The System Tower Spectating Stadium

"Hot damn! The Princess of Chaos has just been blasted by a Time Pulse!!!" Ruri Ripple exclaims as her voice echoes throughout the spectating stadium. With the image of Ashley being slammed into by a large beam of orange energy. Of time mana. "Will she be able to shake this off?!"

Ruri watches Ashley being sent all the way off of the tower by the pulse. Meanwhile Ashley's body quickly begins to turn pale gray with an orange outline shining around it.

But mere seconds after her entire body turns gray, a wave of black and crimson energy snaps from her body, following which her body suddenly turns back to normal. And the pulse ends soon after that, leaving Ashley blinking for a moment.

"And it looks like the great Ashley Chaos won't be defeated by time after all!!!" Ruri shouts while pumping both of her fists up into the air.

The audience watching, consisting of billions of people, all roar out their applause.

After breaking out of the time freeze, Ashley flies straight back towards the tower as the golem drops to one knee. Clearly taking a moment to recharge.

Then Ashley does something shocking in the eyes of the audience.

The moment she gets close to the large golem, she folds both of her wings in front of her and slashes at her own wings with her claws. Cutting into them and making her blood pour out all over the large golem.

And every part of the golem that her blood touches begins to mutate a little bit.

Nowhere near as much as other creatures would mutate, but the outer layer of it begins to turn into tentacles, scales, skin, and even bare flesh. Meanwhile Ashley seems to use blood magic to control her own blood and force it to cover the monster's entire body.

And when Ashley's True Damage gaze lands on the mutated flesh, it quickly begins to destroy it at a much faster pace than before.

"A self-destructive type of attack from the Princess of Chaos?! I never would've expected that!" Ruri shouts while holding her fists tightly in front of her in excitement. "But who would be surprised by unexpected actions from her? She is the Princess of Chaos after all!"

Although the injuries on her wings don't take long to regenerate. And while they do that, Ashley begins to slash at the golem over and over again. Cutting through the mutated parts with ease.

"I can't wait to see how far she gets in the System Tower!" Ruri says without taking her eyes off the screen in front of her as Ashley continues fighting against the large golem. "And more importantly, will Ashley actually manage to reach the System Tower's Unique Boss?! And will she be able to take its skills?!"

It's a highly debated topic across the forums now. Whether Ashley will be able to reach it, and whether she will be able to take his skills even if she's only facing off against a clone.

Some people are saying they don't believe Ashley will be able to defeat a fully grown Unique Monster. Even if it's just a clone.

Others are saying it won't be difficult simply because she's Ashley.

And a lot of people are wondering if she will even be able to take the skills of a clone, or if she won't receive anything from it.

"Wait, will Ashley be able to defeat this thing?" Ruri asks when she and the many viewers see Ashley struggling to harm the golem's core. As the core itself regenerates any and all damage by reversing time on itself before it can be destroyed.

They all watch Ashley try one thing after another.

Powerful blasts of destruction energy, breath attacks, using her claws and even her fangs. But nothing works.

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Not even using other types of magic.

Even her True Damage skill isn't able to destroy it faster than it reverses time on itself.

"This is starting to look-" Ruri starts only to stop when she sees Ashley doing something strange.

Instead of attacking the core, Ashley begins picking apart the golem one bit after another. All the way until the golem's core is the very last thing remaining of it.

Leaving Ashley tired and wounded afterwards. Even if she is quickly regenerating at the same time.

"What's she doin'?" Ruri mutters while tilting her head. Meanwhile the audience grows quieter at the sight.

Until Ashley picks up the core and begins making an orange, amber-like substance slowly begin coating the core. Reminding Ruri and everyone of the last time Ashley used this very skill.

And the person whose arm is still locked in time. Frozen in a cocoon of what many people are calling time amber.

"This may be the only way to kill the golem," Ruri mutters, feeling surprised at the sight of it. She then looks at the audience as Ashley continues gradually freezing the core in time. "Most of the Primordial Trials in the System Tower can only be cleared by Successors. They're just that difficult. And even most of those Successors don't kill the bosses of the Primordial Trials. They clear every other objective and leave the Trials."

Ruri and everyone else in the audience watch as the core finally gets fully sealed away in time. And the System itself recognizes Ashley as having defeated the boss of the Domain.

The host grins and claps her hands before declaring, "I can't wait to see the little lady clear every Domain just like this one!"

And the audience immediately roars at her words, showing their agreement in the clearest way possible.

Ashley

The moment I finish sealing away the core, a System Message flashes across my vision.

To all the participants of the quest, Clocktower of Time, the quest has been updated!

Clocktower of Time

Objective 1: Kill the Timestricken Clockwork Overlord.

Objective 2: Kill all monsters within the tower.

Objective 3: Kill all Timeworn Clockworks within the tower.

Objective 4: Find the Jewel of Time.

Objective 5: Survive for 12 hours within the Clocktower of Time.

Select here to complete the quest!

I ignore the prompt after reading through it. Just turning my attention towards the skies around the tower.

It looks like there are still some monsters remaining. And on top of that, I have to deal with finding that Jewel of Time thing.

If I had to guess, that Jewel of Time probably has some monsters guarding it. So that's probably where the remaining monsters are.

I've already killed all the Timeworn Clockworks though, which is interesting. And I've apparently been in this Domain for longer than I thought. Considering that I've apparently already cleared the objective for surviving for half a day.

With that thought, I wait a little while for my wings to regenerate completely. Which doesn't take anywhere near as long as I expected it would. Then I fly into the sky and begin searching around the large tower.

And I just continue flying for what feels like hours. And hours.

And hours.

Eventually I finally find something in the form of some large bird-like clockworks. Which quickly prove to be rather easy to kill in comparison to the overlord. But still take up some energy to do so.

I soon begin to pant in exhaustion though as I feel my energy slowly draining away as I kill them. To the point that I stop using energy while fighting them just to save up the last of the energy and mana I have left.

Focusing entirely on tearing these monsters apart by hand.

And while I do that, I can't help but look at the new root skill I got for killing that overlord. The boss of the Domain.

{Intermediate Timebound Regeneration – This skill grants the user a passive regeneration through time. Making their body automatically revert in time to full health.}

Interesting.

Very interesting.

It's definitely the reason why it took such little time to heal my wings.

Although I'm a little surprised the boss didn't give me a higher stage of time mana manipulation.

Then again, I've been wanting a powerful regeneration skill like this for a while now. So I'm rather happy with this result.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Skill Tree gives a higher stage time mana manipulation skill later on in the tree.

For now I just need to find this jewel though.

Wherever it is.