Chapter 189: Chapter 59. The Fight With Myself (1)
The two events, the gathering of angels and the declaration of a sacred area, made an impact on the demons. Ariel and Ufa stopped fighting with each other, and Maxium, who was bothering Ufa, also paused to get prepared to face the angels.
Pandemonium ordered his monsters and demons to get ready to fight and tried to keep the angels at bay. The news of Martin’s death must have reached the archduke, and it must have infuriated him. Pandemonium was about to explode at any moment if he was slightly triggered.
“My Dungeon Master, the Tree of Life and Death has grown successfully.”
Krithli returned to the dungeon after she had been gone for a while.
The Dark Elf had successfully accomplished her task, and she returned to the dungeon to report the results to me.
I was standing near the Tree of Origin, staring at it, when Krithli found me. When I did not answer to her reporting, the Dark Elf continued reporting as though nothing happened.
“Awakened heroes are found twice as often as usual, and they are improving pretty quickly. Roy and Rose are continuing to grow steadily… Finally, several candidates for the sage king have appeared.”
“Hmm.”
I took out Rage and the Sword of the Emperor. With my eyes closed, I slightly swung the two swords. Although I was not ignoring Krithli, I was not interested in her reports, because everything that she told me met my expectations.
“The Kirin picked seven candidates for a sage king. Two of them are humans, and they are Edward and Yoo Eunhye. The candidates will fight with each other on the day when the Moon is the largest.”
“Will all the humans agree that the winner of the competition will become the sage king?”
“Yes, I think so…”
“I will watch the competition.”
I decided to go and watch the competition as their savior. I anticipated that my presence in the competition would give others the impression that I was hosting it. Such an impression would empower Roy and Rose’s authorities among the humans, and they would be able to order and move the humans according to their wills. I had not been involved in the process of choosing the sage king so far. However, I needed to show up during the final round of the competition.
I made up my mind and swung Rage.
Slash!
The sword slashed through thin air, but I found the sword strange.
“That’s strange,” I thought.
Many times, I had come to the Tree of Origin and fought with myself. A clone of myself appeared and mimicked my skills and swordsmanship. I had fought with the clone all the time, but I always lost to it.
I found my constant loss peculiar because the clone’s statistics were not superior to mine. In addition to the losses, I had always forgotten most of the memories of the fights once they were over.
Sometimes, I did remember parts of the fights. For instance, after many rounds of duels, I was able to recall that my clone’s sword was somehow lighter than my swords.
And when I did successfully remember parts of the fights, my statistics increased. When I realized that the clone’s sword was lighter than mine, my strength increased by one. Such an increase was an amazing result.
“It took me several months to increase one aspect of my statistics by one point when I tried to follow the common way. On the other hand, I was able to increase my strength by one in just ten days. Fighting with myself can be a very effective way to improve myself,” I thought.
I came to the conclusion that fighting with cloned versions of myself was the best and the quickest way to improve my abilities. As such, I continued to focus on this training method.
The clone did have very similar statistics, skills, and other abilities to mine. However, it used its strength more flexibly than I did mine.
After realizing that remembering the fights would increase my abilities, I tried my best to come up with a solution to remember as much as I could. Unfortunately, all of my efforts were futile.
“My Dungeon Master, you look concerned.”
“Have you ever fought with yourself?”
“Fighting with myself…”
Krithli’s face turned serious.
“Recently, I went through similar training in the training room.”
“Tell me about it.”
The Dark Elf had spent some time in the Advanced Training Room, where the time passed differently.
“As soon as I entered the room, a voice ringed in my head. It told me that only those who perfected themselves could get out of this room. I did not know that time ran at a different speed in that room, and I tried my best to escape from it as soon as possible.”
The Dark Elf’s eyes conveyed mixed feelings and many thoughts. She did not seem to remember what happened in that room. However, I did not interrupt Krithli, so the Dark Elf continued telling me about her story in the room.
“Days passed by. After a hundred days, I was able to use my abilities and skills more properly than I had done before. However, that was not enough. The door of the room still did not open, and I was heartbroken. Depressed, I could not focus on improving myself, and I was stuck in there for another hundred days.”
Krithli was known for being very calm. I could not imagine that such a calm Dark Elf became depressed for a hundred days in that room.
“However, I managed to overcome the depression. Had it been my weaker self in the past, I could not have done so. Through the time that I had spent in that room, I had gotten stronger and became more resilient. After I overcame the depression, I improved much more quickly and was able to get out of that room.”
“What helped you overcome the depression?”
“That is…”
Krithli glanced at me and turned away.
“…I don’t know. It’s hard to describe in words.”
I put Rage and the Sword of the Emperor in their respective sheaths and pressed a hand against my forehead.
The gist of the Dark Elf’s story was that she had found her weaknesses, and she became stronger by overcoming the weaknesses.
Sweeping my chin, I thought about Krithli’s experience once again.
“What is my weakness?” I thought.
I had thought that only those who were feeble would get depressed. Although I had been in agony before, it never developed into depression. Therefore, I decided to think about other possible weaknesses that I had besides my mentality.
I could not think of any weakness, however. Pride and my strong ego were not my weaknesses; they were rather what identified me and helped me stay strong. Based on the two, I had been able to push through challenges and succeed.
I aspired to become the Dark Lord, and I was willing to cut off anything that would get in the way. Nothing was more important than realizing my dream.
“My Dungeon Master, was that a satisfying answer?”
“It helped me think out of the box. Thanks.”
I nodded and continued to think about my weaknesses.
After all, my statistics were slightly low compared to others, but they alone were not weaknesses. Weakness should be a trait significantly inferior compared to other traits that I had. Although the numbers were a bit smaller, I could easily compensate for that with my superior skills.
“I need to take some time to think about them,” I thought.
The Dark Elf enlightened me to think from a different perspective.
Before I talked to Krithli, I only suspected that the lack of swordsmanship was the cause of my learning plateau.
I closed my eyes and started to think more about my weaknesses.
It was the thirtieth challenge.
The Tree of Origin wrapped its branches around me and took me to the world of imagination. There, I confronted a clone of myself once again.
“I’m getting sick of it.”
I had seen my face for thirty times, and I was getting tired of seeing the same face over and over again.
Snickering, I took out Rage and the Sword of the Emperor.
The clone mimicked my action and took out the same two swords.
“I’m not sick of it.”
The clone spoke to me.
“I didn’t know that you could talk.”
I never knew that the clone could speak. Perhaps it had done so in the past, but I could not remember it talking. After all, I barely remembered anything about our previous fights.
However, the clone’s answer was different from what I had expected.
“I am talking for the first time. I’m less frustrated.”
“All this time, you have never spoken?”
“I guess you’re curious. Unfortunately, even if I tell you anything, you won’t remember any of them, because you will lose anyway!”
Slash!
The clone’s sword turned dark.
It activated the Dark Sword.
Then the Flame of Pride erupted from the clone, and it started charging at me.
“The clone is moving as I expected,” I thought.
The clone had been moving in the same pattern for the last few rounds of duels. Although I could not remember our fights clearly, I could remember parts of them. Putting together what I could remember, I realized that the clone followed a typical pattern when it attacked me.
Clink!
I fought back.
I did not fear it; it was a clone of myself, and our abilities were very similar, including our strengths.
The two swords met, and we tried to push each other off.
“You look exactly like me, and you even have similar power and strength. However, you are different from me. You are nothing but a clone.”
“Are you jealous of me, because I am more good-looking than you?”
The clone snickered when I talked. Ignoring it, I continued to speak.
“Only our appearances look similar. Everything else, including habits and characters, is different. Is it accurate to say that you are my true clone when there are so many differences?”
I had never talked to the clone before, but I was able to guess its personality and habits. They were very different from mine, and I started to believe that the clone looked similar to me only on the outside. I was cold but never pessimistic. In addition, I was sarcastic at times, but I never made fun of others.
On the other hand, the clone always looked condescending.
“I am myself and no one else.”
Whirr!
A space cracked opened in the middle of the darkness.
The clone concentrated its mana on Rage and exploded it.
Banggg!
“I will take one of your childhood memories. They call this a nightmare. Haha! You don’t even realize that you have it, but you have a trauma! If you want to be complete, you will need to let go of your imperfect parts.”
***
I knocked on my head a couple of times.
My head was aching terribly, and I could not remember the fight with the clone again.
“I can only remember the fact that it told me something,” I thought.
I could only roughly remember our conversation. I could not remember if the clone had said the same thing in the past.
“And I remember the clone exploding its mana,” I thought.
Trying my best, I recalled one scene from the fight.
The clone exploded its mana at the end of the fight through Rage. It must have concentrated its mana on the Dark Sword, and the skill looked very new to me.
[Your agility increased by one.]
I nodded. If I remembered something from the fight, one of my statistics increased once in a while.
Through the previous thirty rounds of the fight, I was able to increase a total of three points. At this rate, I would be able to top off my potential in a few years at the latest.
I wished that I could fight with my clone twice a day. However, the Tree of Origin would not move twice, restricting me to enter the world of imagination once a day.
“I will come again.”
Losing a fight was not the most pleasant experience, even if the opponent was a clone of myself.
I promised myself to win the next fight and left the site.
***
This fight was the fiftieth fight, and I once again faced my clone, who was smiling.
“Can’t you remember what happened on the battlefield? What about the memories from the previous life? You look like a cockroach that keeps on fighting even though you lose every single time.”
“You will be one, soon.”
“Haha, you’re funny. Say that when you can beat me.”
Fast forward, and I came back for the sixtieth round.
“Do you remember the nobles? Only a small number of demons who were exceptionally powerful were called nobles. You did not have that title, but you were still very powerful.”
“What do you want to say?”
“I find you funny. You’re spending so much effort on meaningless stuff.”
“You’re bullshitting again.”
Then, here I was again for the seventieth round of the fight.
“Why did you come back? Do you want to change the future?”
“You already know the answer. I’m going to be the Dark Lord.”
“Is that why you abandoned everything after you made a contract with the gods? You have sacrificed everything to become stronger, and that is pathetic…”
The more I faced the clone, the more complex its character became.
Sometimes, the clone acted as though it could empathize with me. It even undermined and laughed at me from time to time.
“The more I fight, the closer it resembles me…”
The clone was quite different from me at first. It resembled me only on the outside. However, the more I fought with it, the more it was becoming like me.
On the other hand, I was becoming different from whom I had been. I was slowly transforming and resembling the clone when I had seen it for the first time.
“I’m becoming more like it,” I thought.
I clicked my tongue and learned an important lesson.
Although I had learned a lesson, I could not immediately apply what I learned.
It took another dozen fights to use what I had learned.
Finally, when I confronted the clone for the hundredth time, I transformed myself.
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