A couple of hours later…
[DING. WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW PVP TOWER EVENT]
Every single player logged into the game and currently in the Xion realm received this announcement.
Players all over the world in the various kingdoms and territories rushed to the PVP tower in their respective cities to check this out.
Because of this, the PVP towers that were now mostly forgotten by the average players and only used often by the experts once again started gaining momentum.
More players started attempting to climb the tower and more floor battles started taking place.
And at the top of all of this hustle and bustle, an old man grunted angrily, observing everything that was happening inside the towers.
This was the tower master for all the PVP towers and everything that happened here went through him.
However, right this second, all of his focus and attention was on one and only one person. "That bastard is still absorbing my mana!"
His gaze did not shift from Liam as he watched the young man in the pond and the stone tablet alternatingly.
He also noticed the fox in the adjacent room that seemed to be of a superior grade. A strange glint crossed his eyes as he continued watching the scene.
Completely oblivious to this, Liam was still within the pond that was churning wildly.
His body was now covered from top to bottom in dirt and puddles of black liquid floated on the clean pond.
His body trembled ever so often but if one looked closely, his muscles were becoming more defined, stronger, and tougher.
The person seemed to be in a dire situation, in terrible pain but as much as he was suffering, he was also improving much.
Inside the dark world, Liam was almost at his limits. It felt as if he had been going at this for all eternity but he just couldn't do anything.
No matter which technique he used, it was difficult to progress forward from where he stood. If it was easy, he had already accomplished it.
Right now, the stage he was in was stagnant. He needed to learn more, and fight more to improve and it was difficult to reach that stage.
There was also a crushing force that sort of restricted him which made it that much more difficult for him to do something.
He was just not able to win over his evil twin. Anything he did was countered. There seemed to be simply no way to cross this hurdle.
However, Liam still had not completely given up. There was something that he was working on, a lifeline that he clung onto in this terrible storm which was his reaction speed.
Since everything else was difficult, this was the last thing he had left. The more he fought his evil twin, the smoother and quicker his movements were becoming.
After spending so much time in front of the cauldron, his nerves were crackling with excitement from this fight. His neurons were firing at top speed. He was completely in rhythm.
He slowly converted the mana and nether fight to a sword fight and started tackling the problem in a more close combat style.
His strategy was to lure out the opponent's attack pattern and use that weakness. Everyone had an attack pattern, their preferred practice.
Even though his method of learning was very unconventional, he still definitely had one.
Only that it was difficult to find because he learned it through sheer brute combat instead of studying it under any instructor.
Liam continued attacking and retreating and attacking and retreating. He also used mana and nether attacks in between when things got too heated and his stamina bottomed out.
However, it looked like even this strategy was failing.
Liam was now howling in pain. The pond began churning even faster and Luna who was in the next room curled up into a ball, tears falling out of her eyes.
She could feel the immense pain her master was in.
And there was also the other person watching everything with an indignant expression. The old man snorted wanting Liam both to win and lose.
If he lost, then he could directly obtain the things that he had his eye on without any hassle but if Liam won then he would be able to thrash his around personally and then obtain the items.
So either result was acceptable to him. He just wanted it to end already. "My mana. My mana stones. He is eating up everything!" The old man grimaced.
This continued on for almost ten whole hours when finally the pond stopped churning. Liam as well stopped moving and struggling. His body now floated still on the steady waters of the pond.
Everything quieted down like the calm after a storm and inside the dark space, Liam's sword was glowing with a fiery red luster.
In the end, he finally managed to combine his magic attack with his sword attack.
He was not sure how he did it. He did not know if he would be able to repeat it but he definitely had this one shot.
However… something was changing.
He was yet to deal this death blow to his evil twin but as if sensing that the fight had already ended, the space started cracking at the seams.
"HMPH!" Liam harrumphed coldly and dashed towards the image. He wanted to take it down badly. It had tortured and tormented him for so long so how he could let it go just like that?
He brought his sword down at full force when suddenly the hooded figure lifted his head and Liam saw a strange face. It was not his face. Rather it was someone else's face.
All this time I was fighting against someone else? He stopped in shock and the rest of the space as well cracked completely.
He was finally back in the pond water, staring at the blue sky created by the stone tablet. He was back in the familiar garden. It was over.
[Ding…]
[Ding…]
[Ding…]
Several notifications immediately appeared. Liam blinked in a haze. He took a deep breath and then collapsed.
