It took Adrian a while, mostly because he was trying his hardest to avoid the beasts he encountered.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to fight, he very much did, but he quickly realized that the more he fought, the more corrupted mana he absorbed.

And right now, he was so dangerously close to exploding from the excess mana, and if he didn’t break through soon, he would.

Hence why he was avoiding the beasts and took a while, but he eventually found himself a cave on the side of what seemed like a rocky cliff.

It looked eerily similar to the cave where they previously were, but Adrian didn’t bother looking around just yet.

Instead, he sat on the rocky floor, his shadow extended and detached, forming a new clone.

"You’re on lookout," he said, and without waiting for a response, not that he’d get one anyway, he closed his eyes.

The clone looked at its creator for a second before turning to the entrance and diligently stood on guard.

A suppressing aura suddenly spread all across the cave, but instead of trying to suppress the clone, it was only made stronger.

***

Adrian found himself back in the world made completely of darkness, but this time, thanks to [Shadow Sense], he could clearly make out the nothingness in the distance.

In here, his head was clear as the corruption was hanging in the air around, not within him.

Though, how that affected his breakthrough, he’d soon find out.

The ground suddenly started reforming taking the shape of what seemed like a beast.

"A wolf?" Adrian muttered with a frown as he noticed what the beast was.

Due to all the corruption he had absorbed so far, he was certain that the breakthrough would be a lot harder.

But it seemed he spoke too soon, because the next second, another shape formed from the ground, then another, and another.

A few seconds later, there was a stampede of different types of beasts just a few meters ahead of him.

And Adrian finally realized what was happening and he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, "Well, this is certainly unexpected."

When he thought that his breakthrough trial would be a lot harder thanks to the corrupted mana he was absorbing, fighting all the beasts he had defeated was definitely not something he expected.

How was he so sure that they were the beasts he had defeated?

Well, before him was the crystal frost wolf, the Frosthorn Behemoth, the ice yeti, a Corrupted human, the beasts he defeated in this dungeon, and finally, the corrupted spirit king.

Though, he wasn’t quite sure why the corrupted spirit king was here since he was certain that the last time he saw it, it was fighting the protagonists.

But its presence here was not the end of the bad news, because the next second, all the corrupted mana hanging around was suddenly pulled into the beasts and they immediately started transforming.

At least, the uncorrupted ones anyway.

They started getting larger and also developing extra parts, their aura feels a lot more terrifying right now.

"..." Adrian looked at their changes with a blank expression before looking above him knowing very well that the damn cat was looking, "Noctis, can you turn it down a bit?"

«No,» was all it said before going silent again, leaving him to the beasts.

"Alright then," he let out a sigh as he looked in front of him again, "I beat you all once before—"

He took a pause and looked at the spirit king before he added, "I think."

Two clones rose beside him as a small smile appeared on his face, "I can probably do it again."

Just as he finished his words, the beasts, save for the spirit king, rushed towards him and the wolf, being the fastest, reached him first.

It lunged high up, with its mouth wide open and aimed towards Adrian’s head, but just before it could reach him,

[Shadow Swap]

The wolf’s bite crushed empty air as Adrian reappeared behind it, his hand already raised but before he could strike, a massive force slammed into his side.

The Frosthorn Behemoth.

Adrian was sent skidding across the ground, his body dragging through the darkness before he suddenly switched places with a clone just before,

BOOM!

The yeti’s fist instantly crushed the clone that took Adrian’s place, fortunately for him, he had managed to avoid the attack.

Unfortunately for the yeti though, the crushed clone suddenly wrapped around its fist, before expanding and wrapping all around the beast’s body.

But instead of forming a ball around it, as Adrian had initially intended, the clone wrapped completely around the yeti’s form.

The beast struggled for a while, but it was all for naught and soon enough, it went completely still, its mutated form, now covered completely by the clone.

Adrian looked at it for a while before he chuckled and said, "That works too."

What he didn’t expect though, was what happened next, because the Yeti suddenly moved again causing him to try and form the clone into spikes, but just before that could happen, it rushed past him, aiming directly for the corrupted crystal frost wolf.

BOOM!

The yeti lifted both arms and slammed it at the wolf, and before giving it a chance to recover, it lifted the wolf and threw it towards the Ram-like beast.

"...." Adrian watched with a bit of surprise as he said, "This truly is an unexpected trial."

A set of new information suddenly appeared in his head and he finally understood what his clone had just done.

[Shadow Possession]

As its name suggested, it was a skill that allowed his clones to take over the body of anything they had killed.

This allowed them to be even more useful, as they would be able to gain the abilities of whatever they possessed.

Adrian watched the other clone do the same, but this time, to the Frosthorn Behemoth.

It then slammed its horn into one of the mana eaters beside it, immediately turning it into a block of ice and shattering it.

"I guess this evens out playing field."