Aldred and the old man continued fighting. Unlike other fights, their clash did not produce any shock wave that blasted the snow and rocks away. This was because their movement was too precise, and all of the power and energy was intended to hit the smallest surface area possible.
Of course, if they used their full power, some of that power might leak out and create a shock wave.
Suddenly, the old man moved faster and stabbed Aldred’s chest. Aldred spat out blood.
“Aldred!” Mary rushed after him.
“No! Don’t come here!”
Aldred slashed at the old man, but he already took a few steps back. He stared at the white-haired fellow. This guy was too strong. Thankfully, Aldred had already put a plan B.
“Let’s fight again.” Aldred rushed forward.
The old man stood still, and when Aldred was about to attack, the old man flicked his fingers and Aldred’s head was cut off.
Mary and the others were shocked. Aldred got killed just like that? How was that possible?
“Aldred!” Sophia screamed.
Aldred’s body burst into blood, leaving an object behind. The old man bent down to pick it up.
Mary frowned. “Isn’t that what Aldred called a vibrator?”
The vibrator shook in the old man’s hand, creating weird noises.
The old man frowned and inspected it left and right to know what this device was for. But when it got closer to its face, a blade suddenly morphed from the vibrator and stabbed the old man’s neck.
The vibrator morphed into Aldred and he quickly cut off the old man’s head.
“HAHAHA. You old fools! I am better than you.”
“…”
Bartrem and the others looked at each other. Didn’t he say that he would only use sword art to defeat the old man?
Mary and the others giggled.
“You make us worried, Aldred,” Mary said.
“Sorry about that.” Aldred grinned. “The one that died was my clone. Seriously, this old man is too good at using a sword. Thankfully, he did not know that I turned into a vibrator.”
Mary was speechless. Aldred could turn into something else, but why a vibrator of all things? Why not valuable jade?
[Your mastery in the sword art has increased by 400%]
[Because you cheated, your mastery has been reduced to 300%]
“Hey! I am not cheating!”
[You have learned a new skill: ‘Martial Copy’]
[Martial Copy]
Copy and paste.
‘System, I will tell my mother to destroy you if you don’t give me a proper description.’
[Sword Art Copy]
User can now copy sword arts just by looking at them. With this skill, even an idiot can be a genius.
Aldred was satisfied with this skill. If his enemy had better sword art, he could simply copy them, and use them against his enemy.
“So can we enter the gate now?” Bartrem asked.
“I think so.” Aldred sent his undead to approach the gate. He wanted to play it safe. One wrong step on this mountain could kill him.
When the undead arrived, nothing happened to it, and so Aldred and the others approached the gate. Aldred slashed it with his sword, but shockingly, the gate was undamaged.
He frowned. “Execution Strike!” The arc of light slashed at the gate, but not even a slash mark appeared.
“Pongo!” Pongo the penguin vomited a hand grenade and blasted the gate with it, but it didn’t work.
“You’re so useless, Pongo. If you have a nuclear bomb or something of the equivalent, we might open this gate,” Aldred said.
“Pongo pongo.”
“Why are you talking so vaguely? Do you have it or not?”
“Pongo!”
“Now you don’t want to talk to me? You’re a weird penguin.”
“Maybe we’re supposed to push it,” Bartrem said.
“Good idea.” Aldred summoned his powerful undead to help push the gate.
Bartrem and soldiers were pushing as well. The gate was wide and tall, so a hundred of them could push the gate at the same time. Yet even with everyone pushing it, the gate did not budge.
Mary frowned and found writing on the ground. “Guys, there’s something here.” She wiped the snow to show all of the words.
“Is it a riddle?” Aldred read. “Thickest cloud, coldest wind. Break the dark, and break the skin.”
Aldred frowned and looked at the sky. It was covered by thick clouds and the cold wind blew around. “So we got the thick cloud and cold wind, but what does break the dark and break the skin mean?”
“Is it the sun?” Mary asked. “It can break the dark and break the skin.”
“That makes sense. The sunlight is largely blocked by these thick clouds and cold wind,” Aldred said.
“What do we do now?” Bartrem asked.
“I know the solution to this.” Aldred raised his index finger. “True Sun.”
A large fireball appeared above his finger. It spun absorbing the cold wind as it continued to grow larger and larger. The blazing flames melted the ice and snow around the gate, and at the top, a transparent crystal absorbed the fireball.
The gate opened.
“Well, that worked.” Aldred entered along with the others.
The gate closed down when they all entered, making the cave inside became dark. That wasn’t a problem for Aldred. He summoned numerous fire orbs that glowed the cave bright.
Aldred and the group walked forward and they arrived at what seemed to be a huge circular cave. A lot of people came from the other tunnel that connected to this cave. They all looked around wondering where to go from here.
After looking at the dice, Aldred realized that there was nowhere to go but here.
“Should we wait for something to happen again?” Aldred asked.
“Maybe.” Bartrem looked around and noticed a man was dragging his subordinate by the head.
“You useless shit! Because of you, all of us almost got killed!” He threw the wounded man to the floor.
“I cannot have you anymore. You better off dead.” The man raised his sword with both hands, the blade pointing down.
The wounded man pleaded: “Please, leader. Don’t kill me.”
“Too late.” He pushed the sword down.
JLEB!
Suddenly, a ding sound came from above. They all looked up, and a crystal glowed. Aldred stared and noticed there were 127 crystals in total. One of them already glowed in red.
“What do you think, Bartrem?” Aldred asked.
“The crystal glowed the moment someone died in this cave. There is only one crystal glowing right now, but there’s a lot more that hasn’t activated yet.”
Bartrem frowned. “The answer is obvious. We have to kill until we make all those crystals glow.”