Chapter 106: Real Talent (1)

Chapter 106: Real Talent (1)

「You've entered the waiting room on the 12th floor.」

I was standing still with my eyes narrowly open after returning from talking with the Iron-blooded Monarch.

It didn't matter how much I thought about it. I couldn't believe what the Iron-blooded Monarch told me.

- You have talent. And one that's strong enough to make your ambitions come true.

I'd used the right to ask questions to obtain more details about the 12th floor.

And that's what the Iron-blooded Monarch told me when I was about to return to the waiting room.

"..."

Talent.

Talent was something given to you by the heavens that couldn't be obtained even with effort.

Skill acquisition aptitude.

Stat increase aptitude.

Attribute bloom aptitude.

After awakening as a player, people obtain these 3 aptitudes. People often call these the 3 qualities of a hunter.

Other things weren't considered a talent.

Your physical capabilities or battle sense could be covered with a skill or an attribute. You could even obtain battle techniques with skills.

If you left these 3 things aside, the other things weren't at a level that could be called talent.

Talent is something you cannot overcome with effort. It's something that's decided from the beginning.

And...

'I wasn't born with any of those.'

Before coming to the Tower of Trials, I was a player who didn't have those qualities at all.

I wasn't able to obtain a skill, my stats didn't increase, and I wasn't able to obtain an innate ability.

If we took aside that I had awakened, I didn't have any trait that would make people consider me a player.

Someone like me has talent...?

There's no way that was true.

'The Iron-blooded Monarch has probably misunderstood something. And that's why she thinks I have talent.'

If I had something like that, I would've probably been able to become a famous hunter without coming to the Tower.

But the reality was harsh. I was able to obtain those only after I came to the Tower.

And that was possible because the Tower awakened those inside me as a reward for completing the tutorial trial.

Taking those things into consideration, the correct thing to say was that I didn't have talent...

"..."

Up until this point, the Iron-blooded Monarch hadn't said anything that could harm me.

I'm sure she hadn't said that just for the sake of saying it, but I couldn't understand why she said I have talent.

I thought about it for a while but ended up reaching the same conclusion.

'It doesn't matter how much I think about it. I'm going to reach the same conclusion.'

But...

Now, it was time to prepare for the trial of the 12th floor.

According to what I heard by using a question right from the Iron-blooded Monarch, the trial on the 12th floor was a fight against yourself.

This wasn't something said metaphorically.

The Tower really created a copy of yourself, and you had to win a fight against it.

Was it going to be something more similar than the doppelganger he'd faced in the trial of the 3rd floor?

It would be a fight against someone with the same unique attribute, skills, and stats. But...

The copy wouldn't stop there. But it would also copy his experience.

That meant...

'My copy will know all of my possible strategies.'

Not only that, but the Iron-blooded Monarch said that it was also going to copy my talent.

To make things worse, he would be able to use effectively talent he didn't even know he had.

While fighting, it might learn a skill through an awakening, or his stats might increase.

'If that happens, the difficulty would increase and become horrible.'

But he didn't have a talent for learning skills or stat increase.

I probably wouldn't have to worry about my clone becoming stronger during battle.

The Iron-blooded Monarch said it would copy only one of my items, and its rank would go down by 1.

'Not having item advantage will probably be the decisive thing that will let me have an easy win.'

It was obvious that I would think I'd be able to overcome the trial of the 12th floor easily.

But this trial was to test my strength rationally.

Going up floors without doing much because of fear of your copied self?

That was like not using the 12th trial correctly.

It was the perfect opportunity to get an objective view of your fighting capabilities, usage of skills, and other things that could help you grow. So trying to clear it as easily as possible was dumb.

Most people would avoid choosing the hard difficulty and choose the easy one while doing the trial of the 12th floor.

And—

「You can use the skill inside 'Residual Thoughts' once...」

「But the user cannot choose the skill inside 'Residual Thoughts.'」

「The God of Proof has especially changed its effect for one challenger...」

I sighed in relief after seeing the hidden message.

'I'm not sure what the effect of Residual Thoughts is, but it's probably a good one.'

Not only that, but it said that I could obtain a skill inside 'Residual Thoughts,' so it was a satisfying result.

I could fuse skills, so the more skills I obtained, the more my possible selection choices would increase.

Even if I faced myself on the 12th floor, that wouldn't change.

I used mana while looking at the old and rusty Mirror of Proof, which looked like a handheld mirror.

「The effect of Rusty Mirror of Proof (S-) 'Residual Thoughts' has been activated.」

I could see the blurry look of a certain man passing through the mirror.

It was someone I'd seen at the last part of the trial of the 11th floor's trial.

It was the person who'd tested the limits of my mental capabilities and caused a massive annihilation inside the mirror.

'Me...?'

Don't tell me that the Residual Thought that's inside the Rusty Mirror of Proof is...

「The skill of Rusty Mirror of Proof (S-) 'Residual Thoughts' has activated, and you're going to obtain a skill that's inside the 'Residual Thoughts.'」

Is it the future me I've seen?

'What kind of nonsense is this...’

But before I could keep thinking about that, my reflection inside the mirror disappeared.

「You've obtained the skill 'Battle Concentration (A+).'」

「You've gained the battle experience of the skill 'Battle Concentration (A+)' from inside the Residual Thoughts.」

I just kept looking at the system messages.

"..."

I couldn't see myself in the mirror anymore.

I tried to put in mana one more time, but there was no difference from before.

Not only that, but now, I couldn't see the hidden message anymore.

'The God of Proof changing part of its effect... Was it referring to this?'

I wasn't sure what its original effect was. But this Residual Thoughts were definitely mine.

It was probably related to my future self I'd seen at the last part of the trial of the 11th floor.

I kept thinking while silently looking at the mirror.

"..."

Maybe this was like an invitation the God or Proof had left for me.

He'd even asked me to visit the 'Temple of Proof.'

He's waiting for me to go and visit the Temple, so he left me an invitation like this.

As if he were saying that if I'm wondering about my future self, I better go and meet him.

"How fun."

I wasn't sure why, but it seemed like the God or Proof was interested in me.

But I didn't know his goals, so I had no intention of accepting that invitation.

He was able to summon me to the God's territory forcibly. So if I went to the Temple, I could be in danger.

'I should go once I get enough strength... When I'm at least able to resist a God's actions.'

This was just an intuition, but I thought the answer was related to Divinity.

The God of Proof and the Administrators thought of this power called Divinity as special.

That means that inside the Divinity, there might be a way to resist pseudo-divine beings or even a real God.

'I should try to study more about the Divinity...'

Of course, right now, I couldn't properly use it.

I opened the status window and checked out the newly obtained skill.

「Skill - Battle Concentration (A+)」

「Proficiency Rate - 11%」

「Explanation - When you're in battle, it gives you the power to exercise extreme concentration.」

「Effect - It automatically activates when you enter battle, and you can temporarily increase your concentration. At the moment, you can only increase it to 10 times. If you reach a concentration beyond that, you'll get a recoil.」

Increasing your concentration in a battle was a simple effect, so I didn't need to check it out any longer.

"Nice timing."

I had obtained a skill like this when I was about to face a battle.

I was going to be able to find numerous ways to use that skill in real-life situations.

「Will you accept the 12th floor's trial?」

Now, it was about time to challenge myself.

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