episode_0088

88. Someone’s Dedication.

[Magic Balance]

[Temporarily consumes abilities excluding magic power. The magic power stat increases in proportion.]

John instinctively realized how to use this. He pictured five bowls in his head.

A bowl filled with strength, a bowl filled with senses, a bowl filled with durability… and so on. In particular, the bowl filled with magic power was the largest.

John stared intently at the strength bowl on the far left. Soon, the strength water soared up and moved to the magic power bowl on the far right.

Immediately afterward, a sense of fulfillment struck his entire body. John turned his gaze elsewhere.

‘Magic power stat has increased.’

Conversely, the strength stat decreased. The efficiency wasn’t very good. It didn’t seem like a 1-to-1 ratio, but more like a 3-to-1 ratio.

Perhaps it was natural. This was because the magic power stat was much higher than the strength stat. The consumed karma was bound to be different. Still, it wasn’t bad.

‘It will be less burdensome to increase physical abilities in the future.’

At that moment, a familiar voice was heard from the front.

“Looks like you’ve used the Magic Balance.”

“Yeah. Looks like you used it too.”

“It will be less burdensome to increase physical abilities in the future. It’s a good trait.”

“……”

John felt a slight chill. He tried to hide that feeling, took out the magic power toes, and ate them nonchalantly.

For a while, John and the doppelganger contemplated their condition. It was an act that was always performed at the end of a stratum. Since they had experienced it once or twice, they were able to finish quickly.

The two opened their eyes at the same time. They stared into each other’s eyes for a while, and then their mouths opened simultaneously.

“”It’s over. Let’s begin.””

In the next moment, a Fire Arrow was created on John’s palm.

The doppelganger opened its mouth, not caring about the hot heat of the fire arrow.

“It’s much faster than before. Did you level up [Stillness of the Waterfall]?”

“That’s right. It’s a skill that has helped me in many ways. It’s worth leveling up.”

“I agree. I invested karma in that skill too.”

John’s eyebrows twitched.

“You received karma?”

“Didn’t I say? I am you. I received karma, as well as inventory and trait enhancement tickets.”

The doppelganger answered in a nonchalant tone, then stared intently at the Fire Arrow.

“The fact that you showed me this spell means…”

“I want to strengthen the power of fire spells. Not by investing karma, but purely with my own capabilities.”

[Spell Improvement]

John was talking about that. The doppelganger let out a faint exclamation and replied.

“Hmm, there was a book with that concept written in it among the magic books that Jerry gave me. I was going to bring it up anyway, so we certainly understand each other well.”

The corners of John’s lips curled up slightly. This was because the doppelganger’s additional words were quite funny. John said.

“The prerequisite for spell improvement is endless ‘optimization’. I couldn’t get a good sense of it alone, but it’s different with two people.”

Among the cards John currently has, the most useful one is fire spells. John was planning to polish it to a shine.

“Activate the spell while facing each other, and then point out the problems in each other’s spell deployment methods. That is optimization. You would know if you read the book, right?”

Originally, ‘optimization’ was a task performed with a teacher who was better than oneself. However, modern people like John have no teacher. Most players were inferior to John. But now it’s different.

Although it’s not better than John himself, it’s at least not lagging behind. It was truly the best partner.

“Let’s start. Deploy.”

“Understood.”

Whoosh-

Immediately after, the doppelganger also deployed the same Fire Arrow. It is the most basic spell among the fire spells that John can currently use. We will start with this first.

John felt a strange feeling for some reason. Seeing the doppelganger using magic…

‘Too good?’

There was nothing to criticize. It seems like it will be a pretty long task.

***

Boom-!

A huge explosion occurred about 50M away from John. John deployed a shield to block the aftermath.

“……Amazing. I didn’t know it would change this much.”

The doppelganger, who was also defending his body with a shield, replied.

“It’s been a whole 6 days and 23 hours. I slept a few times in between, but it was a meaningful time.”

John looked at the location where the explosion occurred. A crater was created that was incomparably larger than before.

From Fire Arrow to Explosion. Due to lack of time, only two spells could be optimized.

Even that wasn’t perfect. There was still a lot of room for improvement. John’s gaze turned to one place.

[Remaining time: 00 days 0 hours 10 minutes 41 seconds]

I didn’t expect there would be a time limit. John opened his chest wide towards the doppelganger.

“Let’s start again soon. I don’t know what will happen when the time limit expires.”

“Understood.”

“Please don’t make it hurt…”

Whoosh-

“……”

Thud!

The moment a blue light flashed, a small hole was pierced in John’s forehead. John collapsed on the spot like a doll with its strings cut.

John felt his vision fading and thought to himself.

‘That merciless bastard…’

That was the second death on the 4th floor.

***

Whirrrrr-

Fire Chain.

A fiery restraint that emits hot heat wraps around a thick rod made of earth. John gathered his fingers.

Crack!

The rod of earth, created by the doppelganger using the Dig spell, is shattered miserably. Seeing this, the doppelganger said nonchalantly.

“0.364 seconds… Exactly 0.142 seconds faster than when I first used it. The time it takes to cast the spell has also been greatly shortened.”

“Hee, hee…”

John breathed heavily. As he continued to use the same spell, the consumption of mental power was quite large, not just magic power.

I think I know why there are so many mentally ill people among artists who create something. If you keep assembling the same thing in a room, people go crazy. Crazy. Fortunately, John wasn’t alone.

The doppelganger said.

“It’s still not enough. It’s not fully optimized. Make it again.”

“……”

Veins bulged out on John’s forehead. If it were Ducksoo or Sarah, it would be understandable, but being in the same space with a doppelganger who looks exactly like himself was quite a chore.

John sighed and continued to create chains of fire. What else can he do, he has to extract the marrow when the opportunity comes. He pulled up his magic power.

Whirrrrr-

“It’s even slower than before. Again.”

Whirrrrr-

“This time the casting speed was too slow. Find the right balance. Again.”

Whirr-

“……Again.”

Whirr-

“……Hey. Are you not concentrating?”

Whirr……

***

How long did John and the doppelganger’s spell training last? Finally, a signal came.

John’s head had been pierced in a similar way to before, and he had returned to the reward room. A different blue hologram appeared in front of him than before.

[I will inform you about the next stratum.]

[The trial of the 4th floor is ‘Colosseum’.]

[If you win, you will move on to the 5th floor, and if you fail, the 4th floor will start again…]

Fzzzt, fzzzzzt-!

The letters on the hologram are strangely twisted. It was just like looking at a reception error screen on an old television.

Soon, the arrangement of letters changed.

[If you win, you will move on to the 5th floor, and if you fail, the 4th floor will start again… and you will move on to the 5th floor.]”Huh?”

John smiled wryly at the clumsy pun. Immediately afterward, a brilliant light enveloped John.

Fwoooooosh!

John slightly opened his eyes. Every viewing angle was covered with blue waves. He had seen it so many times that he was now used to it. John flicked his fingers.

Explosion.

Boom!

A small spark seemed to flicker, but it instantly swelled and exploded. Waves are ultimately the vibration of water. If so, you can offset it by creating new vibrations.

He didn’t use it before because the casting speed of the spell was ambiguous, but it’s different now that he has optimized it to some extent. John opened his mouth with a more relaxed attitude than before.

“Doppelganger, it’s me. There’s no need to fight.”

Thud-

As soon as John finished speaking, the water jets that had bounced up due to the explosion fell to the ground one by one. In the clear view, the doppelganger spoke.

“I thought a monster would come out, but I was the doppelganger. It doesn’t seem like you’re the doppelganger.”

The acceptance was quick. Is it because it’s my doppelganger?

John smiled bitterly. It had always been like this. That guy is not ‘that guy’ who optimized with himself. It was a completely different entity.

In short, the first guy I met was Doppelganger 1. The second one is Doppelganger 2. The third one is Doppelganger 3… it kept changing like this.

John spoke to the doppelganger with a slightly darkened face.

“Hey, do you happen to know what number this is?”