Three weeks later, Theo was standing in a virtual grass field, wielding his Elemental Shield to face the incoming Magic Bullet from his clone.
However, his Elemental Shield wasn't like the previous one. Instead, there were two Elemental Shields in his current possession and both of them could be used when he was fighting with his spear, making it a mobile shield that didn't need any hands to operate.
After a week, Theo knew that no matter what he did, there was not enough time to master all ten Skills like his plan, so he had started early, hoping that he could master at least seven or eight D Rank Skills.
In order to start early, he sold every Material Cards he possessed while buying a few skills to fulfill the number he needed to upgrade his Elemental Shield.
He looked at the forty Magic Bullet, fake and real, flying toward him. All of them tried to loop around since Clone Theo tried to send all of them away while using the tracker to hit the real Theo from all directions.
The real him, on the other hand, took one step back and raised both Elemental Shields and blocked every single Magic Bullet. Despite not being held by his hand, Theo could feel the pressure seeping through the Elemental Shield to his hands.
It was so painful and made his hand soon numb, wanting to drop the spear. Yet, when he finished blocking all the Magic Bullet, he surprisingly felt as if nothing had happened.
"…" Theo narrowed his eyes and sighed, "This Illusion Manipulation… It's so strong. As expected from a C Rank Skill…"
He smiled and recalled the effect of his Illusion Manipulation.
"This skill can manipulate a person's perception to make them able to gain the sense of touch and vision of an illusion. I can somehow make my own Magic Bullet feel real as long as they don't hit them directly on the body. Even if they hit once and realize the secret, they will just become more careful since no one can see which ones are the real bullets unless they have powerful Awareness."
Theo smiled as he felt that this Illusion Manipulation indeed worked like magic to him.
"Although I can't do anything about the latter part of the function, which is to manipulate a certain level of reality yet… I feel like this will be enough for now. I can slowly practice until the competition." Theo contemplated for a moment and opened his status.
Name: Theodore Griffith
Status: Elite
Level: 111
EXP: 7583/14484
Blessing: God of Mischief
Skill: Swift Energy (E), Clone (D), Cannon Blast (E), Magic Bullet (D), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Manipulation (C)
Attributes: Strength 170, Endurance 98, Agility 107, Vitality 94, Magic Power 170
Free Attribute Points: 0
"Now that I think about it, I already have one C Rank Skill and five D Rank Skills. I'm planning to replace my Focused Charge and Haste later while ranking up Swift Energy and Cannon Blast… After that, I would have nine D Rank Skills and one C Rank Skill.
"If I'm not wrong, the school will provide skills too, so I think I will rank one of my D Rank Skill to C Rank. I can take advantage of the government to give me D Rank Skills… Though, I can't really take too much or they will start to be suspicious of me." Theo nodded in agreement, feeling that his plan was good enough.
"Anyway, I don't have much time. I need to master all D Rank Skills right now and finish the remaining four later."
After knowing what he had to do, Theo started training again, knowing they needed to leave in four days.
Although he holed up inside his own training room, he still got the news from his other teammates, especially Ellen, who loved to tell everything to him.
According to Ellen, there were more groups giving up on the mission after the unsuccessful first raid to increase their level. No matter how hard they tried, it was tough to reach Level 150, let alone Level 250.
And with the limited time and schedule limitation, the mission had become impossible for them to finish.
It turned out there were still five groups competing with them and they all had shown something great in their first raid. Alea's former group led by the Undying first-year and the student council's group were among those five.
Still, they would soon get thrown off by Theo's plan as the group didn't plan to waste their time anymore. After fighting together for two weeks, each individual understood what they needed to do and how to improve their current role.
…
A few days later.
Theo and his group had finally finished their preparation and had gathered in front of the Teleportation Circle, preparing to have another expedition.
With a slightly chilling morning air, Theo walked to the Teleportation Circle, finding all his teammates standing next to the Teleportation Circle.
Both his Champion Rank Spears were hanging on his back along with his backpack that would be very useful later.
He made a natural smile as he asked with a calm expression. "How are you? I hope no one is sick since we're going to have a tight schedule."
Ellen gave a thumbs up and replied with a smile. "Of course. I have been preparing myself to kill at least one Hero Rank Monster… If not two."
Phyrill smirked and reacted to it, "You do know that all of us will have reached Champion Rank by the time we fight the Hero Rank Monsters, right? Maybe… The one who kills the monsters is not you or Alea. It's me. Haha."
Laust simply looked away while Sihan nodded, saying that they were ready to face everything and didn't need his concern.
"I think you forgot about me or something? We haven't trained together for a while, but I can assure you that I'm not slacking." Alea's lips curved as she became excited to show them her current prowess. She clutched her hand and said, "I will kill both of them."
Phyrill and Ellen wanted to tease him before they suddenly stopped, feeling something ominous from the side. Even Laust and Sihan glanced at Theo, finding him chuckling.
They sucked a cold breath when they heard Theo saying with a cold but excited voice.
"As if those two Hero Rank Monsters can satiate our thirst…"
"Theo… You mean…" Phyrill realized what he planned to do and gulped down with his heart started beating rapidly.
Theo smirked and said, "Yes. I'm planning to target multiple Hero Rank Monsters in this expedition and… Those who are unable to kill a Hero Rank Monster will become this group's trash!"