A divine abomination was incredibly difficult to defeat using mortal strength alone. Even if it was a crude replica, there was no doubt that this thing still possessed a faint spark of divinity.
Zenith's Survival Mode was an outward manifestation of restraining his own divinity to the absolute limit. The divine abomination, however, was the exact opposite; it would unconsciously unleash its godly aspects with everything it had.
"Obviously, this is supposed to be my clone, even though the thing it copied looks absolutely nothing like me."
He had to admit, this Water Mirror Demon had given him quite a few surprises. He originally thought that when the dungeon boss tried to copy him, it would just draw a complete blank.
The ceiling height of this single dungeon floor was tall enough. Zenith first built a platform out of obsidian, then pulled up the people who had fallen into the black muddy water one by one.
"Come on, come on, line up and drink your milk first. And whatever you do, don't look at that pixelated mess."
Although it was a far cry from a true Wither Storm, staring at it for too long would still inflict a thirty-minute Wither effect.
A mage's mana could resist it for a short time, but the mana drain was immense. By now, even a veteran mage like Wirbel was starting to struggle.
"Fighting it like this is pointless. The black parts are basically like hair or dead skin—they don't take damage. You have to attack its core."
Zenith toggled on the unique perspective of a Minecraft player—pressing F3+Q to directly view all entity hitboxes.
*As expected of my pseudo-clone, your hitboxes are seriously weird.* On the increasingly massive black body, fingertip-sized purple spots could be seen scattered about.
These spots were constantly moving in erratic patterns, and whenever an attack approached, they would rapidly shift across its skin to evade.
The actual hitboxes that registered damage were exclusively on those purple spots. Those purple marks were its true main body.
The group kept their backs to the divine abomination. After drinking the milk, their bodies had barely managed to recover. A few mages who had just narrowly escaped with their lives simply slumped onto the obsidian platform.
"Thanks." Panting heavily, Denken downed the milk. Feeling the status effects in his body instantly clear away, he nodded repeatedly in astonishment. "To perfectly balance both taste and effect... it's truly unbelievable."
Looking at Zenith, he seemed to recall something. He looked uncertain, wearing an expression of someone who wanted to speak but hesitated.
"What is it? Got something on your mind?"
Denken hesitated for a moment before saying, "There is an antique portrait in the royal palace from nearly a century ago. It depicts a great noble who looks somewhat similar to you, Mr. Zenith. Was that your ancestor?"
"No, that was me." Zenith waved his hand dismissively. "That's not important. Let's hurry up and finish this thing off. I'm in a rush."
Indeed, everyone's time was precious. Taking out the monster inside and advancing to the third round of the exam was the real priority. After all, everyone had their own business to attend to, and this magic exam had already delayed them quite a bit.
Defeating this divine abomination wouldn't be easy. The most troublesome part wasn't attacking its core, but rather the trait that inflicted the Wither effect just by looking at it. This one mechanic basically hard-countered the vast majority of squishy mages.
"Forget it, I'll do it myself. Making you guys fight this thing is honestly asking too much."
Landing precision strikes was too difficult. A massive AoE nuke for a one-hit kill was the correct way to play this.
He had been using Explosion magic way too much lately, so Zenith decided to test out *Fallen Down*. He opened with a dense, overlapping array of magic circles that completely covered their field of vision. After a brief few seconds of charging, a brilliant blue pillar of light violently expanded from beneath the divine abomination's feet, erupting outward in all directions.
Sunlight poured in. This single strike completely pierced through the dungeon all the way to the surface. The massive fifty-meter-wide crater instantly turned this underground labyrinth into an open-air sinkhole.
"Aaaand that's a wrap. Zenze, I assume we all pass?"
Faced with a situation like this, what else could Zenze say? With this level of destructive power, even if you tied all the higher-ups of the Continental Magic Association together, they wouldn't be able to block it. Aside from the current Serie, anyone else wouldn't even qualify as an appetizer.
If one had to be honest, this first-class mage exam ended up being a bit anticlimactic. Because of Zenith's interference, the number of mages who passed the first two rounds far exceeded expectations. In fact, you could say that over eighty percent of the candidates were actually unqualified.
But a pass was a pass. In order to preserve the prestige of a first-class mage, the third round of the exam opted for a method that no one could interfere with.
It was left entirely up to Serie's verbal decision. If she said you passed, you passed. The core philosophy was simple: the boss gets to do whatever she wants.
"Mr. Zenith, Lady Serie requests that you enter."
*She's really stubborn, huh? Couldn't you just let me grab my certificate and leave? I already have an upgraded version of Serie back home; I really don't want to waste time tangling with this outdated version of you.*
Zenith walked through the grand doors into a beautifully landscaped garden. Serie was currently squatting in the flowerbeds, with only her head poking out.
"I don't get what's going through your head. Did you still not grasp reality last night?" Zenith sat cross-legged on the ground, watching her pointy ears twitching among the flowers.
Serie didn't answer directly. Instead, she started talking about herself. "I have spent an eternity collecting magic. I believed I had already mastered every magical art that exists in this world, yet you constantly exceed my understanding."
Zenith nodded, gesturing for her to continue.
"The power you wield is incredibly strong, and it doesn't seem to belong to the modern magic system. I wish to trade the magic I've mastered with you, even if it's just in exchange for a single clue."
It could only be said that no matter which Serie it was, she was always madly pursuing knowledge and power. Magic was merely a tool, but the knowledge behind it was what truly captivated her.
"There's nothing I want. Everything you know, I'll eventually learn anyway. As for that clue you mentioned... when you reach a point where you can't advance any further, just pray to the Goddess. She will answer you."
Of course she would answer. Even if it was just to give face to Zenith's words, she would respond. The timeline formed a closed loop at this very moment: the future Serie would become the Goddess's disciple, travel through time and space, and reunite with Zenith when he first arrived in this world.
Zenith received his first-class mage certificate, and because of him, even Frieren wasn't given a hard time by Serie this time around.
"That's wonderful. It went very smoothly, Lady Frieren."
Fern was very happy, and seeing Fern happy made Stark and Frieren happy as well. Only Himmel was sulking. He dragged Zenith outside the inn. "Boss, you're my boss! If you drag this out any longer, my heart is going to die, Boss!"
"Alright, alright. Honestly, I don't want to drag this out either. Let me pull off one last stunt, and then I'll edit your skin back to normal." Zenith thought about it and agreed. He had been in this world for so long that several new worlds were already sitting in his world list waiting for him.
The main reason he had stayed here so obediently was that he hadn't finished learning plant magic earlier. But now, he was definitely getting antsy.
So here came the problem: what kind of stunt could he pull off that would be entertaining enough? Zenith couldn't think of anything off the top of his head. He was going to have to brainstorm this properly.
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