Floor 3: The Gauntlet. Cleared in 4 minutes. Floor 4: The Parkour. Cleared in 2 minutes (Arthur fell twice, but tanked the fall damage).
Now, Arthur stood before the heavy golden doors of Floor 5.
The leaderboard outside was going crazy. Rank 1: Arthur - Floor 5 - Time Elapsed: 08:30.
He was setting a pace that wasn't just fast; it was theoretically impossible for his level. But now, the timer was ticking.
"Floor 5," Arthur muttered, reading the inscription on the door. "The Mirror of Truth."
He knew this trope. Every game had it. The Shadow Link. The Mimic. You fight yourself.
"This could be a problem," Arthur admitted. If the enemy had 11,000 HP and 32% Poison Resistance, this fight would take hours.
He pushed the doors open.
The Arena of Reflection
The room was made of polished obsidian. The floor was a perfect mirror.
In the center stood a figure. It wore Swamp Walker's Boots. It held a Black Tower Shield and an Iron Enforcer Mace. It wore a grey cloak.
It was Arthur.
[Boss Identified][Shadow Arthur (Rank ?)][Description: A perfect reflection of the Challenger.]
The Shadow raised its head. Its eyes weren't human. They were void black.
"Inspect," Arthur whispered.
[Target Status]HP: 11,250 / 11,250Str: 10 Agi: 26 Vit: 25 Skills: [Heavy Strike], [Shield Bash], [Blood Nova].
Arthur frowned. "It copied the stats perfectly."
The Shadow didn't wait for a handshake. It charged. With 26 Agility, it was fast. It closed the 20-meter gap in a second.
SMASH.
The Shadow used [Shield Bash]. Arthur raised his own shield to block.
CLANG.
The impact was like being hit by a truck. Arthur slid back five meters, his boots screeching on the glass floor.
-0 Damage. (Defense matched Defense).
"Okay," Arthur gritted his teeth. "Let's dance."
He countered. He swung his mace. The Shadow blocked perfectly. CLANG.
They traded blows for a minute. It was a stalemate. Arthur hit the Shadow -> Blocked. Shadow hit Arthur -> Blocked.
If Arthur dropped his guard to attack, the Shadow did the same. They hit each other simultaneously.
Arthur HP: 11,100 / 11,255Shadow HP: 11,100 / 11,250
"This is going nowhere," Arthur realized. "It's an AI. It reads my inputs. It reacts perfectly."
Arthur backed off. The Shadow backed off.
"Let's try the nuke," Arthur whispered.
He activated [Blood Nova]. The Shadow's eyes flashed red. It activated [Blood Nova] too.
THUMP-THUMP.THUMP-THUMP.
Two heartbeats synced in the silence.
"Pop," Arthur said.
BOOOM!
Two spheres of red blood exploded simultaneously. The shockwaves collided in the center, merging into a massive storm of true damage.
Arthur took 2,250 Damage. (20% of Shadow's HP). Shadow took 2,251 Damage. (20% of Arthur's HP).
Also, Arthur lost 2,251 HP as the casting cost. Shadow lost 2,250 HP as the cost.
The dust settled.
Arthur HP: 6,600 / 11,260Shadow HP: 6,750 / 11,250
"Wait," Arthur narrowed his eyes.
He looked at the Shadow's HP bar closely. It was regenerating. 6,752... 6,755...
It had his Vitality (25). So it had the base regeneration (2.5 HP/sec). But did it have the Glitch?
Arthur looked at his own bar. 6,605 / 11,261
The denominator. His Max HP had just ticked up from 11,260 to 11,261. The Shadow's Max HP was stuck at 11,250.
Arthur started laughing. "I see."
The System created a Snapshot of him when he entered the room. It copied his stats at that moment. It copied the [Endless Vitality] skill description. But the System executed the skill correctly for the Shadow. For the Shadow, [Endless Vitality] restored 1 HP per minute. For Arthur, because of the corrupted code in his soul (or wherever the glitch lived), it increased Max HP +1 per minute.
"You're the Patched Version," Arthur grinned. "You're what I'm supposed to be."
That meant Arthur had one advantage. Time.
Every minute this fight lasted, Arthur grew stronger. The Shadow stayed the same. But Arthur didn't want to wait 1000 minutes.
He realized another difference. The Shadow was an AI. It played optimally. It wouldn't use [Blood Nova] again unless it was a guaranteed kill, because the cost (20% HP) was too high.
"But I'm not an AI," Arthur said. "I'm a gambler."
Arthur dropped his shield. He unequips it. He threw it on the floor.
The Shadow paused. Its logic processor was confused. Target Defense dropped to Base. Threat Level: Low.Optimal Strategy: Aggressive Offense.
The Shadow charged. It raised its mace for a [Heavy Strike].
Arthur stood there, defenseless. He waited until the Shadow was one meter away. Until the mace was descending.
"Inventory," Arthur commanded mentally.
He didn't equip the shield. He equipped the [Hobgoblin's Spine] (Material) in his off-hand. It was sharp, jagged bone.
He didn't block. He stepped into the strike.
CRACK.
The Shadow's mace smashed into Arthur's shoulder. Bone shattered.
[Critical Hit! You took 350 Damage!][Left Arm Disabled.]
But Arthur was inside the Shadow's guard. The Shadow was recovering from the swing animation.
Arthur jammed the jagged bone shiv into the Shadow's eye slit.
Critical Hit!-150 Damage.
It wasn't enough. But Arthur wasn't trying to DPS it down. He grabbed the Shadow's cloak with his good hand. He hugged his clone.
"Gotcha," Arthur whispered.
He activated [Blood Nova] again. Cooldown? No. The skill had a 10-minute cooldown. But Arthur had leveled up on Floor 1. He had a Skill Reset Token (Standard reward for Level 5, usually saved for emergencies). He crushed the token in his pocket.
[Cooldown Reset.]
The Shadow didn't have a token. The Shadow was a snapshot. It used its Nova 2 minutes ago. It was on cooldown.
The Shadow tried to pull away. Arthur held tight.
"BLOOD NOVA."
BOOOM!
Point blank range. The explosion ripped through both of them.
Arthur Cost: 1,200 HP. Shadow Damage Taken: 1,200 True Damage.
Arthur HP: ~5,000.Shadow HP: ~5,500.
"Still standing?" Arthur spat blood. "Again."
Wait. He couldn't cast it again. Cooldown.
But Arthur had the Shadow's own weapon. The Shadow was stunned by the impact. Arthur ripped the Iron Enforcer Mace from the Shadow's hand. (Strength 10 vs Strength 10 Check... Success due to Shadow Stun).
Now Arthur had two maces. One in his right hand. One in his crippled left hand (barely holding on).
He started swinging. Left. Right. Left. Right.
He didn't defend. He just mashed attack. The Shadow recovered and started hitting back.
It was a slugfest. Two tanks trading blows. But Arthur had two weapons. The Shadow had a shield it wasn't using effectively because Arthur was too close.
-50. -45. -50.-50. -50. -50.
Arthur's HP dropped. 4,000... 3,000... 2,000...
The Shadow's HP dropped. 4,000... 3,000... 2,000...
"Die!" Arthur roared.
He headbutted the Shadow. CRACK. His own nose broke. The Shadow's nose broke.
Arthur HP: 800.Shadow HP: 50.
It came down to the last hit. The Shadow raised its shield to bash. Arthur dropped both maces and tackled the Shadow's legs.
They fell onto the glass floor. Arthur was on top. He punched the Shadow in the face. -5 Damage.
He punched again. -5 Damage.
The Shadow punched back. -15 Damage.
Arthur ignored it. He kept punching. Standard, F-Rank punching.
-5. -5. -5.
"I... am... real!" Arthur screamed.
With a final, desperate haymaker, he smashed the Shadow's helmet visor in.
Shadow HP: 0.
The doppelgänger shattered like glass. Shards of obsidian scattered across the floor.
[Floor 5 Boss Defeated.][Trial Completed.]
Arthur rolled off the shards, lying on his back. He was broken. His arm was useless. His face was a pulp. HP: 120 / 11,265
He watched his HP bar tick up. 121... 122...
"I win," Arthur whispered.
[Rewards Calculation...][Solo Clear Bonus: S-Rank.][Item: Mirror of Duplication (Consumable)]
Effect: Creates a perfect copy of the user for 5 minutes. The copy has 50% stats.
Arthur laughed. It hurt his broken nose. "50% stats? Trash."
He stood up, drank a potion, and limped toward the exit portal. He wasn't going to Floor 6. He was done for today.
Outside the Tower
The timer on the leaderboard stopped. Rank 1: Arthur - Floor 5 Cleared - Time: 18:45.
The crowd went silent as the portal rippled. Arthur stepped out.
He looked like he had been put through a meat grinder. His armor was dented, his face was swollen, and he was dragging his mace. But he was alive.
Phoenix stared at him. "He cleared the Mirror... solo?" Vance stared at him. "In under 20 minutes?"
Arthur walked past them. He didn't say a word. He walked straight to the System Exchange Terminal.
He listed the [Mirror of Duplication]. Price: 50,000 Credits.
Then he turned to the crowd. "Floor 5 guide," Arthur announced, his voice raspy. "For sale. 1,000 Credits per person. Line starts here."
The silence broke. "Me! I'll buy it!" "Take my money!"
Arthur smiled through his swollen lips. The climb was over. The harvest had begun.