Finally
Fan Lixin and Enoch perked up and immediately stared at the Afterimage.
The next second, Havel moved.
The mountain-like monster suddenly took a step forward, brandishing its Dragon Tooth, and smashed it down on the Afterimage with a ferocious momentum.
Faced with a terrifying blow that seemed capable of flattening a small hill, the Architect's Afterimage, clad in thin armor, did not use any movement skills to create distance.
Instead, it moved directly forward, then, in a low, crouching position, almost touching the ferocious attack, it executed a smooth roll forward.
Her posture was light and graceful, her movements crisp and clean, with a beauty akin to dancing on a knife's edge.
The dragon-tooth club, leaving a Afterimage, slammed heavily into the ground, the violent shockwave instantly shattering the rocky surface.
But the Afterimage, which was in a rolling state, seemed to become blurred at this moment, completely exempt from all physical collisions, and passed by unscathed.
They dodged it.
Havel missed his attack and immediately changed tactics. Despite being heavily armored and having a mountain-like physique that made him appear incredibly clumsy, his attacks were surprisingly methodical and organized.
When he swung his Dragon Tooth tooth club, although his initial strike carried the sluggishness and heaviness characteristic of heavy weapons, the subsequent sweeping, backhand slam, and follow-up spin were all quite fast, and the connection between his attacks could be described as completely impenetrable.
The ferocious power combined with the extremely oppressive attack frequency directly blocked all of the Architect's Afterimage's escape routes.
However, despite this suffocating offensive, the Architect's Afterimage remained completely untouched.
Her rolling motion seems to have an invincible time limit.
Every time it looked like the Dragon Fang Club was about to hit her, she always managed to tumble past the death line.
If I had to describe it in one word, it would be "skilled".
There wasn't a single unnecessary movement.
He rolled over, got up, and swung his sword.
There are no fancy skills involved.
With just this simple movement, he suffered no damage whatsoever, yet his straight sword skillfully dodged the shield and continued to strike Havel.
Moreover, once she lands a successful blow, she never hesitates to strike again.
It truly was like dancing on a knife's edge.
On the other side.
Seeing this scene...
Fan Lixin and Enoch's eyes widened little by little.
--Relying on the invincibility frames from rolling to avoid damage, then getting close to find an opening and using basic attacks? Is that all?
"So that's how you fight monsters in dungeons?! It requires strategic teamwork?!"
Enoch couldn't help but look at Fan Lixin: "So simple?! It's just a matter of rolling on the ground?! It adds invincibility frames to the roll?! No wonder they dared to make the dungeon monsters so ridiculously large! But what kind of combat is this?!"
It's obvious.
He thought this was too simplistic!
After all, anyone can do a somersault.
Not to mention that he is known for his agility.
Fan Lixin ignored him—he was thinking.
Sekiro is all about weapon combat, Sifu is all about bare hands, and now... is it finally time to roll around in the air?
Besides, is it really as simple as it looks?
Fan Lixin watched the agile Architect's Afterimage. The roll did indeed seem to grant invincibility for a period of time—but surely not for the entire roll?
Just as Fan Lixin was lost in thought, the Afterimage rolling around under the dragon tooth club in front of him suddenly began to blur.
Immediately afterwards, accompanied by specks of blue light scattering, the Architect's Afterimage completely vanished into the air.
Clang.
A crisp metallic thud rang out as the simple, unadorned straight sword fell to the ground.
The Afterimage disappeared.
Weapon dropped!
Enoch turned his head sharply to look at Fan Lixin, only to find that he was standing still, showing no intention of rushing up to snatch it.
The top player from Prison Rock was stunned for a moment, then burst into exaggerated speed and rushed towards the straight sword.
In his view.
The demonstration of the Afterimage just now has revealed almost all the mechanics of the new dungeon.
That seemingly simple roll was clearly accompanied by an invincibility period.
If you roll the instant the monster's attack lands, you can use this invincibility period to avoid all damage!
Since there is an invincibility mechanic, as long as you master the rhythm, there is no attribute suppression.
Who can't be beaten?
On the other side...
Fan Lixin watched Enoch's wolfish, predatory back as he pounced on his prey, and gently clenched his fist.
Still nothing.
Although it looks simple.
But he recalled how extreme each of the Architect's Afterimage' rolls were—
In addition to Lu Xiu's past achievements----
We're still planning to observe first; if we lose this battle to retake it, so be it.
After all, Lu Xiu's Sifu's Neutralize made it seem effortless—it felt like anyone could become a grandmaster, but once the players entered the instance, they all became punching bags to be ganged up on.
Does a simple demonstration mean it's easy to operate in practice?
Absolutely impossible.
There's definitely a trap.
So Fan Lixin stood there, watching helplessly as Enoch snatched the straight sword.
And then Enoch picked up the straight sword.
His health points suddenly surged.
The attributes have clearly changed.
Almost simultaneously, Havel, having lost his aggro from the Afterimage, instantly locked onto Enoch was wielding a straight sword.
Call!
He immediately charged towards Enoch, raising his dragon tooth club high with a whooshing sound.
Enoch stared at the raised dragon tooth club.
"----Rolling around is invincible, now's the time!"
The moment the dragon tooth club began to fall.
Enoch immediately relied on his proud agility to confidently lower his center of gravity and neatly complete a roll forward!
He had even already conceived his attack posture after rolling up in his mind.
However----
As he completed the somersault at lightning speed, he confidently prepared to swing his sword.
To their surprise, they found that the light overhead was still blocked.
Enoch abruptly raised his head.
Fast and slow blades!
Bang!!!
Puff!
Enoch suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and was slammed to the ground with a thud.
The surrounding pebbles suddenly jumped up.
It's easy to imagine how high Havel's strength attribute is.
"Wait a minute! The Architect's Afterimage was so fluid just now—"
He coughed up blood, struggled to get up, and his face was full of disbelief.
But he hadn't finished speaking.
Havel then slightly raised his Dragon Fang Club and slammed it down with a backhand!
Bang!!!
Enoch didn't even have time to let out a scream.
Not far away.
Fan Lixin glanced at the Enoch sauce on the ground, then at Havel, whose gaze had turned to him.
He slapped me right on the forehead.
He knew it!
Enoch's mistake was not watching the promotional clips for the new Lu Xiu dungeon. If he had watched the clip of Lu Xiu verifying the Sifu, he probably wouldn't have rushed in just now.
Lu Xiu can dance on the edge of a knife by performing extreme tumbling with absolutely no room for error.
That's because she's a monster too.
It's really that simple.
Then the entire Nine Provinces would be filled with Deflect masters and Neutralize masters.
But as it turns out...
Most players can only learn the basics.
This instance probably looks simple too----
No.
It doesn't look simple either.
Fan Lixin recalled the Architect's Afterimage's fluid movements and the fate of Enoch- chan, and shook his head.
Enoch was by no means weak, and was known for his agility, yet he was killed instantly upon first contact.
Invincible rolling time?
Definitely.
But that decision window is ridiculously short; if you flip it even 0.1 seconds earlier or later, the outcome could be the same as Enoch's.
Just as Fan Lixin was pondering this, Havel had already rushed towards him.
Fan Lixin snapped back to his senses, cautiously used his movement skill, and retreated rapidly, beginning to kite the enemy using the terrain and distance.
Then, after circling Havel twice, he seized the opportunity to slide tackle and retrieve the fallen straight sword from the ground.
The moment the sword hilt touched my hand.
His attributes also changed.
However, Fan Lixin didn't even have time to sense how much the attribute had changed.
Because Havel's mountain-like shadow had already enveloped him.
Fan Lixin took a deep breath.
In any case, now that we've got the weapon, we should at least try out the monsters in the new dungeon.
"Come on." Fan Lixin stopped running away.
A fierce wind howled.
Havel swung his Dragon Fang club again, bringing it crashing down with overwhelming force.
Fan Lixin stared intently at the enormous dragon tooth club, recalling Lu Xiu's Afterimage movements.
"Don't look at when the enemy raises their weapon, look at when the weapon actually falls—fast or slow—it's now!"
Just as the dragon tooth club was about to fall, Fan Lixin suddenly lowered his body, exerted force with his legs, and rolled forward with the fastest reaction speed he had ever had!
However.
The expected feeling of merging into the void and passing through the attack detection point unscathed did not materialize.
Bang!!!
----The big stick comes first!
A snap.
The sound of the skull breaking was clearly audible.
"----This isn't acceptable? Is this timeframe for judgment even meant for people?!"
A thought flashed through Fan Lixin's mind.
Then he saw Havel raise the Dragon Fang Club again.
Three minutes later.
Swoosh, Coordination Bureau, Rest Room.
Fan Lixin suddenly opened his eyes, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
Although dying in dungeons was already commonplace for him.
But he was still drenched in sweat, because Havel's strength was truly outrageous.
"This is outrageous!"
Fan Lixin stood there blankly, his eyes somewhat unfocused.
Recalling the final, relentless barrage of heavy blows that nearly sealed off all Havel routes, he felt immense pressure.
Recalling the Architect's Afterimage, how he tumbled and dodged with the lightness of the wind, without even his clothes being touched in the storm—
Fan Lixin looked utterly bewildered. "----How on earth did they manage to make it so smooth?"
In fact, Fan Lixin wasn't the only one who thought this way.
At this moment, on the Cross-Realm Arena, players from both the Nine Provinces and Prison Rock factions felt the same way.
System update.
This caused players who had initially decided to run away at the sight of invading enemies to rush back to take on the challenge.
The Architect's Afterimage demonstration and exclusive weapon provided by the system gave all players the illusion that "I can do it too."
After all, judging from the Architect's Afterimage demonstration, the battle looked far too simple.
As long as you seize the right moment and roll over, you'll be fine, right?
However, when they finally grasped the dungeon-specific weapons and faced those monsters, the harsh reality dealt them a heavy blow.
The thrusting attack with a light weapon can come suddenly, without any warning.
Heavy weapons often have fast and slow blades.
--
What's even more frustrating for players is that, not only are bosses and elite enemies like that, but those seemingly ragged zombies can also unleash rapid-fire, Afterimage -like combos.
He's just like Sword Saint!
That's outrageous!
Fast and slow blades, nerve blades, wide-range sweeping attacks, terrifying tracking corrections----
The final result is...
That afternoon, everything was bathed in Bai Guang.
Countless players returned to reality, panting heavily, their eyes glazed over, some clutching their heads, others their chests, their expressions identical—either bewilderment or existential doubt.
Nine Provinces, too.
Prison Rock is fine too.
Angri curses rose and fell.
The forums in both regions exploded!
[How can the roll's invincibility timer be so short! This is simply beyond human reaction time! How can that Architect named Lu Xiu be so smooth! Why?!]
Why is it that the Black Knight wielding the greatsword moves so slowly when he raises it, yet there's not even Afterimage when he brings it down?! This just doesn't make sense!
[How short is the invincibility period? I clearly felt my body had dodged, so how did I still get killed?!]
[I'm seriously impressed. How did Lu Xiu manage that? The Architect's Afterimage dances under Havel's big stick, and I'm about to turn into this? They both look like they're doing the same thing!]
That's not something you can dodge with a simple flip; it requires precise control of spatial distance, accurate prediction of the timing of your attack, extreme reflexes, and exceptional body coordination.
[This is outrageous—how did they even do that?]
Forums for both regions.
Players wailed, complained, were shocked, and couldn't believe it.
Various posts kept appearing.
However, for players in both regions...
Even more despairing things were yet to come.
----Because the torment continues.
This special event, called the Invasion, lasts in sync with the Architect's verification completion phase.
Some players think Lu Xiu will clear the level quickly because her gameplay is incredibly smooth.
Some players, however, felt that she was bound to fail, Architect's memories of Constructed Instance would be stripped away, making it impossible to clear a dungeon of this difficulty in one go!
But after a whole day, most players were so exhausted that they didn't want to go to the arena anymore.
The intrusion activities, however, continue.
Next.
Evening has passed.
It's still ongoing!
It was almost midnight when the truce was about to begin!
The intrusion activity is still ongoing!
Lu Xiu neither passed the test nor failed.
Yan Fushou was already panicking.
"No----"
Upon hearing from the Strategy Group members that the invasion was still ongoing, Yan Fushou abruptly stood up. "Still not cleared?! It's been a whole day already!"
The intrusion is ongoing.
This indicates that Lu Xiu is still progressing through the dungeon.
She played so smoothly in the dungeon, how come she didn't even manage to clear it after a whole day?
Just how outrageous is the size and overall difficulty of this dungeon?!
At the same time.
Inside the instance.
The gloomy sky made people feel extremely depressed.
Ashes fell like snowflakes, and everywhere one looked were crumbling stone pillars and ruins weathered by time.
This is the Kiln of the First Flame.
--
It is also the end of the long journey of the dungeon.
"Call----"
Lu Xiu, carrying the Moonlight Greatsword, was completely unaware of what was happening in the outside world and felt utterly hopeless.
I'm absolutely exhausted.
We played all day long!
No matter how resilient she is, or how familiar she is with the dungeon, such a long period of time is enough to completely drain her energy.
And then she got stuck on the details.
I just wanted to complete the game in one go, so I deliberately didn't use the Bonfire escape mechanism.
It can be said that they fought until the very end.
Lu Xiu is now relying entirely on willpower.
Fortunately, her memory was unaffected, and she knew the entire dungeon's process perfectly; otherwise, she really wouldn't have been able to complete it.
certainly.
This near-extreme exploitation wasn't without its benefits—it allowed her to reach the pinnacle of control over her body.
I don't think I'll experience any discomfort anymore.
In reality, with so many challenging dungeons built, the impact has become minimal.
However, there is still one thing: the memories of the previous life are too vivid.
For example, her chest area—she didn't know if it was genetic or because her grandmother fed her too well when she was little, but the size was a bit excessive. It wasn't particularly exaggerated, but it did cause occasional discomfort.
But now, the situation is different.
Having rolled around for so long, and considering the effects of the previous Constructed Instance, she has completely adapted to her body.
It's just... so tiring.
But at least it's alright.
The dungeon is about to end.
Lu Xiu exhaled a final breath of stale air, then looked up into the distance.