"Is the increase in difficulty this exaggerated?"
It’s like jumping a grade in difficulty, and this is just Level 7—with a whole twenty-nine levels to go.
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Lin Xiao, who had initially been full of confidence, started to feel unsure, doubting he could clear all thirty-six levels in a row.
As soon as the ten elite Bull Monsters appeared, they roared and rushed forward, hacking away without any sense of honor. One particularly brave Bull Monster even sneakily pulled out a hand axe, chopping at Lin Xiao several times within a few seconds.
Although his Damage Absorption Talent reduced the severity of the injury, he couldn’t stand the number of enemies and their fierce attacks, especially since the brave Bull Monster also directed the others, making their assault organized rather than chaotic, which gave him quite a hard time.
After barely holding on for about ten seconds, Lin Xiao decided not to wait any longer and activated his Time Acceleration Talent. His thought processes and speed instantly increased by a hundred percent, giving him a sudden surge in speed.
Since any injury would heal at the end of a level, Lin Xiao shrugged off the attacks from the other Bull Monsters, managing to wound the legs of seven Bull Monsters. Although none were dead, their reduced mobility significantly decreased their combat power. He then adopted a sacrificial tactic to desperately kill three unharmed Bull Monsters before using the Kite Strategy to slowly finish off the remaining seven.
As the battle ended, the bodies on the ground slowly dissolved in the glow, and Lin Xiao’s injuries rapidly healed.
Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he quickly exclaimed with elation,
"I was wondering why the difficulty was so high, and it turns out that’s why."
He realized that the Time Acceleration he had just used once had been restored under the white light, indicating that the recovery after each level was comprehensive, including a full reset of his talents to their peak condition.
Instantly, Lin Xiao felt hopeful again about conquering the thirty-six levels of the Sky Tower. With each level resetting all the uses of his talents, and with his overwhelmingly powerful talents, what was there to fear about not passing a level?
Level 8 did not feature Bull Monsters, but instead, a Scorpion Lion appeared.
It looked like a majestic lion, but its fur was red, it was as large as an elephant, with sharp claws and teeth, and the most vital feature being the spread of wings and the thick scorpion tail with a green luminescence—that was deadly poison.
The Scorpion Lion could undoubtedly not defeat ten Bull Monsters head-on, but it could fly to maintain distance, and as long as it had a normal level of intelligence, it could easily break down and kill several squads of Bull Monsters.
Unfortunately, for Lin Xiao, the threat was not as great as in the previous level. Knowing now that his talents would be restored at the end of each level, Lin Xiao did not skimp. He teleported with Time Roaming behind the Scorpion Lion in mid-air, and the streak of light passed through, causing it to lose consciousness and plummet to the ground.
However, while still in mid-air, Lin Xiao chopped off the most dangerous part—the scorpion’s tail—and seeing that he still had time, he tried to slice off one wing completely but could only sever about two-thirds of it before getting stuck.
Lin Xiao didn’t care, and he raised his sword to chop again.
By now, the Scorpion Lion had already slammed heavily onto the ground. When it regained consciousness from the immobilized state, it let out a pained roar and subconsciously flapped its wing, causing the partially severed part to completely break off with a ’snap’.
What came next goes without saying—with its tail and one wing gone, the Scorpion Lion was like meat on the chopping board, and Lin Xiao was free to decide how to cut it.
Level 9, three Scorpion Lions.
Level 10, ten Scorpion Lions.
The result was the same as Level 8. The only difference was the use of his talents more times and it took much longer.
Level 11, when the white light slowly faded away, what appeared before him was a colossal snake-lizard with five heads, nearly twenty meters from head to tail, covered in thick scales, with imposing heads held high, spewing venom down toward him.
Lin Xiao nimbly dodged the venom, his expression somewhat grave.
He did not consider a single snake-lizard a concern. However, according to the pattern, the next level would have three, and the level after that, ten snake-lizards—not just trouble, but big trouble.
With their gigantic size, strong vitality, and crucially, the five heads each needing to be chopped off to be killed...
Without any hesitation, he teleported to be amidst the five heads of the snake-lizard and with all his might, he swept his sword to decapitate one head, before the snake-lizard could react, he swiftly chopped off three more heads. Unfortunately, he did not have the strength to sever heads in a single second yet.
Having defeated the snake-lizard, the next level was just as he expected: three five-headed snake-lizards.
Without further ado, he unreservedly used Time Roaming seven times a day, along with Time Acceleration, which combined to give him enough power to sever all five heads of each snake-lizard with some to spare.
Here he employed a little trick: the effect of Time Roaming caused a mental freeze and slowing on all targets he passed through. He specifically angled his assaults to hit multiple snake-lizards at once, thus managing to control several targets at the same time.
At Level 13, he used this method to control multiple targets and eased the pressure, allowing him to kill each one in turn.
By now, Lin Xiao couldn’t help but wonder, considering it was only Level 13 and so challenging, had any prodigies from history cleared all thirty-six levels? There must have been some who passed twenty or thirty levels. What did they rely on to get through?
Level 14 featured a Poisonous Dragon with an ink-green body; the chunks of ink-green Dragon Scales were as lovely as emerald, but the dreadful poison covering them made it as difficult to approach as a hedgehog.
Any attack on the Poisonous Dragon would be tainted with an extremely terrifying poison. Lin Xiao could only survive it with his talent for completely absorbing all types of damage.
As the white light disappeared, Lin Xiao was greatly surprised by the opponent that emerged at Level 15.
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It wasn’t the three-headed Poisonous Dragon he had imagined, but rather a gigantic eyeball covered with tentacles, commonly known as the Evil Eye.
This creature had lived for quite some time, with a diameter of about three meters. Its body was covered with hundreds of tentacles of varying lengths and numerous hairs. At the end of each tentacle grew eyeballs of different colors, which casually flung dozens of rays with various properties, enveloping him in their grasp.
Weakness, agony, curse, blindness, slowness, freezing, burning, charm, and so on—there was always a ray that suited you, and even Dragons couldn’t be immune to all negative states.
But there was that same saying again, the Black Hole Talent could absorb all types of damage. Many effects he couldn’t resist, but the damage he could.
In the lengthy control, he found a fleeting opportunity to vanish from the spot, and that sealed the doom of the Evil Eye.
The subsequent stages were all different types of individuals, and no longer like before where if one didn’t work, three would come, and if three failed, ten would show up. The individuals in the latter stages were all different in kind, mastered different combat methods, and shared one common feature—they were incredibly powerful.
The Medusa with Petrification Talent.
The Six-armed Snake Demon with superb combat skills.
A large Magma Elemental composed entirely of flames and magma.
A Corpse Witch in a gorgeous robe, wielding an exquisite Bone Staff.
And even an Arcanist later on, sitting on a luxurious flying carpet.
Lin Xiao found that the strength of the stages that appeared later didn’t increase much, but their intelligence increased, and their tactics became more dazzling, especially since the Corpse Witch summoned a group of Skeletons and Ghosts right from the start, and the Arcanist directly released a bunch of absurdly strong Steel Golems.
Speaking frankly, if it wasn’t for his Time Talent being too overpowered, any other elite would eventually be countered and fail at some stage.
From this, it can be seen that the Sky Tower is truly insurmountable for ordinary elites, requiring not only the topmost Talent but also a Talent without any weaknesses or flaws and superb combat experience to possibly reach the end.
Time passed without him realizing it, and Lin Xiao, with his Talent tantamount to a bug, breezed through the stages. Before he knew it, he reached the twenty-sixth stage, and with the accumulation of many powerful lives killed along the stages, his Evolution Degree finally reached its limit, advancing him to Rank 3.
This Rank seemed to be a minor qualitative change stage, not only providing greater increase in Strength, but his Talent also underwent significant changes.
Firstly, Time Travel naturally advanced to Level 4, with not only an enhancement of the original effect but also an addition of new effects.
Time Travel LV4: Appear invincibly at any location within a 3000-meter radius of oneself, undo any damage taken in the last 5 seconds, strike any hostile targets with damage equivalent to 5 times one’s maximum Power Value, add a continual 4-second cognitive freeze and 100 slow effect, and apply Time Lock to all enemies within a 10-meter diameter of the landing point for 1 second, usable 10 times per day.
Time Locking LV1: Every attack has a 1% chance to use the Power of Time to lock the target for 1 second, while entering a Time Bubble state, where time accelerates tenfold within the bubble.
This Time Lock is the new Talent acquired after evolving to Rank 3, and its effect is incredibly dominant.
Literally, it uses the Power of Time to lock the target for 1 second, and entering the Time Bubble state accelerates time by tenfold—meaning, it may look like a one-second lock, but in reality, he has ten seconds to do as he pleases with the enemy.
The only pity is that this is a passive effect and cannot be actively triggered, and with only a 1% chance to activate during attacks, one shouldn’t rely on it to turn the tides.
Fortunately, the Time Travel upgrade carries this effect, significantly enhancing the Talent.
Moreover, the Time Acceleration Talent upgrade to LV3 also brought about a significant enhancement.
Time Acceleration LV3: When used on oneself, cognitive reaction and own Speed increase by 100%, lasting for 7 seconds.
Alas, there was no qualitative change, but from the changes in Time Travel, it’s apparent that Talents seem to undergo a new qualitative change at Level 4.
The Damage Absorption Talent remains unchanged, seeming to be fixed without the possibility of an upgrade, but it’s hard to say for sure—perhaps there will be a change when he evolves to Rank 4.
After all, the effect of this Talent is determined by one’s own strength—the stronger he becomes, the more potent the effect; whether it upgrades is of no concern.
Name: Lin Xiao.
Race: Human???
Evolution: Rank 3 1.3%.
Talent: Time Travel LV4, Time Locking LV1, Time Acceleration LV3, Damage Absorption (Black Hole)
Skills: None.
Evolution Strength: 10,248 kilograms.
Own Strength: 4,824 kilograms.
The evolution speed was too fast, advancing one Rank upon entering the Sky Tower; the pace of drawing from his own strength couldn’t keep up.
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