11 Girzo lu Elrw (2)

At the sight of the screen before him, Shinto could only stare dumbstruck at it. His eyes filled with despair as he looked at the numbers written on the interface in disbelief.

For all his years of playing as a swordsman in Spiritual Warriors, he had dealt numerous high damage to the point he grew numb to it. Yet, for the first time since reaching level 100, the damage from [ Moonlit Wave ] and [ Light Ascension ] dealt an all-time low.

He couldn't fathom the possibility. But, here it was, right in front of his eyes. "What kind of gimmick does he have that nullifies my damage to nothing?" he thought to himself as he attempted to comprehend the situation at hand. "Or... Is it because of his high level?"

It wasn't uncommon for a player to face a boss monster that was of a higher level than their own. Despite the difference in numbers, most players have a fighting chance against them when tackling the main gimmick of the fight. Of course, at times, it was a matter of pure strength.

"Ugh..." Shinto clicked his tongue in annoyance as his eyes soon scanned around the room. "Whether it'd be a gimmick or not, I need to get myself out of this situation first."

Currently, Shinto was pinned against the wall by the big sword impaled in his body. With that, it meant that the knights that King Vadius had summoned had free reign to attack the helpless young man.

"Let's see..." Without wasting any time, Shinto glanced over to the number of black knights that were approaching him in a seemingly slow manner. Counting their heads, they numbered to a total of fourteen. "...they're not too far away. Three or five more seconds at best before they reach me."

While planning on how to escape out of his predicament, Shinto's ears tingled as he heard Vadius' voice from a distance. "Haha... Did you think you can defeat me?" he snarkily said with an amused expression plastered on his face whilst sitting on his throne.

"Tch... This guy," Shinto frowned as his arms slowly moved over towards the hilt in an attempt to pull the dark blade out of him. However, it was to no avail. "...this force. The same one that pulled me down earlier?"

The force of energy prevented Shinto from pulling out the sword easily. Even with a strong grip on the hilt and his muscles being placed to work—it was a futile attempt. The more he placed strength into his arms, the force grew proportional to that.

"Dammit... I can't pull it out," his brows creased as he heard the heavy rumbles on the ground. Step by step, the knights were beginning to surround Shinto. "What do I do?"

Despite the current situation, Shinto remained calm as his eyes averted to the surrounding area, hoping to find a way to break out of the force. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could find useful. It was just a few pillars lining up towards the end of the hallway and the king sitting on his throne, watching as Shinto struggled to escape.

"Argh..." With the circumstance growing dire, his heart began thumping in panic. "The only last method that I could think of is..." moving his eyes over to his skill list, he skimmed through the passive section and locked eyes onto the passive: [ Lunarium Aura ].

[ Lunarium Aura Lv 1 ]

Under the guise of the moon—SPD and STR will temporarily increase by 30% for the next 20 seconds after using a skill from the [ Lunar Sword Technique ] skillset. Then, after the time limit, the passive will be placed on cooldown for 15 seconds.

When the user connects two or more skills within the first five seconds of the passive's activation—[ Lunarium Nights ] will be available for the remaining duration of the skill.

...

[ Lunarium Nights Lv 1 ] [ 4 Sword Energy / 500 MP ] [ Cooldown: 72 Hours ]

The aura of the moon shines down upon the user as they enter into a state of transcendence for five minutes. During this state, all five senses are heightened and stats relating to combat will be increased greatly by 60%.

While in the state of transcendence, the skill [ Transcending Point ] will be available for use with a maximum of three charges. Upon using them all up, the next time the user goes into transcendence, the charges will reset.

*Upon the end of this state, terrible fatigue will hit the user. Stamina will deplete to zero and rest will urgently be required.

...

[ Transcending Point Lv 1 ] [ 120MP ]

The user envisions a direction within a radius of 25m. Then, teleport to the specified area.

*By teleporting, anything on you that you desire to bring along will accompany you towards the targeted direction.

*This skill has three charge(s) with no interval in between and cannot be replenished by natural means.

Scrutinizing the skill details, he bit his lips in reluctance. "This is the last resort. I don't want to do it, but... With the situation as is, I guess this is the only way to escape."

Shinto had wanted to avoid using [ Lunarium Nights ] at all cost. It wasn't because the buffs weren't good, but rather it was the side effects that would occur. If he were to use this skill during a raid battle, Shinto had to make sure that he could finish off the boss within the given time or otherwise, he'd be dead the next moment.

"Without any estimations... This is a big risk," he frowned. "But... Alright. This is the only choice I have left."

Calming himself down, he cleared his mind from doubts and thoughts of the worst-case scenario in his head. Even though there was a high possibility that the fight's duration would exceed more than five minutes, it was better than not trying at all.

"..." As the footsteps drew closer, Shinto's attention scurried over to an empty space behind the black knights. Thereafter, the rumbles on the cold hard floor stopped—soon becoming deadly quiet.

"Now! End this weakling!" In the next instance, Vadius shouted out. "This is punishment for challenging me!" Following the reverberation of his voice in the hallways, the knights all held up their swords, preparing to make their assault.

But, at that very moment—Shinto roared out in a loud voice. "LUNARIUM NIGHTS!"

[ You have entered into the State of Transcendence! ]

[ All five senses have been heightened and your stats will be increased by 60% for the next five minutes! ]

With the swords all cleaving towards Shinto, a sudden bright light flashed out in the vicinity, quickly blinding the knights. Then, as the light dissipated away, the man who had been pinned onto the wall was gone.

"W-What?!" The king who had been enjoying the struggles of Shinto frowned at the scene before him. "Where did that peasant go?!" Confused, his eyes began scanning around the room in anger. However, there were no signs of him.

Silence once again protruded out into the area. It was eerie and suffocating as the knights frantically looked around the room. Yet, to their dismay, they could only find the growing anger from their master.

"WHERE IS HE?!" Vadius formed a fist in displeasure. "TELL ME!"

Despite the king's irritation, there was no response from the knights.

"..."

As the silence continued plaguing the chamber, a sudden flash of light appeared from above the king. Following that was a voice that rang through his ears. "Right above you."

"...!" Noting the all too familiar voice, he hurriedly looked up to see a figure of a young man swaying his body in the air whilst gathering up energy at the tip of his sword. "Y-You...!"

"Got you," Shinto had appeared before the man in the sky. And with his welcome gift, he released out the energy stored within his blade—shooting out multiple waves of light to Vadius.

[ You have dealt 2,176 damage to King Vadius! ]

"How dare you?!" Vadius gritted his teeth as he took the full force of the attack. Then, his arms moved forward, soon beginning to call back for the sword that was stuck at the wall. "You will pay for this!"

"...if my guess is correct," analyzing the situation at hand, Shinto entered into a draw position whilst still in mid-air. Momentarily after, he flicked open his sheath as he unleashed a blade of shimmering light on Vadius. "...then this should be it."

[ Lunar Sword Technique: Lunar Moon ].

With his blade dancing in the air, Shinto dived headfirst into Vadius whilst connecting his skills to form a combo. In succession, [ Crescent Light ] was sent out —swiftly shining down a pillar of light onto him.

"A-Argh...!" Vadius screamed in pain. All of the attacks had been done in almost an instant with little to no intervals in between. Thus, Vadius had no time to react. "You...!"

With the usage of [ Crescent Dawn ], Shinto meticulously leapt back up into the sky upon contact with Vadius. "You will what? Make me pay for what I did?" he smirked as his sword flashed a glint of light, preparing to continue his endless stream of combo.

During the time of which Shinto had disappeared, he had worked his brain to think upon two possible scenarios of what the [ Gimmick ] of Vadius that made Shinto deal the lowest amount of damage may be.

The first possibility was that the knights played a role in making the king invincible. Or perhaps their numbers cumulatively increased the mitigation of damage that Vadius would take.

The second was in relation to his sword. Though it was a far fetched thought, it was the easiest to test. Thus, to put it into practice, he attacked the man immediately before he retracted his blade—as such proving the theory successful.

"YOU PEASANT!" Vadius roared furiously as he released an aura of darkness into the area. In the next moment, the dark spiritual blades all aimed towards the direction of Shinto who was in the air. "WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?!"

"...!" Noticing the magic blades all coming straight at him, he quickly twisted his body to evade the attack. Then, he proceeded to continue on with his onslaught—unleashing a sharp ray of light to Vadius who was weaponless. "This is the end!"

Amidst the flashes of light, Shinto landed on the ground as he activated the rest of his remaining abilities consecutively. [ Lunar Flurry ], [ Tidal Moon ], [ Dawn Sword ] and the like. Shinto did not hold back.

"Hah... Hah..." With his barrage of attacks coming to an end, Shinto gasped for air tirelessly as he stabbed his sword onto the ground—making a footing for himself. Subsequently, his attention turned to Vadius who was in great pain.

"You... You...!" Vadius cried out in anguish as his body slowly faded away into grey ash. "The Emperor of the Night! Shaodon's Wrath will soon return! And he shall take his revenge on you!"

[ The (Weakened Vision of the Emperor of Shaodon, Vadius) has been defeated! ]

[ You have obtained (Replica of Shaodon's Sword Piece) ]

[ You have obtained (Torn Page of [???] #2) ]

[ With the passing of the fourth and final trial, the duality of two has reached out to you. The blessing that holds the Altric's Truth will now emerge from the shadows of dusk and dawn. ]

[ Quest: (Girzo lu Elrw) has been cleared! ]

At a glance at his system logs, Shinto abruptly closed an eye as he breathed heavily—nearly on the verge of falling unconscious. His transcendent state was at its last ten seconds.

"Hah... I cleared it... Now I just need to—" drowsily keeping himself together for the remaining time of his transcendence, he was quickly taken aback by the next few notifications. "—huh?"

[ Quest reward has been distributed. ]

[ Hidden Piece: (Altric's Truth #3) has been obtained. ]

[ A class change can now be taken place. ]

"W-What...? A class change?"

[ Current class: (Lunar Swordsman) can be changed into (Shadow Diviner). ]

"Shadow Diviner...?" he thought for a moment whilst reading through his messages. " Is this a sort of—"

[ Would you like to continue with the class change? This hidden class is of the (Support Archetype) with its rarity unknown. ]

"—hidden class...?" As his train of thought was answered by itself, Shinto's eyes opened wide, soon beginning to contemplate the hidden class. "A class that is of an unknown rarity... interesting."

The existence of a hidden class was a rare commodity in the game. With that, it meant that these classes were said to be far better than normal ones in factors such as skill, stat progression and unique playstyle.

Living up to its name of 'hidden'—The known public number of players who had hidden classes was said to be a total of hundred. Out of those people, only six acquired an (Epic) rarity class while the rest had the rarity of (Rare).

"...if it's an unknown rarity, does it mean it's higher than legendary?" he tilted his head in thought. Spiritual Warriors had a rarity system, much like its predecessors. Within this game, there were six known rarities in the following order: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Unique and Legendary. "Hmm... Since this is a hidden class, it could be good on paper. But a Support Archetype?"

Just earlier today he had been released from the burden of responsibilities. Yet, for Shinto, he still felt an unsatisfied feeling at himself. Perhaps knowing that, the opportunity presented itself for Shinto to something from a new perspective.

"...it's an opportunity to change into a hidden class," he mumbled to himself. "And if this is the reward for clearing the dungeon, then it's most likely a good class by default." Despite the seemingly good benefits of the offer in front of him, he was stumped. "Though, changing from a Damage Dealer to Support... Should I really take the risk?"

The young man was being optimistic at this very moment. Who knew whether this game would screw him over and instead give him a horrible and useless class like the ones seen from various sources of media.

"Hah..." Shinto's eyes continued to contemplate as he took a deep breath as he said his answer. "Yes, continue with the class change."

[ The class change will now begin. ]

[ Altric's Reset has been initiated. All titles pertaining to your current class will be removed. For those that have been obtained from an outside source, it will be temporarily locked until you reach back to your current level. ]

[ Reset will now begin in 3... ]

[ 2... ]

"W-Wait what...?! Reset?!" shocked by the sight of the words [ Reset ] in front of him, his expression grew dire. "What does that mean?!"

[ 1... ]

[ Initialization completed. ]

As the countdown finished, a bright flash of luminescence shone over Shinto. At the same time, his transcendent state abruptly ended—soon forcing the young man into heavy fatigue.

"Argh..." Shinto gritted his teeth as the overwhelming exhaustion took over him, making him fall to the ground. "N-No...!" His hands motionlessly moved to the system screen for help, but to his dismay, everything had gone blank.

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