to look at the fading shadow as much as he could. If the shadow disappeared like that, he wouldn't be able to see his brother again.

Although the shadow wouldn't know how he was feeling.

Then.

The shadow that had been expressionless suddenly lifted a corner of his mouth.

".....!"

When Yeon-woo's eyes were wide open, his brother had a faint smile on his mouth.

Like when Yeon-woo last saw him 5 years ago.

'It was fun, hyung.' [TN: Hyung = older brother]

And with that, the shadow disappeared along with the instant dungeon.

A shadow was created from the memory of their owner. So it wasn't weird for them to have a part of their memories.

For some reason, Yeon-woo felt like he had just had a nice conversation with his brother—not with the Jeong-woo in the diary, but the Jeong-woo who had been alive.

And until the next section opened, Yeon-woo quietly closed his eyes. Repeating what his brother said in his head again and again.....

***

Ding.

It was the sound of a new message popping up.

Yeon-woo slowly opened his eyes. The black world was filled with light again.

[The trial of the 31st section is beginning.]

[The fight with 3rd place 'Hughl' is beginning soon. Please prepare for battle during the preparation time.]

[A longer preparation time is being given considering the condition of the challenger.]

[03:00:00]

.....

The preparation time was usually based on the length of the previous battle. Then that was probably how long the battle with his little brother was.

That was expected though.

Yeon-woo put everything he had into it and was barely able to win. If it wasn't for the Despair of the Black King, he wouldn't have won.

He hadn't struggled that much even when he was battling the Summer Queen. With this, he was able to get a glimpse of how his brother was able to threaten the Nine Kings.

Also, he wondered what the level of the other 3 would be, since his brother was only 4th.

If they were able to pass the 21st floor with the skills they had at the time, it was hard to think about how powerful they'd be now.

'Well. Seseungnim is pretty amazing now.'

Yeon-woo bitterly smiled thinking of the Martial King, who was 2nd place.

Even he was surprised with his victory on the 30th floor. The memory of how the Martial King had blown away half of the 11th floor was still clear in his head.

He used such a destructive power pretty well. Yeon-woo was far off, since he still had to borrow the strength of his authority to control the Wave of Fire.

Since the Martial King was such a person, it was clear he was probably a monster back in his younger days as well.

So he was wondering whether he should leave the instant dungeon to rest for a while but.....

'Let's just do it.'

He filed his empty Magic Circuit with magic power from the outside, and awoke his Dragon's Blood to quickly heal himself.

'I have to keep going while I'm at it.'

The skill that he earned with fighting with his brother's shadow, the Wave of Fire.

Of course, he had used the Wave of Light as a motif, but it was still a skill that Yeon-woo had created for the first time.

[Wave of Fire]

Numbering ??? (Calculating)

Proficiency: 3.2%

Summary: A skill that player ### condensed complexly from 'Fire Rain.' Because of this, the intensity of the explosion depends on the amount of magic power left.

It's quite similar to the skill 'Wave of Light,' but it's more complex, and has more potential.

*Fire Lightning

Based on the amount of magic power, the intensity of the magic power will increase. It confuses the opponent.

*Boiling Spark

With an explosion, it spreads out thunderbolts to its surroundings. The spark won't easily be extinguished.

*This skill is 'Unique.' There is only one skill like this in the entire Tower. If this is successfully passed on to someone else, it won't be unique anymore, and instead, there will be additional options given.

**This is still an incomplete skill. Finish the skill to raise the rank of the skill or gain a numbering.

To get an ability acknowledged by the system, it had to be justified with a special pattern and skill.

The Wave of Light was only just made.

But it hadn't been able to be 'justified,' so no one knew when this skill might disappear.

Yeon-woo quickly wanted to justify this skill.

Like the summary said, it had a lot of potential, and he didn't want to lose what he had.

He couldn't put it in words, but he got a feeling that he would be able to grow this skill to something more than what it was.

Yeon-woo now knew that the rest of the other shadows he had left to fight on the 21st were strong, but he didn't think he would lose.

He awoke his 2nd step authority, and he had his Wave of Fire.

And Yeon-woo was able to learn a lot from his fight with the shadow.

How to efficiently use the Dragon Body and use his authorities. He was able to learn a lot of things he hadn't known about. The Dragon Body and the authorities of his brother were definitely a lot higher than his.

Until now, Yeon-woo had only tried to match his Dragon Body to his Mugong and engrave rune magic into his bones.

But now, his eyes were opened.

He felt like if he got some rest, he would definitely be able to deal with the rest of the shadows.

Meanwhile, there was a new shadow appearing beyond an invisible wall.

The person was completely thin and didn't even reach 2 meters in height. The person had dark circles, and looked sick.

2nd place, Hughl.

'That person is.....the head bishop of the Devil Army.'

Hughl was the highest of the 9 bishops who ruled the Devil Army, and he was famous for having a trait of a Lord.

Because this person had not one, but two abilities that were hard to gain, and he had caused a commotion the moment he climbed to his position.

Hughl had defeated 4 bishops, including the head bishop at the time, 'Black Dusk,' and put himself in that position instead.

Even though the person hadn't entered the Devil Army when he was on the 21st floor, his shadow was still extremely strong.

'I heard that Kindred became the second bishop after that person became the head bishop.'

Yeon-woo calmly looked at the head priest. No one knew anything about him other than his name.

But since Yeon-woo knew that he had the Lord trait, he could find a way to fight against him.

And he had the information that his brother gave him in the diary.

'There's something I want to check as well.'

He narrowed his eyes.

He was completely focused on recuperating, but his eyes were fixed on the shadow of the head bishop.

***

[You have successfully cleared the trial of the 31st section.]

The place where Yeon-woo had stabbed Vigrid was still burning with the Wave of FIre.

After some practice, Yeon-woo was able to move the direction as he wanted. When the shadow was exposed to the range, he was able to see his destructive power in action.

And because he had decreased the amount of magic power used to the smallest amount possible, he used a lot less energy than in the sections before.

Though, the fact that there were craters left in the ground and the ground was cracked all over was the same.

There were even tracks like a large snake had slid on the ground.

It was the effect of him being able to control the sea of fire with his authority.

When the shadow disappeared, something yellow floated above it and approached Yeon-wo.

Even though Yeon-woo hadn't done anything, Intrenian opened, and a piece of the Ruyi Bang came up to combine with it.

Click.

With the sound of them being bound together, the piece of the Ruyi Bang was about the size of someone's finger, and it fell down onto his palm.

It happened so suddenly. Yeon-woo wasn't flustered at the sudden event and calmly checked the piece using his Draconic Eyes.

[Piece of the Ruyi Bang(5/???)]

[You have discovered 4 new pieces of the Ruyi Bang. Complete the Ruyi Bang after finding more pieces.]

'There's definitely something pulling the pieces to each other. And it doesn't seem like it'll be too hard to find the other pieces with this.'

Yeon-woo tightly gripped the pieces of the Ruyi Bang and laughed futilely.

'Other than that, there's a trap here too?'

The Devil Army was gathering pieces of the Ruyi Bang. Then what was an easy way to get pieces?

Yeon-woo thought of what he would do if he was in the Devil Army.

'Take them from the challengers of the shadow.'

The pieces of the Ruyi Bang called each other. And there would be no way the pieces would be stolen on the 21st floor, where people fought to the death.

They probably thought it was a good idea to put the pieces here because they thought the shadow wouldn't be defeated.

And coincidentally or otherwise, someone with a piece would be someone strong enough to get here.

So they put the pieces in the shadow and continued gathering them.

But the pieces were now in Yeon-woo's hand.

There was no reaction from the piece. It was probably too strong.

But Yeon-woo lightly laughed and moved onto the next section after putting the piece into Intrenian.

The 32nd section opened.

There, a young version of the Martial King was sitting in a lotus position.

Most shadows were expressionless, but it seemed like that shadow had been heavily influenced by the Martial King. He fully emanated a mischievous vibe.

But Yeon-woo was able to see the sharp beast in him.

The beast was still young, but it had sharp teeth and claws. The Martial King had said he caused a lot of trouble when he was younger. It was clear to see why.

Yeon-woo raised Vigrid into position.

Before Yeon-woo had left the One-horned tribe, the Martial King had asked if he would be able to defeat his younger self.

And Yeon-woo had answered that he would pay him back for all the suffering he went through.

To defeat your teacher. To surpass them. It was something that any disciple would think about if they had an outstanding teacher.

And the same went for Yeon-woo.

He wondered how the 'genius' Martial King was when he was his age.

Also, he felt his competitive streak burning up. He defeated his brother and even the head bishop of the Devil Army. Since he was already here, he wanted to see it to the end. The Martial King was just someone he had to go through to reach that end.

[The trial of the 33rd section is beginning.]

And when the wall was lifted.

The Martial King suddenly raised his arms. Then, he moved his lips like he was speaking.

'I surrender.'

A shadow that was supposed to do what the trial of the state told them to do had free will?

It was impossible. There hadn't been anything about this in the diary.

Yeon-woo wasn't able to move forward. For the first time since he entered the 21st floor, something felt off.

***

"Is this it?"

Jang Wei checked the door of the smithy and entered.

Creak.

"Excuse me."

"We're closed, so go back."

The sun was still high up in the sky, but he spoke in an annoyed voice. He really made things whenever he wanted, like the rumors.

Jang Wei ignored him and entered the door. Inside, the sound of metal banging against itself was continuously ringing out.

"Shit! I'm not working right now, what are you?"

Henova turned back, frowning.

Jang Wei looked at him with an indifferent face.

"Are you Henova?"

While he was waiting for a reply, he moved his hand towards his back to pull out a dagger. The dagger shined.