"One hundred days have passed," Midas said as he stared at a boarded door.
Waiting this many weeks did not lower Midas's strength. Instead, it boosted confidence even more.
He saw it fit to say that he had earned his right to be chosen as a player, if choice was a factor anyway.
There were days he wanted to quit, of course. However, each time he would turn away from the door, a familiar despair would begin to surround him.
A horrible, putrid feeling that made Midas feel absolutely worthless. It was as though death and weakness itself would overtake him with each step he made.
This feeling was not some magical effect. It was his ambition to fight back against failure.
His brain did not allow him to quit. He did not allow himself to quit.
In fact, the very idea of quitting was an infinite fate far worse than even death.
And now that he had kept his resolve for the hundred days, that resolve was hardened and molded into a confidence that pulled the corners of his lips up into a smirk.
He sprinted into the room, heading straight toward the mage skeleton at the back without any hesitation.
The mage smiled, swaying its staff.
Midas also smirked, stepping to the side before pausing gracefully, his eyes closed.
A second later, a large spearhead pierced the area that Midas was just in.
Midas moved again, this time leaping forward into the air.
A blade slashed across the room a few feet above the ground, narrowly missing Midas's legs.
Midas continued dodging each attack with ease! He even stepped off the weapons at times. It was as though he had done this hundreds of thousands of times...
'The part near the entrance is easy.' Midas thought to himself as he arrived twenty feet away from the mage skeleton.
The massive knights suddenly changed direction, quickly gathering in front of the mage and forming a barricade.
They both moved forward at lightning speed with killing intent bursting out of their bodies.
One dashed left, the other right. They ran behind two pillars, popping out and lunging forward with their weapons stretched out.
Midas began running toward a pillar before closing his eyes and halting.
The two weapons crashed into the pillar, not leaving even a single scratch on the young man standing below.
'Phew!' Midas rejoiced. He was standing exactly where he needed to be to dodge those two attacks. This was the first time that he had ever perfected this final step within the hundred days he had been here.
His eyes flew open and locked onto the two knights, 'I can fight inside your range now.' He thought, leaping at the swordsman with daggers brandished.
'Within this range,' His eyes darted to the left, 'He will most likely do that attack.' He thought before jerking his head back abruptly.
A spear slashed across the air just inches above Midas's chin.
He fell and landed on the knee of the skeleton knight, quickly lunging for its arms before running up onto its shoulder.
The knight attempted to grab Midas, but by that time the young man was already behind its neck.
Midas stared at the open bone nape of the beast, his pupils dancing with intensity.
He began slashing away with increasing speed, using all the strength in his limbs. He squeezed his dagger hilts as hard as he could while clenching his jaw, unleashing a flurry of attacks that almost blurred due to their speed.
"Aarrh!" Midas grunted, hopping back as he panted with exhaustion. He had let out all of his strength in that one final attack.
He dropped to the floor, looking at the massive knight above him.
After a second, the knight fell forward and crashed onto the ground face-first. Then, it melted into nothing as bones began piling out of the armor, leaving it to only be an empty shell.
The armor also dissipated into green energy and flew up into the air before disappearing entirely.
Midas glanced at the spearman knight.
It was staring straight at him, sure to charge within the next few seconds.
However, Midas turned and faced another direction.
He stared the mage skeleton down, 'You're much closer to me than the knight.' He thought, grinning.
He began running forward as he took out his mystery box and drank the health potion within it to regain full stamina despite not taking a single hit.
His slow jog instantly boosted into a full-on sprint as he arrived mere feet away from the skeleton mage in the span of a second.
The skeleton's smirk faded, its bony expression now one of fear and panic.
Midas swung his blades forward and aimed for the mage's neck.
As he flew, time seemed to slow down. He noticed the eyes of the mage flicker powerfully as a voice suddenly screamed in his head.
"WHY!?"
Just then, an explosion of blue energy shot out from the mage's staff and went out in all directions.
Within three seconds, it spanned the entire room before converging back into the staff. When the energy returned, however, it sucked all of the mana out of the spearman skeleton knight as well.
The knight was left to dissolve into a pile of bones and mist.
Midas was flung back and planted onto his rear.
"Why? Why must you do this?" The skeleton's eyes flickered as an elegant and almost angelic voice now resonated in Midas's head.
"Do you not understand? We have forsaken everything for this technique... EVERYTHING!" Emotion, deep and scarred, wreathed through the voice inside of Midas's head. Tears formed out of energy before trickling down its skull.
A devastating energy poured down on the room, slowly beginning to crush Midas like a boulder on his back.
'It almost resembles the feeling that overtook my body when Dorian was first summoned...' Midas thought in his head.
All he could focus on was the voice. Despite being graceful, the emotion within felt like a dragon of fury and devastation.
It was overwhelming, like an excruciating pain, except there was no pain to come along with it.
At one point, Midas nearly lost consciousness. As his eyes rolled into the back of his head, however, his lips began to move.
His body... was fighting against his mind.
'I will not allow myself to fail!' His consciousness returned at that very moment.
"Why?" Midas spoke, making the skeleton's eyes widen with surprise. "Why did you sacrifice everything? Not even sparing your lives. Tell me the reason. I will carry it into the living world. I will inherit your will... so let me inherit your technique as well."
The skeleton seemed to be taken aback.
"You... would inherit our will? You would carry such a burden atop your shoulders?" The voice resonated in Midas's head again.
"Yes..." Midas panted. 'If that is what I need to achieve victory... I will do it.'
In a zip, all the energy in the room was absorbed back into the staff.
The skeleton's eye orbs faded, a final tear manifesting and pouring out. The skeleton finally smiled before its bones collapsed into a pile.
"Thank you." A parting message sounded as the eye orbs finally dissipated in the air.
The darkness in the room was blasted away as lanterns all across the four now evenly placed pillars in the room lit up in bright embers.
Midas slowly stood up. He faced the back of a room and noticed a pedestal with a long scroll lying atop.
"There it is..." He said, walking closer.
Just when he thought everything was finally over, he heard another voice suddenly sound. This time, it wasn't in his head. Instead, it seemed to be coming from the ceiling.
"You have successfully faced and defeated the trials of this monastery." An ancient, deep, and wise voice echoed through the room in slow waves.