Time passed.

A lot of time...

So much time that he forgot the number of loops.

He killed and killed and killed.

Every day was the same, but every day he grew a little stronger.

A few months… then one year… then maybe two.

He did not know anymore, nor did he care either.

The only thing that mattered was climbing those stairs and destroying whatever stood in front of him.

He tore apart monsters without even thinking.

Now, those treelings died with one flick of his finger, and the wolves fell before they could howl. Rats never had time to bite, and even the bull beasts and minotaurs who once forced him to fight with everything he had… now they were nothing.

He would walk past them while their bodies dropped like broken toys behind him.

Gray started to laugh at the thought that these things once made him bleed.

He killed everything up to the point where the last monster was in the Early King Realm.

That was the current wall he needed to surpass.

That was the limit that would not move, no matter how much he fought.

He could not hurt those monsters even if he hit them with every skill he had.

His threads cut nothing, his blows slipped away like he was punching smoke. Every attempt ended in failure and death, and then he woke up again at the start.

So he changed how he moved inside the loop.

Instead of running forward like a fool and wasting his free lives, he sat down and started focusing on his own cultivation.

He forced his body to change every loop. He took the monster bodies he killed and used them to feed his growth.

He meditated in the cold, dark stairway while dead flesh still cooled around him. He broke himself again and again on purpose, always aiming higher each time he came back.

And like that...

Half a year passed, and he was still pushing that same edge.

And finally... he reached the Peak of the Master realm, and the actual changes were immense.

His core felt like molten metal trapped inside a small cage.

His threads were sharper than diamonds now. His normal speed without using the multiplication granted by his movement technique made even those wolves look slow, like statues.

His vision could easily track movement in the air like small dust spinning.

His strength was enough to break steel doors with a single kick.

Not to mention his skills, which had leveled up a ton! His unique ability had reached level six while the [Madman's Mirror] had reached level 7!

He could know the swap place with things more than 200 meters from him, and the cooldown was only fifteen seconds!

Not to mention that his clone from the [Madman's Mirror] would now appear in the Intermediate stage of the Grandmaster Realm!

...Fwip!

Splurt, splat!

Threads extended with one tiny motion and sliced an Intermediate Great Grand-Master level monster apart before it could even roar.

It fell in pieces, its body splitting open while its blood sprayed across the stairs.

"....."

Gray did not even look at it.

He cleaned his hand on its fur and kept walking up, his eyes fixed on the steps above.

"...Pathetic."

He remembered the first time he reached this part.

His heart was torn out; he had died screaming. His fear was real back then, but the thought that he would repeat the same day calmed him down most of the time.

But now, there was only annoyance.

Baam!

He kicked a corpse aside as he passed with a bored expression.

"Haah... Jasmine, how many times have I spent here?"

[A total of 803 days, 22 hours, 41 minutes, and 19 seconds.]

"Barely two years... huh? I thought that I had spent more time in here... at least three to four years," Gray muttered to himself.

He glanced at the rapier in his hand, and seeing his reflection made him frown.

His hair had grown much longer and darker, reaching down his shoulders in messy strands that got in his face.

His eyes were sharper too, like every loop filed away more weakness and left only a hunter behind.

Not to mention his beard... he really needed to cut it.

"Shit, I'm doing this now...!"

He couldn't bear it and directly sliced his entire face with his strings, not worrying about taking any damage from it.

After all, the strings couldn't deal any damage to his body, but to his hair, it could!

"Mhm... looks clean enough," Gray nodded in satisfaction.

His strings were really sharp, so they easily shaved everything down. Including his pubic hair and everything... cause Gray's clothes were torn apart during most of the runs.

So, he had been naked in there for quite a while.

Of course, he could simply summon clothes because of his Clown class... but he was quite comfortable being naked.

[Ding!]

[The passive skill "Blessing of Beauty" has reached level 4!]

[The authority 『Beauty』has reached level 4!]

"...Really? I just needed a shave?" Gray sighed.

It quite made sense, after all, although he repeated the same day, his body had grown, and so it matured a little.

His face also looked a little more mature than before, especially his sharp eyes.

"Mhm... let's try and kill that bitch of a monster, if not, I guess I'll enter seclusion again until I reach the Grandmaster realm before trying again."

Gray muttered with a faint smile.

Honestly, he didn't mind spending time here until he reached the Emperor Realm or even the Sovereign Realm!

But that would probably take thousands of years, so he wasn't exactly inclined towards it.

Step...!

Fwosshhh!

As soon as he took one more step, all the monsters of the previous stages appeared almost instantly.

To this, Gray only smiled... his power had increased a lot, and now, they were only ants to him!

Fwip!

SPLURT!

Thousands of thin threads shot from his hands.

They tore straight through every weak point, every throat and heart and skull that existed in front of him.

Bodies collapsed in an instant like bags of broken bones, while a blood mist sprayed into the cold air as their corpses slammed onto the stairs.

Those monsters had died in a single second, leaving only the Early King Realm monster, which was none other than an actual... Drake.

A green-flames Drake that Gray had absolutely no idea what kind it was. He only knew that it was a Drake from his appearance.

And seeing it again, he couldn't help but sigh.

"It's hard to think that the difference between the peak of the Great Grandmaster Realm and the Early King Realm is that fucking grand."

He wasn't joking.

After all, he could easily one-shot a Great Grandmaster Realm creature, but couldn't even scratch an Early King Realm Drake.

The differences were simply between heaven and earth.

"...Let's do this," Gray cracked his neck slighly.

"ROAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!"

The drake lowered its head, green flames licking its jaws.

The air twisted with heat, and suddenly, its claws cracked the ground as it rushed forward with a scream that rattled Gray's bones.

SKREEEEEEEEEH!!!

Gray shot backward immediately.

"Nine Illusionary Dream Steps!"

[✧ Dream Mist ✧]

His body blurred as his limbs melted into swirling pale smoke as he slid between the drake's stomping claws.

The wind pressure alone scraped the stone beneath him.

Fwip!

Strings exploded outward in thin lines, whipping around the drake's throat and wings. He pulled tight, muscles straining

Clank!

The scales did not even scratch, but it caused sparks to flicker from the failure.

His eyes narrowed as he twisted his wrist, and the threads shifted direction, aiming for soft points under the joints

Click, click!

The drake jerked its body violently, and the movement almost ripped Gray's arms from their sockets.

He abandoned the strings and jumped up the wall of stairs, feet kicking off a cracked stone.

"[✧Swap✧]"

His body vanished and reappeared beside a chunk of broken rock farther away. The Drake's claws smashed where he had been, cratering the stairway in a storm of dust.

KRRAAAASH!!!

Gray's boots skidded across stone, and when he stopped, he launched forward again.

His hand flicked, and a mirror with a cracked surface appeared floating beside him, reflecting light in a twisted way.

[Madman's Mirror]

A figure climbed out of the reflection. A second Gray, who was grinning widely, and just as it appeared, sprinted right toward the drake without fear.

"Buy me a second," Gray muttered.

Both Grays moved.

Fwip, fwip, fwip!

Strings wrapped around the drake's limbs and wings again, the clone yanking with violent strength that Gray himself lacked.

The beast was forced down a bit, its claws digging a trench.

"ROAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!"

SKRAAAH!!!

Flames burst from its jaws, shooting upward

FWOOM!!!

[✧ Dream Mist ✧]

His body flowed like air and, in the blink of an eye, was above the flames. He pointed his rapier downward and fell like a spear, aiming straight for the drake's left eye.

CRACK!!!

The drake slammed its wing upward at the last possible moment. Bone struck steel, and the force threw Gray across the platform.

BAM!!!

"Argh..."

He rolled on the ground with a grunt.

"Pft!"

He spat blood to the ground before revealing a blood-stained grin.

"Tsk... even after breaking through to the Peak of the Master realm."

Fshhh!

Just at that moment, the clone had jumped on the drake's back, swinging his strings madly without a shred of hesitation

It punched into the scales, leaving tiny marks of damage.

The first damage ever caused.

The drake easily noticed his presence and whipped its tail around like a steel whip.

SWOOOSH!

CRAAACK!

The clone was shattered in a single hit, causing Gray to spit out a whole mouthful of blood.

"Dammit..." Gray felt that pain in his own bones, and he winced.

"[✧Swap✧]"

He swapped with a rock behind the drake's tail before dashing to the exact place his clone had damaged.

Fwip!

He sliced the same damaged scale again. It chipped off, causing a small wound to open. Not even one finger long, but finally...

He had actually made that Drake bleed.

The drake snapped its head toward him like lightning, slamming against Gray with its straigh horns.

BAM!!

"Gaahrgh!"

His body folded, and he flew across the stairway like a thrown doll.

Thud, thud, thud

"F-fuck...!" He could not breathe for a second.

Darkness tried to take his vision, but he forced himself to stand. He staggered a little, but then he inhaled sharply and rushed in again.

[✧ Dream Mist ✧]

His speed was higher than the drake's, and so, he dodged tail strikes that could break a mountain.

Whip!

He avoided claws that could tear a fortress apart, but there was always something he could not escape.

The green flames...

Green fire flooded the air faster than his body could move

FWOOSH!!!

He jumped through it, but fire still kissed his back, easily breaking his forcefield and burning his skin.

However, Gray ignored the pain and focused on dealing damage to that small wound.

Again and again, he hit that same wound

Fwip!

Fwip!

Fwip!

SPLAT!

Sparks of blood flew out.

The wound got a little deeper, barely anything, but still something

Then the drake slammed its foot down

KRA-THOOM!!!

THUD!

"Agh..."

Gray was thrown into a tree at the upper edge of the stairway. Bark broke under his ribs, his spine screaming as he slid down the trunk and barely stayed standing.

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

The Drake slowly walked towards him, flames trailing behind every breath as the ground cracked with each step it took.

"Ugh..." Gray leaned back against the tree.

His legs were shaking, his head felt strangely light, blood ran down his arms and chest, and his vision was blurring, already seeing two drakes instead of one.

Yet, his lips curled upward

"H-haah, it seems that I will need to break through the next realm..."

He closed his eyes like he was ready to accept death again.

And then, just at that moment...

[𖤐 No, you won't. 𖤐]

A voice rose from deep inside him

Gray's eyes opened slightly in complete shock.

"G -Gray?!"

But just before he could do anything more, his vision collapsed into darkness at once. The hypnotic rings in his eyes vanished like smoke.

[H-how did you…?!]

Jasmine's voice screamed inside his mind, and she quickly realized that somehow, she was able to talk with him.

"Haaah..."

A cold breath escaped his lips as he slowly stood up, ignoring how deeply injured his body was.

Instead... both his body and his mana slowly started recovering under Jasmine's shocked gaze.

[Y-you... h-how?!]

Shing...

His face was extremely cold as he gently unsheathed the rapier that the other Gray didn't think of using.

"...I will be borrowing your Authority of Destruction..."

Fwooop!

A strange dark aura swirled around his body.

"...Jasmine."

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