𝗈𝓋𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

(Sigh, I didn’t expect to be forced to this point.)

Inwardly, Tyler heaved a sigh of resignation. If possible, he would prefer not to reveal his true strength.

At this juncture, he weighed his options internally – was it more crucial to keep his power concealed, or to unravel the secrets of the labyrinth?

The answer was evident – understanding the labyrinth’s mysteries held far greater value.

Tyler believed that among the three individuals present, he could wholly trust Heloise. Vanessa, at this point, was in the same boat as him. As for Sheryl, the Ice Polestar, she didn’t seem the type prone to spreading information indiscriminately.

Hence, even if Tyler were to go all out, the loss of intelligence wouldn’t be too significant – especially since he would continue to grow stronger.

Indeed, as long as Tyler could continue to evolve, revealing his current strength would only have limited impact.

If he stubbornly chose self-restraint in an attempt to hide his power, that would be more of a loss than a gain.

“It’s an honor to compete with Lady Ice Polestar Sheryl.”

After Heloise was freed from her icy imprisonment, Tyler took her place in the center of the quest guild hall.

The inevitable confrontation with Sheryl was about to begin.

.

The guild hall was roughly square, about ten meters in length and width, and about three and a half meters high.

Besides the four thick pillars at the four corners, there were also four decorative slender pillars around the hall.

Under the light from the window, these pillars cast eight quite distinct shadows in the hall.

Tyler and Sheryl stood face to face, about five to six meters apart.

In Tyler’s hand was the “Shadow Sword Dragon Steed”, and on his waist was the “Venomous Blade – Poison Dragon Claw” and three smoke bombs.

He was clad in the “Crimson Dragon Cloak”, and his feet were in the “Dragon Boots – Shadow Step”. He was fully prepared for the battle.

Ever since the comprehensive upgrade of his equipment, only the “Fir Dragon Bow” had had a chance to shine.

Now, it was time for the other pieces of equipment to show their new prowess.

First was the “Shadow Sword Dragon Steed”. After its reforging, both its attribute bonuses and power had been significantly enhanced. It firmly retained its throne as the No.1 in output, and was currently Tyler’s most brutal frontal attack method.

(Click paragraph comment for specific changes)

Next was the “Venomous Blade – Poison Dragon Claw”. Not only had the probability of its poison attribute attack increased, but the poison damage had also increased quite a bit. Additionally, it could deal extra damage when attacking a poisoned target, which somewhat remedied its previous embarrassing situation of being a “scraping knife”.

(Click paragraph comment for specific changes)

Finally, there was the “Dragon Boots – Shadow Step”. After being remodeled with dragon skin, the attribute bonus of these boots had slightly improved. But what was even more powerful was that it had added a new skill called “Double Shadow Step”, which allowed Tyler to further enhance his agility at the expense of a large amount of magic.

(Click paragraph comment for specific changes)

With these pieces of equipment, along with his own skills, Tyler was confident that he could survive for ten seconds under Sheryl’s hand.

.

“Hey, trash, speak up when you’re ready.”

“I’m ready. We can start at any time.”

Tyler adopted a stance that indicated his readiness to launch a direct attack on Sheryl.

At the edge of the hall, Vanessa and Heloise stood at a distance, both sweating for Felix.

In their eyes, even if it was Felix, he probably wouldn’t be able to withstand Ice Polestar Sheryl for ten seconds. Her frost magic was simply too domineering.

“Let’s get started then…”

Sheryl waved her finger, resetting the ice crystal numbers on the ceiling to “10”. At the same time, Tyler was surprised to find that red light prompts had already appeared in front of, behind, and to both sides of him!

The advance notice of the red light was three seconds, which meant that Sheryl had been secretly preparing to launch a preemptive attack before the ten-second countdown began!

(As expected of the Chief Court Magician, her combat experience is indeed profound!)

“Three, two…”

Just as Sheryl shouted “start!”, Tyler had already leapt to the side to avoid her, and at almost the same time, four ice thorns that were consecutively thrust out pierced the spot where he had just been standing.

— (He actually avoided it? Did he see through my advance casting?)

Sheryl was slightly taken aback, then immediately followed up with the casting of her next spell, her eyes always closely watching the young man’s movements.

— (One second passed.)

And that young man, after avoiding the opening attack in a thrilling manner, did not launch a counterattack against Sheryl. Instead, he sought cover behind a column.

— (You never learn, this is not a good idea.)

Sheryl immediately launched the pre-cast “Tier 4 Magic: Eternal Ice Palace” towards the place where the young man was hiding, then continued to parallel cast four different types of magic, always ready to deal with unexpected situations.

“Tier 4 Magic: Eternal Ice Palace!”

— (Two seconds passed.)

A huge white magic circle spread out on the ground, filling the entire hall with a white chill. Vanessa had just been frozen by this unreasonable strong move.

— (Wait, what’s going on…?)

The experienced Sheryl noticed something wrong with the white fog. The chill of the “Eternal Ice Palace” wasn’t this dense, the young man had done something!

—(This is not the chill of the “Eternal Ice Palace”! What kind of blindfold did he use?!)

Sheryl’s line of sight was suddenly blocked, and under these circumstances, she couldn’t confirm whether the young man was frozen or not.

“Tier 2 Magic: Ice Ring!”

— (Four seconds passed.)

Sheryl released an ice ring with herself at the center. Rings of frost breath spread out around her continuously.

Taking advantage of the protection of the ice ring, Sheryl rushed straight to the back of the column where the young man was hiding, and as she had guessed, the young man had used this strange white fog to hide somewhere else!

Seeing that she was fooled, Sheryl had to withdraw her previous comment of “never learn”… This young man had obviously learned a lot from Vanessa and Heloise’s combat experience and could even use Sheryl’s magic effects against her.

“Tier 1 Magic: Gale Breath!”

Sheryl summoned a gale, blowing away the fog in the guild, and finally saw the figure of the young man at the side of the column.

— (Six seconds passed.)

There’s not much time left, Sheryl’s attack began to go wild.

“Multiple Parallel Casting · Tier 2 Magic · Ice Wall!”

Layers of ice walls sealed the young man in a small space in an instant. Sheryl didn’t leave him any gap at all.

But that wasn’t the end, it wouldn’t be Sheryl’s victory unless she froze the target.

“Simplified Casting · Tier 4 Magic · Eternal Ice Palace!”

In order to win, Sheryl used her magic power without sparing any, exaggeratedly freezing the entire space where the young man was!

— (Eight seconds passed.)

Until now, Sheryl should have won according to common sense, but for some reason, she still felt faintly in her heart that this young man would not be frozen so easily.

This feeling has no basis, it is just a “hunch” generated by Sheryl’s rich combat experience.

“Don’t blame me, two young ladies.”

Sheryl looked at the guild hall, raising her ice crystal staff high… The next move will be an extremely crazy area control magic.

“Simplified Casting · Tier 5 Large Magic · Ice Polar Domain!!!”