Corwin travelled for almost an hour enjoying the quiet countryside. The first ten minutes had plenty of players, but fairly quickly that thinned out. Corwin was happy to see players not exploring very far is it meant his secrets would not be reached any time soon. After an hour of travel Corwin spent 15 minutes searching the cliff face before finding a small hidden cave.

Inside the cave was an old spirit at the base of an eleven-step staircase. Corwin figured the last step would be a reward, so he expected to face ten challenges with the challenges getting substantially harder at steps 5 and 10.

The spirit explained the challenge. Corwin already knew bits and pieces but the full explanation was helpful. "Each challenge will consist of using an array to suppress a powerful opponent which you must then fight. The better you do with the array the more suppressed the opponent will be and the easier your fight will be. Different arrays can suppress different aspects of opponents, some of them will suppress many aspects. Once you finish drawing an array, the magic of this staircase will hold the array active, while you will be free to move. As you continue the challenge each array will become more technically demanding but more powerful, the opponents will similarly get stronger. Each enemy has had its loot adjusted so it drops array scrolls instead of items. Good luck brave hero."

Corwin now understood what he needed to do and smiled. In his past life, he had been known as an Array Swordsman, someone who specialized in arrays in addition to combat. He expected this trial to go smoothly as long as the opponents weren’t too strong. With his strong equipment and powerful array skills, he doubted anything would grow wrong.

However, on the first stair was a superior lord monster, and suddenly Corwin wasn’t so sure. He looked at the array formation and saw a basic fighting suppression array which would reduce str, agi and con substantially. Corwin had used more advanced forms of this array in the past and drew upon magical energy before extending the tip of his sword to draw the circles and lines. His MP dropped quickly as he was used to having a much higher pool to draw from and as such he drew the array faster than he would have liked. Nonetheless, he completed it well. *Array Complete, 99% Perfection. 150% of effects applied*. Corwin breathed a sigh of relief, with 150% of the effects applied fighting a superior lord would be much like fighting a lord.

Corwin looked his opponent over in more detail as it approached him to engage, having been aggroed by the completion of the array.

Lord Zelith, Minor Death Knight, Superior Lord, Level 7

Reduced HP: 40,000/40,000

MP: 30,000/30,000

This still won’t be easy Corwin thought as he used wind charge to counter the death knight’s charge. His swords struck home and he dodged the countering blow. Corwin avoided using any techniques as he fought the Death Knight with advantage, avoiding being hit until he reduced its health to 80%. The death knight glowed red, and prepared to cast it’s health depletion special ability: “Summon Retainer”. Corwin used Disrupting Blow, only to see it fail. A pile of bones suddenly appeared on the staircase and Corwin watched it assemble into two skeletons.

Corwin chose to kill the skeletons as fast as possible, preferring not to deal with multiple opponents when he could avoid it. Fortunately, with the slow speed of the Death Knight he managed to not get hit. Strangely, the death knight had not used an activated skill this fight. Corwin wondered if the death knight’s skills had attribute minimums it no longer met. He pushed the thought out of his head and focused on combat, lucky to not get hit while distracted. Fairly soon one skeleton fell and the pressure eased substantially. Soon after, another fell and Corwin returned his attentions to the Death Knight.

Everything went perfectly until 60% health. The death knight summoned 3 skeletons this time. Each skeleton was identical to the ones he fought before. 4 enemies were a bit much and Corwin would occasionally take a hit. He was able to control who hit him and took damage from the skeletons instead of the boss. His health was reduced to 80% by the time he finished off one skeleton. From that moment, the tension eased. Corwin quickly finished the two remaining skeletons watching his HP slowly climb as time passed. He returned his attentions to the death knight who continued to use only normal attacks.

By the time Corwin reduced the Death knight to 40% health his health had fully healed. This was a good thing as 4 skeletons were summoned and Corwin was under substantial pressure. Taking hits from 2 skeletons he was down to 60% health by the time he killed one. Corwin potioned and was at 70% health by the time a second skeleton went down. At that point he had stabilized and gained health at a good clip finishing the last two skeletons. He returned his attentions to the boss, wondering what would happen at 20% health.

Corwin had healed fully by the time he triggered the bosses berserk. He received a rather worrying alert. *SPECIAL BERSERK TRIGGERED: IGNORES ALL SKILL REQUIREMENTS*. The boss immediately used a powerful skill, stunning word. You have been hit by a level 7 stun. Reduced to level 0 due to effect of boots. You are stunned for 0.1s. Corwin managed to get hit only once by the boss before recovering, and his HP were at a rather comfortable 80% health. Lord Zelith then activated powerful blow. This attack was very damaging but rather slow, Corwin dodged it easily. Finally, the boss attempted to activate what appeared to be a summoning skill, but Corwin used disrupting blow preferring not to find out.

Corwin hit the boss with Thunder Slash triggering a knockback. The boss countered by activating ‘Death Knight’s Charge’ and closed the distance to Corwin in a blink of an eye. His blade came in ferociously quick, and only a quick use of Vanishing steps let Corwin escape damage. The fight continued in this manner, with Corwin needing to use a potion after the second time he was stunned. Fairly soon Corwin as at 70% health as the Death Knight hit 5%.

A timer of 20 seconds appeared above the death knight’s head and Corwin didn’t want to find out what would happen at zero seconds. He unleashed all his skills along with regular attacks and the special technique rapid blow. The timer reached a rather comfortable 5 seconds to spare when the death knight fell.

Corwin looted the corpse and was rather excited to see that magic crystals were present in addition to the array scroll. Corwin picked up four magic crystals, bringing his total to five. He looked over the scroll excitedly. Use this scroll to learn how to produce the Silver Tier Level 7 Version of the Basic Fighting Suppression Array. Corwin used it immediately and planned on producing some arrays once he got back to town.

He rested and mediated recovering his stamina, MP and HP. When it reached full he was immediately ready and stepped onto the second step of the staircase. On it, he saw what appeared to be a powerful wizard and another familiar array. Corwin smiled as the basic magic suppression array seemed to be perfect for this fight. He hoped his mana was enough to complete the more complicated array. He also hoped that the suppression would be enough to seal skills, making the caster a substantially easier opponent.

Corwin’s sword started to glow as he channeled his mana into it, and began the first stroke of the array.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 7: 35% of level 8

Str: 177 (base:5)

Agi: 207 (base:35)

Con: 177 (base:5)

Int: 85 (base:5)

Cha: 85 (base:5)

Lck: 37 (base:5)

Cnc: 37 (base:5)

Sta: 37 (base: 5)

Def: 545

MDef: 333

HP: 1939/1939

MP: 1295/1295

Gear:

MW: Iron Tier Level 7 Longsword, +14 Str, +14 Agi, +14 Con

Base Damage: 56-64, Durability 24/25, Requirements: 42 Str

OW: Iron Tier, Level 7 Shortsword, +14 Str, +14Agi, +14 Con

Base Damage 42-49, Durability 25/25, Requirements: 42 Str

MA: Iron Tier Level 8 Plate, +16 Str, +16 Agi, +16 Con

64Def,32MDef, Durability 48/48, Requirements:36 Str

LA: Silver Tier Level 8 Plate Cuisse, +32Str, +32Agi, +32Con

128Def, 64MDef Durability: 64/64 Requirements: 64 Str

B: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate Gloves +12 Str, +12 Agi, +12Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements: 36Str

G: Silver Tier Level 8 Plateboots +32Str +32Agi +32Con

128 Def, 128MDef Durability 128/128, Requirements: 64Str

RR: Silver Tier, Level 8 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+32 All base attributes, +32 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Silver Tier, Level 8 Ring of Elements (+32 All base attributes,

Ignore 1.6 Levels, Ignore 1.6 Equip Levels

AM: Iron Tier, Level 8 Amulet (+16 All base attributes)

Skills:

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Disrupting Blow, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Double Slash, Uncommon, Tier 0, Level 1

Slash, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Pierce, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Parry, Common, Tier 0, Level 1