Klang! Klang! Klang! K...

Covered in pitch-black darkness, my sword clashed with the shadowy sword a dozen times, leaving dents all over it as its edge started to resemble a line of teeth instead. However…

'It's not there yet.'

Even as the damage produced by my makeshift use of the technique that I didn't grasp yet doubled against the shadowy figure, it was obviously still far away from the ability of the complete technique itself...

Not to mention the correct use of Darkness elements' strength, just the complete integration of my sword essence with it would produce at least double or triple the enhanced damage!

Nonetheless, disregarding that point, just the effect of training the technique had already allowed me to pass through the second floor of the tower without spending much time, it could even pull me through the floor if I was more focused on that instead of putting most of my focus into crossing the last step needed to grasp the technique.

Furthermore, I even somewhat restrained myself from completing the third floor that I was currently in, the reason for that was the fact that I judged it to be more suitable as a training ground for 'Darkness Unity' when considering the rise in strength that the next floor's shadowy figure would have.

'It feels so close yet so far…'

Seeing as my sword dug further into the shadowy figure's 'flesh', I could feel the last piece of the puzzle that seemed to appear before disappearing, which felt quite frustrating.

Unlike most of the stuff I learned so far and grasped with relative ease as long as conditions were met, this technique presented a new challenge that I didn't expect to face at this stage.

'Maybe I'm just being stubborn…'

Having spent the first two days completely on grasping the basic sequence for the technique, I still wasn't able to produce the technique's special effect which was the main reason I found the technique worthy to be the next concept that would be added to my Swordsmanship, something was obviously missing in my execution.

As such, I decided to use the Crystal Tower's battles to try to get familiar with the technique, clearing the second floor in the process, but after reaching the last step, I became stuck even to this point…

This was already the 33rd day since I entered this space, and as I realized this would take longer than expected, I had already set a new routine after the first two days of continuous training just to achieve a basic result…

Leaving aside 10 hours for technique training as it was still my main focus, I re-invested one hour into 'channel flow carving' that was already part of my old routine.

Most importantly, after leaving some time for food, resting and sleeping, I put the last five hours I had into advancing towards the demon that trapped me here!

Naturally, I wasn't planning on rushing without putting much thought into it, I only decided to do this after deeply thinking about it in order to save time in the case where I spent too much grasping the technique and clearing the Crystal Tower, which was exactly why I decided to stop at a safe distance either way.

'This is already the fifth day…'

Having spent two days battling inside the Crystal Tower, I could tell that while the result wouldn't be the complete ability that was mentioned in its introduction, if I decided to take a 'sideway' step instead of the one that felt impossible for me to cross right now, I could still finalize the elemental weapon technique and reach full integration of elements and essence.

However, I knew if I didn't take the correct step, it would be much harder to advance the technique to the point it would produce the effect of 'Unity' later on. It would be far easier to finalize the technique after I reached its full potential.

As such, I couldn't help but wonder if I was too stubborn wanting to do it like that. Perhaps I should just accept the basic form of the technique so that I could purify my darkness elements as soon as possible…

Hmmmm…

'Huh?'

Just as I was considering this for the tenth time since I started training in the Crystal Tower, a strange sound was transmitted to my mind, giving me a startle!

This was obviously not the doing of the Crystal Tower card, which was exactly why it surprised me…

'This…'

However, on second thought, as I took in what happened just now, I realized it wasn't some sort of mental transmission, it instead felt like an inner thought of mine!

'Could this be...?'

Hmmmm…

This time, receiving a similar sound, it no longer felt like a sound but something else, it was more of a… mental response!

'Finally!'

As the same phenomenon continued and my brain adapted to it, I became sure, this was almost 90% similar to the response message sent by different parts of the body to the brain!

I could almost completely feel the clash of the two swords as if the sword was an extension of my limb!

'The Unity effect is initiated!'

Spending no more than five more minutes to get completely used to what was happening, I immediately let go of the restraint I put on the sequence so that the technique wouldn't get finalized which mainly prevented the complete integration of elements and essence.

Wooosh!

As the pitch-black darkness swallowed the sword completely to its hilt and even crawled to cover my hand as it slashed the shadowy figure's sword, the sound of clashing wasn't heard once again, instead…

It was the sound of a clean-cut!

'So the answer was simply smacking swords against each other long enough to get a sense of familiarity with the weapon…?'

As I started to question the conclusion I came to, I was quickly stopped but the flood of a certain voice…

[ You have created the Epic skill 'Darkness Style, Sword'! ]

[ 'Darkness Style, Sword' has leveled up! ]

[ 'Dark… ]