Only I Am A Reader
chapter-526

Roarrrrrr!

'Finally.'

What was once a huge red blob had now taken the shape of something much more fearsome. A giant mass of hostility.

At first, there was a lion's face, then it became that of a tiger, a wolf… By the time its face stopped changing, even the chimera that Leo read about in other books looked more natural than the thing he had to face.

'I feel sorry for the gargoyles.'

The deformed Gargoyles might have looked too ugly compared to Murim's chiseled monsters, but only something like this deserved to be called an abomination.

It was like someone grabbed Earth's biggest zoo and dropped it into the blender before adding garnish. Its natural creepy red made it look like it took a dive in the blood pool that Leo's massacre had created.

In a way, it seemed like the invaders were trying to ridicule Earth by deforming familiar creatures and pitting them against the challengers.

'It's childish but effective.'

Earth's Heroes might have gotten used to handling normal monsters, but when it came to the invaders, their methods didn't stop at the visual level.

Just like the summoned monstrosity, a measure of mental erosion was added to the red abomination. As long as it incited any kind of negative emotion in its opponent's head, that emotion was immediately amplified.

Such mental tricks might be useless against absolute strength, but in a close battle, being disheartened was enough to incur a complete loss.

'Not for me though.'

From the very start, Leo was operating with the knowledge that such an effect would be applied, allowing him to resist whatever feelings rose from it. In addition, his superior Enigma immediately suppressed all foreign interference.

Finally, Leo was someone who had to endure the rough emotional waves that reading brought him. Aside from the few times that he was ambushed by these suppressed emotions, his mental resilience was on another level compared to most Ability Users.

'Mind seems worth investing in.'

Most importantly, even those rowdy emotions had been getting more and more obedient as of late. Considering that his Mind Stat was currently at its highest, Leo attributed this change to it.

'Regardless, it's useless when it comes to Earth anyway.'

Naturally, such petty tricks didn't work against Earth's true Hero. Just as it kept her from seeing how tragic her role was, Aurora's ability granted her Max-level Mental Resistance!

Moreover, it was somewhat funny seeing the supposedly superior invaders use such tricks. In the end, while the ruckus they would cause left Earth in a wounded state, this was but a futile attempt.

As long as Aurora existed, they could never attain what they desired!

'Well, except that I have to find a different solution to that now.'

Seeing that his target was about to move, Leo focused on the Enigma that he had been saving until now. The reason he didn't go all-out against the monster waves was all for this.

'I need to make something that can treat this Miniboss as a mob.'

Unlike what the red abomination's size, shape, and form implied, this monster wasn't the Final Challenge's last obstacle.

Although the novel gave it the majestic title of a Miniboss, in reality, it was nothing but a big time-waster.

'A strong time-waster.'

As tricky as some of them were, the initial challenges' goals were still pretty simple. However, the Final Challenge didn't follow such expectations.

Destroying the Encroachment Tower required the challengers to follow a specific manner of attack. There were no hints or sneak peeks this time, the Tower-destroying rules were something that they had to discover on their own.

Naturally, there was no such obstacle in Leo's path.

'It's no different from a game's subjugation strategy.'

Just like a common game boss, the Tower had basic Battle Phases. In game terminology the boss monster known as the Encroachment Tower had an invincibility period during the first Battle Phase, Double Monster Waves!

The cheat effect didn't only last for the whole battle no matter how long it lasted, but it also extended to the second phase, Miniboss Rampage. One could only damage the tower after the Miniboss was exterminated.

'It would have been normal if that was the end, but it isn't.'

Unfortunately, rather than that being the final Phase, the attack window was nothing but a time-limited one.

As long as the Encroachment Tower was still standing by the time it ended, the first two Phases would automatically start once again, presenting an increasing level of difficulty to the challengers!

Of course, in games, dealing damage between attack Phases was extremely normal. However, when a fate-deciding clock was ticking, one couldn't leisurely handle it in that manner.

With burdens to carry on her back, Aurora struggled to figure everything out, so she was only able to destroy the Encroachment Tower on the third cycle.

Thanks to that, she was able to find out that the Tower's defenses would get weaker starting from the second cycle… Just as the percentage kept increasing even further. The final number that Aurora saw before the Tower collapsed was a whopping 39%!

In this way, the Gate's creator deemed that chances were more balanced by making the passing of time valuable for both sides.

The more time the monsters took to finish the challengers, the less likely it was for the Encroachment Tower to reach full percentage from the get-go.

At the same time, as long as they managed to stall the challengers, their chances of stopping the invasion got smaller with each and every second that passed…

Very later on in the novel, it was even mentioned that after a certain number of cycles had passed, the Encroachment Tower properly played its roles and took on the form of the Final Boss.

If it hadn't reached full charge by then, it used the challengers' blood to accelerate the Encroachment rate even further!

Just as Leo was recalling these useless details, his shadow extended to cover the entire ground all the way up to the Miniboss.

Compared to every other option that left him with a disadvantage, Leo only had one plan.

'Go wild.'

He was going to end the Tower within the very first cycle!