As soon as he woke up, pouring rain filled his ears as he squinted his eyes to look at the outside. There was a single woman wielding two swords and standing alone under the rain.
If not due to the pouring water, her whole body would have been covered by the blood coming from the monsters nearby as well as her own body.
There was a graze now and then, bleeding continuously. There was even a stab injury on her left thigh. It became even visible since she wore a skirt.
Still, a thought appeared in his mind as he never expected to see her standing like that. He instinctively ran toward her in a hurry before finding hundreds of corpses right in front of the cave.
"Alea!" Theo called her name as his body began to wet due to the rain. Yet, his focus remained on her, checking her condition. "Are you alright?"
"You have finally finished." Alea's consciousness was already fuzzy as she fell right into his embrace. "You need to go right now. There will be more coming to this place later. Just hide me inside the cave and I will be fine."
Theo then realized something he almost forgot. It was when Alea showed her ID Card, showing her level. She herself had almost reached Level 150 and became a Champion Rank Magic Warrior. In addition, she had been killing more than 95% of the monsters they had encountered during this journey along with last week's rivalry.
Even though their level gap was huge, she should still get around five or ten EXP points for every monster. That was why… with the number of monsters she had killed, reaching Champion Rank was possible.
At the same time, Alea should be strong enough to kill these guys without injuries, yet, there were numerous wounds on her body, meaning that she had been weakened because of the "calling" from her own God like what he saw earlier.
All that for him? Whether it was her kindness related to her trauma or the fact that he was her teammate, it was still not worth wasting her life for someone she knew since two weeks ago.
"You… You have been fighting in this state this whole time?" Theo finally understood why God of Fortitude chose her.
"You need to go. There's no time. Leave me." Her tone was weak, but she truly meant it. As long as Theo was safe, she would have helped one more person in her life.
Theo clicked his tongue. "It's true that I'm selfish and want to win everything. But I still have standards."
Leaving his teammate that had been protecting his life this whole time despite her condition was not in his standard.
Before she fell unconscious, he asked, "Can you still do it while your body is moving?"
Alea closed her eyes, feeling that he wouldn't succeed if he carried her. Yet, Theo's question got the better of her. "Yes. I only need to sleep for a moment."
"Alright. Sleep now. Leave everything to me." Theo quickly laid her down on the ground before grabbing both her swords along with the shield he dropped earlier.
He then opened the bag she carried and threw all the spices and a rope that seemed to be prepared for climbing, but it was the perfect item for him. He threw all the spices and started tying her body tightly before attaching her to his body. This would at least give him better control in handling her body while she was unconscious.
Theo then carried her on his back and moved her hand to touch all the monsters' bodies in the area, getting all the cards.
"Tch." He ended up not getting satisfied, but it was still better than nothing. "Only five E Rank Skills and twenty F Rank Skills from two to three hundred Elite Rank Monsters?"
Theo started calculating all the things in his possession and remembered that he also had some skills in his bag.
"It's barely enough now…" Theo narrowed his eyes as he hesitated for a second.
Roar.
Roar.
Roar.
Suddenly, a series of roars resounded in the area, forcing Theo to make a decision.
"This is not the time to think about it. I will use all of them to upgrade my Blink and Clone right now," said Theo while remembering the upgrade requirement.
Blue light started coming out of his body as all the skill cards in his hands disappeared, leaving only two F Rank Skills.
Skill: Blink (D) – Upgradeable
Upgrade: Fuse 5 rank D skills and 10 Rank E skills
Effect: A Skill that allows the user to teleport to ten feet from them. Due to the current skill rank, the user has a limited amount of distance. The distance can be increased by upgrading the skill.
Skill: Clone (D) – Upgradable
Upgrade: 2 Rank D Skill and Fuse 20 Rank F Skills
Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself. Due to the current skill rank, the user can create the same body, control its movement, share vision, talk, and use skills. Other parts are still locked.
"!!!" Theo widened his eyes and looked at his skills before looking at the monsters that would soon arrive.
He threw away all unnecessary things they had, so it wouldn't hinder his movement before summoning his clone, giving him Alea's sword.
"I can't return to the cave and I don't know which direction I should go. Still, with so many monsters chasing me, I doubt I can do much about it." Theo then raised his head, finding a few flying monsters. "It's not possible to hide too."
He rose from the ground and quickly started running together with his clone to the other side of the cliff, trying to avoid being surrounded.
Seeing his movement, the monsters began to chase him as this was a part of their instinct despite them coming here because of the aftershock.
Roar.
Roar.
"!!!" Theo found three monsters in his way, trying to hinder him. If he stopped once, it would be over.
Theo and his clone raised both their hands simultaneously, trying the thing he just got. "Magic Bullet."
Each of them summoned a blue light ball and split them into ten at the same time.
The three monsters were blasted by twenty Magic Bullets and died without being able to fight back. He then slipped past them and continued running forward. "Kh… The Magic Power consumption is a bit more than two times. And to escape from this situation, I need Endurance and others… I feel like I'm going to regret this, but life comes first."
After contemplating for a few seconds, Theo added 9 points to Magic Power, 15 points to Endurance, 15 points to Agility, and the rest went to his Vitality.
Name: Theodore Griffith
Status: Elite
Level: 51
EXP: 298/2000
Blessing: God of Mischief
Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), 3 Slots Remaining
Attributes: Strength 80, Endurance 47, Agility 62, Vitality 42, Magic Power 80
Free Attribute Points: 0