The shield’s duration was 10 seconds.

Clang-!

Thanks to the damage reduction effect attached to the shieldbearer(4) synergy, the shield’s effectiveness was maximized even further.

With no need to worry about defense, my attacks became all the more unrestrained.

The shield began to dance.

Vroom-!

Boom-!

[Dice of Fortune x6: Attack power and spell power increase by +42.]

“Block it, quickly!”

Melchapin’s shout echoed from afar.

He must have judged that the battle couldn’t drag on any longer.

The Dice of Fortune was a stack-type item, so its value was high, but it wasn’t an item with particularly strong effects.

Its effect only triggered upon landing a critical hit, and even then, it merely increased attack power and spell power.

Considering the difficult condition of landing critical hits, the return on investment wasn’t particularly high.

But my situation was a little different.

With my overwhelming combat prowess as a foundation, I could push my critical hit rate to its absolute limit.

Which meant I could extract the maximum effect from the Dice of Fortune.

Of course, as the battlefield’s level rose, so did the average skill of the champions, meaning I couldn’t keep fighting like this indefinitely.

Just looking at the Original champion I’d encountered during the Placement Exam—the shieldbearer Para—I couldn’t be certain that such attacks would land.

‘I want to fight him again.’

A competitive spirit flared up in that instant.

Even I still hadn’t fully grasped how far my combat abilities had improved.

Slither-

Clang-!

What could have triggered such sudden growth that I could afford the luxury of reflection in the middle of a frantic 3-on-1 battle?

It wasn’t as though some unknown talent had suddenly surfaced.

There had to be a reason behind this transformation…

The conversation I’d had with Ariel came to mind.

[“You clearly said before that you were a champion who couldn’t sense mana. I must have been mistaken.”]

[“Let me ask you something. How much do you know about Individuality?”]

Even thinking back on it now, those words still didn’t make sense.

The atmosphere had been so tense at the time that I hadn’t been able to ask properly, but it seemed I needed to confirm it at least once more.

Adjudicator Ariel seemed to know something about my condition.

‘I should ask before purchasing the Mana Booster.’

There was no way Ariel, who possessed the eyes of an Adjudicator, wouldn’t notice that I’d taken a Mana Booster.

Boom-!

[Dice of Fortune x7: Attack power and spell power increase by +49.]

Flop-

A 2-on-1 situation.

The shield was still holding, and I’d accumulated enough stacks.

A situation that seemed headed for a smooth victory.

But the opposing player Melchapin still wore an expression of composure.

Which meant he had another move up his sleeve.

Zap-!

In that instant, my survival instincts rang an alarm.

‘Here it comes!’

And an unexpected variable emerged from an unforeseen direction.

<<Thunder Calling (★★)>>

– Summons magical lightning three times. Each strike deals 100 magic damage to a random enemy.

“A 2-star skill!”

I hadn’t considered it at all.

To think that the mage champion I’d dismissed as a non-factor in this battle possessed a 2-star skill.

Thunder Calling was regarded as one of the premier damage skills among mage-class abilities.

In my case, since I didn’t possess any 2-star skills, the effect of my existing ‘Solid Exoskeleton’ had been enhanced instead.

One might think that was sufficient, but 2-star skills were literally in a different class.

There was an insurmountable wall between 1-star and 2-star skills.

Thunder Calling, dealing a total of 300 magic damage.

And that was without the Mage synergy even activated.

If the Mage synergy that boosted spell power were activated, and core items were stacked on top—just how devastating could it become?

Solid Exoskeleton was a perfectly decent skill, but before a 2-star skill, it looked infinitely pathetic.

Boom-!

Black storm clouds materialized in the sky. Thunder roared, engulfing the battlefield.

A skill that dealt 100 damage three times to random enemies.

I was the only enemy left on the battlefield, so the destination of those strikes was already decided.

The lightning fell.

Flash-!

Vwoomm-

The first bolt was blocked by the shield.

It was a thick shield exceeding 300 HP in value, but thanks to taking attacks from three champions, the shield had finally exhausted its effect.

But two more bolts remained.

Boom-!

Flash-

The second bolt struck down.

Bang-!

Even after shattering the shield, the residual force slammed into my body.

Pareureu-

“Keuk-!”

An electrifying current surged through my entire body, and for a moment, I couldn’t move.

Thwack-!

As a result, I took the enemy Brawler champion’s attack head-on.

Even as the fist connected with my face, I kept my eyes wide open, staring straight ahead.

Flinch.

No matter what happened, I couldn’t lose focus until the very end.

Swallowing the pain, I swung my shield to recover the lost ground.

Vroom-

Vroom-!

The shield, changing direction twice in midair, pierced through the opponent’s guard and struck a vital point.

Boom-!

[Dice of Fortune x8: Attack power and spell power increase by +56.]

Flop-

That took care of all the Brawlers.

Only one mage champion remained.

But closing the distance was difficult for the moment.

Because lightning was still raining down on me.

Boom-!

“Keok-!”

I took the hit directly without a shield.

A pain as if all the blood in my body evaporated at once.

My blood vessels burned, leaving dark marks visible through my skin.

Still, it was a relief that Thunder Calling’s damage came divided across three strikes.

The damage-reducing shieldbearer(4) synergy applied to each strike individually, allowing me to reduce a total of 60 damage.

One step, two steps.

“Keuk-“

Agonizing pain accompanied every step, but I pressed forward without showing it.

I couldn’t eliminate the mage without getting within range.

Clang-!

During my approach, another mana orb came flying, and I absorbed the impact with my shield while charging forward.

My body was already a wreck, while the mage attacking freely from the rear remained unscathed.

We were both 2-star champions—an equal footing in that regard.

‘One misstep and I could lose.’

This was a tougher battle than I’d anticipated.

Still, there was one piece of good news.

The fact that the skill had been used only well after the battle began meant Thunder Calling required a substantial amount of mana.

Which meant I no longer had to fear the lightning.

‘Die-!’

Once in range, I immediately swung my shield.

With bloodshot eyes, I aimed for the bastard’s skull.

Pajik-!

The mage responded calmly, firing a mana orb.

Choosing to attack instead of defend—he must have known my HP was running low.

When trading blows, the one with more HP left would be the victor.

But there was one thing the bastard had overlooked.

At this late stage of the battle, my attack power far exceeded that of an ordinary champion.

Vroom-

‘You’ll regret taking that hit.’

Bang-!

The swiftly flying mana orb struck me directly, but compared to the pain I’d just experienced, it was nothing.

It fell slightly short of stopping my momentum.

Boom-!

My shield crashed into the bastard’s head.

[Dice of Fortune x9: Attack power and spell power increase by +63.]

Crash-!

This single blow couldn’t finish the enemy off.

Even as a mage, being a 2-star champion meant HP was still substantial.

“Eueu-“

The enemy champion struck by the attack was reeling, unable to collect himself.

The impact, exceeding all expectations, had rattled his brain.

“Just one more hit, just one more!”

Hearing Melchapin’s shout, the mage tried to force himself up from his position, but there was no need to give him time.

The moment he tried to move, my shield had already reached him.

“Damn it!!!”

I caught Melchapin’s expression of bitter defeat, and the enemy’s figure vanished from my field of vision.

The long battle had finally come to an end.

【+4G】

▶ Basic reward of 4 gold has been granted.

*Held gold: 4G

‘That was close.’

Melchapin had assembled an absurd deck by round 3-1: four Brawlers plus a 2-star champion.

‘Did he pour all his gold into maintaining the win streak?’

That would only have been possible with tremendous luck on his side.

Brawler decks lost steam toward the late game, so the standard strategy was to build a gold advantage through early win streaks and widen the gap.

A loss at this timing would deal catastrophic damage to him.

The moment his win streak snapped, it was essentially a death sentence.

My situation wasn’t much different.

With the loss streak bonus and interest income gone, the gold I could earn per round had plummeted from 11 to 4.

Still, the biggest difference between him and me was that this situation was all part of my plan.

As soon as the battle ended, I checked the refreshed shop.

《LV.5 Shop》

Avatar of the Darkness Assassin ‘Korku’ (★) – 3G

Avatar of the Forest Druid ‘Reksai’ (★) – 3G

Shieldbearer (★) – 1G

“There it is.”

Against low odds, two 3-Cost champions had appeared in the level 5 shop.

But my attention was nowhere near them.

The 1-Cost Shieldbearer I’d been searching for had appeared in the shop.

【-1G】

▶ Spent 1 gold to hire Shieldbearer (★)

That made seven.

Only two steps remained until the goal.

【+2XP】

▶ Level 5 reached! You can deploy an additional champion.

As the rounds progressed, I naturally reached level 5.

By choosing the 48 Reroll strategy, my level-up was somewhat slower compared to others, but my tempo was by no means slow.

No, it was actually extremely fast.

Having invested 50 gold into strengthening my deck from the very beginning, there was no way it could be slow.

In the natural flow of the battlefield, decks typically began taking shape from round 3-5, after the Shared Selection Round.

But I had already succeeded in building a complete deck by round 3-2.

Thanks to choosing the 48 Reroll strategy, I was three rounds ahead of everyone else.

I’d drained all my gold, so my late-game scaling would suffer, but once I created a 3-star shieldbearer, everything would be resolved.

I spent 3 HP to revive the fallen shieldbearers and immediately sent them to the waiting room.

Remaining HP: 61.

It was cutting it close, but there was no need to worry.

Everything was unfolding within my calculations.

I deployed four Bards into the empty slots, and a new synergy activated.

<Activated Synergy>

– Bard(4): Whenever a Bard uses a skill, allies excluding Bards recover 10 mana.

Here was a summary of the Bard champions I possessed:

Retroka (★)

– Bard

– HP: 130/130

– Mana: 10/60

– Song of Peace (★): Disarms one enemy champion impressed by the song for 3 seconds.

Pisate (★)

– Bard

– HP: 140/140

– Mana: 30/40

– Decrescendo (★): Weakens a random enemy for 4 seconds. The weakened enemy’s damage output is reduced by 25%.

Lennon (★)

– Bard

– HP: 140/140

– Mana: 0/60

– Guardian’s Performance (★): Grants an 80-point shield to the ally with the lowest current HP.

Kutru (★)

– Light

– Bard

– HP: 170/170

– Mana: 0/70

– Hymn of Hope (★): Grants 2 seconds of damage immunity to the nearest allied champion including the caster.

None of them had skills that dealt damage to enemies, but each one possessed buff and debuff skills.

The most crucial champion among them was none other than the 1-Cost Bard, Pisate.

The reason was the low mana cost required for the skill.

The skill’s effect itself wasn’t particularly important.

What mattered was being able to use skills more frequently than others.

Because that meant I could fill my own mana that much faster.

The mana required for Solid Exoskeleton was 80.

That wasn’t a low number.

But with the Bards’ mana pumping, I could keep cycling the skill.

Before the previously cast shield disappeared, that is.

‘An infinite shield is now possible.’