[ You have absorbed the blood essence of a ‘Whack Mole’, purification in progress… ]

[ You have obtained 119,720 EP! ]

‘Finally…’

Although the number of moles within the final mini-gate was only slightly more than the earlier eight gates combined, I ended up spending over 5 hours before I managed to clear it.

Random attack patterns coupled with the ‘siege’ distribution did more than a small tool on me, even as I started to get used to it, I would occasionally miss one attack and end up losing a scale or two. 

Fortunately, it wasn’t a thankless task. By the time the last mole fell under my spear, I could tell that my fighting style returned to being flexible, rather, I felt even more flexible than before!

Not only were the bad fighting habits that I picked up on the first floor erased, but my EP bar was also close to filling up. All in all, both the time and the few dozen scales that I ‘spent’ were more than worth it.

‘Hmm?’

However, as I collapsed with my back to the wall to finally get some rest, I was alarmed to see an opening that I didn’t recognize ‘clearing’. According to my memory, that location didn’t even have an opening. Furthermore…

‘Doesn’t this look incredibly familiar…?’

A peculiar blue light seemed to be shining from within, growing brighter by the second, violating the law of ‘Absolute Darkness’…

Faint red color danced within the icy-looking blue, revealing a sight that was too familiar to pass as a coincidence!

‘The Trial of Ice & Fire!’

Disregarding the reason for its appearance within the mini-gate rather than in the main underground cave, this phenomenon was most definitely identical to my memory. Its sequence of order was slightly off, but the components were undeniably the same!

‘Did I seriously pull a repeat?’

Although the possibility of a legacy repeating wasn’t that low if one were to consider the limited number of those ‘Ancient’ powerhouses, me pulling a ‘dud’ like this felt wrong in many ways.

Of all the demon bases in the whole Lost Realm, I had only entered two such bases, for my third to have a copy legacy was… unexpected.

Unless there were only these two legacies around, the probability of my running into a repeat was very low, yet such a probability seemed to prove its possibility just before my eyes!

‘I should be satisfied with what I received already…’

Despite feeling a great need to ‘curse the RNG’, I calmed down as I knew more than to be overly greedy.

While my probability of finding a Demon Base Corruption Base with a different legacy was much higher, I doubted that I had a high probability of encountering such a perfect training gate like this one. So I decided to accept the result wholeheartedly.

Besides, although I couldn’t confirm it, both the location of my current gate and my first one coincided too much. There were even many familiarities that they shared. Considering this, I couldn’t simply attribute it all to having bad luck…

‘I need to rest first.’

Still, I didn’t rush to enter the trial that I already experienced as I sat in place to rest. The fatigue that I accumulated while clearing the ‘finale’ was too much to gloss over.

Regardless of the repeated legacy, the ‘Second Floor’ was surely not empty, rushing into it in my current state was no wise decision.

`~~`~~`~~`

5 hours later…

After resting for a bit and replaying the battle I just had for insights, I took a nap to recover from both fatigue and the bone mass loss that resulted from the destruction of my dragon scales.

“Meow…”

Moreover, thanks to Light, I didn’t only recover from physical fatigue but mental fatigue as well. Although I still had a bad impression due to me pulling a ‘dud’, I felt great and ready to crash into the second floor!

Standing before the hole the peculiar opening, I stepped into it with confidence to get it over with. The pain and confusion that I experienced back then were still etched in my mind, but I was confident this time with ‘Transcendent Immunity’ in my arsenal.

‘It’s relaxing…?’

After I stepped into the opening, I was enveloped by the dancing icy fire. However, unlike the faint pain that I expected, I felt soothed instead!

‘Is it because it’s the second time or…?’

My relaxation only intensified though I was suspended in place. As my mind felt very clear as a result, I couldn’t help but ponder the cause of this sensation.

The first thing that popped up to mind was the ‘repeat’ itself, but that didn’t feel right. Rather, I leaned more towards it being caused by my mastery of ‘Icy Fire Formula’, the resonance I felt in my heart was more than enough proof for that!

As for the relaxation that spread all over my body, I quickly attributed it to my ‘Icy Fire Physique’ that was developed under these conditions before I pushed my thoughts away to focus on enjoying the moment…

However, before I got to relax enough to sleep after just waking up, the system’s voice sounded out in my mind.

[ A set of data has been sent to the evaluator from an unknown source… ]

[ Evaluating… ]

[ Confirmed that the data sender has no malicious intent! ]

[ Digesting the data… ]

[ Initiating situation explanation using the newly received data… ]

[ You have been transferred to- Error! ]

[ The set of data has been abruptly retracted! ]

‘Eh?’

I ignored the notification at the beginning considering they were just a repeat of the usual monologue, but I was surprised to get an error in the end!

‘Did the repeat cause some sort of malfunction?’

Just as I was having countless thoughts regarding the situation, I suddenly lost the soothing sensation that enveloped me, I was now…

‘Another inner cave…?’

No longer suspended in nowhere, I fell into a mini-sized inner cave that had one small opening in its center. Making me feel a weird sense of deja vu.

‘Is there is no end to this?’

{I really can’t believe it! There is no way someone is listening to this, right?}

Before I even managed to complain, a familiar voice sounded it out in my mind only to end up confusing me even more.