Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Anna sighed. ”Then listen carefully.”

Her expression turned serious. ”The first several shadows are difficult, but talented newcomers can still handle them. The real separation starts around the seventh shadow. From there on, the trial stops caring whether you’re merely strong for your cultivation realm, and it begins testing whether you have what it takes to stand among the true geniuses of the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage.”

Damian leaned forward slightly.

”Do you know how many people who enter the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage ever manage to beat the eighth shadow?” Anna asked.

Max shook his head.

Anna raised two fingers. ”Roughly twenty percent.”

Max’s expression shifted a little.

Revona frowned. ”Only twenty percent?”

Anna nodded. ”And keep in mind what that number represents. I’m not talking about ordinary cultivators from random worlds. Almost everyone who reaches the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage is already considered talented wherever they came from. They’re geniuses chosen from their races, sects, families, clans, universes, or great factions, and many of them dominated their entire generation before arriving here.”

She tapped the table lightly. ”Yet out of all those people, only about one in five ever defeats the eighth shadow.”

The weight of that statistic settled over the room. Twenty percent might sound like a lot on its own, but within the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage, it described an exceptionally small group. Everyone who entered this place had already been filtered before they arrived, so standing above eighty percent of them was hardly something anyone could call ordinary.

Anna looked straight at Max. ”So when I say I cleared eight shadows, it means I reached a level that roughly eighty percent of participants never touch.”

Max nodded slowly. ”That does sound much better when you put it that way.”

Anna gave him a cold look. ”I didn’t explain it to make myself sound better.”

”Of course not,” Max replied.

Damian turned his face slightly to hide a smile, and Anna ignored him.

”The ninth shadow is where things get truly ridiculous,” she continued. ”The gap between the eighth and the ninth is far larger than most newcomers imagine. Beating the eighth doesn’t mean you’re anywhere close to beating the ninth.”

”How rare is it?” Revona asked.

Anna turned to her. ”Across the entire history of the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage, only around ten percent of participants have ever defeated the ninth shadow.”

Max’s gaze sharpened. Ten percent meant one in ten, and once again, these weren’t ten random cultivators. They were ten geniuses who had already been selected out of countless worlds and factions before they were ever allowed into a place like the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage.

”Honestly, even that ten percent can be misleading,” Anna added, ”because it includes records piled up over an enormous span of time and countless generations. In any single city or generation, people who clear the ninth shadow are extremely rare.”

She paused briefly before looking at the three of them. ”Do you remember the Bloodstone City Rankings?”

Max nodded, and the names of the city’s hundred strongest participants surfaced in his mind at once.

”There are a hundred names on that ranking,” Anna said, ”and those people are already considered the strongest active geniuses connected to Bloodstone City.”

She raised two fingers again. ”So how many people in the whole city have defeated the ninth shadow?”

Damian’s expression turned serious. ”Two?”

Anna nodded. ”Exactly two.”

Max understood immediately. ”The top two?”

”Yes,” Anna replied. ”Greyon of the Dragon Race and Hemilin of the Angel Race. Out of everyone currently active in Bloodstone City, they’re the only two confirmed to have beaten the ninth shadow of the Ten Shadows Trial.”

Revona’s eyes narrowed slightly. ”What about Raymond?”

”You mean the third-ranked Primordial?” Anna asked.

Revona nodded.

Anna shook her head. ”Eight shadows.”

That answer put everything into perspective right away. Raymond was ranked third in all of Bloodstone City, while Daniel was seventh, Bregor was eighth, and Shreya was fifth. These were people who had survived in the outer layer for years, fought geniuses from all five universes, and built names strong enough to appear on the city’s ranking. Even among them, beating the ninth shadow remained extraordinarily rare.

Anna looked toward Max again. ”Now do you see why your ’only eight’ irritated me?”

Max smiled faintly. ”A little.”

Anna narrowed her eyes. ”A little?”

”I understand completely.”

”That sounds better.”

Damian finally asked the question all three of them had started thinking about. ”And the tenth shadow?”

The mood in the room shifted, and Anna became noticeably more solemn. ”The tenth shadow is a different matter entirely.”

Max watched her closely.

”If beating the eighth shadow proves you’re an elite newcomer, and beating the ninth proves you’re one of the greatest geniuses of your generation,” Anna said, ”then clearing all ten puts you in a category of your own.”

She paused. ”The records we bought contain statistics gathered over countless generations, and according to them, fewer than one percent of everyone who has ever entered the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage has defeated all ten shadows.”

Revona’s expression changed. ”Less than one percent?” ⅇ

Anna nodded. ”And even that figure comes from accumulated historical records. There have been entire generations where nobody cleared all ten.”

Max looked back at the information floating above the table.

Fewer than one percent. Considering how many geniuses had entered the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage since time immemorial, there had undoubtedly been a fair number of ten-shadow clearers in total. Measured against the unimaginable number of people who had attempted the trial, however, they were practically nonexistent.

”There’s another reason the ten-shadow record matters so much,” Anna continued.

She reached toward the floating information and turned the page, and a long list of ancient names appeared. Some were marked as Primordials, some belonged to the Dragon Race, and others came from the Angel Race, the Spirit Race, the Devil Race, humans, or other powerful races that had existed in different eras.

Anna pointed at them. ”Every single confirmed person who defeated all ten shadows went on to become an extraordinary existence later.”

Max studied the names while she kept speaking.

”Some became the top geniuses of the inner layer, and some eventually reached the core layer. Others dominated their generation for hundreds or even thousands of years. Several turned into figures whose names are still recorded throughout their races long after they left the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage.”

Damian stared at the list. ”So the Ten Shadows Trial isn’t only measuring current combat strength.”

”No, and that’s the important part,” Anna replied. ”If this trial only measured raw power, its records wouldn’t carry this much weight. The shadows are created based on the challenger, which means the trial measures you against yourself.”

She pointed at Max, then Damian, and finally Revona. ”It tests how well you use what you have. It looks at your foundation, instincts, comprehension, adaptability, battle awareness, willpower, and your ability to push past your own limits. That’s why someone with overwhelming cultivation can’t simply walk in and crush everything.”