Chapter 44: Going Crazy… Almost
Its not working?
To Damians surprise, no matter how much time had passed, his new trainer didnt slow down one bit. It was as if he hadnt done anything at all!
The special Goblins characteristics didnt stop at emulating Aura, it also seemed to have a high degree of poison resistance!
Right, this is a True Boss.
Once again, due to the incongruity of the reality patch, Damian failed to expect the expected. This wasnt a random variant. Just because the poison worked on Hobgoblins didnt mean that it was irresistible.
From the looks of it, Damian only had one option left. He had to bite the bullet and accept the major difficulty spike without making complaints!
Swish!
Thanks to focusing on the difficulty-lowering procedure, Damian already started to feel the strain just by continuing to follow the special Goblins moves.
His initial belief in success had instinctively caused his muscles to relax, leading to
[ You have died. ]
This is just the beginning.
Taking one more look at the Goblin corpses, Damian renewed his determination as he rushed into the tunnel. The plan that he was forced into needed no further preparation.
He could go ahead and harvest the Life Stones hidden within the corpses, but even when counting the ones in his Inventory, Damian didnt expect to rise to the next Tier just yet.
His Aura also wasnt fully charged, but Damian had yet to reach the point where he needed full Aura anyway. His current task was simply to try and survive the Boss attacks for as long as he could!
[ You have defeated ]
Defeating the Guardsmen had yet to feel tedious as Damian took it as a chance to warm up his spirit once again before standing in front of the Boss Goblin.
Green.
For some reason, after it finished its cutscene, the Boss Goblin murmured something for the first time, but Damian ignored the change. Just because he was identically repeating everything didnt mean nothing would change.
Swish!
None of these minor changes mattered, all that mattered was for Damian to change his own fate!
With full focus and no specific targets in sight, Damian continued to follow Combat Instincts direction, moving left and right. However
[ You have died. ]
Although he lasted longer this time, he didnt catch any opening At least not something that he could exploit!
Again.
This wasnt a matter of delayed nerve reaction, something that Damian had overcome over the past few weeks, nor was it the limitation of his current Agility.
Simply put, it was the sequence and the pattern of the moves that stopped Damian from seeing the fastest path to making use of an opening!
In order to do that, he had to put himself in such situations more and more!
[ You have died. ]
He had to make it so that the entirety of his focus would no longer be necessary to dodge everything!
[ You have died. ]
Unlike the basics that Damian was able to establish quickly thanks to Combat Instincts, taking a step forward beyond the limit of normality was a very demanding task.
[ You have died. ]
Again.
[ You have died. ]
Again.
[ You have died. ]
Again!
[ You have died. ]
Again!!!
[ You have died. ]
[ You have d... ]
[ You have ]
[ You ]
[ Y ]
From ten minutes to half an hour. Damian wasnt sure how many tries he had gone through to reach this point, but at this moment nothing seemed to matter.
Whatever he did, it always ended with a green flash followed by momentary darkness, and then he would throw himself back to the grinder.
Again-
{No!}
Hmmm?
{Stop! Dont go in again.}
For a moment, Damian wondered where the voice came from before he started to remember where he was and what he was doing.
Ah, I almost lost it.
The magical effect of endless repetition was that scary. A person would usually get sick and completely drop the task at one point, but if they were determined enough to keep doing it, it could practically consume them!
Even when Damian called out the System Window, he still lost count of the number of times that he had died. However, looking back at the blurry memories, he could confidently tell one thing.
There is no more progress.
It had already been more than a few deaths since Damian managed to triple his survival time, and things had just been repeating like a broken record following that.
{Can you hear me?!}
Iris face was full of distress as she tried to wake Damian up. She had obviously been there from the beginning since his first death, but she refrained from making a comment.
After enjoying Damians company for this long, she was aware that checking up on him after every single death held no meaning. If anything, it would rather annoy or distract Damian.
As such, she had been keeping silent thus far. However, once she noticed that the shine in Damians eyes was starting to fade, she knew that it was time for her to intervene!
{Please just stop first, we can-}
Ah, yeah, I got it. I was just lost in thought.
Once again, Damian was shaken out of the trance that he was about to fall into. The amount of emotions that this endless cycle had created had just made him too obsessed with the task at hand.
{Good! Can you please just take some rest first?}
Iris knew that Damian couldnt keep going like that, so this time, she wasnt going to accept no for an answer.
Dont worry, I wont rush in.
Although incomparable to how exhausted he was before each of the last few deaths, Damians current body was also tired from battling the small Goblin army.
This was definitely one of the limitations that stopped Damian from progressing further, so he was going to take the time to fully recharge this time!
Sorry for blacking out like this.
Considering that this was ultimately Iris body, Damian going insane with it was something that she deserved an apology for, but rather than being angry about it, Iris was relieved that he returned to his senses.
{As long as you keep it together.}
Taking out food and water, Damian only ate a little to replenish himself without affecting his battle performance. He then proceeded with the task that he had recently come to enjoy.
Lets change things a bit for this round.
Harvesting Life Stones! Although this wasnt exactly resting, Damian looked at this round from a different perspective.
Since he almost went crazy from dedication, wouldnt it be interesting to charge in the other direction just as crazily?
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