Only I Am A Reader

500 An Educational Speedrun

Once Leo stepped foot into the 12th challenge, he quelled his curiosity even more and focused on one thing.

Speed!

The way the challenge was structured, as well as the correct way to solve it didn't matter. As long as there was a way to finish the challenge as quickly as possible, he would pick that path.

Thankfully, Leo's wide array of abilities allowed him to cheat his way through… If that could even be considered cheating.

'It sure feels like it.'

It was a matter of perspective. Just because Leo could see what the challenge was intended for, doing it any other way felt wrong.

However, it wasn't time for another battle of emotions. Being strong didn't mean that Leo could let his guard down.

After all, the combination of mistakes that Aurora was forced into made an ending that couldn't be solved by simple strength or ability.

If Leo wanted to stand a chance at changing that end, he had to start by unraveling the plot knots, and for the knot that this Gate represented, finishing it quickly was the only way to start unentangling it!

Fortunately, clearing more challenges didn't necessarily mean that the next ones were harder, this wasn't the Gate's trend. Instead, it was all about variety and different approaches.

Most importantly, the lion-faced monster still held the record for the strongest monster that Leo had met in this Gate. As quirky as some challenges became, the targets' strength remained consistent.

With all of that being to Leo's advantage, challenges were dealt with promptly.

{ Challenge 44: Kill 18 escaping monsters. }

When it came to hunting challenges, Leo no longer ran around with Shadow Movement. All he had to do was spread his Enigma and get in sync with the monsters' shadows.

He then used it to stab them from down under in order from the farthest to the closest, allowing himself to reach the portal in the least time. 𝒷ℯ𝓭𝓷ℴ𝓋𝓮𝓵.𝒸ℴ𝓶

'After all, this Gate is structured to save space.'

At first, Leo thought that physical pursuit was the most efficient clearing form. However, as his experience increased with each stage, he quickly realized that each mini-gate wasn't as vast as it appeared to be.

In reality, the paths and caves were all crammed together within a cup-noodle-like structure. The reason everything appeared vast was only due to a clever use of turns and angles!

Leo didn't even have to reach the maximum radius of his Shadow Domain in order to cover most stages, making timely assassinations a matter of minutes.

'This is a good learning experience.'

Considering that Cassian didn't have the ability to influence other shadows, Leo was currently learning a whole new thing, and this Gate made for a perfect training ground.

Despite the vastness of his already existing abilities, Leo found himself stepping into more and more uncharted territories.

As little time as he spent on each challenge, he was learning a ton!

{ Challenge 78: Kill 20 white-spotted monsters, killing a normal monster will decrease the number of white-spotted monsters. }

Even when he received a duplicate challenge, Leo discovered more things about one of his abilities.

Just like the fake monster challenge, this was a differentiation challenge, one that Leo experienced among his first nine, but its setback was pretty straightforward.

Although it wasn't a puzzle like the 10th challenge, it was another one that could end with a game over, as the decrease could cause the number of target monsters to fall under the requirement.

In order to clear it the first time, Leo had to rely on thorough visual inspections, something that took a bit of time due to how subtle the spots were. Their sensory aura wasn't different either.

However, this time around, Leo took a completely different approach.

'It's still inflexible, but…'

He decided to rely on the unstable Shadow Nightmares!

Given his continuous use of shadow ever since he stepped foot into the Gate, Leo was starting to get some hints. His mind basically received thoughts and insights once he considered a possibility.

And one of the new things he learned was another way to handle Shadow Nightmares.

Leo was still incapable of giving complicated orders to the Nightmares. However, he could now set a condition on the Enigma they would receive.

'Only those Nightmares that sprouted out of a white-spotted monster's shadow can get it.'

Leo allowed Shadow Nightmares to rise from every monster in his radius but limited the Enigma they received to the bare minimum.

Without satisfying the condition that he implemented, none of them would receive enough Enigma to be lethal to the monsters!

'That was quick.'

Did a creature's shadow really contain every bit of information about its source? Before he knew it, Leo felt a sudden drain of Enigma before the unknown energy traveled split into over twenty directions.

In the next second, Leo's Shadow Domain could already sense the distortion of space caused by the portal's emergence. This method was truly swift and precise!

'That makes fifty.'

Just as well, this duplicate challenge was actually Leo's 50th challenge! After close to a day of being inside the Gate, Leo was half the way through!

If Aurora had been as active as Leo, they could technically reach the arc's finale within seconds, but that wasn't the least bit realistic.

Of course, for Leo, Aurora's delay wasn't exactly a bad thing. After all, this gave him the chance to deal with the bad students that were left. That way, the blow he would deliver to Aurora would be at its full capacity.

In fact, after going through so many challenges unobstructed, Leo was now expectant of his next human encounter. Boredom was truly a fickle emotion.

'Proper distribution would be nice.'

Rather than having to deal with the others close to the end where many uncertain things would happen, Leo would have preferred to encounter a pair every 25 challenges, but life never really gave one what he wanted.

With that in mind, Leo went past the portal and quickly reached the 51st challenge's instructions, only for a frown to rise on his face.

{ Challenge 66: Reach the portal. }

'I should show contentment more often.'

Leo might have been a little bit too greedy.

- And there you have it folks, five hundred chapters! If I were to be honest, I didn't really think I would reach this milestone this soon, especially when I was having my burn out last years, but I was able to thankfully reach it thanks to God followed by all of your support! I definitely couldn't have reached this point without all of you sticking with me until I returned to writing daily again. Thank you very much and onward to a better milestone! (Maybe 1000 chapters, who knows? ;)

LightningAsura