Chapter 33: A New Quest

I need to gather information if I’m going to win this fight. First, the Shade. It is a Mimic Shade. It copies, seemingly having copied me. But what has it copied, how much of me has it copied, and how much of its damage resembles mine? Did it produce the mana bolt as I did, or did it use one of my prior shots and sent it back towards me?

I used {Mana Bolt}, feeding it into ‘Vanquisher’ and readying it towards the Mimic Shade again. I slightly pulled on the trigger, but not quite hard enough to fire the shot off. The Mimic Shade must have noticed I was just about to complete my action as it quickly opened its mouth, a grotesque sound echoing from within, and out fired one of the bolts of mana. I was already prepared for this as it was a repeated action, so I dodged to the right, taking aim at Jameson Ender.

If I let this bolt go, then the chance of the Mimic Shade intercepting it again is high. Something is telling me the Mimic Shade hasn’t actually copied {Mana Bolt} and is just somehow storing and sending them back out at me. If that is so then… it should have one left. I can keep my distance with ‘Vanquisher’ and not actually fire a shot until the Mimic Shade is emptied out. Then what, approach the battle in melee with ‘Ashen Gladius’?

As I already had a mana bolt loaded, it was unnecessary to use it again. The Mimic Shade didn’t stray far from Jameson Ender at all, especially as ‘Vanquisher’ was aimed in their direction. I slowly inched my way forward while I continued strafing towards the right, never dropping my aim or my watch on the both of them. Jameson Ender didn’t bother turning to look at me but the Mimic Shade sure did—though only its head turned as it walked around Jameson Ender, its body facing the direction it originally appeared in.

I saw Jameson Ender kneel down, placing his hand on the rough surface of the ground. He had been awfully quiet since he actually started ‘fighting’, and even as I teased the trigger with my finger, the Mimic Shade didn’t fire what should be the last mana bolt it absorbed—if my thinking was correct. I’ve been wrong before and I wouldn’t put it past me to be wrong again.

Keeping my eyes forward on the two, Jameson Ender finally turned his head to look at where I was. There was a horrific look on his face as the corners of his lips turned upwards. It put me off, but the ground in front of me suddenly dimmed and I could see the shadow of something large blocking out the light shining from above. Behind me!

I turned around as I took a step back, my vision of the rest of the coliseum completely blocked out by the large black object. I had to look quite high to see what it actually was and, of course, it happened to be another Shade—much larger than the Mimic Shade by Jameson Ender. I could see two, what I would consider were arms, protruding from the Shade. Raised above its head were two hands clasped together, forming a large black boulder.

The new Shade brought its arms, and the black boulder formed by its hands, straight down to my location in an attempt to crush me. From behind, where the Mimic Shade and Jameson Ender were, I could hear a grotesque sound identical to what I heard earlier from the Mimic Shade. It was a two-pronged attack by the two Shades. My priority was to dodge the mana bolt, then deal with the encroaching attack of the much larger Shade.

The Mimic Shade’s aim seemed quite accurate from its two prior attacks, but it didn’t account for its target moving. I threw myself straight to the ground and rolled towards the right—which was the left from where I had originally been when facing Jameson Ender. The attack I expected to come from above never came, instead replaced by a loud aching below—the mana bolt from the Mimic Shade piercing this large one. I quickly recovered, sprawling to my feet as I continued heading left, taking a quick look towards the large Shade before refocusing on the Mimic Shade and Jameson Ender.

Jameson Ender had a look of surprise as he smacked the Mimic Shade. Apparently, it wasn’t within his plans for it to work out like that, but seeing him smack what looked like my face was quite upsetting. I wanted to do what I thought would be appropriate and fire ‘Vanquisher’ at the two enemies in the distance, but if I did that then it was highly likely the Mimic Shade would just do what it had been.

Jameson Ender is level 17. Josephine was level 19 and her damage didn’t seem relatively high though it did pierce through both physical and magical defenses. The reason I was defeated, besides being stuck in the wind force, was due to my own attack. Even if their Potential Level is high—what does that really mean? If it isn’t a case of their damage, then what? My Potential Level seemed high, but I based that primarily off ‘Vanquisher’ being [A] rank.

I took a deep breath as I cleared myself away from the bellowing Shade which seemed to slowly be fading away. I made my choice then, running quite quickly towards Jameson Ender and the Mimic Shade. I wasn’t as fast as the Crazed Minotaur or the Elite Raijukin but I sure felt fast as I made my way towards them, morphing ‘Vanquisher’ into ‘Ashen Gladius’. One thing I noticed about Jameson Ender, other than him being a prick, was that he had no weapon. As long as I got my strike in, I should be able to take him out.

Jameson Ender just stood there, waiting for me to come to him. The Mimic Shade started breaking off from his position while another black object started forming in front of Jameson Ender. His class was a ‘Thrall Keeper’, but right now it definitely seemed more like a ‘Shade Keeper’. This new Shade that began forming seemed like the defensive-type, spawning with a shield larger than my own, and a long, black spear.

The Mimic Shade now came to meet me head-on as the defensive Shade was protecting Jameson. It dragged its claws as it ran awkwardly towards me and when we were but a foot apart, I swiped my ‘Ashen Gladius’ at it, meetings one of its claws. I didn’t stop my momentum too much as I then thrashed into it with my ‘Kite of Biding Eruption’, but its awkward movement made me slip right past its body, causing me to stumble and my blade no longer felt the pressure from its claws. I swung ‘Ashen Gladius’ from my far side in an attempt to hit the Mimic Shade, but its body nimbly leaped away. I heard a sound coming from where Jameson Ender was then, as well as the feeling of being hit with a paper airplane.

[You took 0 damage from Moderator: Thrall Keeper, Jameson Ender, Slayer of Mighty Foes, Lv17—Potential Level: 69]

The defensive-type Shade started creating another black spear, the one thrown at me now disappearing. I took 0 damage from the Shade’s attack, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be surprised or not. I knew two things: my armor had a high defense value, and all my defense values scaled by my Luck. What I was questioning now was why {Shrouded Shadow} did not activate. I was definitely hit by an attack, but was it because I took 0 damage that it didn’t need to negate the damage and truly activate? If that was the case, then that would actually save me quite a bit of mana.

The next question was if the Shade’s damage was low enough, would it be worth using this fight to rebuild my stock of ‘Hellfire Flasks’? Though, its damage could be at some strange level where it tears through my shield’s defense, but not high enough to tear through my armor. It was a risk that wasn’t worth taking. My decision made, I decided to run directly towards Jameson Ender, ignoring the Mimic Shade behind me unless I heard the grotesque sound of it firing a mana bolt, but as it approached me in melee, I assumed it didn’t have the capability of producing its own bolts.

It seemed that I was quite lackluster against mage classes, seeing as how Josephine handled me so easily. Or perhaps Jameson was just weak, but that couldn’t be it. I assumed he beat Davorin seeing as how Davorin seemed awfully down when he came back. So why did Jameson seem so confident against me? What gave him that sense?

I heard Jameson Ender’s voice then—it seemed a bit shaky, but he got it out, “No… no. Something is wrong—your stats, they’re all messed up. This fucking watch.” He started beating on his own wrist. “Piece of shit. Useless Shades. Stop standing there, fucking kill him dammit! Don’t let him come here pieces of shit!”

The defensive-type Shade obliged as it took slow steps towards me. I was already running, but as Jameson seemed very upset, I forcefully mixed myself into the shadows, causing the two Shades to stop moving completely. It was almost as if they lost their aggro sense on me and just stood there as I approached Jameson Ender. His countenance changed as tears started streaming down his face, “I—I’m not… even supposed to be here… please, please don’t. Please don’t kill me. I don’t, don’t want to die.” His confidence must have been shattered, the weaponless Thrall Keeper soon to lose this fight. He seemed to be overreacting as this was an arena fight—he would only be met with defeat. Perhaps next time he would buy a weapon or a shield instead of having these monstrosities fight for him.

Plus, this man was the reason I was even in ‘Tethralin’. I didn’t sympathize with him; his karma was deserved. I now looked at him with disdain—I needed to keep climbing in hopes of making my way out. I would fight for myself and get strong enough to make sure I wouldn’t be manipulated. The world wasn't fair—no, not at all—but I could at least start here, learn to grow up and handle the outside affairs as best I could.

I brought my ‘Ashen Gladius’ up, ready to deal the finishing blow to start my next match. Jameson Ender must have felt his impending loss as he dropped to his knees, shaking quite uncomfortably. I guess the faster this ended, the better. I was happy with myself that I defeated not just a player, but the manipulative person who started this mess.

Final words spewed out of Jameson Ender’s mouth just as my blade came swooping down, “I’m not supposed to be here… Why was I forced down three floors…” Blood spewed out from where his head had rested, the head falling to the ground. His body slumped over, and my eyes went wide as it started disintegrating like it was a mob that had died, and not a player. I hadn’t been teleported out of the fight yet, and all that remained was the watch that had been on his wrist like it was some loot. The shades also disappeared as I looked around in disbelief. It didn’t say he took any damage, nor did it say that he was defeated.

I felt like my insides were going to turn outward. It didn’t feel like how when a Goblin died, the death of a player much different. It didn’t feel this way when I defeated the players on Floor 11, so why was this different? Of course, their heads didn’t pop off. I didn’t know what was going on. I just stood there, waiting for the aura to come to take me away—but it didn’t come. Instead, something else came.

[System Notice: You removed a source of the soulless from Tethralin. Reward: 2500 Divinity Points, 3 Wisdom, {Purification}.]

{Purification} - A passive ability. Gain Divinity Points from defeating soulless. Permanently removes sources of soulless.

[System: Pick up the watch.]

[System: Do not pick up the watch.]

[System: Pick. Up. The watch.]

[System: Quest received. Do not pick up the watch. Reward: Go to the next floor.]

[System: Quest received. Pick up the watch. Reward: 10000000 EXP, Class Evolution]