Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 1482 Speed Mirage!

"Why did you ask?" Darian said with a smile. "No specific reason drove that choice. During my climb up the combat tower back then, I didn't advance very far. I arrived at a stage where the upcoming floors overwhelmed my abilities, and when queried about donating a soul fragment to act as a fighter for later challengers, I consented. It appeared straightforward in that moment. Unable to progress much in the tower on my own, I resolved to at least ensure that subsequent climbers faced greater challenges. That summed up my entire logic."

Max nodded calmly, yet inside, he sneered silently at Darian.

The explanation from Darian fell short of being merely unpersuasive. When weighed against the true implications of surrendering a soul fragment, its foundation cracked so profoundly that Max struggled to grasp how it could endure even the lightest probe of common sense.

A soul wasn't some expendable asset that cultivators could tap into and restore without repercussions. It formed the deepest essence of an individual, the origin from which all cultivation aspects branched out, and detaching even a piece of it from the entirety represented far more than a brief setback recoverable through mere relaxation and toil.

Such an act inflicted a profound and grave injury, one requiring prolonged and meticulous healing that could derail a cultivator's advancement by years, while lingering effects persisted in the soul's makeup even after surface repairs.

Any cultivator with true knowledge of the soul's essence recognized this fact, and those who had progressed sufficiently in cultivation to qualify as a stored warrior in the combat tower would grasp it more acutely than others.

The notion that someone with such insight would willingly allow the extraction of a soul fragment simply because they hadn't scaled the tower to their desired height, and thus, fueled by a vague spite, chose to hinder those who followed, didn't qualify as a true motive.

Rather, it resembled a tale pieced from mismatched elements, cloaked in offhand phrasing to mask how its core rationale crumbled upon touching actual truth.

No one bartered that price for such a cause. The toll proved too targeted, too intimate, and too enduring to trade for fleeting gratification from seeing others stumble where you had faltered.

"Enough talk," Darian said, his smile lingering. "Time to battle."

The aura emanating from him as he uttered those words shed its prior restraint, surging forth at maximum intensity, with the fifth level of the Rebirth Realm exerting a force that saturated the entire chamber from bottom to top.

"Bring it on," Max replied, his fist tightening.

Darian's grin expanded, evolving into a look tinged with real enjoyment, like someone long anticipating the start and now thrilled to dive in. He advanced with a lone, purposeful stride, unhurried, and in that instant, the scene transformed.

A second Darian materialized next to the initial one. Then a third emerged elsewhere, followed by a fourth farther out, and yet another, all clad in matching robes, bearing identical faces and smiles stretched broadly, until Max found himself encircled by dozens of these forms.

Each duplicate matched the original perfectly, all gazing at him with that vibrant, faintly manic glee, their chuckles erupting from every angle at once and overlapping into a cacophony that permeated the space, eerie in its blend of the recognizable twisted into something off-kilter.

The disciples observing the feed beyond the tower reacted at once, their exclamations surging in a chaotic blend of rival analyses as they sought to label the spectacle unfolding on the overhead displays.

"Is that some projection method? A skill rooted in illusions?"

"I believe it's a cloning art. He's truly divided into several forms."

"Not all can be authentic. Just one holds the real him. The others must be fabricated somehow."

The group pressed on like this, each adding their take to the clamor, until Elder Seraphina interjected. "That's no projection on your screens," she declared. "It's neither illusion nor cloning. Darian employs what's known as a Speed Mirage. His pace reaches such astonishing heights that he occupies multiple spots simultaneously in the same timeframe, and the lingering trails of his motion appear so vivid and persistent that they mimic the primary body exactly. Each figure encircling Max marks a spot Darian has already left, held in place by his blistering speed across them, while the true self hides within, blurring beyond ocular detection from his own echoes."

She halted briefly, her features altering to reveal true intrigue as she continued, "I'm curious how Max will counter this. From what I remember, Max lacks such velocity."

The disciples, fresh from voicing their guesses, took in her words quietly at first, then realization rippled visibly through the assembly, expressions shifting as the gravity of Max's predicament took hold.

The thirtieth floor earned its fame as a common barrier for tower climbers, a level where steady progresses met an impasse beyond their means, and the Speed Mirage perfectly accounted for that notoriety.

Facing it, standard cultivator counters dwindled sharply, leaving options that demanded either equivalent or superior swiftness to Darian's, or sheer might potent enough to disregard accuracy by engulfing all spots in one go.

"Let's watch how Max navigates this obstacle," Joe remarked, his smile resurfacing with the contentment of one witnessing foreseen outcomes unfold. "Against any other disciple, even at the ninth or tenth level of the Rebirth Realm, brute strength might serve here, leveraging the cultivation edge to offset the uncertainty. But Max sits at the third level of the Rebirth Realm."

He allowed that detail to hang briefly before proceeding. "The gap in cultivation with Darian already renders raw power unreliable in typical scenarios, and this setup defies typicality. Pinpointing the authentic form amid those numerous Speed Mirage remnants, all while enduring the oppressive aura of a fifth level Rebirth Realm up close, lies beyond what a third level cultivator could realistically achieve. I'd call this the point where his climb halts."