W hat was going on the Sky Platform could hardly be called a fight. Armed with the stupid bullwhip, Raven had spent the past twenty minutes dodging and running away while struggling to come up with a plan.

The only solution was to strangle the damn ape.

He had already tried getting the monster to jump off the cliff, but it was unfortunately too smart to fall for that trick.

BOOM!

After rolling on the ground and barely escaping, Raven lassoed the ape’s right foot and pulled, tightening the noose. Pushing off the ground, he slipped under the sweeping blow of the monkey’s left arm, escaping it by a hair’s breadth.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

“GRRRR!!!”

Feeling the noose impeding its moves, the ape wheeled around, clawing at Raven, but only scratched his back as he ducked and slipped between its legs.

Raven gritted his teeth in pain as his spine was nearly broken by the ape’s heavy hands. Without looking back, using only his new power of foresight, he swung the whip in a broad arc and threw it away.

His heart stopped for the time that the whip flew through the air behind him, wrapping itself around the ape’s neck by inertia. His right hand shot up to catch the hilt as it came within sight. Once his fingers closed around it, he jumped onto the ape’s back and pulled.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

The ape lurched, taken aback by Raven’s lightning-fast moves. Choking, it reached for the agile rogue.

Paying no heed to the growls and wheezing, Raven strained every muscle in his body to keep the mob trapped. This was his only chance to complete this challenge.

“Die. Die. Die!” he said through gritted teeth, wrapping the whip furiously around his arm.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

The ape slowed down until it collapsed to its knees, gripping at the noose in a futile effort to rip it off.

But Raven wasn’t having that. He punched it in the ear, stunning it.

“Grrrrr.” The growl came out weaker, not as scary as before.

Making the ape take its hands off the noose for a brief moment, the rogue pushed the mob down to the ground, speeding up the strangling process. Both of them were running out of strength, aware that the tiniest mistake would mean the difference between life and death.

The ape began to dissolve into particles of light, just like the whip. Raven, who stood on the mob’s back, collapsed. There was no way to avoid the stone floor that was getting closer and closer.

Sprawled on the ground, he checked his HP.

Two points.

Christmas... came early this year... Seems like... miracles do happen...

With all sorts of thoughts buzzing in his head, he slowly stood up. He didn’t dare so much as think about the challenges anymore, afraid that he’d hurl.

No more. Never again. Fuck those Keys.

Having taken his reward and preparing to leave the Sky Platform, he checked the heroic skill.

TIME LOOP

Rank: Heroic

Active skill: Apprentice

Description: Time has always been Chaos’s mysterious daughter — and the most powerful one, leaving Death, Life, Space, and the rest of the offspring no choice but to follow her rules.

Now you can get a tiny drop of her power. Reverse time, and become almighty within the loop.

Activation time: 1 hour

Cost: Mental Energy

Duration: depends on the amount of spent Mental Energy

Range: depends on the amount of spent Mental Energy

Cooldown: 10 days

Limitations: None

Cost to learn: 1,000 Will Points

Learn this skill?

Yes/No

Game, you’re getting greedy...

Absolutely everything about this skill was insane: from its description to its price.

So Time was a daughter of Chaos. Did that mean that she had a physical embodiment? Would the players have an opportunity to meet her, or any of her siblings?

He used to consider the cultists’ talk about the Chambers of Death as nothing more than fanatic rambling, but now... Now he was certain that there was something more to it.

Expensive as it was, he was going to learn the skill. It’d be stupid to turn down an opportunity like this one after he had spent ten thousand Influence Spheres to get it.

Few players could possibly afford to learn these skills. He was certain that there were no more than a hundred people at best who could. He was lucky to be one of them.

At Ariadne’s and Wagraf’s, he had made his choice in favor of teleport scrolls instead of a heroic skill. Now he had four scrolls. He might be able to use them to reach Zal’Sscar’s last tablet and collect the remaining parts of her legacy.

Considering that the next tablet’s location was a level eighty-nine zone, he needed to prepare. Only The Emperor knew how dangerous the final quest of this chain would be.

After closing the skill’s description, he ran his gaze over the other messages that had arrived during the challenge. His mood went up as he saw the amount of Will Points.

Congratulations! You have completed the Level 10 Challenge.

Reward:

+ 10 Sapphire Keys (level 10)

+ 200 Will Points

Unfortunately, there were no extra rewards this time. But the doubled amount of Will Points was still a pleasant bonus.

As he finished reading, his mind was transported back to his body covered with the stone skin that quickly crumbled away. Knowing that Zal’Sscar was about to prohibit him from offering her any more Influence Spheres, he got ready to use Fatalist when more messages arrived.

Congratulations! You have achieved the state of Battle Epiphany!

New practice modes are available in the Novice Temple.

The Spiritual Gate has been opened.

You can now use the Novice Arena.

Before he could comprehend what he had just read, he heard a voice.

“Well done, but your body and heart are lagging behind your mind.” This was the first time he saw such a degree of concentration on Zal’Sscar’s face. “The mind is the foundation, but to complete your mission, you need to be just as strong in body and spirit. Remember that.”

She gave him a meaningful look before turning back to stone. Raven pondered her words when loud swearing from other participants brought him back to reality.

Shit. I’ll sort it out later.

He teleported away without looking around, missing Queen and Wild Wind who were standing together and watching him closely.

“I’ve heard that statues would talk to him before and after the challenge. But I thought it’s because he took the highest-level ones. Who would’ve thought that the reason was exactly the opposite?”

“Does that matter?” Wild Wind asked.

“Not for you, no.” Queen shook her head and patted his cheek before turning to walk away. “Connect to the web and find all his videos. Those that have him and the reviving statues. I’m sure they’ll be easy to find.”

Having said that, she reached out to the other Enlighteners to discuss the newfound information that could help Buckshot prepare for his first Level Ten Challenge.