...…

Cling!

Clang! Clang!

In a special dungeon somewhere in the Atlas World, Shin was doing his best to clear his Awakening Quest. And currently, on this independent dimension where this test was taking place, everything seemed to be in a huge mess; the whole battle arena turned into a very chaotic battlefield.

Sword flashes, metallic sounds and sparks, dashing silhouettes, were appearing in every part of the battle arena. There were also some energy waves flying from different places, which were being followed by a number of powerful explosions from time to time.

These were just a few things that were present in this chaotic battlefield; they were either occurring simultaneously or happening successively. And the main culprit all of these was currently having a hard time holding his ground; he was actually going all-out at this point of time.

Shin was already at the sixth round of his Awakening Quest, which was quite close at reaching the finish line of this troublesome quest. But clearing this round was easier to say than done, because he was currently facing a bunch of himself with different kinds of strengths and battle styles.

There was a pair of doppelgangers that he faced off during the first round of this Awakening Quest. But this time, each of them were currently being empowered by some berserk skills of their own.

The doppelgangers with dual sabers were buffed with triple berserks such as the 'Dawnbreaker' and 'Speed of Light', and 'Minotaur's Strength'. With these three power boosts, this doppelganger became very troublesome to deal with. And to make the matter worse, these boosts are unlimited and would not wear off.

Naturally, the katana-wielding doppelganger would not be going to lose at OP-ness either. Currently, it was being empowered with 'Nephilim's Ascent', 'Spirit Possession' and 'Ruler's Authority'. Having these power-ups, this doppelganger became much harder to deal with than the previous one.

But things didn't just end in there…

As if the heavens hated Shin to the core, there were three more troublesome 'Shins' accompanying the previous two.

The first one was the 'Shin' that gave him the 'Emperor of the Night' special title, the 'Werewolf Shin'. But that was not all, because this werewolf created a twin with the help of 'Phantom Apparition' cloning skill.

And as if rubbing some salts on Shin's wounds, these werewolves were being empowered by the 'Full Moon's Blessing' and made their stats skyrocket on an even higher level.

The next doppelganger was the 'Shin' that fought a last stand battle against Immortal's special clone, the 'Reaper Shin' with a Death Scythe. This clone was under a constant 'Reaper's State', which made its stats comparable to the previous doppelgangers.

At the same time, this doppelganger possessed all of Shin's Tier 2 Skills together with his Tier 1 skills that were in Epic Rank, which also meant that the 'Monochrome Field' was currently activated to suppress Shin.

And last but not the least was the doppelganger that possessed all of Shin's Legacy Skills and Combat Techniques. This one might have a little number of skills on its arsenal, but this one was the most troublesome doppelganger of the group. Because the skill and ability execution of this doppelganger was too insane; it was beyond Shin's comprehension.

This doppelganger was utilizing the 'Mondi's Style' in a crazy manner; it kept changing its weapon every time the 3-second cooldown time ended. What's more, it was also spamming 'Mondi's Jump' whenever he got a chance to do it.

Not only that, this doppelganger was also using the 'Regan's Method' Legacy Skills in a very tricky manner. It was throwing the sword spells with precise and great timing. What's more, the choice of spells during the battle was too perfect.

Every time Shin was doing a tricky counter-attack, this doppelganger would always choose the right sword spell to throw at him as a counter-attack of its own. And due to that, he was having a hard time dealing with this certain doppelganger.

And with all of these strong doppelgangers, it was natural for Shin to go all-out from the very beginning as he summoned his 2 OP-Clones; the Phantom Clone and the Eclipse Clone.

Shin could actually just settle with 'Spirit Release' equipment skill and have his Sun and Moon Clones to deal with the werewolf boss. They could also use the 'Phantom Apparition' skill of their own to further increase their number. But Shin decided to go against it since he preferred using quality against quantity in this kind of battle.

Given that, Shin left the werewolf twin to the Eclipse Clone; and this clone activated its 'Phantom Apparition' skill so that it could fight the werewolves in an equal footing. What's more, these clones could use their sword waves to restrict the insane speed of the werewolves, which made them a perfect counter for these pair of doppelgangers.

Ironically, Shin left his 'Phantom Clone' against the pair of doppelgangers with a katana and death scythe. This clone transformed into its werewolf form before activating the 'Phantom Apparition' skill on its arsenal, to summon another 'werewolf Shin'.

The katana-wielding doppelganger might be able to restrict the movements of these werewolf clones of Shin with the use of its sword wave skills, but since it was only a single doppelganger with this kind of skills, its restrictive ability was quite limited.

The only one that could make the 'Phantom Clone' a little wary of this pair was the doppelganger with death scythe since its Tier 2 skills and Tier 1 Epic skills, which were quite troublesome to deal with. Fortunately, the cooldown time of these skills were quite long, which gave Shin a lot of breathing time.

Meanwhile, our main character was currently dealing with yet another problematic pair; he was against the doppelganger with twin sabers and the other one with a bunch of Legacy Skills. This pair gave Shin quite a lot of trouble due to their balanced speed and power. What's more, their teamwork was too high-leveled and seamlessly perfect.

At this point, this battle was currently the hardest and the most intense fight that he had so far; well, aside from his battle against Immortal of course. But even if he was currently in a huge disadvantage, he still didn't get discouraged yet.

Because being in this kind of situation could make Shin grow even faster; the stronger his opponent was, the stronger he could get.

What's more, he was also absorbing the techniques that he saw from his current opponents; especially that those techniques were just some application of his own skills. And with all of these, Shin growth rate was accelerating with an even greater speed.

"D*mn! I hate to admit it, but I am starting to enjoy this battle even a little," muttered Shin as he tightened his grip on both of his swords.

After that, he swung the two of them in all directions and executed the 'Infinity Edge' combat technique to repel the combined attacks of the two doppelgangers, which forced them to move backward and gave him some precious breathing time.

Shin took a deep breath and said to himself. "Hu~, let's see how much growth I gain this time."

*****

In the meantime, the whole gaming world was currently being shaken by a huge news. Or by a well-known event rather.

The Shadow Ranking Cup was about to start.

This kind of tournament was quite an event for the major populace of the game because most of the known Titled Rankers and some sensational Godlike Players were birthed from here. That was the reason why every time the Shadow Ranking Cup caused a huge sensation in the gaming world every time this tournament was about to start.

Usually this tournament couldn't catch the eyes of the real Top Guilds and Powerhouse Organizations, but it was different this time. The current Shadow Ranking Cup was quite special because there were a lot of noticeable candidates invited for this one.

What's more, the partial list of players registered for the tournament was already available to the public. And due to this, the Powerhouses of the game became even more interested at this Shadow Ranking Tournament.

Plus, among these registered players in the list, there were a few names that really took the attention of the players of the game. And with all of those, the online game forums were bursting with all of this news.

"Gairen the 'Innocent Nightmare'? Why the heck was that guy's name among the list of the registered candidates? Isn't he a Peak-Titled Ranker from «Battle Royale Online»"

"Not only that, even his number one rival was also among the candidates. Raptor the 'Midnight Devil' has also been invited!"

"Akailu the 'Beastmaster' is also in the group? Isn't it an overkill if this guy joins the tournament?"

"Is this for real? Why 'Liszt' among the candidates of the Shadow Ranking Cup? Didn't this guy already have a Ranker's Title for himself? And he got it from this game!"

"Whoa! Whoa! There are a lot of noticeable players among the Cup candidates this time. I should buy a ticket for a live audience spot!"

…

…

…

Similar cases were happening on different online platforms, making the current Shadow Ranking Cup a sensational topic. And with all of these, the entire gaming world was focused for this upcoming tournament.

...…