The Final Challenge (2)
The main reason for failing the first attempt at the final challenge? There were many factors—stat distribution, strategic misjudgments, and more—but after careful reflection, I reached one clear conclusion. I had poured far too much power into subduing the Corrupted Knight right in front of me. Of course, investing heavily against the master of this room was only natural. Yet the witches who appeared later had the worst compatibility with me. To achieve a perfect clear, I needed to overhaul my entire strategy.
The first step was simple: defeat the knight ahead with the absolute minimum force necessary.
Whoosh! A massive greatsword tore through the air at incredible speed. But I was ready. Without taking my eyes off him, I ducked low. The enormous weapon—more like a siege engine than a sword—sliced through the space where my waist had been moments ago.
I dodged cleanly, but that was only the beginning. Realizing his strike had missed, the knight’s eyes flashed as he unleashed a relentless barrage, refusing to give even an inch. The sight of that car-sized blade raining down from every direction was overwhelming. Yet none of the strikes found their mark. Even more striking was my face—calm, almost serene—while evading every attack head-on. My gaze never wavered, and my breathing remained steady despite the furious movement.
It meant only one thing: I had perfectly matched the boss’s terrifying speed. Compared to our first encounter, this was an unbelievable leap in growth. Back then I could barely keep up; now I could even predict his next move.
Of course, that growth came from grueling real combat experience. While dodging his fierce sword strikes, I stared at him with cold eyes and thought.
His specialty was wide-area strikes fueled by monstrous strength. That meant he had no other attack methods beyond swinging his sword. But he had one other notable trait: the special black armor covering his entire body. From everything I had gathered, that armor blocked nearly all physical attacks. Magic was the only thing that worked, yet repeated tests showed the armor also possessed some resistance to spells.
In short, the armor was both his greatest asset and the most troublesome obstacle for anyone trying to clear him. Simply by wearing it, he limited all viable strategies to one: pouring magic at him relentlessly. That forced me to dump most of my hard-earned stats into mana just to chip away at his health. Unlike Residual, which could be recovered, mana was gone once spent. That same limitation carried over into the later fights against the witches.
To maximize efficiency with limited stats, I had no choice but to pour everything into one area, which inevitably left me short on Residual. The all-in mana strategy had clear limits. While it made the boss easier to handle, it created serious problems against the numerically superior witches who also outclassed me in magical skill. After all, I was only borrowing others’ magic through tricks—I lacked true proficiency.
After countless failures, I finally flipped the strategy. Instead of relying on unfamiliar magic, I built a plan around my own strengths: maximizing Residual to push my body’s versatility to its absolute limit. Naturally, the difficulty was the highest among all my previous plans. I suffered far more failures than before, refining the operation through constant adjustments. Thanks to that, the plan’s completion rate was now at its peak—making this the moment with the highest chance of success.
The instant I sensed the black shadow above me, I leapt backward. A split second later, the greatsword slammed into the exact spot where I had stood, sending chunks of shattered floor flying in all directions.
BOOM! A powerful shockwave and deafening noise followed, then thick dust swallowed the surroundings. Yet I didn’t panic. I launched myself straight toward the impact zone. Blinded by the dust, the knight froze for a moment and failed to react. I used that opening to land lightly on the tip of his embedded sword.
The moment he spotted me emerging from the dust, he gripped his sword tighter—but I was faster. In my hands were massive iron maces I had shaped from my own body. Spinning once to build centrifugal force, I hurled the heavy metal straight at the knight’s face.
CLANG!!! The jarring crash of metal on metal rang out. Caught completely off guard by the lightning-fast ambush, the knight was sent flying backward. Even with his enormous frame, he couldn’t withstand the force of an accelerated mace the size of his own head.
He tumbled across the floor for a long time before finally stopping. On the surface it looked like a solid hit, but I knew the truth. That surprise attack had done no damage whatsoever—it had only created distance. As if to prove it, the knight adjusted his helmet with one hand and rose to his feet as though nothing had happened. The murderous aura radiating from him had only grown thicker with rage toward the girl who had dared humiliate him.
With my current strength, I couldn’t destroy his armor anyway. I knew that better than anyone. The strategy to perfectly subdue him while investing everything into Residual… Considering the remaining time limit, I had to move soon.
Skill 'Transform: Doppelganger Ability' activated!
Designated ability… Head Maid Rena’s [Innate Dexterity].
Specific completion… Applied.
Along with the notification, a now-familiar new sensation swept through my entire body. Among the many cards I held, the one I drew was Head Maid Rena’s ability—the assassin-class skill [Innate Dexterity]. Objectively speaking, however, this skill that improved mastery over countless assassin tools was extremely inefficient against the knight before me. Even a child knew that an assassin fighting a knight head-on would lose. Moreover, small, sharp assassination tools couldn’t penetrate his armor. No matter what efficient weapon I brought, wounding a boss clad in full-body armor was clearly impossible.
In other words, the ability I had just copied was completely useless against the knight. Yet I chose it for a simple reason: I had discovered another way to use it—not just as an attack method, but as a means to make the entire operation succeed.
The change began with my hands. Simple black gloves appeared over my smooth, small hands. At first glance, they looked ordinary. But the real transformation started now. Thin, unidentified strands began manifesting around my body. They multiplied exponentially in an instant, soon filling the space around me. Illuminated by the candles lighting the boss room, their true form revealed itself—silver threads so fine they were nearly invisible to the naked eye.
They drifted around me like gentle ripples, connected to the gloves I wore. When I lightly moved my fingers, the threads responded by swaying dramatically. The weapon assassins in movies often used—wires. This was my trump card prepared specifically to face him. Thanks to my abundant Residual and their tiny volume, I could use them without burden while enjoying high versatility.
I recalled the first time I used them in actual combat. Even though I had learned the technique through the Head Maid’s ability, that only covered how to control the wires. Dodging the endless barrage of attacks while manipulating them was an entirely different matter. During my first attempt at this plan, I had been reduced to pulp by his greatsword before I could accomplish anything. Yet after experiencing my body being destroyed countless times, my skill steadily improved. Thanks to that effort, I had now reached the point where I could control the wires to some degree while evading his attacks.
The sight of the girl surrounded by countless floating silver threads, clad in black attire, created an indescribable, mysterious atmosphere.
[“Advice” In the event of a chaotic melee, proper support will be impossible. Please proceed with caution.]
At that moment, the butterfly’s mechanical voice echoed in my mind. She had likely grasped the general flow of the upcoming battle. Her support, delivered through language, would be difficult to utilize effectively in the heat of intense close-quarters combat. Just as she had said before I entered the door, the success or failure of this operation now rested entirely on the “skill” I had honed until now.
Meanwhile, the knight, who had been carefully observing my transformation, began slowly advancing while maintaining his guard. He seemed to have instinctively sensed that something had changed. The silver threads drifting around him, emitting a sharp, deadly light, reminded one of a spiderweb spun to catch prey. But he had no choice. As the master of this room and the dungeon boss, he had to move to eliminate the intruder.
Of course, even if these threads were sharp, they couldn’t cut through his highly durable armor. However, that wasn’t my actual target. If I could achieve that goal, everything after would become much easier. Now was the time to perform a life-or-death acrobatic act.
In the tense atmosphere before the storm, the two of us probed each other once before charging forward without a word. Silver threads snaked outward like serpents while the greatsword fell from above. Their intense killing intent collided in midair without either side yielding an inch.